Verify HubSpot Contacts and Tag Bad Emails With an sv_status Property

To verify HubSpot contacts and tag bad emails, connect a HubSpot service key on SimpleVerifier's Integrations page (/connect), pick a list or segment and press Verify leads. Each checked contact gets an sv_status contact property set to valid, risky or invalid. You can then filter, report and suppress on that property inside HubSpot. Archiving invalid contacts is available but off by default.

Updated 3 Nov 2026: HubSpot stopped the creation of new legacy private apps on 26 Oct 2026 for existing accounts, and on 28 Sep 2026 for accounts created after that date. Private apps you already have "continue to work as-is", so an existing token still connects. For a new connection, HubSpot recommends a service key, and the steps below now use one.

Step 1: create a HubSpot service key

In HubSpot, open Development, then Keys > Service keys, and click Create service key. Name it, click Add new scope, pick the scopes below, click Update, then Create. HubSpot's service key guide says super admins and users with the Developer tools access permission can create one, and a key can only get scopes the person creating it already has. The key is sent as a Bearer token, the same way a private app token was. Give it only the scopes you need:

You want to	Scopes
Read lists, segments and contacts	crm.lists.read, crm.objects.contacts.read
Create and set the sv_status property	crm.objects.contacts.write, crm.schemas.contacts.read, crm.schemas.contacts.write
Archive invalid contacts	crm.objects.contacts.write

If you use automatic rotation, paste the new key on Integrations before the old one expires. HubSpot's rotate-later option keeps the old key working for 7 days. HubSpot's lists API guide explains lists and segments.

Step 2: connect and pick a list or segment

Paste the key on Integrations and pick a list or segment. The confirm screen shows how many checks the run uses before it starts: one per distinct address, from free checks or your plan. Every HubSpot endpoint used is listed on the HubSpot integration page.

Step 3: the sv_status property

The default write-back is Set the sv_status contact property. If the property does not exist yet, ticking it lets us create it as a single-line text property. Nothing is archived or removed.

sv_status	Meaning	What to do in HubSpot
valid	The mail server confirmed the mailbox	Keep sending
risky	The domain takes mail but the mailbox could not be confirmed (catch-all, role address, a server that would not confirm)	Send in a small tested batch, or hold back from cold sequences
invalid	The address will bounce	Suppress from sequences and marketing emails

Risky is never upgraded to valid. A catch-all domain accepts every address, so no check can confirm a single mailbox there. Our catch-all scoring page shows how those rows are ranked.

Step 4: use sv_status in HubSpot

Once the property exists, HubSpot's own tools do the rest:

1. A saved view. Filter contacts where sv_status is invalid to see what would bounce.
2. An active list. Build a list of sv_status is invalid and use it as an exclusion list on marketing emails.
3. Before sequences. Filter out invalid and decide on risky before enrolling. Our guide on verifying new HubSpot contacts with a workflow covers the automation side.

Optional: archive invalid contacts

Archive invalid contacts is off until you tick it, and the confirm screen asks again. HubSpot moves archived contacts to its recycle bin, where they can be restored for 90 days. They leave every list, not only the one you picked. If you are unsure, tag first, look at the invalid list, then archive.

Speed

HubSpot's service key guide says keys get the same limits as privately distributed apps, which its usage guidelines set at 100 API calls per 10 seconds on Free and Starter and 190 on Professional and Enterprise. The integration paces at about 90 and writes in batches of 100 contacts, so pulling and tagging a 10,000-contact list takes a few minutes on top of the checks.

Run 100 free checks on a small HubSpot list first to see how sv_status lands on your contacts.

Related

For the manual route through exports, see cleaning bounced and invalid contacts in HubSpot. On paid plans, Auto-verify new leads daily checks only contacts it has not seen in the list, once a day; see pricing.