7 Best B2B Data Providers for GTM Engineers (2026)

A B2B data provider sells people and company records, such as titles, work emails and phone numbers, that you search or enrich by API. GTM engineers need one when a team's lists, enrichment jobs and agents pull from one source. The bill has to stay flat as volume grows.

Four things separate the options: price model (seats, credits or flat), rate limit, whether an MCP server returns records, and what 1M records a month costs. This page ranks seven providers on those points, with list prices checked in September 2026.

LeadOcean is first for readers who pull data in code or with an agent. Each rival has its own comparison: Clay, Apollo, Prospeo, Crustdata, People Data Labs and ZoomInfo. For the role itself, read what a GTM engineer does and the GTM engineer solutions page.

TL;DR

"1M records" means 1M work-email lookups that return a result, at list price.

What we evaluated

• Volume: the highest public tier, and what happens when you pass it.
• Price model: seats, credits or flat, and the cost of 1M records a month.
• API: which endpoints return people and companies, and whether the free plan includes them.
• MCP and rate limit: whether an agent can search and enrich, and the default requests per second or minute.
• Seats: whether the price grows with each person on the team or each key.

We ran no accuracy test, so we quote no quality numbers.

1. LeadOcean: best for GTM engineers who pull data in code or with an agent

LeadOcean is a people and company data API with a hosted MCP server. It holds 693M people, 366M with an email and 166M with a phone number, plus 67M companies. You filter with 50 people filters and 34 company filters.

Enrichment is POST /v1/people/enrich, search is POST /v1/people/search, phones are GET /v2/people/phone, and POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows a request. Sizing is free: send count=true as a query parameter with limit 1, or call GET /v1/companies/count for companies.

curl -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search?count=true" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": ["GTM Engineer"], "limit": 1}'

There are four plans with the same data and every feature. Solo is $97 a month for one person at 50 requests a second. Agency is $497 a month for teams, with 5 keys and 200 requests a second. Paid plans have a fair-use pace, not credits. The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp signs in with OAuth 2.1 and exposes 13 tools.

Pros

• Agency is $497 a month, including 1M records a month, with no credit meter and no per-seat count.
• REST and MCP on every plan, including Free.
• 200 requests a second per account on Agency, so 1M calls take under 1.5 hours at full rate.
• Counts are free, and a miss on POST /v1/people/enrich is a free 404.
• Person enrich returns career history: past roles, education and certifications.

Cons

• No waterfall, sequencer, dialer or CRM. The app has an Exports page, not a rep workspace.
• No intent data or org charts.
• v2 contact endpoints cost one record per call, including a call that finds nothing.
• No refund for bounced emails. Read email_status before you send.

Best for: engineers and agent builders who need volume, a fixed bill and one key per environment.

Pricing: Free is 1,000 records, one-off, no card, 5 requests a second. Solo is $97 a month and Agency is $497 a month. Past the fair-use pace a key slows down until the window resets, it is not cut off (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026).

2. Clay: best for workflow tables and waterfalls

Clay is a workflow spreadsheet that resells many data providers on credits. A GTM engineer builds tables that enrich a row from several sources in order, then run an AI research column and push the result to a CRM.

Launch is $185 a month billed monthly and $167 billed yearly, with 15,000 Actions and 2,500 Data Credits. Growth is $495 a month ($446 billed yearly) and adds the HTTP API column and webhooks. Data Credits start at $0.05 each, and Clay says a fully enriched record typically costs 6 to 20 credits (Clay pricing, September 2026).

Clay's Public API and CLI are on every plan, including Free. Clay publishes no rate-limit number, only a 429 with a Retry-After header (Clay API docs, September 2026). It also has an MCP server, and new accounts get 500 free credits on first connect (Clay MCP guide, September 2026).

Pros

• The best table interface for chaining providers and AI research.
• A Public API and CLI on every plan (Clay University, September 2026).
• No charge for an enrichment that returns nothing.
• Unlimited seats on Free.

Cons

• Two meters, Actions and Data Credits, so cost is hard to forecast.
• Actions cannot be bought as top-ups, and the largest self-serve tier is 200,000 a month.
• Tables and sources cap at 50,000 rows on Launch and Growth.
• The HTTP API column needs Growth or higher.

Best for: GTM engineers who build and hand over no-code workflows to an ops team.

Pricing: Free $0, Launch from $185 a month ($167 billed yearly), Growth from $495 ($446 billed yearly), Enterprise by quote (Clay pricing, September 2026).

3. Apollo: best for seat-based teams that want a UI

Apollo is a sales platform with a large contact database, a prospecting UI and sequences. Plans are per seat, and credits are pooled across the team.

Basic is $65 per seat a month ($49 billed yearly) with 2,500 credits a month. Professional is $99 with 4,000, and Organization is $149 with 6,000 and a three-seat minimum. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number costs 8. Credits expire each billing cycle (Apollo pricing, September 2026; Apollo API pricing, September 2026).

Every plan includes API access. Enrichment allows 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans, and search allows 200 a minute with a daily cap (Apollo rate limits, September 2026). The official MCP server at mcp.apollo.io/mcp works on any plan, and enrichment through it spends the same credits (Apollo MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• API and MCP on every plan, including Free.
• A full prospecting UI and sequences, so reps and engineers share one tool.
• High enrichment rate limits on paid plans.

Cons

• Seats are the volume lever. 1M lookups a month means about 250 Professional seats.
• Credits expire each cycle and do not roll over.
• The price of extra credits is not public.

Best for: teams where reps use the UI and the engineer adds an API on top.

Pricing: Basic $65 per seat a month ($49 billed yearly), Professional $99 ($79), Organization $149 ($119) (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

4. Prospeo: best for pay-as-you-go emails and mobiles

Prospeo sells verified work emails and mobile numbers by the credit. Plans are per user, and plan credits go into one shared team pool.

Starter is $49 per user a month ($37 billed yearly) for 2,000 credits. Growth is $99 for 5,000 and Pro is $249 for 15,000. A verified email costs 1 credit, a mobile costs 10, and a lookup with no result costs nothing. Credits do not roll over (Prospeo pricing, September 2026; Prospeo help center, September 2026).

The hosted MCP server at mcp.prospeo.io has 8 tools and signs in with OAuth or an API key (Prospeo MCP docs, September 2026). Enrich limits on Pro are 30 requests a second, and Starter is 5 (Prospeo rate limits, September 2026).

Pros

• A clear price per credit, and no charge for a miss.
• Re-enriching the same record within 90 days costs nothing.
• MCP and API on paid plans.

Cons

• No single plan reaches 1M credits. You stack seats and an add-on.
• Add-ons are a recurring subscription and need a paid plan.
• Search returns up to 25 results a request with no contact data.

Best for: engineers who want a metered email and mobile finder with a low entry price.

Pricing: Starter $49 per user a month ($37 billed yearly), Growth $99 ($74), Pro $249 ($187) (Prospeo pricing, September 2026).

5. Crustdata: best for live data and change watchers

Crustdata sells person and company data by API, with live endpoints and change watchers. GTM engineers use it for signals such as job changes.

The pricing page lists no plan names and no dollar prices. The docs give credits per call. Search is 0.03 credits a result and person enrich is 1 to 7. A work-email lookup is 2 credits on /person/enrich (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026). The dollar value depends on your plan.

Default limits are 15 requests a minute on person enrich and 30 on search (Crustdata rate limits, September 2026). The hosted MCP server at install.crustdata.com/mcp uses OAuth, or a bearer key for code (Crustdata MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Watchers push changes to people and companies.
• Hosted MCP server with an API key option for headless agents.
• Batch person enrich takes up to 10,000 identifiers a job.

Cons

• No public dollar price or plan list (Crustdata pricing, September 2026).
• Default rate limits are per minute, not per second.
• The cheaper contact endpoint needs an enterprise plan.

Best for: engineers who build signal-driven workflows and can negotiate a contract.

Pricing: No public price list. Credits per call are public, dollars per credit are not (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026).

6. People Data Labs: best for licensed datasets

People Data Labs sells person and company data as an API and as licensed datasets. Its full person dataset holds 2,466,510,427 profiles, and 592,376,573 have at least one email (PDL datasets docs, September 2026).

Pro starts at $98 a month for 350 credits, which is $0.28 a credit, or $78 a month billed yearly. One credit is spent per matched profile, and a 404 costs nothing. Self-serve is meant for volumes below about 100,000 profiles, and above that PDL sends buyers to Enterprise (PDL pricing, September 2026; PDL blog, September 2026).

Person enrichment allows 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans, but person search allows 10 a minute by default. PDL has no official MCP server in its docs, llms.txt or GitHub organization. Only community servers exist (PDL usage limits, September 2026; PDL llms.txt, September 2026).

Pros

• The largest stated profile counts in this list.
• Misses are not billed, and bulk enrichment takes 100 people per request.
• A mature API and SDKs.

Cons

• No official MCP server.
• Search is limited to 10 requests a minute by default.
• Self-serve stops near 100,000 profiles, and the 1M price is unpublished.
• $0.28 a credit at entry, and no published rate at volume.

Best for: engineers who license data into their own product or warehouse.

Pricing: Free $0 with 100 credits and obscured contact data, Pro from $98 a month for 350 credits ($78 billed yearly), Enterprise by quote (PDL pricing, September 2026).

7. ZoomInfo (GTM.AI): best for intent data and signals

ZoomInfo is an enterprise sales intelligence suite. Its GTM.AI product sells the same contact, company and intent data headless, through an API, an MCP server or a CLI, on pay-as-you-go credits.

Sign-up gives 1,000 data credits and 1,000 AI credits free, with no card. After that you top up from $20. A data credit covers one company, contact or intent record enriched or exported, and search and lookup are free. List price is $0.45 a credit at the smallest top-up and $0.25 at 100,000 credits (GTM.AI pricing, September 2026).

The free tier allows 5 requests a second, and higher limits go through the account team (GTM.AI rate limits, September 2026). Platform plans are annual contracts quoted by sales (ZoomInfo, September 2026).

Pros

• Intent and buying signals that the other tools here lack.
• API, MCP and CLI on the free tier, with no seat fees.
• Search and lookup never cost credits.

Cons

• Credits at $0.25 to $0.45 each add up fast at volume.
• No public price beyond 100,000 credits.
• 5 requests a second on the free tier.

Best for: teams that sell on intent and want it inside an agent.

Pricing: Pay as you go from $20, with data credits from $0.45 down to $0.25 each at 100,000 credits (GTM.AI pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

Prices and limits are from the sources linked in each section, checked in September 2026. LeadOcean figures are from the pricing page, checked in October 2026.

How to choose

• You pull data in code or with an agent, at volume: LeadOcean. One key per environment and a flat Agency price beat counting seats or credits.
• You build no-code workflows for an ops team: Clay. Pair it with a data API so waterfalls start from a cheap first hop.
• Reps need a UI and sequences: Apollo. Budget seats, not records.
• You only need emails and mobiles, metered: Prospeo. Check the add-on table before you plan past 350,000 credits.
• You build on signals and live changes: Crustdata. Get a written price per credit first.
• You license data into a product or warehouse: People Data Labs. Plan for an Enterprise contract past 100,000 profiles.
• You sell on intent: ZoomInfo through GTM.AI. Keep it for named accounts, not bulk lists.

For a runnable recipe that sizes a list, pulls a batch and exports the rest, see B2B data for GTM teams.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for GTM engineers who pull data through an API, an agent or at volume. Agency is $497 a month with no credits and no seats to count. Clay wins for engineers who build no-code workflows, and Apollo wins for teams where reps live in a UI. Prospeo is the cheapest metered finder for emails and mobiles. Crustdata fits signal workflows, People Data Labs fits licensed datasets, and ZoomInfo fits intent. Most GTM engineers end up with two tools: a data source for volume and a workflow tool on top.

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