Email verification checks every address on a contact list before you send to it. It validates the syntax, confirms the domain can receive mail, and asks the mail server whether it would accept a message, all without sending anything, which mitigates bounces and protects your domain reputation.
Email verification is included in Enterprise-tier accounts, with up to 10,000 verifications per month. On other plans, you can upgrade or use a third-party service like Bouncer, which powers VipeCloud's verification tool.
How to Verify a Contact List
Go to Contacts in the left sidebar.
Click Contact Lists.
Hover over the list you want to verify.
On the right side of the row, click the More (three dots) menu.
Select Verify Emails.
Review the details in the pop-up (see below).
Choose whether to also remove Risky addresses.
Click Verify.
The pop-up shows:
Estimated Time - usually 5-10 minutes. You receive an in-app notification when verification finishes.
Account Limits - how many verifications you have used this month (Current Usage) and how many this run will use (New Verifications).
List Breakdown - Verified (verified in the last 6 months), Stale (verified more than 6 months ago), and New (never verified). Only Stale and New contacts are verified.
The filtering options are:
Undeliverable - always removed. These addresses will almost certainly bounce.
Risky - optional. Disposable addresses, which are always best to remove, and accept-all addresses, where the domain accepts any email even if the individual inbox does not exist.
Remove risky addresses if your list quality is lower or you have little tolerance for bounces. Keep them if your list is higher quality and you want to maximize reach, accepting that some may bounce. There is no universal right answer - it depends on your goals and tolerance for bounce risk.
How to Verify Addresses While Sending a Mass Email
Enterprise accounts can also verify a send's unverified addresses from the Send an Email page, without verifying the whole list first.
On the Send an Email page, choose your recipients under Who is it going to?.
In the Check your email panel, check Verify the [number] unverified addresses before sending.
Click Verify, then send.
The email waits until verification finishes (usually minutes, up to 12 hours), then skips any undeliverable addresses. It uses the same 10,000 monthly verifications. If there are not enough left, the panel shows how many remain and when they reset. See Sending Mass Emails.
How to Tell a List Has Been Verified
After verification finishes:
The list shows a shield icon, and so does each verified contact.
Each contact on the list carries its new verification status.
Undeliverable contacts are suppressed from future mass email sends automatically. Risky contacts are too, if you chose to remove them.
Key Notes
Verification is not a test send. A real send always confirms deliverability but risks a bounce, while verification checks the address without delivering anything.
Verification mitigates bounces but does not eliminate them, and it is not a guarantee that an inbox is monitored or that the recipient will reply.
Re-verifying a contact more often than every 6 months has no real advantage.
The 10,000 monthly verifications are shared between list verification and verifying while sending.
Verification cannot fix a poor-quality list. Combine it with correct DNS setup and sending only to contacts who want to hear from you. Older lists benefit most, since addresses often expire or go inactive.
Video Walkthrough
Use the timestamps below to jump to specific sections:
0:00 - Introduction
0:56 - What email verification checks
4:13 - How to verify a contact list
5:03 - What the verification pop-up shows
6:51 - Filtering undeliverable and risky contacts
10:06 - How to tell a list has been verified
10:22 - Best practices and limitations