Phone intelligence APIs compared
Any number normalised to E.164 with its line type, carrier and the regulator's block status, plus the fictional, disposable and virtual flags.
Below are the 9 services Spaw is measured against for phone intelligence, each with the figures its own public pricing and documentation pages state. Every row carries the date that vendor's pages were read, which is its own and need not match the others'; a row those pages carry no value for reads "not on the pages read" rather than a guess. Corrections are welcome at [email protected].
| service | pricing model | free tier | price per 1,000 at ~10k | line type source | checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spaw | Pay-as-you-go credit packs whose credits never expire, or optional plans, billed monthly or yearly, that deposit the same credits every month for less and roll unused plan credits over up to three months' allowance; both through Stripe Checkout | 100 free credits every month, no card required | $7.80 (Growth pack: 5,000 credits for $39), or $5.80 on the Growth monthly plan (5,000 credits for $29 a month) | The numbering plan metadata everywhere except the North American plan, where mobiles and landlines share blocks and the plan can only say fixed_line_or_mobile; there the regulator's block holder settles it — a wireless carrier's block is mobile, a virtual-number wholesaler's is voip. line_type_source names which of the two answered. | own pricing page |
| Spaw vs Abstract Phone Validation | Monthly request quotas on three plans that differ by the data returned: Starter (validation, location, carrier) from $19 a month for 5,000 requests to $199 for 150,000; Standard (adds messaging) from $19 for 3,000 to $199 for 100,000; Professional (adds registration and risk) from $19 for 2,000 to $199 for 50,000. Annual billing saves 10%; the pricing page quotes $3.40 per 1,000 requests at Starter's entry volume, billed annually | 100 requests a month with no card, on the full response including registration and risk | not on the pages read | Not stated. The product page says Abstract uses "several databases of numbers" that it ingests and cross-references, with updates daily, weekly and monthly, without naming them; its changelog for 24 July 2026 mentions "recently published numbering plans from several African regulators". | 2026-09-27 |
| Spaw vs ClearoutPhone | Credits that never expire, bought one time or through monthly or annual subscriptions that add them each period and carry them forward. One Time, each shown as a starting price: 5,000 credits from $35, 10,000 from $58, 100,000 from $400 and 1,000,000 from $1,200. Standard validation is 1 credit; Smart validation is 1 credit for most numbers and up to 5 when it runs a deeper real-time check | 100 free credits on sign-up, one validation each | $5.80 per 1,000 one time (10,000 credits for $58), $5.20 on the monthly plan (10,000 credits for $52 a month) or $3.20 on the annual plan as its tab rendered ("Buy 120,000 credits for $384 billed yearly", 10,000 a month), although the page labels annual billing "Save 20%" against one-time prices; a Smart validation that runs the deeper check costs up to 5 credits | Validation "is carried out using multiple methods which include validation from International Telecom Authority, Multiple Carrier lines, and third party validation". Standard validation "Uses basic validation based on original number data"; Smart validation adds real-time telecom queries for ported and VoIP numbers. | 2026-09-27 |
| Spaw vs IPQualityScore Phone Validation | Monthly plans shared with IPQualityScore's other checks: Free $0 (1,000 lookups a month), Startup "As low as: $99 / Month" (5,000), SMB Basic "As low as: $499 / Month" (10,000), SMB+ "As low as: $999 / Month" (75,000), Enterprise custom; "Each plan requires a minimum monthly commitment". The phone validation page says "Score phone numbers on average from $0.0005 per user with no monthly contracts", on "tiered flat rate pricing across all countries that reduces as your monthly volume increases", without a tier table. Add-ons are enabled through the account manager or Support at no stated price. | 1,000 lookups a month on the Free plan, capped at 35 a day; the plan also covers IP, email and URL checks | not on the pages read | Its own carrier data: "IPQS maintains current data directly from carriers on a global level", and its system "collects phone validation and verification data from various telecom carriers". line_type answers Toll-Free, Wireless, Landline, Satellite, VOIP, Premium Rate, Pager or N/A, beside separate VOIP and prepaid booleans. | 2026-09-27 |
| Spaw vs Loqate Phone Validation | Pay-as-you-go credit purchases of £50, £100, £250, £500 and £1,000 (or 75€, 150€ and 300€), each buying a published per-lookup rate for every service, plus bespoke plans; "Credit is valid for 12 months after the purchase date". Phone Validation on the "New Pricing" table is 7.1p, 6.7p, 5.6p, 4.7p and 4.1p a lookup across the pound tiers and 8.6c, 7.8c and 6.6c across the euro ones. The page also shows an "Old Pricing" table without saying which accounts each applies to; the figures here are from "New Pricing". Its usage-example selector also lists a £2,500 plan that neither table prices, and all prices exclude VAT. | A trial rather than a standing tier: "Start your 45-day free trial"; the FAQ adds "You get free credits to test the service" | £47 per 1,000 (4.7p a lookup) on the £500 credit, which buys about 10,600 lookups; the smaller credits run from 7.1p (£50) to 5.6p (£250) | Loqate's "own custom libraries alongside the Home Location Register (HLR) database": the first step checks "length, format, digit count, country of origin, and whether it is a landline, mobile or VoIP number", the second the carrier and the third an HLR lookup. NumberType answers MOBILE, LANDLINE or VOIP, and the product detail page says "Full validation for Mobile numbers. Global formatting and carrier identification only for non-UK Landline and VoIP numbers." | 2026-09-27 |
| Spaw vs numlookupapi | Monthly subscription tiers by request quota: Free $0 for 100 requests, Basic $9.99 for 5,000, Pro $49.99 for 50,000, Scale $109.99 for 250,000, and Custom by contact; the page offers yearly billing at 20% off. Scale and Custom list "Overages" with no overage price shown, and the quota documentation says a request over the monthly quota answers 429 until the plan is upgraded or the month ends. | 100 requests a month on one API key, at 10 requests a minute | not on the pages read | Not stated beyond the pricing FAQ: "All number data delivered are sourced from multiple data providers and international carriers." The documented line_type values are landline, mobile, satellite, paging, special_services, premium_rate, toll_free and N/A; none of them is VoIP. | 2026-09-27 |
| Spaw vs numverify | Monthly subscription tiers by request quota: Free 100 requests, Basic $14.99 for 5,000, Professional $59.99 for 50,000, Enterprise $129.99 for 250,000, each with a published overage price per call ($0.011992, $0.0047992 and $0.00207984 respectively); annual billing saves up to 15%, and custom pricing is offered above the Enterprise quota | 100 API requests a month, for non-commercial use | not on the pages read | Not named. The pricing FAQ says validation draws on "international numbering plans containing complex syntax rules, carrier data, line type data and location information", without saying whose plans or which carrier data. | 2026-09-27 |
| Spaw vs Telnyx Number Lookup | Per query, priced per lookup type, with "$0 platform fee"; pay as you go gets "Automatic tier discounts as usage crosses thresholds", committed plans start at $500 a month, and inbound CNAM is $0.40 per number per month | An outbound CNAM listing at no charge; the pages read list no free query allowance | $1.50 per 1,000 for a local routing number query ($0.0015 a query), $2.50 for MCC/MNC ($0.0025) and $3.00 for CNAM ($0.003) | Not named. The product page lists line type ("Mobile, landline, or VoIP") among the fields a lookup returns from "Live telecom databases, including HLR lookup"; the pricing page says portability and carrier come from "the network's own data" and CNAM from the registry. | 2026-09-27 |
| Spaw vs Twilio Lookup | Per request, priced per data package on a Twilio account ("Pricing current as of August 2026"); line status and reassigned number risk are tiered by query volume, and SIM swap and call forwarding are contact sales | Formatting and validation are listed as Free, and so is the SMS Pumping Risk Score for North American numbers; no free allowance is published for the other packages | $8.00 per 1,000 for line type intelligence ($0.008 per request), $10.00 for inbound caller identification ($0.01, US only), $100.00 for identity match ($0.1, which the page says varies by country) | Not stated beyond Canada, where the docs require approved access to Canadian Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) data. The line type intelligence documentation lists twelve types (landline, mobile, fixedVoip, nonFixedVoip, personal, tollFree, premium, sharedCost, uan, voicemail, pager, unknown) and returns carrier_name with mobile_country_code and mobile_network_code, but does not say which data settles them elsewhere. | 2026-09-27 |
| Spaw vs Veriphone | One-time credit packs that never expire, from 10,000 credits for $24 to 5,000,000 for $999, or monthly plans whose credits reset each month: Starter $12.99 for 10,000, Professional $39 for 50,000, Business $99 for 250,000 and Enterprise $249 for 1,000,000. A standard validation is 1 credit and a Current Carrier Lookup 10 | 1,000 free credits a month with no card, not carried over; on the free plan a Current Carrier Lookup draws on purchased credits only | $2.40 per 1,000 on the 10,000-credit pack ($24, credits never expire), or $1.30 on the Starter plan (10,000 credits a month for $12.99, reset each month). A Current Carrier Lookup takes 10 credits, so ten times those figures | The numbering plan: the default Static mode "reports its original carrier and line type from national numbering-plan data", checked "against the latest numbering plans from the international telecom regulator and national regulators". Current mode adds the carrier and line type serving the number today, from national portability registries. | 2026-09-27 |
Spaw vs Abstract Phone Validation
Abstract Phone Validation is a phone API from Abstract sold as monthly request quotas on three data tiers, returning carrier, line type and location, with messaging from Standard up and registration and risk on Professional and the Free plan; the Professional example response also carries breach history.
Where it fits better: Teams already on Abstract's other APIs that want phone validation, and on the Professional plan registration, risk and breach fields, under a monthly quota.
Full comparisonAbstract Phone Validation alternativesAbstract Phone Validation's own sitechecked 2026-09-27
Spaw vs ClearoutPhone
ClearoutPhone is a phone validation service from Clearout sold as credits that never expire, with a 1-credit Standard mode and a Smart mode that runs a real-time telecom query, at up to 5 credits, where static data is uncertain.
Where it fits better: Sales and marketing teams cleaning CSV or XLSX contact lists before calling or texting, with a real-time check they can switch on for numbers static data cannot settle.
Full comparisonClearoutPhone alternativesClearoutPhone's own sitechecked 2026-09-27
Spaw vs IPQualityScore Phone Validation
IPQualityScore Phone Validation is the phone side of a fraud-scoring service: one API returns validity, carrier, line type and a 0 to 100 fraud score, with live-line, identity, do-not-call and SMS-pumping data as add-ons, on the same monthly plans as its IP, email and URL checks.
Where it fits better: Fraud teams that want a phone fraud score beside IPQualityScore's IP, email and URL checks on one plan, with live-line, identity and SMS-pumping data available as add-ons.
Full comparisonIPQualityScore Phone Validation alternativesIPQualityScore Phone Validation's own sitechecked 2026-09-27
Spaw vs Loqate Phone Validation
Loqate Phone Validation checks a number's format, carrier and, for mobile numbers, its live network status through an HLR lookup, priced per lookup from the same pay-as-you-go credit balance as Loqate's address, email and bank validation.
Where it fits better: Teams already using Loqate for address capture that want a live network check on mobile numbers at the form, billed from the same credit balance.
Full comparisonLoqate Phone Validation alternativesLoqate Phone Validation's own sitechecked 2026-09-27
Spaw vs numlookupapi
numlookupapi is a phone number validation API sold as a monthly request quota: one validate endpoint returns validity, formats, country, location, carrier and line type.
Where it fits better: A form or a script that needs validity, formats, country, carrier and line type at a small monthly volume on a fixed bill, or an AI agent calling it over MCP.
Full comparisonnumlookupapi alternativesnumlookupapi's own sitechecked 2026-09-27
Spaw vs numverify
numverify is a phone number validation API sold as a monthly request quota, returning validity, country and location, carrier and line type.
Where it fits better: A form or a script that needs validity, country, carrier and line type at a small monthly volume, on a monthly plan with per-call overage.
Full comparisonnumverify alternativesnumverify's own sitechecked 2026-09-27
Spaw vs Telnyx Number Lookup
Telnyx Number Lookup is a per-query number API sold beside Telnyx's carrier services, priced separately for local routing number (portability and carrier), MCC/MNC, and CNAM caller name.
Where it fits better: Teams that need to know who serves a number today, on numbers that have been ported, priced per dip from $0.0015 a query.
Full comparisonTelnyx Number Lookup alternativesTelnyx Number Lookup's own sitechecked 2026-09-27
Spaw vs Twilio Lookup
Twilio Lookup is a phone number API sold as separately priced data packages on top of a Twilio account: formatting and validation are free, and line type, caller identity, line status and the risk packages are each priced on their own, per request (the SMS Pumping Risk Score is free for North American numbers) or through sales for SIM swap and call forwarding.
Where it fits better: Teams already sending messages through Twilio that want line type, caller identity and SMS-pumping risk billed on the same account as their traffic.
Full comparisonTwilio Lookup alternativesTwilio Lookup's own sitechecked 2026-09-27
Spaw vs Veriphone
Veriphone is a phone validation API sold as credit packs or monthly plans, returning validity, carrier, line type and region from national numbering plans, with a 10-credit Current Carrier Lookup read from national portability registries.
Where it fits better: Teams that want numbering-plan validation with carrier and line type at a low per-number price, and the carrier serving a number today from portability registries when they pay for it.
Full comparisonVeriphone alternativesVeriphone's own sitechecked 2026-09-27
What Spaw answers
- Line type source
- The numbering plan metadata everywhere except the North American plan, where mobiles and landlines share blocks and the plan can only say fixed_line_or_mobile; there the regulator's block holder settles it — a wireless carrier's block is mobile, a virtual-number wholesaler's is voip. line_type_source names which of the two answered.
- Numbering plan coverage
- libphonenumber metadata for every region it carries, plus the regulators' own allocation tables, each named in the answer with the date of the copy it read. Complete tables, where a geographic number in a block the table leaves out answers unassigned_block: NANPA for the United States (with Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands), the CNAC for Canada, ARCEP for France (with Guadeloupe, St. Barthélemy, St. Martin, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte and St. Pierre & Miquelon), ACM for the Netherlands and the CRT (formerly the IFT) for Mexico. Partial tables, answered only from the ranges they list (a range listed as free, spare or held in reserve answers unassigned_block), so block_status answers null for a number outside them: Ofcom for the United Kingdom (with Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man), ACMA for Australia, the NAD for New Zealand, UKE for Poland and MIMIT for Italy. Re-synced weekly, NANPA daily; /status lists each table's age. Outside those regions, block_status and is_virtual answer null rather than a guess.
- Live network check
- Reserved behind hlr: true: 4 credits on top of the base credit, only where the network answers, reported in its own reachable, ported, current_carrier and roaming fields. The live carrier-network check (hlr: true) is not enabled on the service: hlr_checked answers false and nothing extra is charged.
- Ported numbers
- None from the tables, and the docs say so: carrier and line_type describe the block the number was allocated in, never a later port. Only a live carrier-network check can say who serves a number today.
- SMS pumping controls
- Flags in the risk score, and an SMS policy that turns them into ok_to_send and blocked_by: a fraud and deliverability decision, not consent and not a do-not-call scrub. allowed_countries limits sending to the regions you serve; it is empty (any country) until you set it. range_burst (+40) flags a number once your account has looked up 5 distinct numbers in its 1,000-number range within 60 minutes, and numbers_per_client (+30) once one client address (the client_ip you send, or a browser visitor's own) has tried 5 within 60 minutes, unless Spaw's own IP data places it on a mobile carrier or a corporate proxy, or it is private or reserved. Both count only your own single and browser lookups, so a new account has no history. The range is a heuristic, and in North America a burst more likely means someone testing numbers against a form; the client count does not stop an attack rotated through residential proxies. disposable (+70) flags a number SMS-receiving websites publish and disposable_stale (+40) an old listing; disposable_range (+30) flags an unlisted number in a 1,000-number range holding 10 or more fresh listings. The lists are public and synced daily. The default policy blocks the fictional, disposable, reported_abuse, reported_abuse_widely and premium_rate signals and a risk_score above 60, so neither traffic signal blocks on its own.
POST /v1/phone — 1 credit for a valid number. Free: invalid numbers and unassigned blocks. Every rule is on the pricing page.
DocumentationProduct pagePhone number lookup (free)Phone number formatter (free)
The other signals
Check the table against your own data
Every Spaw account gets free credits every month with no card, and one key answers every signal. Upload a list, keep your columns, and download only the rows you want. The pricing page has every billing rule in full.
Product names are trademarks of their owners. Spaw is not affiliated with any of them. Markdown version: /compare/phone.md