Normalize names & addresses
The same customer shows up as "Jon Smith", "SMITH, JOHN" and "Jhon Smith Jr." across three different spreadsheets, and no dedupe script catches all three without help. This endpoint takes a batch of raw name and address strings and returns one normalized, consistently cased, consistently ordered record per item, so downstream systems can finally match on something reliable.
Run it online
Run this on our servers with your account. Free tools run in your browser; this one bills your KIT balance per the price above.
The mess this exists to fix
Names and addresses arrive from a dozen sources: a checkout form, a CRM import, a scanned invoice someone retyped by hand, a CSV exported from a system that truncated middle names. Each source has its own quirks, and none of them agree on capitalization, abbreviation, or field order. A human reading "J. VAN DER BERG" and "Van der Berg, J." instantly knows these are probably the same person; a naive string comparison does not, and that gap is where duplicate records and failed deliveries come from.
What normalization actually does
The address normalization api takes each raw string and produces a structured, cleaned-up version: consistent capitalization for names, expanded or standardized abbreviations for street and unit designators, a predictable field order, and separation of components like given name, surname and suffix where they can be reliably identified. It is not guessing a person's identity or enriching the record with outside data; it is making the representation of what you already have consistent enough to compare, sort and deduplicate.
How the request and pricing work
POST a batch of items to /data/normalize-names and the call returns a task_id immediately, since normalizing many records is real work that should not hold a connection open. The cleaned batch arrives at your signed webhook or through a signed link valid for 24 hours once processing finishes. Pricing is transparent: $0.003 per request plus $0.0135 per item, so a batch of 200 records costs a fixed, calculable amount before you send it, and a failed job is retried three times and never billed.
Why this is harder than a find-and-replace
Name and address formatting varies enormously by country and convention: some cultures put surname first, some addresses put the unit number before the street and some after, and abbreviation habits like "St." versus "Street" differ by region and by the person typing. A brittle set of regular expressions breaks the moment a format it was not written for shows up, which is exactly why this problem tends to resurface every time a company adds a new data source instead of being solved once.
Where it fits in a pipeline
Because results come back structured and asynchronous, normalization slots cleanly before a deduplication step, a CRM import, or a mailing list export, catching inconsistency at the door instead of after it has already caused duplicate customer records or bounced mail. Access requires prepaid balance, which keeps the endpoint fast and free of abuse traffic. This endpoint is live now.
What you can do with it
CRM deduplication before a merge
A sales operations team normalizes two CRMs before merging them, so "Robert Chen" and "CHEN, ROB" collapse into a single matchable record instead of creating a duplicate contact.
Mailing list cleanup
A logistics company normalizes customer addresses collected over five years of checkout forms so shipping labels stop failing on inconsistent abbreviations like "Apt" versus "Apartment".
Import from a legacy system
A migration project normalizes tens of thousands of customer names exported from a retiring database before loading them into a new system with stricter formatting rules.
Lead list consolidation
A marketing team normalizes leads gathered from multiple forms and vendors so the same prospect is not contacted three times under three slightly different spellings.
FAQ
How do I normalize names and addresses with an API?
POST a batch of raw name and address strings to /data/normalize-names. The address normalization api returns a task_id right away and delivers the cleaned batch to your webhook or a signed link once processing finishes.
Is this API free to use?
There's no free tier — free tiers get abused and slow everyone down. Access runs on a prepaid ForHosting KIT balance: top up from $10.00 (it never expires) and each request is charged at its published price, so a call with no balance returns HTTP 402. No subscription, no tokens, no invented credits, and a failed task is never charged.
Does it verify that an address actually exists?
No, it standardizes the format, casing and structure of the address you send; it does not validate deliverability or confirm the address exists in the real world.
Does it work across languages and countries?
It is built to handle a wide range of naming and addressing conventions, though formatting norms vary so much by region that results are always worth spot-checking on unfamiliar formats.
Can I normalize a large batch in one request?
Yes, you send a batch of items in a single request and each item is billed individually at $0.0135, with the whole batch processed asynchronously and delivered together.
Will it merge duplicate records for me?
It normalizes each record into a consistent format that makes duplicates easy to detect with a simple comparison; the actual merge decision and logic stay in your own pipeline.
Is the Name & Address Normalization API live now?
Yes, this endpoint is live today at the published price of $0.003 per request plus $0.0135 per item.
What happens to my data after normalization?
Submitted records and the normalized output are deleted after the retention window and are never used for training. Delivery is by signed webhook or a signed link valid for 24 hours.
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, and soon from our app, email and Telegram.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/data/normalize-names \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"items":["valor-1","valor-2"]}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/data/normalize-names", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"items": [
"valor-1",
"valor-2"
]
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/data/normalize-names",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"items": [
"valor-1",
"valor-2"
]
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/data/normalize-names", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"items":["valor-1","valor-2"]}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"items":["valor-1","valor-2"]}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/data/normalize-names", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"items": [
"valor-1",
"valor-2"
]
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "data.normalize_names",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Limits
max_mb | 25 |
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |
422 | task_failed | The task failed after 3 retries. You are never charged for it. |