Why did my AI Lead Search show fewer leads after I imported some?
How AI Lead Search handles existing campaign leads and Instantly-connected duplicates.
This only applies to AI Lead Search / Acquisity Lead Database. CSV imports are checked for duplicates during upload; they do not have an AI Lead Search preview count.
AI Lead Search tries to stop the same person being added to multiple campaigns, but the timing depends on how your workspace is set up.
Standalone Acquisity
If you are using standalone Acquisity, leads already in your campaigns are removed from future lead-search availability.
Example:
- You search for B2B SaaS and the preview shows 10,800 available leads.
- You import 4,000 of them into a campaign.
- You run the same search again, either for a new campaign or from Add Leads on the same campaign.
- The preview now shows about 6,800 available leads.
That is expected. The 4,000 leads you already imported are no longer available for that same workspace search because they are already owned by a campaign.
Instantly Connected to Acquisity
If Instantly is connected to Acquisity, the AI Lead Search preview does not remove or dedupe existing lead lists before you import. The preview can still show leads that will later be blocked as duplicates.
When you confirm the import, Acquisity finds and verifies the leads, then tries to upload them to the campaign. At that point, duplicate leads are blocked from being added to the campaign.
Duplicates can still use credits with Instantly connected
In an Instantly-connected workspace, duplicate leads can still be charged because the duplicate check happens after the search/import work has started. The final campaign upload can block the duplicate, but the duplicate lead may still have consumed a lead credit.
How to avoid surprises
- In standalone Acquisity, use the preview count as your net-new available pool after workspace dedupe.
- In Instantly-connected workspaces, treat the preview as a gross estimate, not a deduped net-new count.
- If you are rerunning the same niche, change filters, keywords, locations, or exclusions before importing more leads.
- Start with a smaller import if you are unsure how much overlap exists.