People Data Labs (PDL) is a well-documented data API sold per record, plus bulk dataset licences. LeadOcean is the same kind of API, over REST and MCP, at one flat price. If you call PDL for lookups and search and the bill grows with volume, LeadOcean is the cheaper and more predictable source. If you need dataset files in your own warehouse, keep PDL.
Why teams switch from People Data Labs
The bill scales with every record
PDL Pro starts at $98 a month for 350 person credits, which is $0.28 a record. Enrichment costs one credit per match, and search costs one credit per profile returned (PDL pricing, September 2026; PDL docs, September 2026).
The free plan hides the contact data
PDL Free gives up to 100 records a month. Emails, phone numbers and addresses are obfuscated until you upgrade (PDL pricing, September 2026). You cannot test the data you are about to pay for.
Volume means a sales call
PDL says volume above 100,000 records needs Enterprise, through sales (PDL docs, September 2026). Person and company data are also priced on separate plans.
No MCP server in the docs
PDL's documentation describes REST APIs, SDKs and file delivery. It lists no MCP server. Third-party wrappers exist, but you host them and run them with your own API key.
LeadOcean vs People Data Labs
| LeadOcean | People Data Labs | |
|---|---|---|
| Price model | Flat monthly fee. No credits, no per-record price, no overage invoice. | Credits per record, with volume discounts as usage grows (PDL pricing). |
| Entry price | Free plan, 1,000 records one-off, no card. | Free plan, up to 100 records a month. Pro from $98 a month for 350 person credits (PDL pricing). |
| What $499 a month buys | Pro: unlimited searches, enrichments and lookups, whole database, 5 API keys. | About 1,780 person records at the entry rate of $0.28 a credit, before volume discounts ($98 / 350 credits, PDL pricing). |
| Company data price | Included in the flat fee. | Company Pro from $100 a month for 1,000 records, about $0.10 each (PDL company pricing). |
| Annual term | No. Monthly, cancel any time. | Annual saves 20% (PDL pricing). |
| Contact data on the free plan | Yes. Same API and MCP server as Pro. | Obfuscated. Unlocked on Pro (PDL pricing). |
| MCP server | Yes, OAuth 2.1, on every plan. 12 tools. | None listed in PDL's docs index (PDL docs, September 2026). |
| Rate limit | 100 requests per second per key, every plan. | Enrichment 100 a minute on Free, 1,000 a minute on paid plans. Person Search 10 a minute by default (PDL docs; PDL docs). |
| Person records | 693M people, one dataset. | 2.47 billion profiles in the All dataset, 592 million with an email (PDL datasets). |
| Company records | 63M companies. | 76.6 million companies (PDL company stats). |
| Phone numbers | 166M people with a phone number. | 764 million profiles in the Phone dataset (PDL datasets). |
| Search filters | 50 people filters, 34 company filters, 100 results per page. | Query on any field in the person schema, 1 to 100 results per page (PDL docs). |
| Bulk pulls | POST /v1/exports turns any search into a CSV, 50,000 rows per request. | Bulk Person Enrichment takes 100 people per request (PDL docs). Whole datasets come as licensed files. |
| Bulk dataset files | No. API, MCP and CSV export. | Yes. Annual Data Licence, delivered to S3, GCP or Azure (PDL docs). |
| Job posting data | No. | Yes. 46 million postings across 116,514 companies (PDL job posting stats). |
| IP data | No. | Yes. 1.84 billion IP records (PDL IP stats). |
| Company lookup | POST /v1/companies/enrich, 63M companies. | Company Enrichment, one credit per match (PDL docs). |
| API keys on the paid plan | 5. | 3 on Pro, 5 on Enterprise (PDL docs). |
| Miss on a lookup | A 404 that costs nothing. | Unsuccessful requests are not billed (PDL docs). |
| Cost of a very large month | Same $499. Paced down past the fair-usage line. | Enterprise, custom quote (PDL pricing). |
| Setup | Sign up, copy a key, send one request. | Sign up, choose person, company or IP plans, send a request. |
| Who it suits | Engineers, RevOps and agents that need volume and a fixed bill. | Data teams that want licensed files, job postings or IP data. |
PDL figures come from the pages linked in each cell, checked in September 2026. PDL updates plans and dataset counts often, so check them before you buy.
What 1M, 5M and 25M records cost
PDL has no public 1M price. Pro person profiles cost about $0.20 to $0.28 each. Above about 100,000 profiles a year, PDL sells only through Enterprise quotes (PDL blog, September 2026; PDL blog, Self-serve vs Enterprise). LeadOcean Pro stays at $499 a month.
| Records a month | People Data Labs | LeadOcean |
|---|---|---|
| 1M | No public 1M price. Enterprise quote. | $499 a month. |
| 5M | No public price. Enterprise quote. | $499 a month. |
| 25M | No public price. Enterprise quote. | $499 a month. Past fair use, one email raises the headroom. |
The $0.28 figure is the entry Pro rate ($98 for 350 credits, PDL pricing, September 2026), not a volume rate. Ask PDL for a quote at your volume.
Company lookups cost less, about $0.10 a record at the entry company plan. Your real number depends on your mix of person and company calls.
Where LeadOcean wins
A flat bill at any volume
Pro is $499 a month. Every person or company returned counts as a record, but there is no credit balance to watch and no overage invoice. A very large month is paced down to one request a minute until the reset, not cut off, and one email to support gets you more headroom.
The free plan shows the real data
The Free plan gives you 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. It uses the same API and MCP server as Pro, so you can test match quality on your own list before you pay anything. The count=true search below is free when limit is 1.
curl "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search?jobLevel=Director&country=US&limit=1&count=true" \
-H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY"The response carries meta.total, capped at 100,000. Follow it with POST /v1/people/enrich on one LinkedIn URL and reveal_email to get the emails and phones we hold, for one record.
MCP built in, not bolted on
LeadOcean runs a hosted MCP server with 12 tools on every plan, including Free. For Claude or Cursor, add https://api.leadocean.io/mcp and sign in with OAuth. No key gets pasted into a chat, and count_leads, list_filters and get_account cost nothing.
Headroom for code
The rate limit is 100 requests per second per key on every plan. PDL's default for Person Search is 10 requests a minute, so a search-heavy job queues on PDL and runs on LeadOcean. Export up to 50,000 rows per request with POST /v1/exports.
Where People Data Labs wins
Bulk dataset files for your warehouse
PDL licenses its person data as files, annually, for delivery to S3, GCP or Azure. Delta files carry only the changed records (PDL docs, September 2026). LeadOcean has no licence or file delivery. If your goal is to own the data in Snowflake or BigQuery, PDL is the right buyer's choice.
Wider data and a mature schema
PDL sells more than people and companies. It has 46 million job postings and 1.84 billion IP records (PDL job posting stats, September 2026; PDL IP stats, September 2026). Its person dataset is also larger by record count. Its docs, SDKs and monthly releases with a public changelog are more mature than ours (PDL release notes).
Enterprise terms
PDL Enterprise adds SSO, a dedicated success manager and custom contract terms (PDL pricing, September 2026). If procurement wants a signed licence and negotiated terms, PDL has that ready.
Use both: LeadOcean for live lookups, PDL for files
You do not have to drop PDL to cut the bill. Keep the licence for warehouse files, and send live lookups and agent queries to LeadOcean. PDL does not bill requests that find nothing, so the saving comes from the hits you stop paying per record for.
- Create a free LeadOcean key at app.leadocean.io/register. The free plan needs no card.
- Take 1,000 records you already enriched with PDL and send them to
POST /v1/people/enrichwith yourx-api-keyheader. Compare match rate and email status on your own list. - Move the lookups that won. Point your agent at
https://api.leadocean.io/mcp, and keep PDL for job postings, IP data and dataset files.
FAQ
Is LeadOcean a full People Data Labs replacement?
No. It replaces PDL as a lookup and search API, not as a dataset licence. If you need bulk files, job postings or IP data, keep PDL. If you only need people, companies and emails in code or an agent, LeadOcean is enough.
How much does People Data Labs cost per record?
Person Pro starts at $98 a month for 350 credits, or $0.28 a record. Company Pro starts at $100 for 1,000 records (PDL pricing, September 2026). Volume discounts apply as usage grows, and annual terms save 20%.
Does People Data Labs have an MCP server?
PDL's documentation does not list one as of September 2026. Third-party wrappers exist and run with your own PDL key. LeadOcean's MCP server is hosted at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp and signs in with OAuth.
Can LeadOcean replace PDL's bulk files?
Not as a licence. You can export up to 50,000 rows per request with POST /v1/exports, so a 1M-row pull is 20 calls over two days. For a dataset delivered to your cloud storage, use PDL's Data Licence.
What does LeadOcean cost, and is there a limit?
Free gives you 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with no credits and no per-record price. Past the fair-usage line a very large month is paced down instead of cut off, and support can raise the headroom.
Do I need a credit card to try it?
No. The free plan needs a work email and no card, and it has the same API and MCP server as Pro. Your 1,000 records last until you spend them.
Related: People Data Labs alternatives compared, People Data Labs API alternatives, pricing. Back to all alternatives.
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