> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.sendpost.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Real-Time Validation Results
> Receive the real-time list cleaning result for every email you send as a Validation webhook event (type 82), filter it by result, and skip the check for individual emails.
If your sub-account has the **Real-Time List Cleaning** add-on, SendPost checks each recipient address before it sends the email. The Validation webhook event tells you the result for every email, so you know which addresses are good and don't need to check them again.
Real-Time List Cleaning is an add-on. Contact support to turn it on for a sub-account. Without the add-on, no addresses are checked and no Validation events are sent.
## Turn it on
Validation events go to your account-level webhooks, never to the per-email `webhookEndpoint`.
* **Dashboard:** open **Webhooks**, edit or create a webhook, and tick **Validation**.
* **API:** set `validated: true` when you [create](/api-reference/webhook/create-a-new-webhook) or [update](/api-reference/webhook/update-an-existing-webhook) a webhook.
```json theme={null}
{
"url": "https://example.com/webhooks/sendpost",
"enabled": true,
"validated": true
}
```
An update that leaves out `validated` keeps its current value. To stop Validation events, send `"validated": false`.
## The results
Each Validation event has `event.type` set to `82` and `event.validationStatus` set to one of four words:
| `validationStatus` | What it means | Is the email sent? |
| - | - | - |
| `valid` | The recipient's mail server confirmed the mailbox, or SendPost has delivered to this address before. | Yes |
| `invalid` | The mailbox or domain doesn't exist, or the address failed a check before the mailbox check (see below). | **No** |
| `catch all` | The domain accepts mail for any address, so the mailbox can't be confirmed. | Yes |
| `unknown` | The mail server gave a temporary or inconclusive answer, for example a full mailbox or a temporary block. | Yes |
The value `catch all` contains a space. Match the four words exactly as shown.
`event.smtpCode` and `event.smtpDescription` hold the mail server's reply, for example `550` and `5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist`. A `catch all` result uses SendPost's own code `111` with the description `Catch all domain`. Free mailbox providers such as Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo are never reported as `catch all`.
### What happens to an invalid email
An email whose address is `invalid` is not sent, and you also receive an event that says so:
* **Rejected by the mailbox check:** you receive an **SMTP Dropped** event (type `26`), and the address is added to your suppression list.
* **Stopped before the mailbox check:** if the domain is a known typo domain (for example `gmial.com`), the address already hard-bounced on SendPost, or it is on SendPost's blocklist, the email is dropped straight away. You receive a **Dropped** event (type `1`) and a Validation event with `invalid`, code `554` and the drop reason in `smtpDescription`.
Addresses on your own suppression list are dropped without a check, so they get a **Dropped** event only, with no Validation event.
## Example payload
```json theme={null}
{
"event": {
"eventID": "c1af52bc-d705-4199-b15f-4d257cddb81b",
"type": 82,
"messageID": "ded956e9-4c9e-4117-9e97-5c56315c63af",
"accountID": 100,
"subAccountID": 50441,
"from": "notifications@example.com",
"to": "no.such.user@example.org",
"submittedAt": 1792141788568613635,
"smtpCode": 550,
"smtpDescription": "5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist.",
"validationStatus": "invalid"
},
"emailMessage": {
"messageID": "ded956e9-4c9e-4117-9e97-5c56315c63af",
"from": { "email": "notifications@example.com", "name": "" },
"to": { "email": "no.such.user@example.org", "name": "" },
"headers": {}
}
}
```
`event.messageID` is the `messageId` returned when you sent the email, so you can match the result to the email and its other events. A Validation event is normally sent once per email and usually arrives within seconds of the send, before any Delivered event. In rare cases it can arrive twice, so de-duplicate on `messageID`.
## Choose which results you receive
By default a webhook with Validation on receives all four results. To receive only some of them, set `eventSubOptions.validated` when you create or update the webhook, listing all four keys. A result set to `false`, or left out, is not sent. In the dashboard, use the checkboxes under **Filter validation results**.
An update replaces all of `eventSubOptions`. If you also filter Dropped reasons with `eventSubOptions.dropped`, send both objects in the same update, or the one you leave out goes back to everything on.
```json theme={null}
{
"url": "https://example.com/webhooks/sendpost",
"validated": true,
"eventSubOptions": {
"validated": {
"valid": false,
"invalid": true,
"catchAll": true,
"unknown": true
}
}
}
```
## Skip the check for one email
If you already know an address is good, skip the check for that email. It is then sent without a check and gets no Validation event. Use either option:
* **`skipValidation: true`** in the body of [Send Email](/api-reference/email/send-email) or [Send Email With Template](/api-reference/email/send-email-with-template).
* **The header `X-Sendpost-Validate: false`** in `headers`. This also works over SMTP relay and in SDK versions that don't have `skipValidation` yet.
```json theme={null}
{
"from": { "email": "notifications@example.com" },
"to": [{ "email": "customer@example.com" }],
"subject": "Your receipt",
"htmlBody": "Thanks for your order.
",
"skipValidation": true
}
```
Both options can only turn the check off. They can't turn it on for a sub-account without the add-on.
## Test your endpoint
In the dashboard, open a webhook, choose **Validation** as the test event and click **Test**. Your endpoint receives a type `82` event with `validationStatus` set to `valid` for `test@example.com`. Test events are always sent, whatever your Validation setting and filters are.
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