AI Ark Exports: What 'Verified' Means and When to Check Again

AI Ark checks each email when it hands it to you. Its docs say every returned email is verified in real time by BounceBan, with SMTP and catch-all checks. That's a good starting point, and for a list you export and send the same day there's little to add. The check is a snapshot, though: people change jobs, domains change mail servers, and lists sit in spreadsheets longer than planned.

Sources, read 2 November 2026: AI Ark's API quickstart, Export People Results API, AI agents context and homepage.

What the export gives you

Item	AI Ark docs
Verification	BounceBan, SMTP and catch-all, at the moment the email is returned
Export People with Email	Async job, up to 10,000 people, optional webhook
Cost	0.5 credits per exported person + 0.5 per valid email found
Finds nothing	0 credits for enrichment calls that find nothing
Late delivery	Charged jobs not delivered in time are refunded automatically, within up to 10 hours
Catch-all labelling	Not defined in the quickstart

Note the export charge has two halves. A person with no email found still costs the 0.5 export credit, so filtering the search before export (titles, company size, domains you already have) saves more than any later cleanup.

When to check again

• The list has aged. Contact data decays as people move; see why B2B data decays. A list exported weeks before the sequence starts is a different list from the one AI Ark checked.
• You merged sources. Combining AI Ark with Apollo, Clay or a scraped file means the other rows weren't checked by the same standard. Verify the merged file once, after deduping.
• Lots of catch-all domains. Run the export through the bulk catch-all checker to see how much of the list sits on domains that accept everything. Those addresses can't be confirmed individually by anyone.
• You're sending from new domains. Fresh cold-email domains have no reputation to absorb bounces, so the first sends should go to the most certain addresses.

Step by step

1. Export with email, and keep AI Ark's status fields in the CSV.
2. Dedupe against your CRM and earlier campaigns with compare email lists.
3. Split out catch-all domains with the bulk catch-all checker.
4. If the list is older than a few weeks or merged, verify it on the verify page and remove invalid results.
5. Send confirmed addresses first, catch-alls in their own campaign at lower volume. Catch-all leads in sequences covers the setup.

Where SimpleVerifier fits

If you do re-check, verify the file on the verify page; the first 100 checks are free with a Google sign-in. Pro is $39 a month with the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off. See pricing, and verify an Apollo export if you're merging AI Ark with Apollo data.