# Spaw vs Hunter: email verification API comparison

How Spaw and Hunter compare on pricing, billing rules, verification depth and limits, from Hunter's public pages checked on 2026-09-03. Corrections: support@spaw.co.

| | Spaw | Hunter |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | Pay-as-you-go credit packs bought through Stripe Checkout; no subscription, credits never expire | Monthly or yearly subscriptions with unified credits shared across search, verification and enrichment; credit packs on paid plans (valid 3 months) |
| Free tier | 10 free credits every month, no card required | Free plan with 50 credits a month; one verification costs 0.5 credit, so 100 verifications |
| Price per 1,000 at about 10k | $7.80 (Growth pack: 5,000 credits for $39) | $7.45 (Growth: $149 a month for 10,000 credits, 20,000 verifications at 0.5 credit each; $5.20 billed yearly) |
| Price per 1,000 at about 100k | $4.99 (Volume pack: 100,000 credits for $499) | $5.98 (Scale: $299 a month for 25,000 credits, 50,000 verifications; larger volumes need an Enterprise quote) |
| Unknown or catch-all results billed | Yes, by verdict: a deliverable or risky answer costs 1 credit even when the mailbox is unconfirmed; the automatic re-checks are free | No |
| Undeliverable results billed | No, undeliverable verdicts are always free | Yes |
| SMTP mailbox check | Yes | not published |
| Catch-all handling | A catch-all answer is remembered per domain for 7 days, and every unconfirmed mailbox carries a published 0 to 100 mailbox_confidence estimate | accept_all is one of six statuses (valid, invalid, accept_all, webmail, disposable, unknown); a completed verification costs 0.5 credit, a failed one none |
| Bulk limit | 100,000 addresses per bulk job, with an HMAC-signed completion webhook | not published |
| Batch API | 50 addresses per synchronous request, probes sent concurrently | not published |
| Rate limit | 5 requests per second per key | Email Verifier: 10 requests a second and 300 a minute per key |
| Official SDKs | Python, Node.js, PHP | not published |
| Data retention | Lookup history kept for 30 days, then pruned; test addresses are never logged | not published |

## When Hunter fits better

Sales teams that prospect with Hunter's finder and campaigns and verify addresses as part of that workflow.

- Verification is 0.5 credit; searches and enrichment use the same credits
- Monthly plan credits expire at the end of the billing cycle; yearly plans get the year's credits upfront
- Auto-verification included on paid plans
- USD prices: Starter $49, Growth $149, Scale $299 a month, or $34, $104, $209 billed yearly

## When Spaw fits better

Developers who want one flat price per answered lookup, a transparent risk score, and an API that documents every field.

- Spaw sells verification alone as credit packs that never expire; Hunter's plan credits expire with the billing cycle
- Hunter's free plan allows 100 verifications a month against Spaw's 10 free lookups
- Both skip billing when a verification cannot be completed; Spaw also leaves undeliverable verdicts free
- Spaw returns 27 named fields and a machine-readable reason; Hunter's verifier returns one of six statuses

## Questions

**Does Spaw charge for catch-all or unknown results?** Spaw bills per answer, not per probe outcome: a lookup that comes back deliverable or risky costs 1 credit even when the mailbox could not be confirmed, for example on a catch-all domain or after greylisting. Undeliverable verdicts, invalid input, repeats within 7 days and the automatic re-checks behind callback_url are free. Hunter states that it does not bill unknown results.

**Can I move a list from Hunter to Spaw?** Yes. Upload the CSV to the dashboard or POST it to the bulk endpoint; Spaw keeps your columns, adds the verdict columns, and lets you download only the deliverable, risky or undeliverable rows. Addresses that come back undeliverable join your suppression list so later runs skip them for free.

**Is there a free tier?** Every Spaw account receives 10 free credits at the start of each month with no card on file, and unused credits accumulate. Hunter offers: Free plan with 50 credits a month; one verification costs 0.5 credit, so 100 verifications.

## Sources (checked 2026-09-03)

- [Hunter pricing](https://hunter.io/pricing)
- [Hunter plans (help center)](https://help.hunter.io/en/articles/6001212-all-in-one-outreach-platform-plans)
- [Hunter pricing FAQ](https://help.hunter.io/en/articles/11131690-pricing-plans-and-feature-faqs)
- [Hunter rate limits](https://help.hunter.io/en/articles/1971004-is-there-a-request-p-second-limit)
- [Hunter API documentation](https://hunter.io/api-documentation/v2)

Hunter is a trademark of its owner. Spaw is not affiliated with it.

Reference: https://spaw.co/compare/hunter