Introduction

PostGrid's Bulk Address Verification tool allows you to verify and standardize addresses to ensure deliverability and eliminate duplicates. It also appends missing information and corrects invalid data where possible.

To use our bulk verification tool, sign up for the address verification platform here, where you can clean up to 100 addresses for free.

Getting Started

After you have signed up and logged into our platform, you can head over to the dashboard to access the bulk verification tool.

Prepare Your File

You can prepare your file for upload by ensuring that it has no completely empty lines and for best results,
make sure to include a column with the country of the address (preferably the country code, e.g. US for United States, CA for Canada).

You can download a sample file here.

Note that you can have any number of additional columns in your data. These will be left as-is in the output.

Upload Your File

Once your file is ready, you can head over to the bulk verification tool and click on upload.

If your file contains international addresses (outside of the US & Canada), you can check the international address checkbox to ensure they are processed correctly. Note that different rates apply for international verification.

If you wish to opt for the NCOA (National Change of Address) service for US-based addresses, please click on the corresponding checkbox for NCOA. To run your file through NCOA, it should contain a minimum of 100 addresses and a maximum of 10,000 addresses. Each file will cost an additional $50 USD, in addition to the bulk address verification charge.

Map Columns to Fields

Once you have uploaded your file, you can click on 'Next' to map the columns in your CSV file to fields that PostGrid understands.

In the case of the sample file, our "Address" column corresponds to "Address Line 1", "Address 2" corresponds to "Address Line 2", etc. This varies depending on your CSV file, but for the best results, you should map as many fields as possible. After mapping all the fields, you can preview the mapping by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Suppose your addresses were not broken down into multiple columns. For example, rather than a Address/City/State column you just had an Address column. In that case, you would just map "Address Line 1" and leave the rest of the mappings blank. PostGrid will automatically recognize the different parts of the address in that case.

Confirm Your Upload

Once you have mapped your fields, you can click 'Confirm Field Mappings' to proceed to the final step.

Here, you will be presented with a summary of your available versus used lookups, along with the total cost of processing. Note that the first 100 addresses are free, and we only charge for additional addresses beyond that. The more addresses you have, the lower the pricing.

You can also contact us to discuss pricing for more than 100K addresses.

Click on ‘Confirm’ to complete your upload. Your file will begin processing immediately.

The processing time varies from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the number of addresses. You will receive an email once it's completed.

If the file fails to process for any reason, you will not be charged.

View Details

You can view a summary of the processing by clicking on 'View Details'.

This summary shows how many addresses were correct as-is (verified), how many we were able to correct to make deliverable (corrected), and how many could not be fixed or matched to an address in any postal database (failed).

Download The Result

Once the file is processed, you can download the output file. You can see that the output file retains the columns in the input file, but updates the rows after processing the addresses.

In this case, we can see that it corrected both of the addresses we provided in accordance with postal standards. We can see that by looking at the (new) PG_STATUS column that was added. There are also additional columns like PG_CORRECTIONS which provide information about what was incorrect about the original address.

Understanding the additional information

When you run address verification, you receive additional details that could be helpful.

Value	Description
PG_STATUS	- verified: an address is deliverable as-is - corrected: PostGrid fixed the address - failed: The address could not be verified
PG_US_ZIP_PLUS_4	4-digit USPS ZIP+4 code
PG_US_URBANIZATION	The urbanization of your address.
PG_STREETNAME	Name of the street where the address is located
PG_STREETTYPE	Type of the street (DR, ST, BLVD, AVE, PKWY, RD, etc.)
PG_STREETDIRECTION	The direction of the street (N, S, E, W, etc)
PG_PREDIRECTION	The pre-direction of the street (before the street name, US addresses only).
PG_POSTDIRECTION	The post-direction of the street (after the street name, US addresses only).
PG_STREETNUMBER	Street number (e.g. the 20 in 20 Bay St)
PG_SUITEID	The unit number/name
PG_SUITEKEY	'St', '#' etc.
PG_BOXID	PO Box ID
PG_DELIVERYINSTALLATIONAREANAME	Delivery installation area name
PG_DELIVERYINSTALLATIONTYPE	Delivery installation type
PG_DELIVERYINSTALLATIONQUALIFIER	Delivery installation qualifier
PG_RURALROUTENUMBER	Rural route number
PG_RURALROUTETYPE	Rural route type
PG_EXTRAINFO	Any extra information relevant to the address
PG_COUNTY	County in the United States (US address only)
PG_COUNTYNUM	FIPS code for county (US address only)
PG_USCENSUSCMSA	US Census consolidated metropolitan statistical area
PG_USCENSUSBLOCKNUMBER	US Census block number
PG_USCENSUSTRACTNUMBER	US Census tract number
PG_USCENSUSFIPS	US county-level FIPS
PG_USCENSUSMA	US Census metropolitan area
PG_USCENSUSMSA	US Census metropolitan statistical area
PG_USCENSUSPMSA	US Census primary metropolitan statistical area
PG_USAREACODE	US area code
PG_USHASDAYLIGHTSAVINGS	True if address location recognizes DST
PG_USTIMEZONE	Time zone for the US address area
PG_USCONGRESSIONALDISTRICTNUMBER	US congressional district number
PG_USSTATELEGISLATIVELOWER	Lower legislative district for the US address
PG_USSTATELEGISLATIVEUPPER	Upper legislative district for the US address
PG_USMAILINGSCARRIERROUTE	4-character code assigned to mail delivery route within a 5 digit zip code
PG_USMAILINGSCHECKDIGIT	PostNet barcode digit
PG_USMAILINGSDEFAULTFLAG	True if US address matches a high-rise default or rural route default in the USPS data
PG_USMAILINGSDELIVERYPOINT	Unique USPS identifier for the delivery point
PG_USMAILINGSDPVCONFIRMATIONINDICATOR	See USPS DPV section below.
PG_USMAILINGSDPVCRMAINDICATOR	See USPS DPV section below.
PG_USMAILINGSDPVFOOTNOTE1	See USPS DPV section below.
PG_USMAILINGSDPVFOOTNOTE2	See USPS DPV section below.
PG_USMAILINGSDPVFOOTNOTE3	See USPS DPV section below.
PG_USMAILINGSELOTASCDESC	A for ascending, D for descending
PG_USMAILINGSELOTSEQUENCENUMBER	eLOT sequence number
PG_USMAILINGSEWSFLAG	Y if address is in early warning system database
PG_USMAILINGSLACSFLAG	Y if address converted by LACS
PG_USMAILINGSLACSRETURNCODE	Corresponds to USPS LACSLink return code
PG_RESIDENTIAL	TRUE if the address is vacant according to the USPS (US address only), FALSE otherwise
PG_VACANT	TRUE if the address is residential (US address only), FALSE otherwise
PG_CORRECTIONS	Gives more information about the verification status

USPS DPV

PostGrid performs USPS delivery point verification (DPV) on US addresses. The relevant fields are returned in the address details starting with PG_USMAILINGSDPVCONFIRMATIONINDICATOR .

PG_USMAILINGSDPVCONFIRMATIONINDICATOR

Value	Description
Empty	Address not found in database
N	Address is not DPV-confirmed
Y	Address is DPV-confirmed
D	Primary number (e.g. street number) confirmed, secondary missing
S	Primary confirmed, secondary present, but not confirmed

PG_USMAILINGSDPVCRMAINDICATOR

Y if this is a commercial mail receiving agency, N otherwise

PG_USMAILINGSDPVFOOTNOTE1

Value	Description
AA	Address matched to zip4
A1	Address not matched

PG_USMAILINGSDPVFOOTNOTE2

Value	Description
BB	All components of the address matched to DPV
CC	Primary number matched, secondary present but not matched
N1	Primary matched, secondary missing
M1	Primary missing
M3	Primary number invalid
U1	Address matched to unique ZIP code
F1	Address matched to unique ZIP code
G1	General delivery address
P1	PO Box, rural route, or HC box number is missing
P3	Invalid PO Box, rural route, or HC box number

PG_USMAILINGSDPVFOOTNOTE3

Value	Description
RR	Matched to CMRA with secondary present
R1	Matched to CMRA but missing secondary number

PG_USMAILINGSRECORDTYPECODE

Value	Description
F	Firm or business
G	General delivery
P	P.O. box
H	High-rise
S	Street
R	Rural route/highway

PG_USMAILINGSSUITELINKRETURNCODE

Value	Description
00	No match in SuiteLink data
A	Match found in SuiteLink data
Empty	Not presented to SuiteLink