POST /identify_email_type • Credits: 0.5 credits per call

The Identify Email Type API classifies one email address without a network lookup. Send a POST request with the address in the email parameter. The response names the mailbox provider, gives a guessed name, and sets three type flags: is_likely_personal_email, is_likely_company_email and is_likely_education_email. Each call costs 0.5 credits.

The Identify Email Type API answers one question about an email address: which kind of mailbox does the domain run? It answers that question before you spend a credit on a deliverability check. RichAPI runs the classification locally against two fixed lists. The first list holds 168 personal mailbox domains, from Gmail and Outlook to national ISPs and throwaway mail hosts. The second list holds 20 education top-level domains, such as .edu and .ac.uk. A domain that matches neither list counts as a company domain. The API sends no SMTP probe and no DNS query.

The Identify Email Type API accepts one parameter. It classifies one address per call.

The Identify Email Type API returns three type flags. Each flag is a boolean. The table names the rule that sets each flag to true.

Exactly one of the three flags is true in every response. No domain in the personal list ends with an education top-level domain, so the two list tests never both pass.

CAUTION: The classification reads the domain only. A company domain that a person uses for private mail still returns is_likely_company_email: true.

The Identify Email Type API returns no role-based flag and no disposable flag.

The email_provider field holds one of eight values. RichAPI tests the six named provider lists first. It tests the education top-level domains only after all six provider tests fail.

Each named provider also sets its own boolean field. The address [email protected] sets is_gmail to true and email_provider to Gmail.

The following block is an example response for the address [email protected].

The Identify Email Type API builds guessed_name from the username alone. It converts the whole address to lower case first. It replaces each ., _, - and + with a space. It removes every digit. It then puts each word into title case. The username j_smith2 gives the guessed name J Smith. The username info gives the guessed name Info, because the rule reads no dictionary of person names.

The Identify Email Type API costs 0.5 credits per call. At $0.02 a credit, the rate on the 1,000 and 5,000 credit packs, one call costs $0.01. Larger packs cost less per credit. RichAPI charges credits on a 2xx response only. A 400 validation error costs no credit.

The Identify Email Type API and the Email Verifier API answer different questions at different prices. The Identify Email Type API sorts a list. The Email Verifier API protects a send.

Neither API replaces the other. A company domain with a dead mailbox still returns is_likely_company_email: true.

The filter-then-verify pattern classifies a whole list at 0.5 credits per address, then verifies only the addresses that earn 2 credits.

The table shows the arithmetic for a list of 1,000 addresses. In this list 400 addresses are personal or education, and 600 are company addresses.

The filter saves 300 credits, that is $6.00, on this list.

Know the break-even point before you adopt the pattern. Each dropped address saves 2 credits. The classification of 1,000 addresses costs 500 credits. So the filter pays only after it drops more than 250 of the 1,000 addresses. If your list is more than 75 percent company addresses, verify it without the filter.

CAUTION: The filter drops personal and education addresses with no deliverability check. If your campaign targets consumers or students, do not filter on is_likely_company_email.

A 400 response holds one of three validation messages in the error field.

No. The Identify Email Type API matches the domain against two fixed lists and sends no SMTP probe and no DNS query. To check whether a mailbox accepts mail, use the Email Verifier API at 2 credits per address.

No. The Identify Email Type API returns three type flags: is_likely_personal_email, is_likely_company_email and is_likely_education_email. A role address such as [email protected] returns is_likely_company_email: true, so test the username field against your own list of role names.

Not as a separate type. The 10 throwaway mail domains in the personal list, such as mailinator.com and yopmail.com, return is_likely_personal_email: true. For a dedicated disposable field, use the Email Verifier API.

The Identify Email Type API costs 0.5 credits per address, that is $0.01 at $0.02 per credit on the 1,000 and 5,000 credit packs. A list of 1,000 addresses costs 500 credits, that is $10.00. RichAPI charges no credit for a 400 validation error.

No. The Identify Email Type API accepts one email parameter and classifies one address per call. To classify a list, send one call per address.

An address counts as a company address after both list tests fail. Its domain is in neither the 168-domain personal list nor the 20 education top-level domains. The is_likely_company_email flag is the fallback of the classification, so any unknown domain returns true.

Yes. The Identify Email Type API returns the full classification in the same HTTP response. There is no job identifier and there is no polling step.