Verify your Substack subscribers before you send

1. 1
   In Substack

   Export your subscribers from Substack

   1. Go to your publication's Subscribers page and scroll down to All subscribers.
   2. Click the three dots above your subscriber list and select Export.
   3. Choose to export all columns or the visible columns only: PricklyMails only needs the email column.
   4. Once the export is ready, click Download last export to get the CSV file.

   Tip

   The file also holds columns such as the subscription date and plan: keep the email column alone in a spreadsheet before moving on.

   SourceSubstack's official help center

   • How do I export my email list on Substack? (opens in a new tab)support.substack.com
   • How do I use the subscriber dashboard on Substack? (opens in a new tab)support.substack.com
2. 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 Substack: 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 Substack 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. 3
   In Substack

   Bring the result back into Substack

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

   Remove

   They are removed from your publication, so Substack no longer sends them your posts.

   Substack removes subscribers from the Subscribers dashboard, where the search bar finds each address.

   1. Go to your publication's Subscribers dashboard.
   2. Enter an address to remove in the search bar.
   3. Click the three dots at the far right of its row, then Remove.
   4. Repeat from the search bar for each address to remove.

   Review

   They deserve a look before your next post. Find each one with the search bar and click its email to see its subscription details and recent activity. To gather them, click the three dots next to the subscriber's email, select Tag and give them a tag such as review, created beforehand under Manage tags.

   Send

   They stay subscribed: nothing to do.

   Warning

   Removing a paying subscriber cancels their subscription and issues a pro-rated refund: check the Subscription type column before you remove an address.

   SourceSubstack's official help center

   • How do I use the subscriber dashboard on Substack? (opens in a new tab)support.substack.com
   • How do I add tags to a subscriber on Substack? (opens in a new tab)support.substack.com

Frequently asked questions