Guide
Bulk Phone Number Validator
How do I validate a list of phone numbers in bulk?
Short answerUpload the list as a CSV, Excel or PDF file, and a bulk phone number validator looks up every number in one job: whether it is valid, whether it still looks connected, its line type and its carrier. NumberBroom does this for US numbers, checks each valid one against a court-sourced TCPA litigator database in the same pass, and charges $0.20 per number for the first 2,000, with a $5 minimum. 20 rows preview free before you pay.
Checking a whole list? Preview 20 rows of it free →
On this page
A phone number validator answers the questions a spreadsheet cannot: is this number real, does it still reach someone, is it a cell phone or a landline, and which carrier serves it. Checking one number is easy. A bulk phone number validator does it for a whole list in one job, and gives the list back with the answers in new columns. This page covers what that check finds, how to run it on a US list, what comes back and what it costs.
What does a bulk phone number validator check?
- Valid or not. A number can be correctly formatted and still not be a working number. The format is checked for free before you pay; the carrier lookup finds the rest.
- Still connected. Each number comes back with an activity score, and the full scrub removes the ones that look disconnected.
- Line type. Mobile, landline, VoIP, toll-free and the rarer types. It matters because the TCPA treats calls and texts to cell phones differently from landlines (see landline or cell phone lookup and VoIP number lookup).
- Carrier. The carrier that serves the number now, after any porting, which is not always the one its area code and prefix suggest.
- TCPA litigators. NumberBroom also checks each valid US number against a court-sourced database of people who repeatedly file TCPA lawsuits, in the same job, at the same price. See the litigator scrub.
How do you validate a list?
- Upload the list. A CSV, TSV, Excel or PDF file, or paste the numbers straight into the card. The phone column is found for you, and you can pick another.
- Read the count before you pay. The card counts the cells that cannot be phone numbers and the numbers outside the US. Neither is charged.
- Preview 20 rows free. They run through the real lookup, so you see real answers for your own numbers.
- Choose what to remove. The full scrub keeps only mobile numbers, for texting and autodialed calls. Litigators only keeps every valid number, landlines and VoIP included, with its line type and carrier, and removes known litigators. If you want validation rather than a mobile-only file, choose Litigators only.
- Pay and download. The card quotes the price and roughly how long the job takes before you pay, and the files are on your dashboard and in the completion email when it finishes.
What comes back?
The clean file keeps every column you uploaded, with every number exactly as you wrote it, and adds four: line_type, carrier, activity_score and scrub_status. A second file holds every other removed row with its line type, carrier, activity score and the reason it was removed: not a mobile line, disconnected, not a valid number, could not be checked, or on your own do-not-call list. Numbers outside the US come back in a third file, as uploaded. Known litigators are the one exception: they are removed and counted, never listed, in either file.
For a closer look at what happens to bad numbers, and which of them you pay for, see remove invalid phone numbers.
What does bulk phone validation cost?
$0.20 per number for the first 2,000, then $0.16 per number to 5,000 and $0.08 per number to 10,000, each band priced like a tax bracket. A 5,000-number list is $880, and the minimum order is $5. Three rules keep the bill to numbers that were actually checked:
- A number repeated in the list is charged once.
- A number the lookup never answers is refunded to your card when the job finishes.
- A number the lookup answers as not valid is charged, because the lookup ran and that is its answer.
Quick check: what does a bulk validation give you?
Pick an answer to see whether it is right, and why.
What a validator cannot tell you
It cannot tell you who owns a number. NumberBroom never returns a private person's name, and the only owner names it returns are business names, through Business Line Lookup. It cannot tell you whether someone consented to your call. And validation is not a Do Not Call check: that needs your own registry subscription, which the DNC checker guide explains.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free bulk phone number validator?
The first 20 rows of any list are free: upload it, give an email address, and the preview runs those rows through the real lookup before you pay. For one number at a time, the free carrier lookup answers up to 5 numbers a day. A whole list is paid, because every number is a real carrier lookup that costs us money too.
How many numbers can I validate at once?
Up to 10,000 rows per upload. A longer list is not refused: the first 10,000 rows are validated, and the card offers the rest as a file you can upload as a second job.
Do I need to remove duplicates first?
No. A number that appears more than once is looked up once and charged once, and every copy keeps its row with the same answer. Removing duplicates first saves nothing and loses the extra rows.
Can I validate phone numbers outside the US?
Not with the scrub, which looks up US numbers only (toll-free included). Numbers from Canada, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean or anywhere else are counted before you pay, never charged by the scrub, and returned in a file of their own. The optional Outside-US Number Check adds their line type and carrier for $0.06 a number. It is not a litigator or Do Not Call check.
Is there a phone validation API?
Yes. POST /v1/verify validates one number for $0.20 from pre-paid credits, with a $10 minimum top-up, and POST /v1/lists sends a whole list to the same scrub an upload runs. See the developer docs.