India Post Address Validation

India Post, founded under the East India Company in 1766, is among the oldest and largest postal organizations globally. According to a Pitney Bowes report, it delivers 8.8 million parcels daily and 102 parcels each second.

However, India Post faces several mail returns and delays like every other postal organization. A rule by CEO George Labovitz and Dr. Yu Sang Chang, known as 1-10-100, says it takes $1 per customer touchpoint to prevent bad data at the entry point. It also takes $10 to correct a database error and $100 to use the flawed data point. So, naturally, these returned mailpieces and other delivery-related problems cost businesses a lot. 

India Post address validation helps curb these problems by cross-checking delivery addresses before mailing something. It ensures envelopes and packages arrive at the correct location. But what does such validation mean? How does it work? Is it the best way to verify address deliverability? Let’s find out!

Key Takeaways:

• India Post address validation helps you locate nearby post offices and find accurate PIN codes for delivery addresses. However, it does not offer address validation capabilities. 
• You can combine it with third-party tools to validate your shipping addresses. Also, it is essential to follow the proper address format. 
• There are many reasons India Post cannot deliver some mailpieces, like the addressee moving to a new location, not being available at the address, and more. 
• You must use a reliable address verification solution to ensure the address is correct and delivery is completed in the initial attempts. 
• PostGrid is a solid alternative to India Post address validation because it offers autocomplete, standardization, geocoding, etc.

1. Write complete addresses: You must write complete and correct addresses to ensure the mailpieces reach the delivery location quickly and safely. Never skip writing the PIN, as it helps the Post Office route deliveries and shorten shipping time. 
2. Use legible handwriting: Your addresses must be visible to anyone from one arm’s length away. Write the address neatly in legible handwriting or type it using a clear font, like Arial. Otherwise, the postal carriers might misinterpret the mailing location and incorrectly deliver your items. 
3. Avoid punctuation: It is best to avoid using commas, hyphens, periods, and other punctuation marks because it can change the meaning of different address elements. For example, you might send something to apartment 208 in building A. However, a hyphen might confuse the carrier who sees 208 A-Daisy Complex. It makes it difficult to understand that A stands for the building number. 
4. Place the address correctly: Always write the recipient’s address on the front of the envelope. If you mention a return address, you can do so on the back of the envelope. 

How to Address the Envelope?

India Post address validation requires you to mention the address at least 15 mm from the envelope’s left, right, and bottom sides. However, the entire address block should be at least 40mm away from the top of the envelope. 

You can write your (sender) company name with the logo (max 25 x 50 mm) in the top left corner and affix stamps or other impressions in the top right corner. These elements should be at least 10 mm from the recipient address block, and the stamps and impressions should not take up more than 74 mm of space. 

Leave 15 mm at the bottom of the envelope for the barcode printing, and there must be 5 mm of white space around this 2D barcode. The barcode must not exceed 18 x 18 mm. If you print ads on the inland letter card or privately manufactured envelopes, please leave 10 mm of white space on all sides of the recipient address block.  

You can start writing an Indian address like you would to send something domestically. In the first line, mention the recipient’s full name. The following lines may include their company name and department (optional). While adding titles is alright, avoiding them is better, as they can create confusion.

The following line should carry the apartment number, building name, and street name. It could also be a building number instead of a name. Then, you can add the name of a dependent locality, which you can also refer to as the neighborhood. It gets a line to itself, followed by the second-to-last line, where you mention the city or municipality name with the PIN. You need not include commas to separate these two aspects, which should be written on the same line. 

The last line should carry the country name, which is India. Alternatively, you can also write IND, the globally accepted abbreviation for sending international mail to India. 

Here is what the format should look like:

Your sample address would look like this:

Even after running a quick India Post address validation, where you confirm the location’s PIN, you might face delivery errors. India Post cannot deliver your mailers to the intended recipients for many reasons, like

Addressee Unavailable at Delivery Time

It can be a common issue during deliveries, wherein the addressed person is unavailable at the address, or nobody else is present to receive the mailpiece. Postal carriers attempt delivery two to three times again. 

However, not having valid recipient addresses can lead to mail returns. Imagine the address you mentioned on a mailpiece has been vacant for several years. The delivery is bound to fail several times until the item is returned to the sender, which can be expensive for international shipments. To ensure you don’t make this error, it’s better to use India Post address validation. 

Addressee Moved

A 2023 report by CBRE stated that 44% of Indians planned on moving to a different apartment in the next two years! As tenants switch homes and homeowners buy or sell properties, hundreds and thousands of addresses change yearly, leaving several business records outdated. Hence, another common reason for an India Post delivery failure or delay can be a change in your intended recipient’s mailing address. 

All mailers are automatically forwarded to the new address if the addressee leaves a redirection request. However, most people don’t regularly register their new addresses with the Post Office. 

Mailpiece Refused by the Addressee

Another situation can arise if your mailing address is incorrect and the mail goes to someone else. Some people only accept mail they are expecting or if it’s from a known individual or entity. Hence, they could refuse to receive items incorrectly sent to their address due to an error. 

Incorrect or Insufficient Address

India Post does its best to locate your intended recipient in case you forget to add some details, like the street name or pin code. It also tries to fulfill deliveries for incorrect addresses. However, it is only possible when it can find the addressee’s location within the same post office service area. Otherwise, the mailpiece is shipped back to the return address. 

You can leverage India Post address validation to address such issues. However, pair it with a high-tech address verification API, like PostGrid, that standardizes and verifies the whole address, not just the pin code. 

Only Helps You Find Pincodes

Though pin codes are crucial in mailing addresses, you need more information for deliveries to be successful. Although India Post address validation gives you access to all the pincodes across India, it only lets you verify addresses to the pincode level. Every pincode serves thousands of individual delivery locations. Thus, you can not rely on it entirely to send something to your recipients. 

Must Enter the Correct State and City/District to Find Accurate Pin Codes

India Post’s find pincode tool relies on your inputs to fetch the accurate PIN information for your address. But what if you have an incorrect state or city name in the first place due to outdated data, misspellings, or typos? Yes, you would end up finding an inaccurate PIN.

The tool also offers a more complicated option: entering the post office name to get the PIN details. Based on the address, several post offices can be located within a single locality, making finding PIN codes challenging. 

Cannot Verify Street and City Names

Even with the PIN code, you might need external tools to verify the street or city names. This process is time-consuming and daunting because you must cross-check all address elements individually instead of using a single solution that can validate the entire thing.

Higher Chances of Undelivered Mail

Since India Post doesn’t keep an official record of all delivery addresses, people don’t get their new addresses registered with it. Hence, there are higher chances of misdeliveries, delays, and returned items. 

Don’t Get Geocoding Functionalities

India Post address validation doesn’t offer geocoding capabilities at any level. Thus, you cannot leverage this tool for data mapping, analytics, business intelligence, etc. You might need another solution, like PostGrid, which specializes in this area and provides massive metadata for every address.

Bulk Address Verification is Impossible

You cannot verify addresses in bulk because India Post doesn’t specifically offer address verification. It only lets you confirm whether your PIN codes match the associated state/union territory and city/district. Even if you install its API into your system, you can only get the PIN codes in bulk, not the capability to validate delivery locations.

Cannot Standardize and Autocomplete Addresses 

Businesses cannot reformat their recipients’ delivery addresses according to the India Post guidelines automatically using its tool. Though you must follow some instructions on how to address your envelopes and parcels, there is no way to standardize or autocomplete your mailing lists. 

As discussed above, India Post doesn’t offer “address verification.” It provides a tool to find postcodes, which is it! Thus, you cannot rely on it alone to cross-verify addresses and ensure high deliverability rates. You can consider other alternatives if you regularly ship envelopes, postcards, and packages to India.

One alternative is PostGrid’s address verification API. It does more than help you check PIN codes; you can integrate it into your CRM or website to let users get address suggestions as they start typing. Hence, they have fewer chances to make errors because they select their correct mailing addresses from a list instead of typing the whole thing. 

Also, using an alternative instead of India Post address validation is better because you get real-time results. You don’t need to download the entire PIN directory on your system. Instead, you can get the most accurate, updated, and deliverable result for every address record.

PostGrid allows you to check whether your addresses are complete, correct, and deliverable. If not, it makes the necessary adjustments to ensure you can ship items to them. 

It combines several authoritative databases and cross-verifies your mailing lists against them to find a match. If the address is a complete match, it is marked “valid.” Otherwise, PostGrid autocompletes, standardizes, and validates the address to give you ready-to-use results. Here are some of its top features:

Internal Address Data

PostGrid allows you to check your addresses at the street level. But it also lets you validate your secondary address units, like the room or suite number, floor, etc. Hence, you can ensure the mailpieces end up at the correct doorstep. You don’t need to install another app or software to get such additional address data. 

Bulk Address Verification

PostGrid allows businesses to scale up and down based on their requirements. They can check a single address or hundreds of thousands. The best part is that it takes two hours to check a file of a million addresses. Thus, you can get high-quality results without slowdowns, glitches, or technical errors. 

International Address Checking

Different countries have different address formats, and PostGrid automatically adjusts to each country’s postal standards. For example, a Canadian address needs a postal code, while an address in Japan might include a prefecture. PostGrid ensures all these details are correct and formatted correctly.

PostGrid can validate addresses in 250+ countries and territories. To use it, integrate our address verification API into your system. PostGrid uses rooftop geocoding to capture the most accurate and up-to-date addresses.

Fuzzy Address Matching

It helps identify and match addresses even if they have minor errors or inconsistencies, such as typos, missing parts, or incorrect formatting. For example, if someone enters “123 Rok Street” instead of “123 Rock Street,” or the city name is missing, PostGrid can recognize such mistakes and suggest the correct version. It uses advanced algorithms to compare similar addresses and determine the accurate delivery location. 

Zero-Code Integrations

You don’t need technical expertise to integrate PostGrid into your website, CRM, or platform. Use our user-friendly API documentation to copy and paste the API keys into your system. It’s quick and seamless. 

Sign up now and learn more about our address validation solution and how to get started!