Terms of Service

Last updated: 5 November 2026

These terms apply when you use the validateemail.io website, API or embeddable widget (together, the "Service"). By creating an API key or using the Service, you agree to them. If you're using the Service for an organisation, you confirm that you can accept these terms on its behalf, and "you" includes that organisation.

1. Who we are

The Service is provided by the UK sole trader who operates validateemail.io ("we", "us"). Our details are on our company information page, and our name and business address are available on request. You can contact us at legal@validateemail.io.

2. Who the Service is for

The Service is designed for businesses and developers, and you must be at least 18 to use it. If you use it as a consumer, nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or other consumer protection law.

3. Your account and API keys

• Keep your API keys secret and use them only from your own servers. You're responsible for all use of your keys. Tell us straight away if you think one has been exposed, and we'll revoke it.
• The details you give us must be accurate, and you must use an email address you control.
• We only show a key once, when it's created, and can't recover it. If you lose it, ask us to revoke it.

4. The free tier

• Each person or organisation may have one free API key, and each email address can claim a free key only once. Aliases of the same inbox count as the same address.
• A free key includes 5,000 lookups in total. Each address you submit counts as one lookup, including addresses in a batch and results served from our cache.
• Creating extra accounts to get more free lookups isn't allowed, and we may revoke keys created that way.
• We may change or withdraw the free tier in future. Changes won't reduce the lookups left on an existing free key unless we have to act against abuse.

5. Paid plans

Our current prices are shown on the pricing section of our website. Paid plans are being opened in order of registration. When we offer you a paid plan, we'll confirm the price, payment terms and any usage limits before you're charged. Those details then form part of these terms.

6. Acceptable use

You must follow our Acceptable Use Policy. In short, don't use the Service for spam, unlawful purposes or to harm anyone, and don't try to get around our limits or security.

7. Data protection

• When you send email addresses to the API, you're the controller of that personal data and we process it on your behalf. Our Data Processing Agreement applies and forms part of these terms.
• You're responsible for having a lawful basis to collect the addresses you submit and to have them checked.
• Our privacy notice explains how we handle data for which we're the controller, such as your account details.

8. What results mean

The Service checks syntax, domains, mail servers, disposable providers, role accounts, free providers and likely typos. It doesn't contact mail servers to confirm that a particular mailbox exists. Results show how likely an address is to receive mail, so a "valid" result doesn't guarantee delivery and an "invalid" one doesn't guarantee that mail will bounce. You're responsible for how you use the results, including any decisions you make about people.

9. Availability and changes

We work to keep the Service available and fast, but unless we've agreed a service level with you in writing, we don't guarantee that it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may change or improve the Service. If we make a change that significantly reduces what a paid plan includes, we'll give you reasonable notice.

10. Intellectual property

We own the Service, including its software, documentation and branding. You may use the API and the results it returns in your own products and processes, but you may not copy, resell or provide the Service itself to others, or use it to build a competing service. If you send us feedback, we may use it without any obligation to you.

11. Suspension and ending these terms

• You can stop using the Service at any time, and ask us to revoke your keys and delete your account.
• We may suspend or revoke keys immediately if you break these terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, if your use puts the Service or others at risk, or if the law requires it. Otherwise we'll give you reasonable notice before ending your access.
• Sections 7, 8, 10, 12 and 14 continue to apply after these terms end.

12. Our liability

• Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that can't be limited or excluded by law.
• Subject to that, we're not liable for any loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill or data, or for any indirect or consequential loss.
• Subject to that, our total liability arising from the Service in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of £100 and the fees you paid us in that period.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We'll post the new version here with a new date. If a change materially affects account holders, we'll email them at least 30 days before it takes effect, unless the change is needed sooner for legal or security reasons. If you keep using the Service after a change takes effect, you accept the updated terms.

14. Governing law

These terms and any dispute about them are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. If you're a consumer living elsewhere in the UK or in the EU, you can also rely on the mandatory consumer protections of where you live and bring proceedings there.

15. General

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later. You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our agreement. These terms, with the documents they refer to, are the whole agreement between us about the Service.