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Verify your Kit subscribers before you send

Integration Sending and campaigns

Kit email verification in three steps: export your subscribers, verify the file in PricklyMails, then unsubscribe the addresses to remove.

There is no native Kit connector: you export the list, PricklyMails verifies it, and you bring the result back into Kit. New addresses can go through the API before they ever reach Kit.

Verify for free

Step by step

Clean your list in three steps

  1. In Kit

    Export your subscribers from Kit

    1. Go to Subscribers.
    2. Click the Status button and choose Confirmed subscriber: confirmed subscribers are the only ones Kit can email.
    3. Click the checkbox at the top of the subscriber list, then click Select all: otherwise only the current page is selected.
    4. Click the three-dot menu, then Export.
    5. Download the file from the link Kit emails to your account address, or from the notifications panel. The link expires after five days.

    Tip

    To verify a segment or a tag rather than your whole list, click its name in the right sidebar of the Subscribers page, then select and export its subscribers the same way.

    Tip

    The file also holds first names, tags, locations, attribution data and custom fields: keep the email column alone in a spreadsheet before moving on.

    SourceKit's official help center
  2. In PricklyMails

    Verify the file in PricklyMails

    1. In the dashboard, open Batches and click New batch.
    2. Drop the file you exported from Kit: a .csv or .txt with one address per line, no header row and no quotes. A header row would count as an address in the estimate, though it is never billed, and a quoted address would not be verified: the report lists both as malformed. You can also paste the list.
    3. The dashboard counts the addresses and shows the estimated cost in tokens before anything is sent, then you click Submit batch. A batch holds at least 20 addresses, and your plan sets the largest list it can hold.
    4. The list is verified in the background. Once the batch is done, open it and click Download report: you get a CSV with a row for each address of your file, giving its verdict, its reason, its score and its recommendation, with the dashboard's labels.

    Note

    Download the report from the browser that sent the list: that browser is what keeps the addresses, for the 16 most recent batches at most. Our servers, in Germany, only keep a one-way fingerprint of each one.
    What the report says

    Every address gets a recommendation: the action to take. The report writes it with the dashboard's label; the API returns a short form of it.

    Send
    The address is valid, or hosted by a large provider that accepts every address without confirming any. Send as usual.
    Review
    A domain that accepts any address (catch-all), a generic address such as contact@, a full mailbox, or a server that never answered, or refused to. Take a look before you send.
    Remove
    The address does not exist, its domain cannot receive mail, or it is disposable, mistyped or malformed. Take it out.

    Note

    A malformed address is never verified: the batch counts it under "Malformed addresses", and the report still lists it, with the verdict "Invalid", the reason "Malformed address" and the recommendation "Remove", so you take it out of Kit with the others. A duplicate, counted under "Duplicates removed", appears only once.

    Behind each recommendation sit a verdict (Valid, Risky, Invalid or Not verifiable), a reason and a score from 0 to 100, each in its own column of the report. When a server never answers, the address comes back "Not verifiable" and the checks that got no answer are refunded.

  3. In Kit

    Bring the result back into Kit

    Open the report in a spreadsheet and filter the Recommendation column.

    Remove

    They get unsubscribed: Kit stops emailing them and stops counting them toward your bill, but keeps their history.

    Kit unsubscribes in bulk from any page that lists subscribers, such as a tag's page. Importing the addresses to remove under a new tag gathers them on one page.

    1. Copy them into a new CSV file, under an Email header.
    2. In Kit, go to Subscribers, click Add Subscribers, then Import CSV.
    3. Drag your file into the import window, or click the window to pick it.
    4. In the Kit field drop-down, map the column to the email address field, then click Next.
    5. Add the subscribers to a new tag only, named for example to-remove.
    6. Click Start import, then wait for the email Kit sends once the import is complete.
    7. On the Subscribers page, click the tag in the right sidebar.
    8. Click the checkbox at the top of the list, then Select all.
    9. Click the three-dot menu, then Unsubscribe, and follow the prompts.
    Review

    They deserve a look before your next broadcast. To find them in Kit, import them the same way under a tag of their own, without unsubscribing them.

    Send

    They stay on your list: nothing to do.

    Warning

    Use a new tag, with no form or email sequence: importing into a tag or a form that triggers a visual automation or a rule runs it for these subscribers, and an email sequence starts sending them its emails.

    SourceKit's official help center

Verify each address before it reaches Kit

Does your signup form or sync script add subscribers to Kit through its API, with the Create a subscriber (opens in a new tab) call? Ask PricklyMails first. If the recommendation is remove, don't create the subscriber.

One call starts the verification and already flags a likely typo, a second one reads the verdict. Depending on your plan, a signed webhook can also send it to you as soon as it's ready.

Request
curl -s https://api.pricklymails.com/api/verify \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pm_live_9f3a..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "email": "ana.silva@gmail.con" }' \
  | jq '{job_uuid, suggestion}'
Response
{
  "job_uuid": "8f1c2a9e-4b7d-4e2a-9c61-3d5f0b7a2e18",
  "suggestion": "ana.silva@gmail.com"
}
Request
curl -s https://api.pricklymails.com/api/verify/$JOB_UUID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pm_live_9f3a..." \
  | jq '.verifications[0] | {status, reason, score, recommendation}'
Response
{
  "status": "invalid",
  "reason": "no_mx_records",
  "score": 0,
  "recommendation": "remove"
}
Read the API docs

Frequently asked questions

Kit already unsubscribes bounced addresses, so why verify first?

Kit's help center says a hard bounce, such as an address that does not exist, gives the subscriber the Bounced status and unsubscribes them: by then the email has gone out and the bounce has counted. Kit reviews the bounce, spam complaint and unsubscribe rates of every account, and its acceptable use policy says elevated rates may result in manual review, suspension or termination. Its help center also names importing a list as a good time to clean it. Verifying first takes those addresses out before they bounce.

SourceKit's official help center

Should I unsubscribe, block or delete the addresses to remove?

Unsubscribe them. According to Kit's help center, an unsubscribed subscriber stays in your account with their history, can no longer be emailed through Kit, and no longer counts toward your bill. Deleting removes the subscriber along with their tags and email history, and the address can still join your list again. Blocking keeps a subscriber out even if they sign up again, but it is not one of Kit's bulk actions: you block subscribers one by one, from their profile.

SourceKit's official help center

Are Kit cold subscribers the addresses to remove?

Not necessarily. Kit calls cold the confirmed subscribers who have not opened or clicked an email in the last 90 days, or in the last 30 days for those active for less than 90 days: their address may work perfectly well. Kit's help center suggests sending them re-engagement emails before unsubscribing them. Verification answers another question, whether an address can receive mail at all, so the addresses to remove can go without a re-engagement email first.

SourceKit's official help center

Will cleaning my list lower my Kit bill?

It can: only confirmed subscribers count toward your billing total, cold ones included, while unsubscribed, bounced and blocked subscribers do not. Kit upgrades your tier on its own when your list grows past its limit, but a downgrade is yours to make: once your confirmed count drops below the limit of the next-lowest tier, switch to it from the Account & Billing tab of your account settings.

SourceKit's official help center

Does PricklyMails connect to Kit directly?

No, there is no native connector: you go through a file export, as above. You can also call the PricklyMails API from your own code before an address reaches Kit.

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