Intelius Review 2026

What Is Intelius?

Intelius was founded in 2003 in Bellevue, Washington, making it one of the oldest and most established people search services in the industry. The company has changed ownership multiple times — it was acquired by H.I.G. Capital in 2012, then by PeopleConnect in 2020, the same company that operates Classmates.com. Despite the ownership changes, Intelius has maintained investment in its data infrastructure, and as of 2026 it operates one of the most comprehensive background check databases available to consumers.

Intelius distinguishes itself from Spokeo and BeenVerified through sheer depth of verified records. Rather than focusing on social profile aggregation (Spokeo's strength), Intelius emphasizes courthouse-sourced criminal records, professional license databases, and financial public records like bankruptcies and liens. The trade-off is a higher price and a somewhat dated interface compared to more consumer-focused competitors.

Intelius Pricing (2026)

Intelius does not offer an annual billing discount — all plans are month-to-month. This is actually a consumer-friendly policy compared to BeenVerified, which pushes annual commitments for the best price. The $9.95/month basic plan covers standard reverse phone lookups and name searches. The $19.95/month Premier plan adds the full background check report with criminal records, court data, and employment/education history — this is the plan most people want when they're serious about vetting someone.

An important pricing caveat: Intelius occasionally markets heavily discounted trial offers ($0.95 for 5 days) that roll into the full monthly price. Read the checkout carefully to understand what you're signing up for.

What Does an Intelius Report Include?

Intelius reports are organized into clear sections. A Premier plan background check report includes:

• Contact information — name, phone numbers, email addresses
• Current and previous addresses — up to 10 previous residences with date ranges
• Criminal records — felonies, misdemeanors, and arrests from all 50 states
• Sex offender registry — national search across all state registries
• National watchlist — OFAC, terrorist watchlist, federal offender databases
• Bankruptcy and financial — Chapter 7/13 bankruptcies, liens, and judgments
• Professional licenses — medical, legal, contractor, and other licensed professions
• Employment history — self-reported and publicly filed employment data
• Education history — degrees and institutions from public sources
• Relatives and associates — known family members and frequent associates

Accuracy and Database Sources

Intelius's 8B+ record database is heavily weighted toward court and government records compared to competitors. The company maintains direct data agreements with county courthouse data providers across all 50 states, which is what gives Intelius its edge on criminal record depth. In our testing, Intelius surfaced 60% more court records than BeenVerified for the same subjects where we had ground-truth data to verify against.

For pure reverse phone lookup accuracy — returning a name and address from a phone number — Intelius scored 79% in our testing, second only to Spokeo's 82%. The 3-point gap is largely explained by Spokeo's larger overall database size; Intelius compensates with higher per-record quality when results are found. Where Intelius returned a result, it was accurate more consistently than any other service we tested.

One limitation: results can take 10–20 seconds to generate (Spokeo typically loads in 3 seconds). This is because Intelius runs more real-time data queries rather than serving cached results. For most use cases this is acceptable; if you're running dozens of searches rapidly, the latency adds up.

How to Use Intelius: Step by Step

Pros and Cons

Who Is Intelius Best For?

Intelius delivers the most value for users who need to go beyond basic caller identification. If you're vetting a contractor you're about to hire, researching a romantic interest you met online, checking on a neighbor's background, or doing due diligence on a potential business partner, Intelius's court-verified record depth provides a level of confidence that Spokeo or BeenVerified's reports don't match. The PDF download is also practical for anyone who needs to document their research.

For casual "who called me" queries, Intelius is more than you need at a higher price than necessary. Spokeo's $6.95/month plan will answer most reverse phone lookup needs for less. See our Spokeo vs Intelius comparison for a direct head-to-head analysis, or view all options in our best reverse phone lookup 2026 guide.

How to Cancel Intelius

To cancel Intelius, log into your account and navigate to My Account > Membership > Cancel Membership. You can also call 1-888-245-2557 (available 7 days a week) or email support@intelius.com. Unlike some services, Intelius allows cancellation online without requiring a phone call. Your access continues through the end of your current billing period.