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Single verification lets you check one email address on demand and get a result immediately. It’s the right choice when you need to validate an address in tools like Clay, at the moment a user types it — such as on a signup form or contact page — or when you want to look up an individual address without setting up a bulk job.

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When to use single verification

  • Clay — use when tools like Clay don’t support our bulk verification endpoint
  • Point-of-entry validation — catch invalid or disposable addresses before they enter your system, while the user is still on the page.
  • Ad-hoc lookups — check a specific address during support, sales, or data review without processing an entire list.
  • Real-time enrichment — add deliverability data to a record as it’s created, rather than in a separate batch step.
For verifying hundreds or thousands of addresses at once, use the bulk verification endpoint instead.

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Making a request

To verify an email, send a GET request to /v1/verify with your email address as a query parameter. Include your API key in the X-API-Key header.
1

Get your API key

Sign in to the OrbiSearch dashboard and copy your API key.
2

Send the request

Call GET /v1/verify?email=<address> with your key in the request header.
curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.orbisearch.com/v1/[email protected]" \
  --header "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"
3

Read the response

The API returns a JSON object with the verification result. Use the status field to decide what to do with the address.
{
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "status": "safe",
  "substatus": "deliverable",
  "explanation": "The mailbox exists and is accepting mail.",
  "email_provider": "Google Workspace",
  "is_disposable": false,
  "is_role_account": false,
  "is_free": false
}

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Interpreting the response

Every response includes a status and a more specific substatus. Use status for the primary decision, and substatus for additional detail.
statusWhat it meansRecommended action
safeThe mailbox exists and is accepting mail.Include in outreach and workflows.
riskyDeliverability is uncertain (e.g., catch-all domain or policy block).Review based on your use case.
invalidThe address will bounce.Remove from your list.
unknownA transient error prevented verification.Retry the next day.
For a full breakdown of every substatus value and what it means, see Handling Results.

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Response fields

FieldTypeDescription
emailstringThe email address that was verified.
statusstringTop-level deliverability verdict: safe, risky, invalid, or unknown.
substatusstringThe specific reason behind the status.
explanationstringA plain-English description of the result.
email_providerstringThe detected email provider (e.g., Google Workspace, Gmail).
is_disposableboolean | nullWhether the address uses a known disposable email service.
is_role_accountboolean | nullWhether the address is a role account (e.g., support@, info@).
is_freeboolean | nullWhether the address uses a free email provider (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo).
is_disposable, is_role_account, and is_free may be null when OrbiSearch cannot determine the value with confidence.

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The timeout parameter

By default, OrbiSearch waits up to 70 seconds for a response from the destination mail server. You can adjust this with the timeout query parameter (minimum 3, maximum 90, in seconds). 
curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.orbisearch.com/v1/[email protected]&timeout=10" \
  --header "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"
Use a short timeout (3–10 seconds) for point-of-entry validation where you need a fast response. Use the default or a longer timeout for background lookups where accuracy matters more than speed. A shorter timeout increases the likelihood of receiving an unknown result for slow mail servers.

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Caching

OrbiSearch caches verification results for 24 hours. If you send a request for an email address that was already verified within that window, you receive the cached result immediately at no additional cost.
Repeated requests for the same address within 24 hours do not consume credits. OrbiSearch deduplicates automatically and only charges for fresh verifications.

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Rate limits

The single verification endpoint allows up to 20 requests per second per API key. If you exceed this limit, the API returns a 429 Too Many Requests response. Add a retry with exponential backoff to handle this gracefully. For higher throughput, use the bulk verification endpoint, which processes large lists asynchronously without rate limit concerns.

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Credit cost

Each unique email verification costs 0.2 credits. Cached results are free. You can check your current credit balance at any time via the API or the OrbiSearch dashboard.