Apollo.io vs LeadMagic (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

Apollo.io and LeadMagic both sell B2B contact data, but they are built for different jobs. Apollo is a sales platform on its own database, priced per seat. LeadMagic is an enrichment layer you call by API or MCP, priced per valid result.

Verdict

• Pick Apollo if reps need one workspace with a database, sequences and a dialer, or if you want a free plan to start. Its email credit works out to about $0.02.
• Pick LeadMagic if a script or an agent does the work and you want to pay only for valid emails and mobiles. A miss is free, and mobiles cost 5 credits against Apollo's 8.
• Pick neither if you need volume through an API at a price you can read. Apollo at 1M records is hundreds of seats, and LeadMagic has no public 1M price. LeadOcean is one option: Pro is $499 a month, flat.

Side by side

Data and coverage

LeadMagic claims the larger database on paper: 400M+ people against Apollo's 240M contacts. Treat both as vendor claims. Apollo counts contacts, LeadMagic counts profiles, and neither publishes how many records carry an email or a phone (Apollo pricing, September 2026; LeadMagic, September 2026).

Apollo holds more companies, 30M against LeadMagic's 25M+. LeadMagic holds more people and adds 46M+ job posts. Apollo adds intent topics and job-change enrichment on paid plans.

The two also handle misses differently. LeadMagic finds an email from a name and domain, validates it on the way out, and bills only when it returns a valid one. Apollo bills 1 credit for an email, never more than 1 per contact (Apollo API pricing, September 2026).

Phones are the costly part on both. Apollo charges 8 credits per phone number and delivers it by webhook or poll, not in the same response (Apollo docs, September 2026). LeadMagic charges 5 credits per mobile found (LeadMagic, September 2026).

The two are not exclusive. LeadMagic says it is a partner in Apollo's waterfall, so teams can keep Apollo as the workspace and use LeadMagic for verification and mobiles (LeadMagic comparison page, September 2026). That is LeadMagic's own claim, so test it before you rely on it.

Match rate depends on your input. A LinkedIn URL or work email matches far more reliably than a name alone. Run the same 500 people through Apollo's Free plan and a LeadMagic month, and count the valid emails each returns.

API and developer experience

Both have a REST API, a key header and an MCP server. The difference is billing and shape. Apollo is a lookup call with an optional second step for phones. LeadMagic has one endpoint per job.

Apollo authenticates with an x-api-key header (Apollo docs, September 2026). The enrichment call is POST /api/v1/people/match (Apollo docs, September 2026):

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://api.apollo.io/api/v1/people/match?linkedin_url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe" \
  --header "x-api-key: $APOLLO_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json"

The call costs 1 to 9 credits: 1 for an email, plus 8 if a mobile comes back. Phones are off by default. You set reveal_phone_number and give a webhook URL, or set poll_only and poll for the result.

LeadMagic uses an X-API-Key header. The email finder is POST /v1/people/email-finder and takes a name and a domain (LeadMagic docs, September 2026):

curl -X POST "https://api.leadmagic.io/v1/people/email-finder" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $LEADMAGIC_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"first_name":"Jane","last_name":"Doe","domain":"acme.com"}'

A valid email costs 1 credit. No email found returns a null status and costs nothing. Mobiles are a separate call at 5 credits each.

Limits differ in kind. Apollo limits are per team and per endpoint, across three windows at once. Free gets 600 general requests a day, and paid plans get 1,000 enrichment requests a minute (Apollo rate limits, September 2026).

LeadMagic's email finder allows 600 requests a minute. Its search API is zero-credit only on Professional at 5 requests a second and Ultimate at 10. On Essential and Growth it bills about 1 credit per returned person (LeadMagic search docs, September 2026).

On MCP, both have an official hosted server. Apollo's takes OAuth or an API key, works on any plan including Free, and spends the same credits as the API. LeadMagic's is OAuth only and accepts no static key, so a headless script cannot use it (Apollo docs, September 2026; LeadMagic MCP, September 2026).

Pricing

Apollo charges per seat, and each seat carries a monthly credit grant. LeadMagic charges a plan fee for one shared credit pool. To compare, convert both to a monthly cost for the same number of records.

At 10,000 records a month

Take 10,000 work emails. For Apollo that is 10,000 credits at 1 credit each. On monthly billing, Basic gives 2,500 credits per seat at $65, so 4 seats x $65 = $260 a month. Professional needs 3 seats for 12,000 credits: 3 x $99 = $297. On yearly billing, Basic is $49 a seat, so 4 x $49 = $196 a month (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

For LeadMagic, 10,000 credits does not fit Essential, which holds 5,000. Growth is $249 a month for 20,000 credits, or $208 a month billed yearly (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). At this size the two are close. LeadMagic is $11 cheaper on monthly billing ($249 against $260), and Apollo is $12 cheaper on yearly billing ($196 against $208).

Now take 10,000 mobile numbers. Apollo needs 80,000 credits at 8 each. On monthly billing, Professional gives 4,000 per seat, so 20 seats x $99 = $1,980 a month. On yearly billing, Basic gives 2,500 a month, so 32 seats x $49 = $1,568.

LeadMagic needs 50,000 credits at 5 each. Professional is $499 a month for 50,000 credits, or $416 a month billed yearly. On mobiles, LeadMagic costs about a quarter of Apollo's seat bill at this size.

Credits behave differently too. Apollo credits expire each cycle and do not roll over, including add-ons. LeadMagic monthly plans roll over up to 2x the monthly allocation, and annual plans do not roll over (Apollo API pricing, September 2026; LeadMagic pricing guide, September 2026).

At 1M records a month

For Apollo, 1,000,000 work emails is 1,000,000 credits. On monthly billing, Professional gives 4,000 credits per seat, so 1,000,000 / 4,000 = 250 seats x $99 = $24,750 a month. On yearly billing, Basic gives 2,500 a month, so 400 seats x $49 = $19,600 a month, or $235,200 a year (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

Two caveats apply. Apollo prints no price for add-on credits, so a cheaper seats-plus-add-ons path cannot be priced. Whether Apollo sells 250 to 400 self-serve seats is also not stated.

For LeadMagic: no public 1M price. The top public plan is Ultimate at $849 a month for 100,000 credits, which is one tenth of 1M. Top-up prices and Enterprise credit rates are not published. Enterprise starts at $2,490 a quarter, paid upfront, with custom volume pricing (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).

Ultimate's rate is $0.00849 a credit, and it is tempting to multiply that by 1M. Do not call the result a quote. No self-serve plan sells it, and Enterprise terms are negotiated.

Where Apollo.io wins

• A sales workspace on its own data. Sequences, a dialer and lists sit next to the database, and the Chrome extension is on every plan. A rep can work from day one (Apollo pricing, September 2026).
• A free plan. 75 credits a month, with API access and MCP, so you can test before you pay. LeadMagic has no free plan or trial credits.
• Faster enrichment limits on paper. 1,000 enrichment requests a minute on paid plans, against 600 on LeadMagic's email finder.
• More companies, plus intent. 30M companies against 25M+, and intent topics on paid plans.

Where LeadMagic wins

• You pay for results. One credit per valid email, nothing for a miss, and no seats to buy for a pipeline nobody logs into.
• Cheaper mobiles. 5 credits against 8, and at 10,000 mobiles the plan fee is a fraction of Apollo's seat count.
• Rollover. Monthly plans bank up to 2x the allocation. Apollo credits expire each cycle.
• More people and job data. 400M+ people on its own count, plus 46M+ job posts and job-change checks at 3 credits.

If you need volume through an API

We build LeadOcean, so weigh this section accordingly. LeadOcean holds 693M people and 63M companies, and you reach them over REST and MCP. Free is 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with unlimited searches and lookups and a limit of 100 requests per second per key (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

For bulk work, POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request. The app also has an Exports page with a filter builder and CSV download (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). There is no sequencer, dialer or CRM. If your reps live in Apollo, keep it and compare the data source on the Apollo alternative page.

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