Filter emails by address shape: remove digit-heavy, very short or +tag addresses from a list
In short: Tick the shapes of address you want gone or kept, see how many rows have each, and download the kept and set-aside files. Limit: A shape is a rule of thumb about how an address looks, not proof about the mailbox.
Upload a CSV or .xlsx file, or paste it with a header row. Pick the email column and tick the shapes to act on: very short, digits only, four or more digits, very long, many separators, +tag, first.last or one word. Choose remove or keep and download both files. The shapes are rules of thumb about how an address looks, not proof about the mailbox.
Price: this tool is free. Checking a whole email list is from $9/mo, and the first 100 checks are free with Google, no card. Check your list free nowSee pricing
Sample result
Eight example rows keep 3 and set aside 4 by shape: jo@ is very short, 123456@ is digits only, ana1985@ has digits and a.b_c-d@ has many separators.
- Rows set aside
- 4
- Not addresses
- 1
- Shapes ticked
- 5
What this means for you
A shape is how an address looks, not proof about the mailbox; a check shows which addresses exist.
- Eight shapes
- Remove or keep
- Shape named per row
- Counts for every shape
- Shape
- CSV
- Filter
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
Shapes filtered? Check the addresses that are left.
- Download the file, or use the check button under the result, which carries its addresses across.
- Upload or paste it at /verify. Every address gets a live mailbox check, and the first 100 email checks are free with a Google sign-in, no card.
How do I remove addresses by how they look?
- Upload the file as a CSV or .xlsx, or paste the cells with the header row first.
- Pick the email column and tick the address shapes you want to act on.
- Choose to remove the rows with those shapes or to keep only them.
- Read the set-aside file, then download the rows kept.
Example
- You enter
- Eight rows with sam.reed@example.com, jo@example.com, 123456@example.com, ana1985@example.org, info+promo@example.net, a.b_c-d@example.com, nina@example.com and n/a, removing very short, digits only, 4 or more digits, very long and many separators.
- You get
- 3 rows kept (sam.reed, info+promo and nina). 4 set aside with the shape named: jo (very short), 123456 (digits only), ana1985 (4 or more digits) and a.b_c-d (many separators). 1 cell, n/a, is not an address.
- Limits
- Runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. A shape is a rule of thumb about how an address looks, not proof about the mailbox.
Which shapes can it find?
It looks at the part before the @ only. Very short means two characters or fewer. Digits only means nothing but numbers. Four or more digits catches names with a birth year. Very long means 30 characters or more, many separators means three or more dots, underscores or hyphens, and +tag means a plus sign. First.last is two words of letters joined by one dot, and one word is three or more letters.
A +tag is left out of the length and digit rules, so sam+news@example.com is judged as sam.
Why are these rules of thumb and not proof?
Real people have short or numbered addresses, and dead mailboxes can look perfectly normal. A shape tells you how an address looks and nothing about whether a mailbox exists, so the removed rows go into their own file with the shape named, and you decide whether to drop them.
To look for placeholders and keyboard mashing, use the fake email checker. To see which shapes your list has before you filter, use the email address pattern analyzer.
When does keep-only help?
Choosing keep with first.last ticked leaves addresses that read like a person's name, which some teams prefer for a first outreach batch. Tick one word as well and you also keep addresses such as sam@. Role addresses such as info@ are one word too, so use the role-based email filter for those.
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Cold emailers
- Set aside digit-only and one-character addresses before a first batch.
- Recruiters
- Keep first.last addresses from a scraped list that also holds shared inboxes.
- Newsletter owners
- Look through addresses with many separators after a bulk import.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- A shape is a rule of thumb about how an address looks, not proof about the mailbox.
- It reads only the part before the @, never the domain.
- Real addresses with numbers or short names will match some shapes, so read the set-aside file.
- Only the first sheet of a workbook is read.
Common questions
- Does a digit-heavy address mean it is fake?
- No. Many real people have numbers in their address. The shape only tells you how it looks, so read the set-aside file before dropping it.
- What happens to a row with no address?
- It goes in a separate file of rows with no address, and the count is shown. It is never counted as kept or removed.
- Can an address have several shapes?
- Yes. 42@example.com is both very short and digits only. The set-aside file names every shape that matched.
- Is the +tag part counted in the length?
- No. The length, digit and separator rules read the name before any plus sign. The +tag shape and the very long rule read the whole part before the @.
- Does it check whether the mailbox exists?
- No. It reads the text of the address only. The check button under the result sends the kept addresses to the verifier.
- Is my file uploaded?
- No. The file is read in your browser and goes nowhere.
A tidy list can still be full of dead addresses.
Extracting, deduplicating and syntax checks all work on the text of an address. None of them can tell whether the mailbox exists. Only the server that hosts it can answer that, through an SMTP check, and that is what the paid product does.
- Upload the cleaned file as it is: CSVs up to 100,000 rows
- A real SMTP mailbox check on every row, with catch-all detection
- Small list? Starter at $9/mo covers 2,500 emails a month, cancel anytime
Plans from $9 a month, cancel anytime, no contract. Sign in with Google and your first 100 email checks are free, no card. The free tools stay free either way.