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Common email domain typos, and how to fix them safely

The most common typos are one edit away from a major provider: gmial.com, gmai.com, gmail.co, gmail.con, hotmial.com, hotmai.com, outlok.com, yaho.com, yahoo.co. They come from typing fast at a signup form, not from bad data vendors.

Fixing them is a two-part test: the domain must be one edit away from a known provider, and the corrected domain must actually have a mail server. Either test alone produces wrong “fixes”.

The usual suspects

Why a static typo list isn't enough

A hardcoded list catches the famous ones and misses everything local to your market — the regional provider with a plausible misspelling, the company domain with a doubled letter. Distance-based matching generalises: compute edit distance to the provider list you care about, and only accept one- or two-character differences.

The second test that prevents damage

Before rewriting an address, check that the suggested domain has an MX record. This blocks the worst failure mode: "correcting" a real corporate domain that happens to sit one edit away from a provider name. If the corrected domain cannot receive mail, the "fix" was wrong.

Also log every rewrite. A silent correction to a customer's address is a data change you should be able to show if they ask why they stopped receiving mail.

Typos you should not fix

If the address bounced once and the corrected version has no evidence of ever subscribing, you are inventing a recipient. Repair is defensible when the original was clearly a keying error on your own form; it is not a licence to guess addresses from a purchased list.

Check your own list in about 30 seconds. Paste or drop a CSV — duplicates, typos, role addresses and dead domains, all handled in your browser. Free for the first 100 addresses, $19 once for unlimited.

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Common questions

Should I email the corrected address?

If the person typed it into your own signup form, yes — a typo repair restores the relationship they already asked for. If the address came from a list you bought, don't; you have no evidence they consented under the corrected spelling either.

How many characters off is too far?

More than two edits, and you are guessing. Most real typos are single-character: one transposition, one missing letter, one wrong final character.

Last updated 2026-10-23.