# Credits and finding emails What a RecruitAffiliates.ai credit is, what uses one, when you get it back, and how email finding, Find new and Add your own work. A **credit** is one paid lookup. RecruitAffiliates.ai has two kinds, and each plan comes with a number of both. | Credit | What uses one | Trial | Launch | Grow | |---|---|---|---|---| | Email credit | Finding one affiliate's email address | 20 | 200 a month | 600 a month | | Search credit | One search you start yourself in Find new | 5 | 20 a month | 60 a month | Your first matches are free. Saving an affiliate is free. The weekly scan is free. ## You only pay for a result An email credit buys an address we found on their site or channel, or through our email finder, with whether it's been checked. It's used only when you get one you can use. - We find an email address: one email credit. - We find two or three addresses for the same affiliate: still one credit. - We find nothing: the credit comes straight back. - The address we found doesn't accept mail: the credit comes back. - The address is on a domain that can't get email at all: the credit comes back. - Our provider fails or takes too long: the credit comes back. - A look gets stuck on our side and never finishes: we give the credit back on our own within about 40 minutes. - A search can't start or fails part way: the search credit comes back. - A search finds nothing new, whether nothing at all or only affiliates you already had: the search credit comes back. Every refund is said on the screen, in words. You never have to check a balance to find out. Credits reset each month on a paid plan, and they don't roll over. On the trial you get one set for the whole 14 days. When you run out, nothing is charged and nothing runs. The app tells you, and shows the next plan. ## Finding an email Press **Reveal email** on any affiliate. It saves them first, for free. The button says what it costs before you press it, for example "1 email credit". We look in the free places first: 1. The contact and about pages on their website. 2. For a YouTube channel: the channel description, then their **link-in-bio page** if they use one (Linktree and pages like it all count), then their own site if they link to one, then their last ten video descriptions. A sponsor's email in a video is never taken as theirs. Words like "sponsored by", "use code" or "20% off" next to an email rule it out. Any other email only counts if it shows up in two or more videos, or sits right after words like "business enquiries" or "bookings". 3. For a podcast, the show's own feed. 4. A paid email finder, only if the free places had nothing. We have two. If the first finds nothing, doesn't answer within a few seconds, or every address it returns fails the check, we ask the second. You still pay one email credit at most. Then each address is checked. A **bounce** is an email that comes back undelivered, and too many of them hurt your sending reputation. ### The free domain check Before anything else, we check the address's domain, for free. That's the part after the @. An **MX record** is the line in a domain's settings that names the server that takes its email. - No such domain, or a domain that says it takes no email: the address is dropped. - No MX record and no web address to fall back on: dropped too. - If that was the only address, we keep looking. If nothing else turns up, the credit comes back. - A check that times out, or a server that doesn't answer, never drops an address. Not knowing isn't proof, so you keep the address and it shows as not checked. - Gmail, Outlook and the other big free providers skip the check. We know they take email. A domain with a mail server shows **Domain takes email, may still bounce**. That's good news, but it isn't a check of the mailbox itself. ### What each result means Every address shows one of these beside it: - **Verified.** The mailbox exists and takes mail. - **Domain takes email, may still bounce.** The domain has a mail server, but nobody checked this mailbox. - **Unverified.** We found the address but couldn't check it at all. It may bounce, so send with care. - **Catch-all, may bounce.** Their domain takes mail for every address, so a check can't tell whether this one is read. We never call it verified. - **Invalid.** No such mailbox. We never hand you one of these, and if it's all we found, the credit comes back. A contact page often lists a partnerships address and a general one, so we keep up to three for each affiliate, each with its own result and where we found it. Best first. That's a verified one if there is one. You also see where the address came from, like "their contact page". If a website lists both a company address and someone's personal Gmail, we pick the company one and tell you why. A personal address on a company site is usually the wrong person. If we find no public email, the row says so and the credit is back. You can type an address in by hand. We won't charge you to look at the same affiliate again for seven days, because the answer rarely changes that fast. ### Find emails for selected Tick several saved affiliates and press **Find emails for selected**. The button says the most it can cost. Each row shows its own progress: queued, looking, then the address or the reason there isn't one. The button counts as it goes, like "Finding emails, 7 of 25". Each row is looked up and charged on its own, and only when an address is found. Close the tab and every row already looked up keeps its email and its charge. The rest weren't touched. Leaving mid-run asks first. If your credits run out part way, the run stops there and says how many weren't looked up. The rows already done keep their results. The rest are left as they were, and you're shown the next plan. ## Find new Find new runs a fresh search when the weekly scan isn't enough. Each search uses one search credit, said on the button. There are four kinds: - **Topic.** Who writes or films about a topic, in one country. Type the topic and pick the country. - **Competitor.** Who already promotes a competitor. Type their website, or their YouTube handle. - **Lookalike.** YouTube channels like one you already rate. Paste a channel link, a handle or a video link. - **Clone your best affiliates** (rolling out). More creators like the ones you already rate, on every platform. Reading your creators is free; the search itself is one search credit, the same as a topic search. How it works is on [Discover](/discover#clone-your-best-affiliates). A topic search (rolling out) also turns your topic into the searches buyers type. Think "best email software" and "email software review", plus a few hashtags. So Instagram, TikTok and YouTube get searched too. It's still one search credit. A search runs in the background, so you can keep working. **Recent searches** shows each one with how many affiliates it found, and says plainly when it has finished. A search that fails says so and gives the credit back. ## Run a search now Save your topics or competitors on Brand, What you sell, and the page offers **Run a search with these now (1 search credit, 12 left)**. It opens Find new with what you just added already filled in: a new topic first, otherwise a new competitor. A search credit pays for one search on Find new. It looks now, instead of waiting for the weekly scan. A search that fails, or finds nothing new, gives the credit back, the same as any other search. With no search credits left, you see a link to the plans instead. ## Add your own Already know who you want? Add them yourself. - Paste one link, or many, one per line. - Or upload a CSV, which is a spreadsheet saved as plain text. We read the column called link, website or channel, or the first column if none is named. - Websites and YouTube channels. Up to 200 at a time. For YouTube, use the channel's link, not a video. Press **Check these links** first. Nothing is added or charged at that point. You see how many are new, how many you already have, how many are already your affiliates, and any we couldn't read and why. Then press **Add**. New affiliates land in Saved, and we look for an email for each one. Adding is free. Each email found uses one email credit, and a lookup that finds nothing uses none. An affiliate you already had is saved, never added twice. A long paste can run out of time. The screen then says how many rows ran out of time and that nothing was charged for them, and those rows are already in Saved. Press **Try again**. Affiliates you add by hand aren't scored, so they show "Not scored" where a fit score would be. ## When you run out Out of email credits, the row says how many are left in your trial, since trial credits don't reset. On a paid plan it gives the date they reset. Either way it links to **See plans**. Say you've no credits left, or your plan doesn't include a feature. A panel names what was blocked, like "You've used all your searches on the trial". Nothing is charged. It links to the plans, and **Not now** closes it. ## After the trial When a trial ends, the account becomes read-only. Everything you found stays, including every email. New email lookups and new searches are off until you pick a plan. For 14 days after the trial you can still export your saved affiliates once, as a CSV.