---
title: "Retrieve identity match score"
method: POST
path: "/identity/match"
tags: ["plaid"]
---

# Retrieve identity match score

`POST /identity/match`

The `/identity/match` endpoint generates a match score, which indicates how well the provided identity data matches the identity information on file with the account holder's financial institution.

Fields within the `balances` object will always be null when retrieved by `/identity/match`. Instead, use the free `/accounts/get` endpoint to request balance cached data, or `/accounts/balance/get` for real-time data.

This request may take some time to complete if Identity was not specified as an initial product when creating the Item. This is because Plaid must communicate directly with the institution to retrieve the data.

## Request body

- IdentityMatchRequest — IdentityMatchRequest defines the request schema for `/identity/match`
  - `client_id` string — Your Plaid API `client_id`. The `client_id` is required and may be provided either in the `PLAID-CLIENT-ID` header or as part of a request body.
  - `secret` string — Your Plaid API `secret`. The `secret` is required and may be provided either in the `PLAID-SECRET` header or as part of a request body.
  - `access_token` string, required — The access token associated with the Item data is being requested for.
  - `user` IdentityMatchUser — The user's legal name, phone number, email address and address used to perform fuzzy match. If Financial Account Matching is enabled in the Identity Verification product, leave this field empty to automatically match against PII collected from the Identity Verification checks.
    - `legal_name` string, nullable — The user's full legal name.
    - `phone_number` string, nullable — The user's phone number, in E.164 format: +{countrycode}{number}. For example: "+14151234567". Phone numbers provided in other formats will be parsed on a best-effort basis.
    - `email_address` string, nullable — The user's email address.
    - `address` AddressDataNullableNoRequiredFields, nullable — Data about the components comprising an address.
      - `city` string, nullable — The full city name
      - `region` string, nullable — The region or state. In API versions 2018-05-22 and earlier, this field is called `state`. Example: `"NC"`
      - `street` string — The full street address Example: `"564 Main Street, APT 15"`
      - `postal_code` string, nullable — The postal code. In API versions 2018-05-22 and earlier, this field is called `zip`.
      - `country` string, nullable — The ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
  - `options` IdentityMatchRequestOptions — An optional object to filter /identity/match results
    - `account_ids` string[] — An array of `account_ids` to perform fuzzy match

## Response `200`

OK

- IdentityMatchResponse — IdentityMatchResponse defines the response schema for `/identity/match`
  - `accounts` AccountIdentityMatchScore[], required — The accounts for which Identity match has been requested
    - `account_id` string, required — Plaid’s unique identifier for the account. This value will not change unless Plaid can't reconcile the account with the data returned by the financial institution. This may occur, for example, when the name of the account changes. If this happens a new `account_id` will be assigned to the account. The `account_id` can also change if the `access_token` is deleted and the same credentials that were used to generate that `access_token` are used to generate a new `access_token` on a later date. In that case, the new `account_id` will be different from the old `account_id`. If an account with a specific `account_id` disappears instead of changing, the account is likely closed. Closed accounts are not returned by the Plaid API. Like all Plaid identifiers, the `account_id` is case sensitive.
    - `balances` AccountBalance, required — A set of fields describing the balance for an account. Balance information may be cached unless the balance object was returned by `/accounts/balance/get`.
      - `available` number, double, nullable, required — The amount of funds available to be withdrawn from the account, as determined by the financial institution. For `credit`-type accounts, the `available` balance typically equals the `limit` less the `current` balance, less any pending outflows plus any pending inflows. For `depository`-type accounts, the `available` balance typically equals the `current` balance less any pending outflows plus any pending inflows. For `depository`-type accounts, the `available` balance does not include the overdraft limit. For `investment`-type accounts (or `brokerage`-type accounts for API versions 2018-05-22 and earlier), the `available` balance is the total cash available to withdraw as presented by the institution. Note that not all institutions calculate the `available` balance. In the event that `available` balance is unavailable, Plaid will return an `available` balance value of `null`. Available balance may be cached and is not guaranteed to be up-to-date in realtime unless the value was returned by `/accounts/balance/get`. If `current` is `null` this field is guaranteed not to be `null`.
      - `current` number, double, nullable, required — The total amount of funds in or owed by the account. For `credit`-type accounts, a positive balance indicates the amount owed; a negative amount indicates the lender owing the account holder. For `loan`-type accounts, the current balance is the principal remaining on the loan, except in the case of student loan accounts at Sallie Mae (`ins_116944`). For Sallie Mae student loans, the account's balance includes both principal and any outstanding interest. For `investment`-type accounts (or `brokerage`-type accounts for API versions 2018-05-22 and earlier), the current balance is the total value of assets as presented by the institution. Note that balance information may be cached unless the value was returned by `/accounts/balance/get`; if the Item is enabled for Transactions, the balance will be at least as recent as the most recent Transaction update. If you require realtime balance information, use the `available` balance as provided by `/accounts/balance/get`. When returned by `/accounts/balance/get`, this field may be `null`. When this happens, `available` is guaranteed not to be `null`.
      - `limit` number, double, nullable, required — For `credit`-type accounts, this represents the credit limit. For `depository`-type accounts, this represents the pre-arranged overdraft limit, which is common for current (checking) accounts in Europe. In North America, this field is typically only available for `credit`-type accounts.
      - `iso_currency_code` string, nullable, required — The ISO-4217 currency code of the balance. Always null if `unofficial_currency_code` is non-null.
      - `unofficial_currency_code` string, nullable, required — The unofficial currency code associated with the balance. Always null if `iso_currency_code` is non-null. Unofficial currency codes are used for currencies that do not have official ISO currency codes, such as cryptocurrencies and the currencies of certain countries. See the [currency code schema](https://plaid.com/docs/api/accounts#currency-code-schema) for a full listing of supported `unofficial_currency_code`s.
      - `last_updated_datetime` string, date-time, nullable — Timestamp in [ISO 8601](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601) format (`YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ`) indicating the oldest acceptable balance when making a request to `/accounts/balance/get`. This field is only used and expected when the institution is `ins_128026` (Capital One) and the Item contains one or more accounts with a non-depository account type, in which case a value must be provided or an `INVALID_REQUEST` error with the code of `INVALID_FIELD` will be returned. For Capital One depository accounts as well as all other account types on all other institutions, this field is ignored. See [account type schema](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601) for a full list of account types. If the balance that is pulled is older than the given timestamp for Items with this field required, an `INVALID_REQUEST` error with the code of `LAST_UPDATED_DATETIME_OUT_OF_RANGE` will be returned with the most recent timestamp for the requested account contained in the response.
    - `mask` string, nullable, required — The last 2-4 alphanumeric characters of an account's official account number. Note that the mask may be non-unique between an Item's accounts, and it may also not match the mask that the bank displays to the user.
    - `name` string, required — The name of the account, either assigned by the user or by the financial institution itself
    - `official_name` string, nullable, required — The official name of the account as given by the financial institution
    - `type` 'investment' | 'credit' | 'depository' | 'loan' | 'brokerage' | 'other', required — `investment:` Investment account. In API versions 2018-05-22 and earlier, this type is called `brokerage` instead. `credit:` Credit card `depository:` Depository account `loan:` Loan account `other:` Non-specified account type See the [Account type schema](https://plaid.com/docs/api/accounts#account-type-schema) for a full listing of account types and corresponding subtypes.
    - `subtype` '401a' | '401k' | '403B' | '457b' | '529' | 'brokerage' | 'cash isa' | 'crypto exchange' | 'education savings account' | 'ebt' | 'fixed annuity' | 'gic' | 'health reimbursement arrangement' | 'hsa' | 'isa' | 'ira' | 'lif' | 'life insurance' | 'lira' | 'lrif' | 'lrsp' | 'non-custodial wallet' | 'non-taxable brokerage account' | 'other' | 'other insurance' | 'other annuity' | 'prif' | 'rdsp' | 'resp' | 'rlif' | 'rrif' | 'pension' | 'profit sharing plan' | 'retirement' | 'roth' | 'roth 401k' | 'rrsp' | 'sep ira' | 'simple ira' | 'sipp' | 'stock plan' | 'thrift savings plan' | 'tfsa' | 'trust' | 'ugma' | 'utma' | 'variable annuity' | 'credit card' | 'paypal' | 'cd' | 'checking' | 'savings' | 'money market' | 'prepaid' | 'auto' | 'business' | 'commercial' | 'construction' | 'consumer' | 'home equity' | 'loan' | 'mortgage' | 'overdraft' | 'line of credit' | 'student' | 'cash management' | 'keogh' | 'mutual fund' | 'recurring' | 'rewards' | 'safe deposit' | 'sarsep' | 'payroll' | 'null', nullable, required — See the [Account type schema](https://plaid.com/docs/api/accounts/#account-type-schema) for a full listing of account types and corresponding subtypes.
    - `verification_status` 'automatically_verified' | 'pending_automatic_verification' | 'pending_manual_verification' | 'manually_verified' | 'verification_expired' | 'verification_failed' | 'database_matched' | 'database_insights_pass' | 'database_insights_pass_with_caution' | 'database_insights_fail' — The current verification status of an Auth Item initiated through Automated or Manual micro-deposits. Returned for Auth Items only. `pending_automatic_verification`: The Item is pending automatic verification `pending_manual_verification`: The Item is pending manual micro-deposit verification. Items remain in this state until the user successfully verifies the micro-deposit. `automatically_verified`: The Item has successfully been automatically verified `manually_verified`: The Item has successfully been manually verified `verification_expired`: Plaid was unable to automatically verify the deposit within 7 calendar days and will no longer attempt to validate the Item. Users may retry by submitting their information again through Link. `verification_failed`: The Item failed manual micro-deposit verification because the user exhausted all 3 verification attempts. Users may retry by submitting their information again through Link. `database_matched`: The Item has successfully been verified using Plaid's data sources. `database_insights_pass`: The Item's ACH numbers have been verified using Plaid's data sources and have strong signal for being valid. Note: Database Insights is currently a beta feature, please contact your account manager for more information. `database_insights_pass_with_caution`: The Item's ACH numbers have been verified using Plaid's data sources and have some signal for being valid. Note: Database Insights is currently a beta feature, please contact your account manager for more information. `database_insights_fail`: The Item's ACH numbers have been verified using Plaid's data sources and have signal for being invalid and/or have no signal for being valid. Note: Database Insights is currently a beta feature, please contact your account manager for more information.
    - `verification_insights` AccountVerificationInsights — Insights from performing database verification for the account.
      - `network_status` AccountVerificationInsightsNetworkStatus, required — Status information about the account and routing number in the Plaid network.
        - `has_numbers_match` boolean, required — Indicates whether we found at least one matching account for the ACH account and routing number.
        - `is_numbers_match_verified` boolean, required — Indicates if at least one matching account for the ACH account and routing number is already verified.
      - `previous_returns` AccountVerificationInsightsPreviousReturns — Information about known ACH returns for the account and routing number.
        - `has_previous_administrative_return` boolean, required — Indicates whether Plaid's data sources include a known administrative ACH return for account and routing number.
      - `account_number_format` 'valid' | 'invalid' | 'unknown', required — Indicator of account number format validity for institution. `valid`: indicates that the account number has a correct format for the institution. `invalid`: indicates that the account number has an incorrect format for the institution. `unknown`: indicates that there was not enough information to determine whether the format is correct for the institution.
    - `persistent_account_id` string — A unique and persistent identifier for accounts that can be used to trace multiple instances of the same account across different Items for depository accounts. This is currently only supported for Chase Items. Because Chase accounts have a different account number each time they are linked, this field may be used instead of the account number to uniquely identify a Chase account across multiple Items for payments use cases, helping to reduce duplicate Items or attempted fraud. In Sandbox, this field may be populated for any account; in Production and Development, it will only be populated for Chase accounts.
    - `legal_name` NameMatchScore, nullable — Score found by matching name provided by the API with the name on the account at the financial institution. If the account contains multiple owners, the maximum match score is filled.
      - `score` integer, nullable — Match score for name. 100 is a perfect score, 99-85 means a strong match, 84-70 is a partial match, any score less than 70 is a mismatch. Typically, the match threshold should be set to a score of 70 or higher. If the name is missing from either the API or financial institution, this is null.
      - `is_first_name_or_last_name_match` boolean, nullable — first or last name completely matched, likely a family member
      - `is_nickname_match` boolean, nullable — nickname matched, example Jennifer and Jenn.
      - `is_business_name_detected` boolean, nullable — Is `true` if the name on either of the names that was matched for the score contained strings indicative of a business name, such as "CORP", "LLC", "INC", or "LTD". A `true` result generally indicates the entity is a business. However, a `false` result does not mean the entity is not a business, as some businesses do not use these strings in the names used for their financial institution accounts.
    - `phone_number` PhoneNumberMatchScore, nullable — Score found by matching phone number provided by the API with the phone number on the account at the financial institution. 100 is a perfect match and 0 is a no match. If the account contains multiple owners, the maximum match score is filled.
      - `score` integer, nullable — Match score for normalized phone number. 100 is a perfect match, 99-70 is a partial match (matching the same phone number with extension against one without extension, etc.), anything below 70 is considered a mismatch. Typically, the match threshold should be set to a score of 70 or higher. If the phone number is missing from either the API or financial institution, this is null.
    - `email_address` EmailAddressMatchScore, nullable — Score found by matching email provided by the API with the email on the account at the financial institution. 100 is a perfect match and 0 is a no match. If the account contains multiple owners, the maximum match score is filled.
      - `score` integer, nullable — Match score for normalized email. 100 is a perfect match, 99-70 is a partial match (matching the same email with different '+' extensions), anything below 70 is considered a mismatch. Typically, the match threshold should be set to a score of 70 or higher. If the email is missing from either the API or financial institution, this is null.
    - `address` AddressMatchScore, nullable — Score found by matching address provided by the API with the address on the account at the financial institution. The score can range from 0 to 100 where 100 is a perfect match and 0 is a no match. If the account contains multiple owners, the maximum match score is filled.
      - `score` integer, nullable — Match score for address. 100 is a perfect match, 99-90 is a strong match, 89-70 is a partial match, anything below 70 is considered a weak match. Typically, the match threshold should be set to a score of 70 or higher. If the address is missing from either the API or financial institution, this is null.
      - `is_postal_code_match` boolean, nullable — postal code was provided for both and was a match
  - `item` Item, required — Metadata about the Item.
    - `item_id` string, required — The Plaid Item ID. The `item_id` is always unique; linking the same account at the same institution twice will result in two Items with different `item_id` values. Like all Plaid identifiers, the `item_id` is case-sensitive.
    - `institution_id` string, nullable — The Plaid Institution ID associated with the Item. Field is `null` for Items created via Same Day Micro-deposits.
    - `webhook` string, nullable, required — The URL registered to receive webhooks for the Item.
    - `error` PlaidError, nullable, required — Errors are identified by `error_code` and categorized by `error_type`. Use these in preference to HTTP status codes to identify and handle specific errors. HTTP status codes are set and provide the broadest categorization of errors: 4xx codes are for developer- or user-related errors, and 5xx codes are for Plaid-related errors, and the status will be 2xx in non-error cases. An Item with a non-`null` error object will only be part of an API response when calling `/item/get` to view Item status. Otherwise, error fields will be `null` if no error has occurred; if an error has occurred, an error code will be returned instead.
      - `error_type` 'INVALID_REQUEST' | 'INVALID_RESULT' | 'INVALID_INPUT' | 'INSTITUTION_ERROR' | 'RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED' | 'API_ERROR' | 'ITEM_ERROR' | 'ASSET_REPORT_ERROR' | 'RECAPTCHA_ERROR' | 'OAUTH_ERROR' | 'PAYMENT_ERROR' | 'BANK_TRANSFER_ERROR' | 'INCOME_VERIFICATION_ERROR' | 'MICRODEPOSITS_ERROR', required — A broad categorization of the error. Safe for programmatic use.
      - `error_code` string, required — The particular error code. Safe for programmatic use.
      - `error_message` string, required — A developer-friendly representation of the error code. This may change over time and is not safe for programmatic use.
      - `display_message` string, nullable, required — A user-friendly representation of the error code. `null` if the error is not related to user action. This may change over time and is not safe for programmatic use.
      - `request_id` string — A unique ID identifying the request, to be used for troubleshooting purposes. This field will be omitted in errors provided by webhooks.
      - `causes` unknown[] — In the Assets product, a request can pertain to more than one Item. If an error is returned for such a request, `causes` will return an array of errors containing a breakdown of these errors on the individual Item level, if any can be identified. `causes` will only be provided for the `error_type` `ASSET_REPORT_ERROR`. `causes` will also not be populated inside an error nested within a `warning` object.
        - unknown
      - `status` integer, nullable — The HTTP status code associated with the error. This will only be returned in the response body when the error information is provided via a webhook.
      - `documentation_url` string — The URL of a Plaid documentation page with more information about the error
      - `suggested_action` string, nullable — Suggested steps for resolving the error
    - `available_products` Products[], required — A list of products available for the Item that have not yet been accessed. The contents of this array will be mutually exclusive with `billed_products`.
    - `billed_products` Products[], required — A list of products that have been billed for the Item. The contents of this array will be mutually exclusive with `available_products`. Note - `billed_products` is populated in all environments but only requests in Production are billed. Also note that products that are billed on a pay-per-call basis rather than a pay-per-Item basis, such as `balance`, will not appear here.
    - `products` Products[] — A list of products added to the Item. In almost all cases, this will be the same as the `billed_products` field. For some products, it is possible for the product to be added to an Item but not yet billed (e.g. Assets, before `/asset_report/create` has been called, or Auth or Identity when added as Optional Products but before their endpoints have been called), in which case the product may appear in `products` but not in `billed_products`.
    - `consented_products` Products[] — A list of products that have gone through consent collection for the Item. Only present for those enabled in the [Data Transparency](https://plaid.com/docs/link/data-transparency-messaging-migration-guide) beta. If you are not enrolled in Data Transparency, this field is not used.
    - `consent_expiration_time` string, date-time, nullable, required — The RFC 3339 timestamp after which the consent provided by the end user will expire. Upon consent expiration, the item will enter the `ITEM_LOGIN_REQUIRED` error state. To circumvent the `ITEM_LOGIN_REQUIRED` error and maintain continuous consent, the end user can reauthenticate via Link’s update mode in advance of the consent expiration time. Note - This is only relevant for certain OAuth-based institutions. For all other institutions, this field will be null.
    - `update_type` 'background' | 'user_present_required', required — Indicates whether an Item requires user interaction to be updated, which can be the case for Items with some forms of two-factor authentication. `background` - Item can be updated in the background `user_present_required` - Item requires user interaction to be updated
  - `request_id` string, required — A unique identifier for the request, which can be used for troubleshooting. This identifier, like all Plaid identifiers, is case sensitive.

## Changes

- **2024-04-17** `943c632a075c` — 4 warning
  - added the new `profile` enum value to the `item/available_products/items/` response property for the response status `200`
  - added the new `profile` enum value to the `item/billed_products/items/` response property for the response status `200`
  - added the new `profile` enum value to the `item/consented_products/items/` response property for the response status `200`
  - added the new `profile` enum value to the `item/products/items/` response property for the response status `200`
- **2024-02-21** `5de70cc1e6ca` — 20 warning, 89 info
  - removed the optional property `accounts/items/allOf[subschema #1: Account]/holder_category` from the response with the `200` status
  - removed the optional property `accounts/items/allOf[subschema #1: Account]/verification_insights/name_match_score` from the response with the `200` status
  - removed the optional property `accounts/items/allOf[subschema #1: Account]/verification_name` from the response with the `200` status
  - removed the optional property `accounts/items/allOf[subschema #2]/mask` from the response with the `200` status
  - …105 more

[Change history](https://skmtc.dev/plaid/apis/the-plaid-api/changes/identity/match/post.md)

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/plaid/apis/the-plaid-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/plaid/apis/the-plaid-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-production.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/plaid/the-plaid-api/revisions/a5b45bccb4e8/schema)