How the cold email checker works

What it does

Cold Email Critic scores a draft email out of 100 across five sections of 20 points each: the subject line, the opener, the value proposition, the call to action, and flags for the industry and email type you pick. Every issue it finds comes with a suggestion you can act on.

How the rules were built

The rules come from real cold emails, not from rules of thumb. We collected about 1,100 emails: over 1,000 link-seller and junk pitches received in real inboxes, plus a smaller set of genuine one-to-one pitches from affiliate programs and media buyers.

Every rule was tested against that collection before it went live. A rule stays only if it helps genuine emails score higher than spam. Rules that hit genuine emails as often as spam were removed.

Some checks look for phrases, like filler openers or link-seller vocabulary. Others look at structure: fake "Re:" subjects, quoted fake threads, site lists, and pasted domain metrics. Where a message uses outside data, the source is named.

What it cannot tell you

The checker does not know your recipient, so it cannot judge whether your offer is genuinely relevant to them, and it cannot predict whether someone will reply. A high score means the email avoids the patterns of spam, not that it will get a reply. It only analyses English at the moment.

Your emails stay yours

The text you check is sent to our server only to calculate the score and is not stored. Details are in the privacy policy.

Who is behind it

Cold Email Critic is a small independent project. Questions and feedback are welcome at office@coldemailcritic.com or through the contact form.

Check an email