Google Address Validation vs. Melissa Global Address (Global)

When choosing an address validation service, businesses often balance two priorities: how accurately it confirms deliverable addresses and how broadly it covers global data.

Both Melissa Global Address API and Google Address Validation API offer strong capabilities in this space. However, they differ in purpose, data foundation, and output interpretation.

Below are the functional differences between the two solutions, followed by findings from our six-country study comparing how each performs in real-world scenarios. 

Feature and Capability Comparison

Study: Testing Real-World Address Deliverability

We conducted a study evaluating how each Address Validation API performs in real-world address validation.

About 1,000 addresses per country - including both valid and invalid examples - were tested across Australia, Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Our focus is on address validation accuracy and deliverability, especially when handling incomplete or incorrect inputs.

Sample Selection

About 1,000 addresses (both valid and invalid) per country were tested across Australia, Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Samples were randomly distributed across all regions within each country and included:

• Different levels of correction needs
  e.g., typos, missing pre-/post-directions, alias street names, and incomplete data.

• Missing/Incorrect components
  e.g., thoroughfare name, locality, administrative area, or postal code information.

• Special cases
  e.g., P.O. Boxes and other non-standard address formats.

→ We intend for this diverse sample to reflect real-world address scenarios.

Disclaimer

Findings are based on tests conducted in September 2025 using the current production APIs. Because both systems and postal data update regularly, results should be viewed as time-specific observations, not permanent benchmarks. Additionally, results are dependent on the input data provided. Users may see different results when utilizing their own data.

Service Specific Categorization

For this comparison, we grouped Melissa and Google’s statuses into High, Medium, and Low confidence levels.

Google – Three validation groups - returned in the possibleNextAction field:

• Accept

• Confirm

• Fix

These statuses are only general suggestions. Users need to check extra response details to decide how confident they are in each address.

Melissa – Three validation criteria - returned in the Results field:

• Full Validation - AV24, AV25

• Partial Validation - AV14

• Invalid - All other results

These statuses are definitive.

Quantitative Results

Key Findings for Google Address Validation API

Unreliable Subpremise Validation

For address validation, Melissa checks every required component while Google often marks addresses missing suite number as valid.

Google Address Validation API May Mark Addresses Missing Required Suite as Valid

Can label an address as fully valid even when a suite or apartment number is missing, leading to false confidence and potential delivery failures.

In our test, roughly 3% of all addresses Google accepts are missing required suite details.

Canada Post: 28 Cascade St, Parry Sound, ON P2A 1J6, Canada - suite/unit required

Google Address Validation API Often Stops at the Building Level

Validates the building but doesn’t confirm the exact apartment or office inside.

In our test, roughly 7% of all addresses Google accepts are addresses deemed fully valid at building level even when SubPremise (Suite) is required.

Canada Post: 3400 Boul de Maisonneuve, Montreal, QC H3Z 3E7, Canada - suite/unit required

Addresses Marked Valid With Unconfirmed Parts

For address validation, Melissa confirms every required component while Google may mark addresses with unconfirmed components as valid.

Google Address Validation API Accepts Unconfirmed Addresses

May accept an address when components like the premise number or thoroughfare are not confirmed, leading to false positives and potential delivery failures.

In our test, 32% of all addresses Google accepts have unconfirmed components, and 3% were false positives.

La Poste: 035 Avenue d'Etain, 55100 Verdun, France - Invalid Address

Limited P.O. Box Coverage

For address validation, Melissa supports P.O. Box validation across worldwide countries, while Google offers limited or no coverage in many regions.

Google Address Validation API Offers Limited P.O. Box Support in Some Countries

May not recognize P.O. Box addresses in certain regions outside the U.S.

In our test sample of valid P.O. Box addresses across Australia, Canada, Germany, and Japan, Google failed to accept approximately 98% of them.

Summary

We compared Google and Melissa’s address validation APIs across thousands of addresses in six countries, focusing on how each handled incomplete, incorrect, or special-case addresses such as aliases, subpremises, and P.O. Boxes.

• Melissa Global Address consistently delivered higher validation confidence and postal deliverability accuracy, particularly for subpremise, P.O. Box, and postal-certified data—ideal for compliant, delivery-critical operations.

• Google Address Validation performed well on clean, accurate data, but its crowdsourced foundation and interpretive confidence model can lead to inconsistencies and occasional false positives when address data is incomplete or ambiguous.

Overall, Melissa’s results align more closely with official postal standards, providing stronger user confidence and reducing the risk of operational or delivery errors, while Google’s focus remains on geocoding accuracy.