Confidence Scores
How to interpret person, phone, and email confidence scores
Person search responses include confidence scores on three levels: the person record itself, each phone number, and each email address. All scores range from 0 to 100 and represent relative confidence — a higher score means stronger evidence of association.
Score Types
Person Score
The top-level score on a person record indicates how well that record matches your search query. Higher scores reflect stronger matches across name, location, and other query parameters.
{
"id": "P1234567890",
"name": "John Smith",
"score": 94,
...
}Use this to rank or filter results when multiple people match your query.
Phone Score
Each phone number includes a score indicating confidence that the number is actively associated with this person.
"phones": [
{ "number": "(212) 555-0198", "type": "mobile", "score": 95 },
{ "number": "(212) 555-0199", "type": "landline", "score": 41 }
]A higher score means the number is more likely to be current and correctly attributed. A low score may indicate the number is outdated or only loosely associated.
Email Score
Each email address includes a score indicating confidence that the address belongs to this person.
"emails": [
{ "address": "john.smith@example.com", "score": 88 },
{ "address": "jsmith85@gmail.com", "score": 52 }
]Interpreting Scores
Scores are relative, not absolute thresholds. There is no fixed cutoff for "good" vs "bad" — the right threshold depends on your use case:
| Use case | Suggested approach |
|---|---|
| High-confidence verification | Filter to scores above 80 |
| Lead enrichment | Use all scores, sort by highest first |
| Showing multiple contact options | Display all, surface high-score items first |
Scores reflect the strength of association in Whitepages data. A low score does not necessarily mean the information is wrong — it may reflect limited data coverage for that individual.