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Cold email checker

Paste a cold email and get a score out of 100, with each of 15 rules explained in plain words.

../100 Checking the sample email.
  1. Subject linePresent and at most 70 characters, so it is not cut on a phone.
  2. Length55 to 125 words. Long enough to say one real thing, short enough to read on a phone.
  3. GreetingIts own first line, like "Hi Dana," or "Hi there,". Nothing else on that line.
  4. A specific "I saw" lineOne line that starts "I saw" and names something concrete from their site: a service, a schedule, a number. "You are family-run" is true of thousands of companies.
  5. Their facts, your wordsThe observation describes them as "you" or by name. "We" in it means you copied their site's voice.
  6. One clear questionExactly one question, easy to answer yes or no. Two questions make the reader choose which to answer, and most answer neither.
  7. A way to say noA plain sentence that tells them how to stop hearing from you, like "If this isn't relevant, just tell me and I won't write again."
  8. No linksA first email to a stranger with a link looks like every phishing email. Offer to send more instead.
  9. No prices or discountsMoney in the first email turns an introduction into an advert.
  10. No hype wordsWords like seamless, unlock, cutting-edge and powerful tell the reader a template wrote this.
  11. No filler phrasesPhrases like "ensure", "great" or "it seems like" say nothing about them. Say something concrete.
  12. No exclamation marksCalm reads as confident. Exclamation marks read as a sales script.
  13. No long dashesLong dashes have become a sign of machine-written text. Use a full stop or a comma.
  14. No calendar dates"Until March 3rd" is stale the day after. Name the recurring event instead.
  15. Says each thing onceNo phrase of five words or more appears twice.

Runs in your browser. Your email is not sent anywhere and nothing is stored. The sample is fictional: Northfield Roasters and Tallyline are made up.

How to use it

  1. Paste your subject line and the body of your first email, including the greeting and the sign-off.
  2. Press Check this email. Each rule shows Pass or Fix, with what it found.
  3. Fix the first rule that fails, check again, and repeat. A score of 100 means it passes every rule we apply to our own emails.

The checker reads English. It cannot tell whether your "I saw" line is true; only you can, by checking their site.

What good looks like

The sample that loads with the page passes every rule. It has six short paragraphs: a greeting, one specific thing seen on their site, who is writing and the one problem they solve, a small offer with a yes-or-no question, a way to say no, and a sign-off.

These are the same rules Honest Intros applies to every email it writes before you ever see it. An email that fails any of them is rewritten, not sent. The full reasoning is in our guide to personalising from a prospect's website.

Questions

What does the cold email checker check?

Fifteen rules: subject length, word count, greeting, a specific observation about the prospect, one clear question, an opt-out sentence, and no links, prices, hype words, filler phrases, exclamation marks, long dashes, calendar dates or repeated phrases.

Is my email sent anywhere?

No. The check runs in your browser with rules downloaded with the page. Nothing you paste is sent to us or stored.

Why no links in a cold email?

A link in a first email from a stranger is the pattern of most phishing and much spam, so people and filters trust it less. Offer to send more and let them reply first.

More free tools: DMARC checker · Subject line checker · Cold email legal checker · Reply classifier · Gmail warm-up calculator. All of them run in your browser; nothing you type is sent to us.

See what it would write for you

Paste your website. Honest Intros learns what you sell and shows who it would write to, and what it would say.

Free to start. Nothing is sent until you approve it.

Read next

  • Personalise from their websiteHow to personalise cold email from a prospect's own website: one true observation in plain words, who you are, and a small offer, with every fact backed by a sentence on their page.
  • AI SDR hallucinated emailsWhy AI sales agents send emails with made-up facts, a catalogue of the failure types with fictional examples, and the checks that catch each one before anything is sent.
  • DMARCDMARC is a DNS record that tells receiving servers what to do with a message that fails SPF and DKIM checks for the domain in its From address, and where to send reports about it.
  • Warm-upWarm-up is the practice of starting with a low sending volume and raising it step by step, so mailbox providers see a steady pattern rather than a sudden burst.