Index › GTM data and infrastructure › September 2026 Edition

Email verification

Asked as “email verification service”, and as “email list validation tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

ZeroBounce

Contested

29% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

Small business

Bouncer33%ContestedStanding →Mid-market

ZeroBounce29%ContestedThis page Enterprise

ZeroBounce51%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.

ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant

ZeroBounce8%53accepted challenger

Bouncer0%40accepted challenger

Hunter10%39accepted challenger

Clearout3%33accepted challenger

Kickbox0%27accepted challenger

EmailListVerify10%20accepted challenger

DeBounce12%17accepted challenger

NeverBounce8%39accepted challenger

Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

MillionVerifier50%14criticized challenger

Snov.io20%10accepted challenger

Emailable11%18accepted challenger

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Head to head

ZeroBounce vs Bouncer ZeroBounce vs Hunter Bouncer vs Hunter

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default

Negative label rate →

Accepted challengerEndorsed leader

0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%

Key

ZeroBounce29%

Bouncer24%

Hunter10%

Clearout6%

Kickbox4%

EmailListVerify4%

DeBounce4%

NeverBounce2%

Emailable0%

Snov.io0%

MillionVerifier0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash and GLM 4.7 FlashX changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.

MillionVerifier

50%

7 of 14 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative

“MillionVerifier — questionable support and billing.** The cheapest options often hide the most pain” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

NeverBounce

3 of 39 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“**Verdict**: Avoid for critical campaigns due to reliability and support issues” Mistral Small, negative prompt

Hunter

10%

4 of 39 labels negative · 3 of 12 models

“Many prospecting suites (like Hunter.io or Snov.io) bundle email verification into their monthly subscriptions... avoid tools that force you into recurring plans” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

ZeroBounce

4 of 53 labels negative · 3 of 12 models

“Several providers (ZeroBounce, NeverBounce, Bouncer's monthly credits) expire credits, which punishes infrequent users” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

21 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 209 links across 91 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

hunter.io

vendor site · Hunter12 answers · 13 citations · 3 models

zerobounce.net

vendor site · ZeroBounce9 answers · 12 citations · 2 models

usebouncer.com

7 answers · 13 citations · 2 models

emailvendorselection.com

6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models

debounce.com

vendor site · DeBounce5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

mailtrap.io

vendor site · Mailtrap5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

overloop.com

vendor site · Overloop5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model

snov.io

vendor site · Snov.io5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

pipeline.zoominfo.com

vendor site · ZoomInfo4 answers · 9 citations · 2 models

allegrow.co

vendor site · Allegrow4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

myemailverifier.com

vendor site · MyEmailVerifier4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

skrapp.io

vendor site · Skrapp4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

hunter.io/email-verification-guide/best-email-verifiers

9 answers · 3 models

emailvendorselection.com/email-verification-tools

6 answers · 2 models

debounce.com/blog/email-verification-tools

5 answers · 2 models

mailtrap.io/blog/email-verification-tools

5 answers · 2 models

overloop.com/blog/email-verification-guide

5 answers · 1 model

snov.io/blog/email-verification-services

5 answers · 2 models

usebouncer.com/best-email-verification-tools

5 answers · 1 model

zerobounce.net/

5 answers · 1 model

pipeline.zoominfo.com/marketing/email-verification-tools

4 answers · 2 models

pipeline.zoominfo.com/operations/email-finder-verification-tools

4 answers · 2 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.

ModelDirect“What is the best email verification service for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which email list validation tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top email verification services and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best email verification service for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an email verification service. What should we look at?”Negative“Which email verification services should I avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5Bouncer, Skrapp

Two alternatives

NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

Kickbox, NeverBounceChanged

One alternative

Clearout

Hunter

Six alternatives

Clearout, DeBounce, Kickbox, NeverBounce, Skrapp, ZeroBounce

MyEmailVerifier

Four alternatives

Clearout, EmailListVerify, Proofy.io, VerifiedEmail

no first choicenothing named

GPT-5.4 miniZeroBounce

One alternative

Hunter

ZeroBounceHeldZeroBounce

Four alternatives

BriteVerify, Hunter Email Verifier, Kickbox, NeverBounce

Hunter, ZeroBounceno first choicenothing named

Gemini 3.5 FlashBouncer

Four alternatives

Allegrow, BounceBan, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

ZeroBounceChanged

Three alternatives

Bouncer, Hunter, NeverBounce

ZeroBounce

Four alternatives

Bouncer, Emailable, Hunter Email Verifier, NeverBounce

Reoon Email Verifier

Three alternatives

DeBounce, EmailListVerify, MillionVerifier

against: ZeroBounceno first choiceagainst: Hunter, NeverBounce, Snov.io, Validity, Verifalia, ZeroBounce

Perplexity SonarBouncer

Three alternatives

Hunter, MillionVerifier, ZeroBounce

BouncerHeld

Four alternatives

Clearout, Hunter, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

Bouncer

Eight alternatives

Clearout, EmailListVerify, Hunter, Kickbox, MillionVerifier, NeverBounce, Snov.io, ZeroBounce

Bouncer, EmailListVerify

One alternative

MyEmailVerifier

no first choicenothing named

Grok 4.1 FastHunter, ZeroBounce

Three alternatives

Bouncer, Clearout, Kickbox

BouncerChanged

Three alternatives

EmailListVerify, Hunter, ZeroBounce

Bouncer

Six alternatives

Clearout, EmailListVerify, Emailable, Kickbox, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

against: HunterQuickEmailVerification, Verifalia

Four alternatives

Bouncer, Clearout, Emailable, ZeroBounce

no first choice

Six alternatives

Bouncer, Clearout, Emailable, Kickbox, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

against: MillionVerifieragainst: Mails.so, Verifications.io, VerifyEmailAddress.org

Mistral SmallZeroBounce

Four alternatives

Bouncer, Clearout, Hunter, NeverBounce

BouncerChanged

Five alternatives

Clearout, DeBounce, Hunter, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

against: Emailable, MailerCheckBillionVerify

Two alternatives

NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

against: DeBounceBouncer, EmailListVerify

One alternative

ZeroBounce

no first choiceagainst: EmailVerify.io, MyEmailVerifier.com, NeverBounce

DeepSeek V4 FlashBouncer

Three alternatives

Hunter, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

ZeroBounceChanged

Four alternatives

Bouncer, EmailListVerify, Hunter, NeverBounce

against: MillionVerifierBouncer

Six alternatives

Clearout, Emailable, Hunter, Kickbox, Prospeo, ZeroBounce

against: MillionVerifier, NeverBounceBouncer

Three alternatives

DeBounce, EmailListVerify, MillionVerifier

against: EmailMarker, ZeroBounceBouncer

Four alternatives

Clearout, Emailable, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

against: Emailable, MillionVerifier, Snov.io

Llama 4 MaverickClearout, Hunter, KickboxClearout, Hunter, ZeroBounceChangedno first choiceMyEmailVerifier

Three alternatives

DeBounce, Hunter, Tomba

no first choicenothing named

Qwen 3.7 FlashZeroBounce

Four alternatives

Bouncer, EmailListVerify, Kickbox, MillionVerifier

against: HunterHunterChanged

Two alternatives

Clearout, ZeroBounce

Bouncer

Six alternatives

Cleanlist, Clearout, DeBounce, Emailable, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce

against: EmailListVerifyAPI League

Three alternatives

DeBounce, HaltBounce, NeverBounce

against: MyEmailVerifierZeroBounce

Three alternatives

Abstract, Kickbox, NeverBounce

against: Apollo.io, Hunter, ZeroBounce

Kimi K2ZeroBounce

Three alternatives

Bouncer, Clearout, Hunter

ZeroBounceHeld

Two alternatives

Clearout, Hunter

Bouncer

Eight alternatives

Clearout, EmailListVerify, Emailable, Hunter, Kickbox, NeverBounce, Snov.io, ZeroBounce

DeBounce, QuickEmailVerification

Three alternatives

Bouncer, Emailable, ZeroBounce

no first choiceagainst: Clearout, DeBounce, EmailListVerify, IPQS, MillionVerifier, MyEmailVerifier

GLM 4.7 FlashXClearout

Two alternatives

Hunter, Kickbox

ZeroBounceChanged

Three alternatives

Bouncer, Clearout, NeverBounce

Bouncer, ZeroBounce

Seven alternatives

EmailListVerify, Emailable, Hunter, Kickbox, MillionVerifier, NeverBounce, Snov.io

Bouncer

Four alternatives

EmailListVerify, NeverBounce, VerifiedEmail, ZeroBounce

no first choiceagainst: Bouncify, Email List Validation, FindEmails.com, MillionVerifier, Verifications.io

MiniMax M2.5ZeroBounce

One alternative

Hunter

ZeroBounceHeld

Two alternatives

Hunter, ZoomInfo

Bouncer

Seven alternatives

Clearout, EmailListVerify, Hunter, Mailfloss, NeverBounce, Snov.io, ZeroBounce

DeBounce, MyEmailVerifier

One alternative

BillionVerify

no first choiceagainst: Bouncify, Email List Validation, FindEmails.com, MillionVerifier

Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record

Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 04:14	yes	8	8 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 00:54	yes	2	4 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 04:45	yes	15	24 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 01:00	yes	20	6 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 02:38	yes	0	8 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-14 23:35	yes	0	14 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-15 03:23	yes	0	37 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 03:54	yes	0	1 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 03:48	yes	0	39 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-14 23:15	yes	0	32 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 00:47	yes	0	13 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 01:21	yes	0	20 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-14 22:52	yes	14	9 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 00:24	yes	2	5 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 01:28	yes	10	20 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 00:59	yes	20	5 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 03:58	yes	0	8 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 02:40	yes	0	7 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 04:53	yes	0	14 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 04:56	yes	0	2 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 01:48	yes	0	41 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:22	yes	0	24 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 02:03	yes	0	10 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 02:57	yes	0	11 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 00:13	yes	8	10 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 03:31	yes	8	10 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 00:43	yes	10	17 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 03:48	yes	20	6 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 03:29	yes	0	7 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 04:21	yes	0	9 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 00:07	yes	0	17 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 03:49	yes	0	2 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 00:35	yes	0	44 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 02:45	yes	0	48 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 05:09	yes	0	129 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 04:29	yes	0	18 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 03:46	yes	7	6 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 04:34	yes	3	6 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-14 23:17	yes	18	20 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 02:17	yes	20	5 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 03:05	yes	0	8 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 03:29	yes	0	7 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 00:43	yes	0	12 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 04:29	yes	0	1 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 00:59	yes	0	48 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-14 22:59	yes	0	24 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 02:50	yes	0	124 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 04:26	yes	0	18 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-14 23:24	no	0	6 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 04:32	no	0	8 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 04:25	no	0	13 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 04:08	yes	20	8 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-14 23:48	yes	0	8 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 02:58	no	0	5 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-15 01:05	yes	0	67 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 02:49	yes	0	2 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-14 23:39	no	0	28 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:57	yes	0	38 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 05:05	yes	0	56 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 05:03	yes	0	13 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 05:03	yes	32	12 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 01:27	yes	5	6 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 02:38	yes	14	22 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 03:02	yes	20	5 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 04:43	yes	0	6 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 04:05	yes	0	11 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 04:12	yes	0	24 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 00:43	yes	0	1 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 01:53	yes	0	68 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:45	yes	0	55 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 05:05	yes	0	24 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 01:53	yes	0	16 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings

None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.

Unresolved, counted raw

API League

Abstract

Alfred

HaltBounce

IPQS (IP Quality Score)

MyEmailVerifier.com

Reoon Email Verifier

Scrubby

VerifyEmailAddress.org

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

Email verification

By buyer segment

01The standing

Recommended versus criticized

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in gtm data and infrastructure