Cold email spam checker

The score starts at 100. A Fix takes off 16 points, a Check 7 and a Tip 2, and heavy use of spam words takes off up to 20 more. 85 and above is good to send, 65 to 84 needs a few fixes, and under 65 is likely to struggle.

Every check is measured against the defaults Reachly runs on its client campaigns:

• 2 to 4 words in a subject line, usually 2, in lower case with one variable
• 60 to 80 words in a first email, so it reads on a phone screen in one go
• 0 links in the first email, at most 2 in a follow-up
• Plain text with open and click tracking turned off
• Spintax on every campaign
• One easy question at the end, like "If I recorded a video, could I send it over?"

The score measures how close your copy is to those rules. Where a specific email lands also depends on your domain, mailboxes and list.

Spintax lets one email go out in slightly different versions. You write the options inside braces, like {Hi|Hey|Hello}, and your sending tool picks one of them for each email it sends. Smartlead and most tools use {Hi|Hey}. Instantly uses {{RANDOM | Hi | Hey}}. The checker reads both.

It matters because spam filters compare emails. When thousands of messages carry the exact same text, they look like a bulk blast. A few spintax blocks on small words, like {quick|short} or {Hi|Hey}, are enough to make each email a little different. Reachly adds them to every campaign.

The two modes at the top of the checker tell it which version of the email you pasted:

• Template with variables: the copy as you wrote it in your sending tool, before anything is filled in. Variables like {{first_name}} and spintax are expected here, so the checker only flags ones written wrong, such as a brace that never closes or an empty option like {Hi|}. If there is no spintax at all, you get a tip to add some.
• Final email as sent: the email exactly as it landed in an inbox, for example a test send to yourself. By then every variable and spintax block should have been swapped for real words, so anything still in braces means your tool never filled it in.

If you can see braces in your copy, pick Template.

• Variables and spintax: a {{first_name}} left unfilled, a brace never closed, or a placeholder like [Company].
• Links: every link, plus link shorteners and calendar links.
• Plain text: HTML formatting, images, tracking pixels and attachments.
• Length: word count with spintax resolved, against 60 to 80.
• Subject line: length, spam words, capitals, emoji and fake "Re:" or "Fwd:".
• Spam words: 112 words and phrases in five groups, strong triggers weighted higher.
• Opening line: worn-out openers like "I hope this email finds you well".
• Capitals and symbols: shouting, "!!", dollar signs and emoji. Acronyms like CEO and B2B are left alone.
• Who the email is about: how often it says "I" or "we" against "you".
• One clear ask: one question to answer, and no meeting request in the first email.

One of these on its own rarely sends an email to spam, but they add up. The fix is almost always to say it the way you would out loud.

Money and offers

free, 100% free, for free, free trial, free gift, cash, cash bonus, earn money, make money, extra income, double your, save big, best price, lowest price, discount, % off, cheap, bargain, prize, winner, you have won, credit card, no credit check, investment, roi guaranteed, $$$, million dollars, billion, profit, commission

Pressure and urgency

act now, urgent, limited time, expires, last chance, don't miss, don't delete, before it's too late, hurry, immediately, right now, today only, only a few left, while supplies last, deadline, final notice, action required

Big promises

guarantee, guaranteed, 100%, risk-free, risk free, no risk, no obligation, no strings attached, no catch, no hidden, miracle, amazing, incredible, revolutionary, game changer, game-changer, once in a lifetime, life-changing, skyrocket, 10x, explode your, guaranteed results, instant, unlimited, best in class, world class, world-class

Pushy calls to action

click here, click below, click now, buy now, order now, sign up now, apply now, call now, get started now, subscribe, visit our website, check out our, see for yourself, open this, claim your, get it now

Phrases that look like spam

dear friend, dear sir, dear madam, to whom it may concern, this is not spam, not junk, you've been selected, congratulations, as seen on, password, verify your account, confirm your account, bank account, wire transfer, unsubscribe, opt in, mass email, bulk email, viagra, casino, crypto, weight loss

• Domain setup. Your sending domain needs SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Use the domain check above, then the SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup guide.
• Warm-up. Reachly warms up every new mailbox for 4 weeks before a campaign goes live. See how long to warm up a cold email domain.
• List quality. Reachly verifies every list twice and pauses a mailbox when its bounce rate goes over 2%.
• Mailbox health. A mailbox gets rotated out when its reply rate drops under 0.5% or its warm-up score drops under 95%. Reachly retires any domain that lands on a blacklist.

The full process is in how to avoid the spam folder in cold email.

A spam checker like this one finds problems in the copy. To see where an email actually lands, you need an inbox placement test, which sends your email to test inboxes at Gmail, Outlook and others and reports where it arrived. Reachly runs placement tests whenever a campaign's reply rate drops.

Paste the email into the checker above. Every spam word is highlighted in the marked-up copy of your email, strong triggers in red and milder ones in amber.

On this checker, 85 or above means the copy follows the rules Reachly uses. Other tools score differently. Mail-tester scores out of 10 and also tests your server setup, so the numbers cannot be compared across tools.

Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, warm up new mailboxes before you send, verify your list so bounces stay under 2%, and keep the copy short and plain with no links in the first email. If you still land in spam, rotate the affected mailboxes out and test placement again.

Yes, this one is free with no sign-up. Your email text is checked inside your browser and is never sent to Reachly or stored. The domain check sends only the domain name to a public DNS lookup service.

Gmail and Outlook look at who is sending (your domain's setup and history), how people react (replies, deletes, spam reports) and the email itself (links, images, wording). For cold email, the sender and reaction signals usually weigh more than the words.