Why does my Apollo list bounce so much?
Check three data problems first: the people moved jobs after Apollo last checked them, the export included addresses that were never verified, or the list sat too long before you sent it. Apollo's own bounced-email troubleshooting page (updated 5 October 2026) lists five causes of a high bounce rate: using third-party verification services, emailing unverified addresses, emailing spam-blocked addresses, using addresses supplied by other tools, and natural decay in email quality.
The same page says that for verified addresses Apollo provided more than 6 months ago, it does not give the same level of bounce-rate guarantee, and that such contacts may need fresh enrichment. In other words, Apollo itself treats a verified email as perishable.
The status on each contact tells you which problem you have. From Apollo's email status guide (updated 23 October 2026):
| Apollo status | What it means | Send in your first batch? |
|---|---|---|
| Verified | A fully confirmed, valid email address | Yes, if it was verified recently |
| Catch-all | The domain accepts mail for any address, even ones that may not exist | Hold back for now |
| Unverified | Apollo couldn't verify it or has low confidence; also edited or imported addresses | No |
| Update required | Apollo has newer information, typically because the contact changed jobs | No; update first |
| Unavailable | Apollo can't find or verify an address | No |
| User-managed | Uploaded, imported or edited by your team | Only after verifying |
What bounce rate does Apollo say is acceptable?
Under 2%. Apollo's troubleshooting page says an acceptable bounce rate is typically under 2%, and that you should investigate immediately if it consistently exceeds 5%. Amazon SES, which publishes its thresholds in an enforcement FAQ, uses similar lines: keep hard bounces below 2%, account review at 5%, a possible sending pause at 10%.
Apollo's verification page adds a number worth reading closely. Its article on how Apollo verifies emails (updated 16 October 2026) says Apollo-verified emails have a 91% accuracy rate and refers to a 9% bounce rate for Apollo. It says invalid addresses are only a small part of that 9%; the rest comes from blocked mail, full mailboxes, unresponsive servers and the sender's own domain reputation.
Put those numbers on a 1,000-email send:
| Bounce rate | Bounces per 1,000 sends | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 2% | 20 | Apollo's acceptable line; SES's recommended ceiling |
| 5% | 50 | Apollo says investigate; SES reviews the account |
| 9% | 90 | The figure Apollo's verification page gives for verified emails, all causes |
| 10% | 100 | SES may pause sending |
The comparison isn't exact, because SES counts only hard bounces and Apollo's 9% covers several causes. The practical point holds: even Apollo's verified label doesn't promise you a list that stays under Apollo's own 2% line, so a second check before a large send is worth the time. Our fix list for cold emails going to spam covers the domain side of the problem.
How fast does B2B contact data go stale?
Fast enough that a year-old list is visibly wrong. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics employee tenure release of 24 September 2026 found median tenure with the current employer was 4.1 years in January 2026, and 6.1 years for people in management occupations. BLS defines the median as the point where half of workers had more tenure and half had less. When someone leaves, the old work email stops being theirs: Apollo's own catch-all example describes a person who left a company a month earlier, whose address is no longer valid.
The share who had joined their current employer in the last 12 months, from the January 2026 tenure table:
| Age | With current employer 12 months or less | Out of 1,000 contacts |
|---|---|---|
| 25 to 34 | 25.5% | about 255 |
| 35 to 44 | 15.4% | about 154 |
| 45 to 54 | 12.2% | about 122 |
| 55 to 64 | 9.2% | about 92 |
The last column is our arithmetic. Read it as a rough guide, not a decay rate: BLS says this short-tenure group also includes new hires. If a database last checked your contacts a year ago, something like one in eight of a list of 45-to-54-year-olds may have changed employer since. For 25-to-34-year-olds it is closer to one in four.
The BLS turnover survey points the same way. In 2025 the average monthly total separations rate was 3.3% across all US jobs, 2.8% in information and 4.6% in professional and business services. Those are monthly averages, and a separation counts a job ending, not a person, so these rates can't be turned into a share of your contacts who moved. The tenure table above is the better guide for a list of named people.
What do Apollo users report about stale data?
Two r/coldemail threads from April 2026 and two other posts give a consistent picture, though none is a controlled test.
- Low replies, unknown bounces. The poster in “Is Apollo just dead for booking demos” sent 5,917 emails in 90 days: 1,350 opens, 15 replies, 0 booked calls. That is a 0.25% reply rate by our arithmetic. The post gives no bounce rate, and one commenter's first question was whether the poster had checked it.
- Every big database decays. In “Is Apollo still worth it”, many replies say the problem is not unique to Apollo and suggest treating it as a starting point and verifying before sending. Many other replies plug a rival tool. One commenter's summary: "Truth is everyone scrapes each other, just go with what works and clean your data thoroughly."
- One export, 40% bad. A May 2026 Indie Hackers post describes an agency's 4,847-contact Apollo export where 312 of the first 771 emails bounced within four days (40.5% by our arithmetic), and says 40.5% of the records were stale, risky or bad after cleanup. The post ranks FixBounce, a verification tool, first, and it was published from an Indie Hackers account named fixbounce, so read it as vendor content, not a test.
- A founder's estimate. In an August 2024 Ask HN post, a founder building a competing email finder put the accuracy of their Apollo data at around 40%.
The common thread is the age of the data and whether anyone verified it. A list from any large database would need the same cleaning.
How do you clean an Apollo export before you send it?
Filter to Verified only
Use Apollo's Email status filter. Leave out Unverified, Unavailable and Update required. Hold Catch-all back from the first batch.
Update job changers
For contacts marked Update required, request the update. Apollo charges 1 credit for each available contact update. Many will now be at a new company, which can be a reason to write in itself.
Send within 30 days of revealing
Apollo's status guide says that if an Apollo-verified email bounces within 30 days of purchase, Apollo refunds the credit automatically. A list that sits for two months loses that protection.
Re-check anything older than six months
That is where Apollo stops giving the same bounce guarantee. Run a second verifier on old records and on catch-alls you want to keep. Apollo's troubleshooting page warns that third-party tools may reject valid emails as catch-all or unknown, so treat those results as a hold, not a delete.
Test with 100, then decide
Send a first batch of 100 slowly. Two bounces is 2%; five is 5%. Stop and clean again at five.
If your gaps are small enough to fix by hand, our guide to finding and verifying a decision-maker's email for free walks through pattern guessing and free verifier credits. For what each database's credits cost, see our Lusha, Apollo and Hunter comparison.
Why start from fresh signals instead of a big export?
Because the reason you found the person is recent. A database record is a snapshot from whenever it was last checked. A person who posted about the problem you solve this week is at least active now, and a company hiring for the job you automate has that need now. Our guide to buying signals for small teams lists the signals worth watching.
Signals don't remove the need to verify. They change the order of work: start from who is showing a reason to buy right now, then find and verify their email, instead of exporting thousands of rows and cleaning out the dead ones.
That is the order Siela's AI SDR works in. It looks for signals such as people comparing tools, asking for a competitor alternative, posting a pain point or changing roles, scores each lead hot, warm or cold with a one-line reason, then finds and verifies each person's work email and emails only deliverable addresses.
Frequently asked questions
Does Apollo refund credits when a verified email bounces?
Yes, within a time limit. Apollo's email status guide, updated 23 October 2026, says that if an Apollo-verified email bounces within 30 days of purchase, Apollo automatically refunds the email credit. Unverified addresses, and verified ones you send to after that window, are not covered by that refund, so send soon after you reveal a list.
How old can Apollo data be before I should re-verify it?
Apollo's troubleshooting page says that for verified email addresses it provided more than 6 months ago, it does not provide the same level of bounce rate guarantee, and those contacts may need additional enrichment. Treat six months as the outer limit and re-check anything older before it goes into a sequence.
What does Update required mean in Apollo?
It means Apollo has newer information for a saved contact's business email, typically because the person changed jobs. Apollo's status guide says it charges 1 credit for each available contact update you request. Don't send to the old address; request the update, then decide whether the person's new company is still a fit.
Should I send to catch-all emails from Apollo?
Not in your first batch. A catch-all domain accepts mail for any address, so most verifiers can't tell whether the mailbox exists. Apollo says its own verification can tell valid from invalid catch-all emails, but that is Apollo's claim about its product. Send verified non-catch-all addresses first, check your bounce rate, then add catch-alls in a small test.
What share of B2B contacts change jobs each year?
There is no single figure, but US government data gives a guide. In January 2026, 12.2% of US wage and salary workers aged 45 to 54 and 15.4% of those aged 35 to 44 had been with their current employer 12 months or less, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The group also includes new hires, and younger workers move more often.
Sources
- Apollo Knowledge Base: Understand Email Statuses (updated 23 Oct 2026; checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Apollo Knowledge Base: How Apollo Verifies Emails (updated 16 Oct 2026; checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Apollo Knowledge Base: Troubleshoot Bounced Emails (updated 5 Oct 2026; checked 24 Oct 2026)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Employee Tenure in 2026 (24 Sep 2026)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Employee tenure, Table 3 (January 2026) (24 Sep 2026)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: JOLTS Table 20, annual average total separations rates (last modified 13 Mar 2026)
- Amazon SES: Enforcement FAQs (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Indie Hackers: Apollo.io Alternatives, I Switched After Getting 40% Stale Data on a 5,000 Contact List (8 May 2026; checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Hacker News: Ask HN: AI Agents for Data/Email Enrichment vs Using Apollo.io or RocketReach (24 Aug 2024; checked 24 Oct 2026)
- r/coldemail: Is Apollo just dead for booking demos or am I doing something wrong? (26 Apr 2026; checked 24 Oct 2026)
- r/coldemail: Is Apollo still worth it, or are there better alternatives now? (15 Apr 2026; checked 24 Oct 2026)