How Do Validation Credits Work?
Monthly credit limits, usage tracking, and how to get the most out of your validation allowance
Quick Answer
Every paid plan includes monthly email validation credits. One credit = one email validated. Credits reset on your billing anniversary. Duplicates and cached results don't consume credits. Check your usage on Dashboard → Billing → Usage.
Monthly Credit Limits by Plan
| Plan | Credits/Month | Validation Depth |
|---|---|---|
| Trial | 10,000 | Internal checks only (syntax, MX, disposable, catch-all) |
| Starter | 10,000 | Internal checks only |
| Growth | 50,000 | Internal + MillionVerifier API for risky leads |
| Scale | 100,000 | Internal + MillionVerifier API for medium-risk leads |
| Enterprise | Unlimited | Full hybrid validation with custom thresholds |
What Uses a Credit?
Uses 1 Credit
- Each unique email validated for the first time
- Each email from a CSV upload (first time)
- Each lead ingested via Clay webhook (first time)
- Each lead pushed via API (first time)
Does NOT Use a Credit
- Duplicate emails (same email uploaded again)
- Cached validation results (within 30-day cache window)
- ESP classification (uses existing MX data from validation)
- Routing leads to campaigns
- Exporting results as CSV
What Happens When Credits Run Out?
If you upload a CSV batch and credits are exhausted mid-batch, remaining leads are flagged with “Monthly validation credit limit reached. Upgrade your plan.” instead of being validated. Leads already validated in the batch are unaffected.
Upgrade to a higher plan at Dashboard → Billing to increase your monthly limit. Credits reset on your billing anniversary — unused credits do not roll over.
How to Track Usage
Billing → Usage
The Emails Validated stat card shows your lifetime validation count alongside Active Leads, Domains, and Mailboxes.
Email Validation → Analytics
The validation analytics panel shows total validated, pass rate, invalid rate, and a breakdown by source (CSV, Clay, API). The 30-day trend chart shows daily validation volume.
Optimizing Credit Usage
- Deduplicate before upload — remove obvious duplicates from your CSV before uploading. Superkabe catches them, but deduplicating client-side saves processing time.
- Use Clay for enrichment — Clay leads are typically higher quality than raw CSV imports. Your Clay invalid rate will be lower, meaning fewer wasted credits.
- Leverage caching — validation results are cached for 30 days per domain. Re-importing the same leads within 30 days uses cached results (no credit spent).
- Monitor source quality — check the “Invalid Rate by Source” chart on the validation analytics page. If CSV uploads have a 15% invalid rate, the list source needs cleanup.