Verify a LeadIQ Export Before You Send: Confidence Scores Aren't a Mailbox Check
Re-verify a LeadIQ export on the day you send it. LeadIQ gives each email a confidence level from its own scoring and checks, but that reflects the record when LeadIQ last checked it, not whether the mailbox accepts mail today. Run the export through a live SMTP mailbox check, put valid rows in your main sequence, send catch-all rows in a smaller second batch, and suppress the invalid ones.
What LeadIQ says about its emails
From LeadIQ's pricing page, read 8 November 2026:
- "Every email or mobile number is scored by proprietary algorithms and run through multi‑layer verification, so sellers see a confidence level before they click Send or Dial."
- It queries "750 million+ professional profiles, refreshed every month", and "up to 200 million records are re‑verified as people change companies or roles".
- Credits: email 1, phone number 10, email plus phone 11, account enrichment 3.
- Free plan: 1 user, 50 credits. The Pro slider started at $200 a month for 200 credits on the day we looked.
That's a sensible process. What it doesn't tell you is how a catch-all domain is scored, or how long ago a given record was checked. Those two gaps are where the bounces come from.
Why a scored list still bounces
- Job changes between refresh and send. A record refreshed last month can belong to someone who left last week. Their mailbox is closed and you get a
550 5.1.1hard bounce. - Catch-all domains. The company's server accepts every address during a check, so no one can confirm the mailbox from outside. Some of these accept your email and others bounce it later.
- List age on your side. Contacts captured into Salesforce or HubSpot sit there until a sequence picks them up. See re-verify leads older than 30 days.
- Your sending setup. Rejections for missing SPF or DKIM, or for a cold new domain, look like bounces but have nothing to do with the list. Check with the cold email domain checker.
The pre-send routine
1. Export with an ID
Export the LeadIQ contacts to CSV (or pull them from the CRM they were captured into), keeping the LinkedIn URL or CRM ID, name, company and email. The ID lets you map results back. If phones matter, don't open the file in Excel first; see CSV to Excel without losing leading zeros.
2. Tidy before you verify
- Dedupe with remove duplicate emails.
- Drop info@ and sales@ style addresses from person-level sequences with the role-based email filter.
- Cap contacts per company with limit contacts per company.
3. Verify every row
Upload the file to the verify page or the CSV email verifier. Results:
| Status | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Valid | The server accepted the mailbox | Main sequence |
| Risky (catch-all) | The server accepts every address; graded with a reason | Second batch, best grades first |
| Risky (role, disposable, full) | Real but poor cold targets | Usually drop |
| Invalid | Mailbox or domain doesn't exist | Suppress |
| Unknown | The server didn't answer | Re-check tomorrow |
SimpleVerifier never marks a catch-all valid. It reports it risky and grades it, so you choose (how catch-all grading works).
4. Load the sequencer in two waves
- Wave 1: valid rows.
- Wave 2: a few hundred higher-grade catch-alls, a day later. Stop if this wave's hard bounces pass 2%.
- Suppress: invalid rows, inside the sequencer, so a later import can't re-add them.
If you send from Instantly, Smartlead or lemlist, you can also verify after import through the Instantly, Smartlead or lemlist (beta) integrations. Our email verifier for Instantly and Smartlead page covers that set-up.
What a few percent of dead rows does
Mailbox providers don't publish a bounce limit, but most cold email tools pause somewhere around 2% (Woodpecker's Bounce Shield defaults to 2%; see Woodpecker Bounce Shield). On a 10,000-contact export, every 1% that's dead is 100 hard bounces. Put your own numbers into the cold email bounce cost calculator to see what that does per inbox.
What it costs to check
LeadIQ charges per contact revealed. SimpleVerifier charges a flat monthly price for checking, so re-checking the same contacts before each campaign doesn't cost more:
- Starter, $9 a month: 2,500 checks.
- Pro, $39 a month: Unlimited email verification.*
- Business, $99 a month: the first 300,000 checks a month at full speed, 5 seats for an SDR team.
- Agency, $249 a month: the first 750,000 checks a month at full speed, 15 seats, client workspaces.
*Pro fair use: the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off. See pricing. Check your list free: the first 100 checks are free with a Google sign-in.
More reading: verify an Apollo export, clean a ZoomInfo export, email valid but person left the company, and verified emails still bouncing.
Common questions
Does LeadIQ verify emails?
LeadIQ says every email or mobile number is scored by its own algorithms and run through multi-layer verification, and that sellers see a confidence level. It doesn't publish how catch-all domains are scored. Re-verify the export before a cold send.
How many credits does a LeadIQ email cost?
On LeadIQ's pricing page on 8 November 2026: email 1 credit, phone number 10 credits, email plus phone 11 credits, account enrichment 3 credits. The free plan includes 50 credits for one user.
Why do LeadIQ emails bounce?
The usual reasons for any database: the person moved jobs after the record was last refreshed, the company domain is catch-all so the mailbox couldn't be confirmed, or the list sat in a CRM for weeks before the send.
Should I send to low-confidence LeadIQ emails?
Only after a live check. Verify them; send the valid ones with the rest of your list and put risky catch-all ones in a small separate batch.
Check your list before you send
Real mailbox checks over SMTP, and nothing is sent to the address. Sign in with Google and your first 100 email checks are free, no card. Plans for bigger lists are on the pricing page.