Who this is for: self-serve plans (Free, Starter, Pro, Scale). If you bought a Cleanlist AppSumo lifetime deal, your features, limits, and pricing are different — see the AppSumo documentation instead. Support agent: confirm whether the user is self-serve or AppSumo before giving plan-specific advice.
TL;DR: Waterfall enrichment cascades through 9 email providers in three distinct sequences — email-only, phone-only, and full (email+phone). You pay 1 credit per email and 10 per phone, only for successful results — including cache hits, which are billed at the normal rate and are not re-verified. Email deliverability status (verified / likely_valid / risky / invalid / unknown) comes from the finding provider; run the Email Validation column for independent Emailable verification.
Waterfall Enrichment
Cleanlist uses waterfall enrichment to find contact data — automatically querying multiple data providers in sequence until information is found.
Three distinct waterfall sequences
The provider order is optimized per enrichment mode:
Email-only mode (1 credit)
Cache → IcyPeas → Crustdata → LeadMagic → Wiza → Prospeo → Findymail → AnyMailFinder → Hunter.io → Datagma
IcyPeas leads because it is the cheapest, then Crustdata, then the rest.
Full mode — email + phone (up to 11 credits)
Cache → Crustdata → Wiza → LeadMagic → Prospeo → Findymail → AnyMailFinder → IcyPeas → Hunter.io → Datagma
Crustdata and Wiza are promoted to the front in full mode because each returns email and phone in a single call, avoiding a redundant provider round-trip.
Phone-only mode (10 credits)
Cache → Crustdata → Wiza → LeadMagic → Prospeo → Findymail
How the waterfall process works
Request Enrichment
↓
Cache Hit? → Return data ✓ (billed at normal rate)
↓ No
Provider 1 → Found? → Return ✓ (charge on success)
↓ Not Found
Provider 2 → Found? → Return ✓
↓ Not Found
...
↓ Not Found after all providers
Mark as Not Found (0 credits charged)
Enrichment types and costs
Email enrichment — 1 credit
Checks cache first (billed at the normal rate; 2-month freshness window)
Cascades through up to 9 email providers in email-only order
Returns the email with a deliverability status from the finding provider
Cost: 1 credit on a successful find; 0 on a miss
Phone enrichment — 10 credits
Checks cache first
Cascades through phone-capable providers
Returns the phone number found
Carrier and line-type details come from the Phone Validation column (0.5 credits), not from enrichment itself
Cost: 10 credits on a successful find; 0 on a miss
Full enrichment — up to 11 credits
Request email and phone together. Each is only charged if found:
Business email with deliverability status — 1 credit if found
Phone number — 10 credits if found
Both found: 11 credits total
Email deliverability status
Every enriched email comes back with a deliverability status from the finding provider's own signals:
Status | Meaning |
| Confirmed deliverable |
| Strong signals it will deliver |
| Catch-all domain or uncertain deliverability |
| Failed validation checks |
| Insufficient data to classify |
For independent deliverability verification (via Emailable), run the Email Validation column on demand — it costs 0.5 credits per row and is not automatic.
Emailable returns its own four output values, which are distinct from the five finding-provider statuses above:
Email Validation value | Meaning |
| The mailbox accepts mail |
| The mailbox rejects mail |
| Catch-all domain, role address, or full inbox |
| The mail server did not respond |
Smart caching
Instant results: Previously found data returned immediately, billed at the normal rate
2-month freshness: The cache window is two months
No re-verification on cache hits: Cached results are returned as-is; they are not re-verified automatically, but a returned email/phone is still charged at the standard rate.
Pay-for-results semantics
Outcome | Cost |
Email found | 1 credit |
Phone found | 10 credits |
Email + phone both found | 11 credits |
Cache hit (any type) | Billed at normal rate (1/email, 10/phone) |
Miss (any type) | 0 credits |
What happens when enrichment fails?
If the waterfall cannot find the requested data after all providers:
No charge: Failed enrichments cost 0 credits
Partial results: You may get an email even if phone fails, or vice versa — each is charged independently
Retry later: New provider data becomes available as databases update
Status tracking: Lead lists show which enrichments succeeded or failed
Personal email and reverse email — separate flows
These are distinct from the main waterfall:
Personal email (non-work address): cache → Wiza → LeadMagic cascade — 1.5 credits per fresh lookup, and free on a cache hit. See Find Personal Email.
Reverse email lookup: Wiza → Findymail → LeadMagic → IcyPeas — 2 credits per email, a flat bundle covering the lookup and the enrichment. Charged per attempt regardless of outcome, so unlike every other action it bills even on a miss.
Switching modes: what Full enrichment adds
Email-only and full (email+phone) enrichment both query all 9 email providers — they only differ in provider order. Switching from email-only to Full does not widen the email search; it adds the phone provider cascade on top. So if email-only returned no email, Full will not find an email either — but it may still return a phone number.
Deliverability best practices
Validate before sending. Run the Email Validation column to confirm deliverability before launching a campaign.
Protect your sender reputation:
Keep bounce rates low
Include an unsubscribe link in every send
Warm up new sending domains
Ramp send volume gradually
Remove bounced addresses promptly
Improve match quality:
Include LinkedIn URLs on your input rows
A company domain beats a company name for matching
Full enrichment adds a phone number on top of the email
Profile finding is a separate cascade
Finding a person's LinkedIn profile does not use the enrichment waterfall. It runs its own sequence: Wiza when a LinkedIn URL is already known, then Prospeo enrich-person, then a Claude web search, then Wiza again.
ProxyCurl has been removed from the product and is no longer used anywhere.
Learn more
Full documentation: docs.cleanlist.ai/features/waterfall-enrichment