# Email spam checker > Scores a cold email out of 100 and flags links, money signs, em dashes and merge tags. Free, no signup. Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us. **Email spam checker. Score a cold email in seconds, no signup.** Use it at https://tools.joinvalley.co/email-spam-checker ## What it checks - **Links** (Fix · Valley's rule): A first cold email doesn't need a link. Plain domains and email addresses count too, because mail apps turn them into links, and every link is one more thing a spam filter checks. - **Dollar signs and other money symbols** (Fix · Valley's rule): Money symbols make a cold email read like an offer. - **Percentages** (Fix · Valley's rule): Percentages read like a marketing claim in a first email. - **Em dashes** (Fix · Valley's rule): To a lot of readers, an em dash now looks machine-written. - **Unfilled merge tags** (Fix · Valley's rule): A tag like {{first_name}} or [Company] that didn't fill in tells the reader they're one of thousands. - **Unresolved spintax** (Fix · Valley's rule): Spin syntax like {Hi|Hey} sent as written shows the email was mass-produced. - **Exclamation marks** (Fix · Valley's rule): Exclamation marks read as hype in a cold email. - **Emojis** (Fix · Valley's rule): Emojis make a first email look like a newsletter. - **Re: or Fwd: in the subject** (Fix · US law (FTC)): Re: or Fwd: suggests a conversation that didn't happen. The FTC's CAN-SPAM guide says “the subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.” Fine in a real follow-up in the same thread. - **No subject line** (Fix · Valley's rule): An email with no subject looks like a mistake, or like spam. - **Words in capitals** (Worth a look · Valley's rule): Capitals read as shouting. Short acronyms like CEO or B2B are fine. - **Words that read like an ad** (Worth a look · Valley's rule): Our list of words that make a cold email sound like a promotion. No mail provider publishes a list of banned words, so read these in context. - **Long subject line** (Worth a look · Valley's rule): A short subject looks like a note from a person. Ours stay under 45 characters. - **Long email** (Worth a look · Valley's rule): Ours stay under 125 words, so a first email fits on a phone screen without scrolling. - **A way to opt out** (Worth a look · US law (FTC)): US law asks commercial email, business-to-business included, to tell people how to opt out. The FTC's guide says a return email address counts, so a line asking them to reply works and keeps the email free of links. - **A postal address** (Worth a look · US law (FTC)): The FTC's CAN-SPAM guide says commercial email must include your valid physical postal address. A registered PO box counts. ## How it works It reads your subject line and email in your browser and checks them against 16 things as you type. Nothing you type leaves this page. Most checks are Valley's own rules for cold email that goes out at volume: no links, no money symbols or percentages, no em dashes, no exclamation marks, no merge tags left unfilled. They're how we'd send it, not rules a mail provider publishes, and the page labels each one. Three checks rest on US law. The FTC's CAN-SPAM guide says commercial email, business-to-business included, needs a subject line that matches the message, a way to opt out and a valid postal address. This isn't legal advice. The score starts at 100 and takes 12 off for each thing to fix and 4 for each thing worth a look. It can't see your domain's setup (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), your sending reputation or how many emails you send a day, and those matter too. ## How to keep cold email out of spam. What Gmail and Yahoo ask for, and what we add. Clean wording is one part of it. Where a cold email lands also depends on how your domain is set up, how many people mark it as spam, and how easy it is to say no. Here's what the two biggest inbox providers publish, what US law asks, and the rules we follow on top. ### Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Gmail and Yahoo both ask every sender to set up SPF or DKIM on the sending domain. Google asks anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts for all three of SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and a DMARC policy of none is enough. Yahoo asks its bulk senders for the same, with the From domain aligned to SPF or DKIM. This checker can't see any of that, because it only reads the text. Your domain host or sending tool can tell you whether all three pass. Sources: [Google's email sender guidelines (Gmail Help)](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) (read 2026-10-14), [Yahoo's sender requirements and recommendations](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/) (read 2026-10-14) ### Keep spam complaints under 0.3%. Both providers draw the line at a spam rate of 0.3%: the share of email delivered to the inbox that people mark as spam. Google also recommends staying under 0.1%, and shows the rate in Postmaster Tools. Our view: complaints come from people an email had nothing to do with. Writing to fewer, better-matched people keeps the rate down better than any change of wording. Sources: [Google's email sender guidelines (Gmail Help)](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) (read 2026-10-14), [Yahoo's sender requirements and recommendations](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/) (read 2026-10-14) ### Make it easy to say no. US law asks commercial email, business-to-business included, for a clear way to opt out and a valid postal address. The FTC's guide says a return email address counts as the way out, and that opt-outs must be honoured within 10 business days. This isn't legal advice. Past 5,000 messages a day to Gmail, or as one of Yahoo's bulk senders, marketing email also needs one-click unsubscribe and a visible unsubscribe link in the body, and Yahoo asks for unsubscribes to be honoured within 2 days. If that's you, keep the unsubscribe link, even though this checker flags every link. Sources: [The FTC's CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business) (read 2026-10-14), [Google's email sender guidelines (Gmail Help)](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) (read 2026-10-14), [Yahoo's sender requirements and recommendations](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/) (read 2026-10-14) ### Don't dress it up as something else. Google's guidelines say not to put Re: or Fwd: on a subject unless the email really is a reply or a forward, to keep links visible and easy to understand, and not to hide content with HTML or CSS. The FTC's guide says the subject line must reflect what the message is about, and the From line must say who sent it. Sources: [Google's email sender guidelines (Gmail Help)](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) (read 2026-10-14), [The FTC's CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business) (read 2026-10-14) ### Write it like one person to another. The checker's other rules are Valley's own, for cold email that goes out at volume: no links, no money symbols or percentages, no em dashes, no exclamation marks or emojis, and every merge tag filled in. No provider publishes these. They're the rules we write by, and the checker labels each one as ours. And the best-written email still needs the right reader. Valley finds, researches and writes to the people most likely to buy from you. [Valley](https://www.joinvalley.co/?utm_source=tools_suite) ## Sources - [The FTC's CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business) (read 2026-10-14) - [Google's email sender guidelines (Gmail Help)](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) (read 2026-10-14) - [Yahoo's sender requirements and recommendations](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/) (read 2026-10-14) ## Questions people ask ### What does this email spam checker check? It checks a cold email's subject and body for 16 things, including links, dollar signs, percentages, em dashes, unfilled merge tags, exclamation marks and words that read like an ad, and scores it out of 100. ### Is there an official list of spam trigger words? No. No mail provider publishes a list of banned words, so the checker treats wording as worth a look and keeps its hard rules to things like links, money symbols and merge tags. ### Why shouldn't a cold email have links? A first cold email doesn't need one, and every link is one more thing a spam filter checks. If someone wants to see more, they'll reply. ### Why no em dashes in a cold email? To a lot of readers an em dash now looks machine-written. A full stop or a comma does the same job. ### Does a cold email need an unsubscribe link? US law asks for a way to opt out, and the FTC's guide says a return email address counts, so a line asking people to reply works without a link. This isn't legal advice. ### Is my email sent anywhere? No. The checks run in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to us or stored. ### What should I do once my email passes? Send it to people who are likely to care. Valley finds buyers showing real buying signals and messages them across email and LinkedIn. ### Does a high score mean my email will land in the inbox? No. The score shows how closely the email follows these checks. Inbox placement also depends on your domain setup, sending reputation and volume, which a text check can't see. ## Related tools - [SPF, DKIM and DMARC checker](https://tools.joinvalley.co/spf-dkim-dmarc-checker): Checks a domain's SPF, DKIM and DMARC records against Gmail and Yahoo's sender rules. ## Next step Want replies, not just clean copy? Valley finds buyers showing real buying signals and messages them across email and LinkedIn. [Valley](https://www.joinvalley.co/?utm_source=tools_suite) Shelf: [04 Email outreach](https://tools.joinvalley.co/email-outreach) --- Tools by Valley, made by [Valley](https://www.joinvalley.co/?utm_source=tools_suite). HTML version: https://tools.joinvalley.co/email-spam-checker