Straight answers.

We designate an email address as "clear" when it successfully meets several key criteria, indicating a high probability of being a legitimate and deliverable address, distinct from generic roles. A clear address must have:

1. A valid, registered domain.
2. Correctly configured Mail Exchanger (MX) records, showing the domain is set up to receive email, and the mail servers they list must actually exist and be resolvable.
3. No link to a known disposable or temporary email service provider.
4. A username (the part before the @) that is not a typical functional account: one that represents a role or department rather than a specific individual (info@, support@, contact@, sales@).

So a clear address passes the technical validation checks and is likely intended for individual use rather than representing a generic organizational function.

That's a great question, and the distinction is intentional. Functional addresses (like info@, support@ or sales@) are often perfectly valid for receiving email: they typically have valid domains and correctly configured mail servers. We simply reserve the "clear" designation for addresses that pass the technical checks and are less likely to be generic, role-based accounts.

This gives you a more granular classification, helping those who need to tell apart addresses potentially tied to individuals from those representing broader company functions or departments. It's not about marking functional addresses as invalid, but about categorizing them differently to offer more targeted insight.

Because we are honest with you about email validation.

In the world of email validation, you'll find many tools making big promises. But truly guaranteeing that a mailbox exists and will accept your specific email at the exact moment you send it is often impossible without actually sending an email. Temporary server issues, full mailboxes, anti-spam filters or privacy settings can prevent delivery, even to a technically "valid" address.

Instead of over-promising, we tell you exactly what we can reliably check and why it's valuable:

1. Correct syntax: is the email formatted correctly (e.g. name@domain.com)? This catches basic typos and structural errors.
2. Valid domain and mail servers (MX records): does the domain exist, and is it configured to potentially receive email? This confirms the destination infrastructure is in place.
3. Known disposable addresses: does the domain belong to a known temporary or disposable provider? These are risky for ongoing communication.

What ClearAddress validates is the high probability that an address is structured correctly and points to a domain capable of receiving mail. That is incredibly useful for cleaning lists, reducing bounces caused by typos or non-existent domains, and identifying risky disposable addresses.

What we don't claim: we don't pretend to confirm that a specific mailbox is active right now or that it will accept your email. That level of certainty requires an actual delivery attempt. That's why we call an address clear, not valid.

We take data privacy and security seriously. Your email addresses are only used for validation purposes and are never stored, shared, or used for marketing. The service follows the guidelines in our Privacy Policy, all requests go over secure connections (HTTPS), and we comply with relevant data protection regulations.