Deliverability

The Ultimate Spam Words List for Cold Email

846 Words and Phrases From Three Published Lists, Grouped by Category, and How Much They Really Matter

Karl Kyamko

Karl Kyamko — Founder, Lead Gen AI Systems

Published October 10, 2026 · 9 min read

The Short Answer

Spam words (also called spam trigger words) are words and phrases that show up so often in spam that filters and spam checkers treat them as a warning sign: money promises, false urgency, "100% free", "click here". One of them on its own rarely sends an email to spam. As Warmup Inbox puts it, "Spam filters don't block emails because of a single word"; they look at the message alongside sender reputation, authentication, engagement and formatting (Warmup Inbox).

A pile of them is a different story, and cold email has less room for error than a newsletter, because nobody signed up to hear from you. Below is every word from three published spam word lists, merged into one list of 846 words and phrases, plus the short list we never use in cold email and how we check copy before it goes out.

Want to check an email right now? Paste it into our free Spam Word Checker.

Do Spam Words Still Matter in 2026?

Yes, but less than most lists suggest. The three companies whose lists we merged all say the same thing in their own words:

Context decides. Instantly's example: a newsletter called "Weekly Crypto News and Trends" is not the same as one called "Become a Crypto Millionaire Today!" (Instantly). What filters weigh more heavily is everything around the words: whether your domain is authenticated (see our guide to SPF, DKIM and DMARC for cold email), how many people mark you as spam (Google asks bulk senders to stay below 0.3%, Google), and whether people reply.

So treat this list as a checklist for rewriting, not a list of banned English. The goal is copy that reads like one person writing to another, because that is what a cold email should be.

The Words We Never Use in Cold Email

Most of the list is a judgment call. A few words are not. These we take out of every cold email we write, whatever the context:

Word or habitWhy it goesWhat we write instead
"Free"On all three lists, alone and in phrases like "free gift", "free trial" and "100% free""Complimentary" or "no charge", or describe the thing itself: "a short audit of your site"
Money, cash, profit, dollar amountsMoney is the biggest group in the merged list: 198 entriesThe result in plain words: "more booked calls", "a fuller pipeline"
"Guarantee", "guaranteed"Over-promising, and listed by Instantly and ActiveCampaignSay what you will do, not what you promise
"No cost", "at no cost"Money phrases on Instantly's and ActiveCampaign's lists"No charge", or leave price out of the first email
"Unsubscribe", "stop", "remove""Stop" and "remove" are on Instantly's list; an unsubscribe link reads like a newsletter, not a personA plain reply line: "Not the right person? Just let me know."
"Click here", links in the first email"Click here" and "click below" are on all three listsNo link at all in the first email; ask a question they can answer by replying
ALL CAPS, "!!!", "$$$"Formatting triggers on Warmup Inbox's listSentence case, plain text, one question mark at most

"Unsubscribe" is not on any of the three lists; dropping it is our own rule, because we let people opt out by replying instead.

Everyday Words: Fine Alone, Risky Together

The lists also include ordinary words you can't avoid in business email: get, new, now, here, only, call, sales, compare, solution, problem (all from Instantly's list). Taking every one of them out would leave you with nothing to say.

Our rule: one or two everyday words in an email are normal English. Three or more different ones in one short email and it starts to read like an ad, so we rewrite the sentence. "Get new sales now, only here" trips it; "Are you the right person for outbound at Acme?" does not.

The 39 Spam Words on All Three Lists

If you only fix a few words, start here. These 39 entries appear on Instantly's, ActiveCampaign's and Warmup Inbox's lists alike, so every major checker is likely to flag them:

The Full Spam Words List: 846 Words by Category

We merged three published lists: Instantly's 718 entries, ActiveCampaign's 188 and Warmup Inbox's 201. After removing duplicates, splitting combined entries ("Free access/money/gift" became three entries), fixing obvious typos and dropping two section headings that had slipped into a list, 846 unique words and phrases remain; 193 of them are on at least two lists. The categories are our own grouping.

Checking a whole email? Paste it into our free Spam Word Checker instead of reading the list by hand: it highlights the words for you.

Bar chart of the merged spam words list by category: Money and Pricing 198, Shady, Deceptive and Phishing-Style 150, Urgency and Pressure 121, Sales and Promotions 98, Exaggerated Claims and Promises 70, Business Opportunity and Marketing Hype 53, Health and Wellness 51, Crypto and Investing 31, Adult, Dating and Gambling 29, Legalese and Fine Print 23, Formatting, Symbols and Greetings 22.
Money words are the biggest group, so start there.

Money and Pricing (198)

Shady, Deceptive and Phishing-Style (150)

Urgency and Pressure (121)

Sales and Promotions (98)

Exaggerated Claims and Promises (70)

Business Opportunity and Marketing Hype (53)

Health and Wellness (51)

Crypto and Investing (31)

Adult, Dating and Gambling (29)

Legalese and Fine Print (23)

Formatting, Symbols and Greetings (22)

How to Check an Email for Spam Words Before You Send

  1. Run the copy through a checker. Paste the subject line and body into our free Spam Word Checker. It highlights the words to look at.
  2. Rewrite one phrase at a time. Swap the flagged phrase for plain words that say the same thing, then check again. Rewriting everything at once hides which change mattered.
  3. Check the formatting. No ALL CAPS, no "!!!", no link or image in the first email, plain text rather than a designed template.
  4. Check the setup, not just the words. Run each sending domain through our DNS Health Checker. A perfect email from a domain without SPF, DKIM and DMARC still struggles.
  5. Test where it lands. Before a campaign goes out, send it to a few test inboxes on Gmail and Outlook and see whether it reaches the inbox, the promotions tab or spam. A word list can't tell you that; a test can.

How We Write Cold Email That Stays Out of Spam

Every campaign we write goes through the same checks: plain text, short enough to read in one glance, no link in the first email, none of the words in the table above, and never three everyday trigger words in one email. Copy is only one part of it; we send from separate, authenticated domains and warm them up before any campaign starts. Then we test placement before launch rather than trusting a word list.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are spam words?

Spam words are words and phrases that appear often in spam, such as money promises, false urgency, "100% free" or "click here". Spam filters and spam checkers treat them as one warning sign among many, alongside sender reputation, authentication and engagement.

Can one spam word send my email to spam?

Rarely. Filters look at the whole message and the sender's reputation, not a single word. A combination of several spam words, heavy formatting or a poor sending reputation is what usually gets an email filtered.

Is "free" a spam word?

Yes. It is on all three lists we merged, alone and in phrases like "free gift" and "free trial". In cold email we replace it with "complimentary" or "no charge", or describe the thing itself.

How many spam words are too many?

There is no official number. Our rule for cold email: none of the money, guarantee or "free" words at all, and no more than two different everyday trigger words such as "get", "new" or "now" in one short email.

Do spam words matter in the subject line more than the body?

The subject line is the first thing both the filter and the reader see, so it matters most. Keep it to a few plain words, with no capitals for emphasis, no exclamation marks and no money or urgency words.

How do I check my email for spam words?

Paste the subject and body into a spam word checker such as our free Spam Word Checker, rewrite the flagged phrases one at a time, then send a test to a few inboxes to see where it lands before the campaign goes out.

About the Author

Karl Kyamko

Karl Kyamko

Founder, Lead Gen AI Systems

Karl founded Lead Gen AI Systems, the outbound agency behind this blog. He has run B2B cold email since 2021 and built in Clay since 2023, so he covers both halves of outbound: the system that finds and scores the right accounts, and the sending setup that gets the email into the inbox.

Related Reading

Sources

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