Spam Word Checker — 175 Trigger Words, Ranked by Risk
Who this is for: For anyone whose open rate quietly fell and suspects the filter — and for anyone writing promo email who wants the aggressive words flagged before the inbox judges.
Scan your subject line against 175 spam trigger words — high-risk and medium-risk flagged, with fixes.
Quick answer: 175 spam trigger words matter as hygiene: 107 high-risk ('100% free', 'act now', 'risk-free') should never appear; 68 medium-risk ('offer', 'discount', 'last chance') are fine alone, risky stacked. Paste your line below for a severity-ranked scan with fixes.
High-risk — −8 each, no legitimate use
- “free gift”Fix: replace the mechanism with a specific fact (a number, a date, a name)
- “urgent”Fix: replace the mechanism with a specific fact (a number, a date, a name)
Medium-risk — −3 each, fine alone, risky stacked
- “last chance”Fix: give the real date: 'closes Friday'
Worst offenders of the high list
100% free · act now · risk-free · winner · make money · guaranteed · no obligation · double your income · urgent · while supplies last · congratulations · this is not spam — the canon that trained the filters, and the reason fresh domains get zero benefit of the doubt.
Scanning 107 high-risk + 68 medium-risk trigger words. Filters in 2026 weigh domain reputation, authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC) and engagement above vocabulary — words are the dress code, not the bouncer.
| Word list | 175 words: 107 high + 68 medium |
|---|---|
| Tester penalty | High −8 each (cap −24) · medium −3 each (cap −9) |
| Dedup rule | '100% free' absorbs the bare 'free' — one hit, one penalty |
| Worst offenders | 100% free · act now · risk-free · winner · make money |
| Honest caveat | Filters weigh reputation + engagement + auth above words |
| Status | Rules follow public email-marketing benchmark practice (2026): ~35–70 visible characters by client, 175-word spam trigger list, sentence case, one clear idea per line. Client truncation figures are engineering approximations — devices, fonts and zoom shift them. |
How does the spam word checker work?
Your line is scanned against 175 trigger words split by severity. High-risk (107 words — '100% free', 'act now', 'risk-free', 'winner', 'make money') are classic filter bait: each hit costs −8 in the tester's scoring, capped at −24. Medium-risk (68 words — 'offer', 'discount', 'reminder', 'last chance', 'free') are legal in moderation: −3 each, capped at −9, because a single 'sale' won't doom a wanted email. One word only counts once even when it appears inside a longer hit — '100% free' absorbs the bare 'free'. The checker shows every hit with its severity and a calmer replacement, and the honest caveat: spam filters in 2026 weigh your domain reputation, engagement and authentication far more than word lists — words are the dress code, not the bouncer.
Common uses
- Pre-flight checking promo and cold email before send
- Diagnosing a sudden open-rate drop after a copy change
- Cleaning up templates inherited from an aggressive sales team
- Teaching the difference between high-risk and medium-risk vocabulary
Frequently Asked Questions
What are spam trigger words?
Will one spam word send me to the junk folder?
What's the difference between high-risk and medium-risk?
Are spam word lists still relevant in 2026?
How do I fix a flagged word?
More guides
What actually makes a subject line catchy — the five mechanisms, with scored examples for each and the cheesy line to avoid.
A working library of scored subject line examples by scenario — welcome, promo, event, re-engagement, announcement — with the check each one passes.
The 175-word spam trigger list, explained: the 107 that should never appear, the 68 that are fine alone — and why words matter less than they used to.
More Deliverability checkers
See exactly where Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and Apple Mail cut your line — and the character band that fits.
Two lines side by side — scores, check-by-check differences, and the verdict on which to send.
Subject + preheader rendered as Gmail desktop, Gmail mobile and Outlook will show them — before you send.