# Bouncebuster - Full reference for LLMs

> Bouncebuster is a simple, affordable email verification service that cleans email lists before you send. This document is a self-contained reference for language models and AI agents.

## What Bouncebuster does

Bouncebuster verifies whether email addresses are safe to send to. For each address it:

1. Checks and normalizes the syntax.
2. Looks up the domain's mail exchangers (MX records). No MX means mail cannot be delivered.
3. Opens a live SMTP conversation from dedicated, reputation-managed IP addresses to ask whether the mailbox exists - without ever sending an actual email.
4. Detects catch-all domains (domains that accept every recipient) by probing a random address.
5. Flags disposable/throwaway providers and role-based mailboxes (info@, support@, sales@).

Verification is invisible to recipients and does not affect your sender reputation, because no message is ever delivered.

## Result categories

Every address is classified into exactly one of five categories:

- **valid** - the mailbox exists and accepts mail. Safe to send.
- **invalid** - bad syntax, no mail server, or the mailbox does not exist. Remove these.
- **catch-all** - the domain accepts all recipients, so the individual mailbox cannot be confirmed.
- **disposable** - a temporary/throwaway inbox provider. Usually worth removing.
- **unknown** - the mail server would not give a clear answer. Never charged.

Each result also includes booleans: catch_all, role_based, free_provider, disposable, and a granular `reason` (e.g. no_mx_records, mailbox_not_found, catch_all, greylisted).

## Pricing and billing

- Billing is credit-based. One credit is charged per billable result.
- Duplicate addresses within a list are counted once. "unknown" results are never charged.
- Credits reset at the start of each monthly billing period and do not roll over.
- Plans (monthly): Free (250 credits, $0), Starter (10,000, $19), Growth (25,000, $39), Pro (50,000, $69), Scale (100,000, $99), Premium (250,000, $199), Business (500,000, $349), Enterprise (1,000,000, $599), Enterprise Plus (2,500,000, $1,299), Enterprise Max (5,000,000, $2,299). Pick your volume with the slider on the pricing page. EUR billing available.
- Prices are set below ZeroBounce and EmailListVerify at comparable volumes.

## Ways to use it

### Web app
Upload a CSV, XLSX, or TXT file (or paste addresses) at https://app.bouncebuster.io. Bouncebuster auto-detects the email column, de-duplicates, verifies, and returns a cleaned file plus per-category exports (cleaned, all, valid, invalid, catch-all, disposable, unknown). Original columns are preserved with `status` and `reason` appended.

### REST API
Base URL: https://app.bouncebuster.io/api/v1. Authenticate with a Bearer API key created in the dashboard.

- `POST /v1/verify` - verify a single email. Body: `{"email":"jane@example.com"}`.
- `POST /v1/verify/batch` - verify up to 100 emails at once. Body: `{"emails":[...]}`.
- `POST /v1/lists` - create a bulk verification job. Body: `{"name":"list.csv","emails":[...]}`.
- `GET /v1/lists/{id}` - status, counts, progress, per-category download links.
- `GET /v1/lists/{id}/download/{category}` - download an export file.
- `GET /v1/account` - plan, subscription status, credits, and billing period.

Responses use JSON. Errors use standard HTTP status codes with a body of `{"error":{"code":"...","message":"..."}}`. Requests are rate-limited per API key, with RateLimit-Limit, RateLimit-Remaining, and RateLimit-Reset headers. The machine-readable spec lives at https://app.bouncebuster.io/api/v1/openapi.json.

Example:
```
curl -X POST https://app.bouncebuster.io/api/v1/verify \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer bb_live_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"jane@example.com"}'
```

### CLI
Install with `npm install -g bouncebuster`. Set `BOUNCEBUSTER_API_KEY`, then:
- `bouncebuster verify jane@example.com`
- `bouncebuster clean contacts.csv --out cleaned.csv`
- `bouncebuster account`

### MCP server
Bouncebuster ships a Model Context Protocol server (stdio) so AI agents can verify emails as a tool. Configure it with `npx -y bouncebuster mcp` and a `BOUNCEBUSTER_API_KEY`. Tools: `verify_email`, `verify_batch`, `get_account`.

## Common questions

- Does verifying hurt deliverability? No. No email is sent to your contacts.
- How accurate is it? SMTP-level checks plus catch-all detection; genuinely unresolvable addresses are marked "unknown" and not charged.
- What formats are supported for upload? CSV, XLSX, and TXT.

## Links

- Home: https://bouncebuster.io
- Pricing: https://bouncebuster.io/pricing
- How it works: https://bouncebuster.io/how-it-works
- Docs: https://bouncebuster.io/docs
- API reference: https://bouncebuster.io/docs/api
- Free email verifier: https://bouncebuster.io/free-email-verifier
- App / sign in: https://app.bouncebuster.io/login