How Many Email Verification Credits Do You Need?
Work out the right credit pack from your list size, your growth and how often you clean. A short method with worked examples.
With credit-based verification you pay for what you check, so the useful question is not “which plan?” but “how many addresses will I check in the next twelve months?” This guide gives you a method that takes five minutes and prevents both under-buying and wasting credits.
The basics
- One verified address uses one credit.
- A repeated address in the same file is counted once.
- Credits stay valid for 12 months from the day you buy them, and the ones that expire first are used first.
- New accounts start with free welcome credits, which are valid for a shorter time.
- Larger packs cost less per check. See the pricing page for the current packs.
Step 1: Count your unique addresses
Take your list and remove exact duplicates (in Excel: Data → Remove Duplicates). The number that remains is your first estimate. If a file has 22,000 rows and 3,000 repeats, you need credits for 19,000.
Step 2: Add what will arrive
Lists are not static. Estimate the new addresses you collect over the year:
- Newsletter growth per month × 12
- Event or webinar registrations per season × seasons
- Leads from forms or trade shows
If you verify new sign-ups one by one through the API, count each of those as a credit too.
Step 3: Decide how often you will re-clean
An address that was valid a year ago may not be valid today. People change jobs and companies close domains. How often you re-check the same people depends on how you use the list:
| How you use the list | Re-check |
|---|---|
| Frequent newsletters (weekly) | Twice a year, or when bounces rise |
| Occasional campaigns (monthly or less) | Before each large campaign if the list is older than 6 months |
| Cold outreach | Verify every new batch once, right before sending |
| Transactional and sign-up forms | Check at the moment of sign-up, not again |
Multiply your list size by the number of full re-checks you plan. A list of 19,000 re-checked once a year is 38,000 credits in the first year (the first clean plus one re-check).
Step 4: Choose the pack
Add the three numbers and round up to the next pack. Because credits last 12 months, it is sensible to buy a pack that you will use within the year, not one so large that part of it expires.
Worked examples
| Situation | Credits per year | Pack that fits |
|---|---|---|
| A shop with 4,000 subscribers, one clean now, one in six months | 8,000 plus 1,500 new | 10,000 pack |
| A newsletter with 19,000 addresses and 500 new per month, re-checked twice | 19,000 + 6,000 + 19,000 | 50,000 pack |
| A sales team verifying 3,000 cold leads a month | 36,000 | 50,000 pack |
| A site checking 150 new sign-ups a day through the API | about 55,000 | 100,000 pack |
These examples are estimates for illustration; use your own numbers.
Ways to spend fewer credits
- Remove duplicates first. It is the cheapest saving.
- Do not verify addresses you know are fine. Contacts who replied to you last week do not need a check.
- Verify once, keep the result. Store the result column next to your data.
- Use the free re-check for unknowns. After a bulk finishes, the unknown results can be checked again once at no cost from the result page.
- Fix typos at the source. Showing a “did you mean” hint on the sign-up form prevents bad addresses from entering the list at all.
What if you guess wrong?
If you run out, you can buy another pack at any time; credits you already have keep their own expiry dates. If you buy too much, remember that the pack is valid for a full year, which usually covers an extra clean-up before a big campaign.
Start with the free credits on a new account to test on a slice of your list, then choose a pack based on the numbers above. You can also read how our credits and file retention work before you decide.
