How we verify.

1. The probe

When you export a list, each email address is checked with a live SMTP conversation against the domain’s actual mail server: we resolve the MX records, connect, and ask whether the specific mailbox accepts mail — then disconnect before anything is sent. No email is ever delivered, and the mailbox owner sees nothing. This is a direct question to the system that will ultimately accept or bounce your message, which makes it the strongest signal available in email verification — categorically stronger than syntax checks, domain pings, or pattern inference.

2. Verified at export, not at ingestion

Most vendors verify a record once — whenever it was added — and you inherit the average age of their database. We move the check to the only moment it can be honest: the export. Every address in your file is probed live right then, so the verdict you pay for reflects the mailbox’s current state. Re-checking an address you recently verified is free; a genuinely new check costs one credit, and only for deliverable results.

3. What each status means

4. Pay only for deliverable

Because verification happens at delivery, billing can be honest: invalid and unknown rows are filtered out of your file and cost zero credits. When you ask for a valid-only export of N contacts, we keep probing deeper into the matching segment until N valid rows are delivered, the segment is exhausted, or we hit a hard bound of 4×N probes — and you’re charged only for the valid rows actually delivered. Your export receipt itemizes it: requested, delivered valid, catch-alls included (if you opted in), and credits charged.

5. Verifying your own lists

The same engine verifies lists you upload. The pricing rule flips, deliberately: on our data you pay per deliverable contact; on your data the verdict itself is the product, so every check costs one verification credit regardless of outcome. Duplicates within an upload are removed before charging, and re-checking the same address within 30 days is free. See pricing for verification packs.

6. Fair use

Live probing is a shared resource. Export verification is capped at 3× your monthly plan credits over any rolling 30 days — generous for real workflows, tight enough to stop database farming. Pre-verified valid-only exports keep working even at the cap.