Spam Word Checker — Test Your Email for Spam Triggers
Paste an email’s subject and body to find spam-trigger phrases, shouting, link and image problems, and a missing unsubscribe.
What was found
- High15 trigger phrases found (3 in the subject)Phrases common in bulk and scam mail. One or two in a genuine email is normal; clusters, and triggers in the subject line, are what make a message look like spam. Highlighted below.
- HighShouting in the subject line34% of the subject is in all-caps words. Filters and readers both treat this as shouting. Use sentence case.
- MediumExcessive exclamation marks6 exclamation marks, including repeated ones like "!!". One is fine; more reads as hype.
- OK1 linkA reasonable number of links for the length of the message.
- HighURL shortenersShortened links (bit.ly and similar) hide the destination and are widely abused, so many filters penalise them. Link to your own domain instead.
- MediumNo unsubscribe text foundMarketing email must include a way to opt out (CAN-SPAM, CASL, GDPR). Since 2024 Gmail and Yahoo also require bulk senders to support one-click unsubscribe via the List-Unsubscribe header. Ignore this for one-to-one emails.
Highlighted phrases
Subject: LAST CHANCE!!! Claim your FREE gift before midnight
- Urgency & pressure: last chance, act now, limited time, click here, don't miss out
- Money & pricing: % off
- Too good to be true: claim your, free gift, congratulations, you have been selected, 100% guaranteed, no risk, prize
- Shady / deceptive: dear friend
Keep this in proportion. Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo filter mainly on your sending domain's reputation, authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), complaint rate and whether recipients open and reply. A clean score here will not rescue a domain with poor reputation, and a single "free" will not sink a well-authenticated sender. Use this to catch copy that reads like bulk mail.
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This spam word checker scans an email’s subject line and body for the patterns that make a message look like bulk spam: trigger phrases such as "act now", "100% free" and "you have been selected", subject lines in capitals, strings of exclamation marks and dollar signs, too many links or URL shorteners, emails that are mostly images, and missing unsubscribe text. Each finding is explained, and every flagged phrase is highlighted in your text.
To be straight about what this measures: words are a small part of modern spam filtering. Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo decide mainly on your sending domain’s reputation, whether your mail is authenticated with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, your complaint rate, and whether recipients open, reply or delete unread. A clean result here will not fix a deliverability problem caused by those, and one "free" will not send a well-authenticated email to spam. What this tool catches is copy that reads like the mail filters were trained on.
How to use
- Paste your subject line and the email body. Plain text or HTML both work.
- Read the score and the findings list, starting with anything marked High.
- Scroll to the highlighted text to see each trigger phrase in context, colour-coded by category.
- Rewrite the flagged phrases in plainer language and re-check. The results update as you type.
Frequently asked questions
Do spam trigger words really send emails to spam?
Rarely on their own. Modern filters weigh sender reputation, authentication and recipient engagement far more than individual words. Trigger phrases matter as part of a pattern: an email with an all-caps subject, several "free"s, "act now", a shortened link and no unsubscribe looks like spam to filters and to people. They matter most for new domains with no sending history.
What are the most common spam trigger words?
Phrases that create false urgency ("act now", "final notice", "expires today"), promise money ("earn cash", "double your income", "$$$"), sound too good to be true ("100% free", "you are a winner", "risk-free", "no strings attached"), or imitate scams ("dear friend", "verify your account", "this is not spam"). Context matters: "free shipping" in a store’s newsletter is normal.
How do I stop my emails going to spam?
Authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM and a DMARC policy; send from a domain with a consistent history; only email people who opted in; make unsubscribing easy; remove addresses that bounce or never open; and keep complaint rates low. Gmail and Yahoo require bulk senders (over 5,000 messages a day to their users) to do all of this, including one-click unsubscribe and a spam rate below 0.3%, and Microsoft added similar rules for Outlook.com in 2025.
Do I need an unsubscribe link in every email?
In every marketing email, yes. The US CAN-SPAM Act, Canada’s CASL and the EU’s GDPR and ePrivacy rules all require a clear way to opt out, and Gmail and Yahoo require bulk senders to support one-click unsubscribe through the List-Unsubscribe header. One-to-one business emails do not need one, so ignore that finding for those.
Does using ALL CAPS or exclamation marks trigger spam filters?
Heavy use contributes to a spam score in content-based filters such as SpamAssassin, and it consistently hurts open rates because it reads as shouting. An acronym or a single exclamation mark is fine. A subject that is mostly capitals, or ends with "!!!", is a pattern worth avoiding.
What actually decides inbox or spam
• Authentication: SPF says which servers may send for your domain, DKIM signs each message, and DMARC tells receivers what to do when those fail. Since 2024, bulk senders to Gmail and Yahoo must have all three.
• Reputation: your sending domain’s and IP address’s history of complaints, bounces and spam-trap hits. Gmail Postmaster Tools shows yours.
• Engagement: opens, replies, moves out of spam, and deletes without reading. Mailing people who never open hurts every later send.
• List hygiene: purchased or scraped lists contain spam traps and inactive addresses, and are the fastest way to wreck a domain’s reputation.
• Content: the area this tool checks. It matters most at the margin, for new senders and borderline reputations.
Writing email that does not look like spam
Write the subject as you would to a colleague: specific, sentence case, no shouting. "Your March invoice and two schedule changes" beats "IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!" for filters and for opens. Our email subject line tester checks length and wording in more depth.
Keep a real balance of text to images, with meaningful alt text, so the email still works with images blocked. Link to your own domain rather than shorteners, and tag links with UTM parameters so you can measure them. Put a plain, visible unsubscribe link in the footer along with your postal address.
This checker runs entirely in your browser, so you can paste drafts, customer lists in merge fields, or unreleased campaign copy without it leaving your machine.
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