LeadOcean + VerifyHQ: Verify Only the Emails That Need It

You get a two-step list pipeline. LeadOcean exports the people and tells you how sure it is about each email. VerifyHQ, a sibling product for email verification, then checks only the catch_all and untested rows. Rows LeadOcean marks verified or catch_all_valid skip the second check. The free plan has a key for this recipe, with 1,000 records to spend.

Related: the LeadOcean integrations hub, the LeadOcean, VerifyHQ and ReachHQ stack guide, and the pricing page.

How it works

The route is one export, one split, one verification pass and one merge. The script below needs only curl and Python 3.

1. Get a LeadOcean key. Sign up at app.leadocean.io, open the API keys page and copy a key. The free plan needs a work email and no card.
2. Create the export. POST to /v1/exports with your filters and the columns below. The API answers 202 with a job id.
3. Poll and download. Check GET /v1/exports/{id} until data.status is done, then download the CSV.
4. Split by email status. Rows with email_1_status of catch_all or untested go to to_verify.csv. Everything else goes to keep.csv.
5. Verify the subset. Upload to_verify.csv to VerifyHQ as a bulk CSV. VerifyHQ says it takes files up to 500K rows.
6. Merge and filter. Download the VerifyHQ results, keep the rows that meet your score threshold, and append them to keep.csv.

For a few addresses, skip the upload and call VerifyHQ's single-email endpoint from the configuration below.

VerifyHQ does not publish the bulk upload menu path or the expected email column header. The app sits behind a login. Open the bulk option in your VerifyHQ dashboard and map the email_1_address column if it asks.

Configuration

Step 2 sends the export request. Filters join with AND, and several values inside one filter join with OR. The emailStatus filter for catch_all also matches catch_all_valid, so the split in step 4 is what separates them.

curl -X POST https://api.leadocean.io/v1/exports \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"verifyhq test","filters":{"jobLevel":["VP"],"country":["CA"],"emailStatus":["verified","catch_all","untested"]},"limit":100,"columns":["person_id","profile_full_name","current_company_domain","email_N_address","email_N_status"]}'

curl -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" https://api.leadocean.io/v1/exports/EXPORT_ID
curl -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" -o leads.csv https://api.leadocean.io/v1/exports/EXPORT_ID/download

Email columns need a key with the enrich scope. Keys on the Free plan get both scopes, search and enrich, inside the 1,000 one-off records.

Step 4 is a short script. It reads the CSV header as column ids.

import csv

send = ("catch_all", "untested")
keep, check = [], []
with open("leads.csv", newline="") as f:
    reader = csv.DictReader(f)
    fields = reader.fieldnames
    for row in reader:
        (check if row["email_1_status"] in send else keep).append(row)

for name, rows in (("keep.csv", keep), ("to_verify.csv", check)):
    with open(name, "w", newline="") as f:
        w = csv.DictWriter(f, fieldnames=fields)
        w.writeheader()
        w.writerows(rows)

To test one address against VerifyHQ, use the request from its homepage API section. Your VerifyHQ key goes in a second variable.

curl -X POST https://api.verifyhq.io/api/public/verify \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VERIFYHQ_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"email": "jane@example.com"}'

The response carries email, result, score, tier, do_not_mail, reason, checks, hosting and domain. VerifyHQ does not publish a rate limit. Its public pages do not say where the API key is created either, and the homepage API section only shows the Bearer header. Create the key in your VerifyHQ account. Ask support@verifyhq.io for the limit before a large run (VerifyHQ homepage, October 2026).

Field mapping

The LeadOcean export is a flat CSV. The VerifyHQ fields come from the sample response on its homepage, September 2026.

VerifyHQ's homepage names three tiers: Safe, Risky and Bad. The sample response shows safe. VerifyHQ does not publish the full list of result values or the exact tier strings (VerifyHQ homepage, October 2026). Filter on tier and score, and send any value you do not recognise to review.

VerifyHQ's own page suggests sending above a score of 80 and reviewing 50 to 80. Treat that as a starting point. Tune it on your own bounce data, and keep the vhq_score column so you can change the cutoff later without re-running the check.

Cost at 10,000 rows

For 10,000 rows, LeadOcean needs Pro at $499 flat and VerifyHQ lists Lite at $9.99 a month. Only the catch_all and untested subset goes to VerifyHQ, so its bill is at most the size of that subset.

VerifyHQ figures come from the VerifyHQ homepage, checked September 2026. Its pricing page still shows placeholder tiers ($29 and $79), so the homepage pricing block is the source here. It lists Lite at $9.99 a month with 10K verification credits a month. That is at the default AutoClean setting of 4K a day, and the price may move with that slider (VerifyHQ homepage, October 2026).

The homepage says add-on credit packs do not expire, and it offers free verifications to new accounts with no card. The hero button reads "Verify 100 emails for free". The FAQ only says new accounts get free credits, so confirm the amount at signup.

VerifyHQ does not say how many credits one address uses, including a catch-all it resolves, so the Lite figure below assumes one credit per address.

An export costs one LeadOcean record per row, whatever the columns. LeadOcean has no per-record price, no credits and no overage invoice. A very large month is paced down to one request a minute until the reset, rather than cut off.

Troubleshooting

FAQ