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Test address

published · September 16, 2026

A test address is a documented input that answers a fixed result every time, free and without a repeat marker, so an integration test never spends credits or depends on the day's data.

A test address is a documented input that answers a fixed result every time, free and without a repeat marker, so an integration test never spends a credit or depends on what data the server has installed that day.

What Spaw answers

The postal product has five: the numbered houses 1 to 5 on Spaw Test Street, Springfield, IL 99999 — a ZIP the postal service has never assigned, on a street that does not exist. Number 1 answers a valid low-risk address, 2 a mail drop on an operator's list, 3 an address a complete register does not carry, 4 a terminated postcode, and 5, written as "5 Spaw Test Street PMB 5", a private mailbox. Each answers every field of the contract with register reading test-postal-addresses, sources naming the same bundled dataset, credits_used: 0, and no marker, no feedback read and no suppression touch; batch, bulk, monitors, the browser endpoint and the guest demo all recognise them, in any spelling of the street and postcode. The email and phone products have theirs too: the addresses at spaw.test and the numbers in the Washington 555-01XX block, and the published sandbox key answers all three families.

What it is not

It is not a sample of real data. Nothing about a test address is looked up; the answer is written down in advance, which is the point.

Related

markdown version: /glossary/test-address.md

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The Spaw API runs every check described here on each lookup, with an SMTP handshake that never sends mail. 10 free lookups a month, no card required.

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More glossary

  • Area-code overlay

    An area-code overlay is a new area code added over the same area as an existing one, instead of splitting it, so neighbours can hold different codes and local calls need ten digits.

  • Calling window

    A calling window is the span of local hours a sender contacts people in. Spaw answers in_call_window from the number's time zones: clock arithmetic, not compliance advice.

  • Fictional number

    A fictional number sits in a range kept out of service for films, TV and other fiction: 555-0100 to 555-0199 in North America, and ranges Ofcom, ARCEP, ACMA and ComReg reserve elsewhere.

  • International (exit) prefix

    An international prefix is what is dialled to leave a country before the calling code: 00 in most of the world, 011 in North America. Spaw reads it and suggests a fix in did_you_mean.

  • International network number

    An international network number sits under a calling code the ITU gives a global service rather than a country, such as +870, +881, +882 or +883, so its country is null.

  • Live carrier check (HLR lookup)

    A live carrier check asks the mobile networks, at the moment of the lookup, whether a number is in service, which network serves it and whether it is roaming. On Spaw it is not enabled.

  • Number pooling (thousands-blocks)

    Number pooling splits a North American central office code into ten blocks of a thousand numbers, each assigned to a carrier separately, so one code can hold several carriers' numbers.

  • Number portability

    Number portability lets a subscriber keep a phone number when changing carrier. The number's block stays listed under the carrier it was issued to, so block data names the original holder.