What your SpamAssassin score actually means

You ran a spam test and got a score out of 10. Here's what that number actually means, what counts as good — and why a perfect 10/10 can still land your newsletter in spam.

Forward a test email here

zooming-eagle-0635@in.mailtester.ai

Example result

• Email: sara@lisbonletters.beehiiv.com received 14s ago · AI classifier verdict (no real send)
• Subject: "This week: 5 things I'm reading after Lisbon Web Summit ☀️"
• Deliverability: 62/ 100
• Verdict: Risky — don't send yet
• Where it lands: Primary 38% · Promotions 41% · Spam 21%

What the number means

How to read your SpamAssassin score

Four things worth knowing before you trust — or panic over — the number a spam test just handed you.

The pass mark

Higher is better — clear the halfway mark and most filters let you through. On the familiar out-of-10 scale, a good score is a high one. You start at a clean 10 and lose points for each problem the filter finds, so the closer to 10 you are, the cleaner your email looks.

How the number is built

SpamAssassin runs your email past a long list of individual checks, and each one nudges the score: missing or broken SPF, DKIM or DMARC, spam-trigger words, an all-image email, a bad link, a sloppy unsubscribe.

Two versions of the same score

On its own, SpamAssassin counts penalty points, so a low number is good and a high one is spammy. The checkers most people actually use — like mail-tester.com — flip that into a friendly score out of 10, where 10 is perfect and points come off for each problem.

What the score can't see

A high SpamAssassin score tells you the message is well put together and unlikely to trip a content filter. It does not tell you where Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo will actually file it.

The most common surprise

"I scored 10/10 and I'm still in spam" — here's why. A SpamAssassin score checks one message against one filter on one mailbox. It can't see that Gmail sorted you into the Promotions tab, that Outlook quietly held back a brand-new sender, or that your subscribers stopped opening.

One honest boundary

A SpamAssassin score — and everything on this page — is about whether your email lands in the inbox. Whether an email address actually exists and can receive mail is a different job, and that's what verifiers like ZeroBounce and NeverBounce do.

Stop reading a number. See where your email actually lands.

A score is a paper grade. The real test is your actual send, opened in real inboxes. Forward your email to the address on this page and, in about 30 seconds, you get your score, a plain-English verdict — Safe to send, Risky, or Don't send — the share that lands in Primary, Promotions or Spam across real Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo.

Two different tests. Most people mix them up.

If you've ever searched "email tester," half the results check whether the address is valid. We do the other thing — whether the email itself will reach the inbox once you press send.

Address validity

• Does this address exist? You upload a CSV of subscribers. The tool tells you which addresses bounce. Great for cleaning a stale list before a re-engagement send.
• Validates email addresses
• Catches typos and dead domains

Inbox placement

• Will Gmail actually show it? You forward one email — newsletter, launch, client note — to a one-time mailbox. We open it in real Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo and tell you which tab it landed in.

FAQ

What is a good SpamAssassin score?

On the out-of-10 scale most spam checkers show, a good SpamAssassin score is a high one. A clean 10 means the filter found nothing to hold against your message — your authentication lines up, the content doesn't trip its rules, and nothing obvious is wrong.

Why does my email still go to spam with a 10/10 score?

A clean 10/10 can't see that Gmail sorted you into Promotions or that your subscribers stopped opening. To know where you actually land, you have to test against real inboxes, not one filter.

How do I see where my email actually lands, for free?

Forward your email to your unique mailtester.ai address and, in about 30 seconds, you get the split across real Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo accounts — Primary, Promotions or Spam — the SPF, DKIM and DMARC results, and the three fixes worth doing first.