Email Validation API - Amazon Simple Email Service
API validation (console)API validation (AWS CLI)

Email Validation API

API validation allows you to validate individual email addresses through API calls, providing immediate feedback about address validity, deliverability, and risk factors. This feature is designed for validating addresses at the point of collection, such as during user registration, subscription forms, or any other scenario where you need timely validation results.

API validation performs multiple checks on each email address, including syntax validation, domain verification, mailbox existence checks, and others. The validation results include confidence verdicts (HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW) for overall validity and individual evaluations.

Validation checks performed

API validation performs the following evaluations on each email address:

  • Syntax Validation ('HasValidSyntax') – Checks that the email address follows proper RFC standards and contains valid characters in the correct format.

  • DNS Records ('HasValidDnsRecords') – Checks that the domain exists, has valid DNS records, and is configured to receive email.

  • Mailbox Existence ('MailboxExists') – Checks that the mailbox exists and can receive messages without actually sending an email.

  • Role Address ('IsRoleAddress') – Identifies role-based addresses (such as admin@, support@, or info@) that may have lower engagement rates.

  • Disposable Domain ('IsDisposable') – Checks disposable or temporary email addresses that could negatively impact your sender reputation.

  • Random String Patterns ('IsRandomInput') – Checks randomly generated patterns.

Using API validation with the Amazon SES console

The following procedure shows you how to validate an email address using the Amazon SES console.

To validate an email address using the Amazon SES console

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon SES console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ses/.

  2. In the left navigation pane, choose Email addresses validation under Email Validation.

  3. In the Validate email address section, enter the email address you want to validate in the Email address field.

  4. Choose Validate.

    The validation results appear in the Validation results panel, showing:

    • IsValid – Overall validity with a confidence verdict (HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW).

    • Evaluations – Individual evaluation results with confidence verdicts for syntax, DNS records, mailbox existence, and risk factors listed above.

Using API validation with the AWS CLI

The following examples show you how to validate email addresses using the AWS CLI.

To validate an email address using the AWS CLI

You can use the GetEmailAddressInsights operation in the Amazon SES API v2 to validate email addresses. You can call this operation from the AWS CLI, as shown in the following examples.

  • Validate a single email address:

    aws --region us-east-1 sesv2 get-email-address-insights --email-address user@example.com

  • The response looks similar to this:

    {
    "MailboxValidation": {
        "IsValid": {
            "ConfidenceVerdict": "HIGH"
        },
        "Evaluations": {
            "HasValidSyntax": {
                "ConfidenceVerdict": "HIGH"
            },
            "HasValidDnsRecords": {
                "ConfidenceVerdict": "MEDIUM"
            },
            "MailboxExists": {
                "ConfidenceVerdict": "MEDIUM"
            },
            "IsRoleAddress": {
                "ConfidenceVerdict": "LOW"
            },
            "IsDisposable": {
                "ConfidenceVerdict": "LOW"
            },
            "IsRandomInput": {
                "ConfidenceVerdict": "LOW"
            }
        }
    }
}

  • For more information about response values and data types, see the MailboxValidation data type in the Amazon SES API v2 reference.

  • Ensure your IAM identity has the required permissions for Email Validation API calls and CloudWatch metrics publishing:

    {
  "Version": "2012-10-17		 	 	 ",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "EmailValidationPermissions",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ses:GetEmailAddressInsights",
        "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

    The GetEmailAddressInsights permission is required for API validation calls, and CreateServiceLinkedRole enables CloudWatch metrics publishing for validation activity.

Interpreting validation results

The validation response includes confidence verdicts to help you make decisions about email addresses:

  • IsValid – Overall validity assessment with a confidence verdict of HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW. HIGH validity confidence indicates high delivery likelihood for the email address, MEDIUM indicates moderate delivery likelihood and LOW indicates low delivery likelihood.

  • Evaluations – Individual evaluation results, each with a confidence verdict:

    • HIGH – Strong indication of the specific check (e.g., HIGH for IsRandomInput means the email is very likely randomly generated).

    • MEDIUM – Moderate indication of the specific check (e.g., MEDIUM for IsRandomInput means that there is some likelihood that the email address is randomly generated).

    • LOW – Weak or no indication of the specific check (e.g., LOW for IsRandomInput means that the email address is less likely randomly generated).