6 Best B2B Databases for South Korea in 2026

A B2B database for South Korea sells business contacts located in Korea. It needs enough Korean-company depth to build a real list. Sales teams, agencies and data engineers who sell to Korean buyers need one. Most vendors print a worldwide total and leave Korea, and Hangul handling, to the buyer.

Of the five rivals below, only ZoomInfo prints a Korea figure, on a country map. So we ran a free count on LeadOcean on 2026-10-21 and a 10-record check for Hangul. Read the rivals on their own pages: Lusha, ZoomInfo, Apollo, ContactOut and Cognism.

Prices below were checked in September 2026. Also see best B2B databases, best B2B databases for South Asia and best B2B data providers for the UK.

TL;DR

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

What we evaluated

• Published Korea coverage: a figure for Korea, with a source we can link.
• Free Korea test: whether you can size Korea, or test your own list, before you pay.
• Hangul handling: whether names and company names come back in Hangul, Latin script or both. No vendor below documents this, so we tested one.
• API and MCP: whether an agent or script can pull Korean records directly.
• Price at volume: flat, credits, seats or quote, and the cost of 1M records.

We ran our own count and check on LeadOcean. We ran no query on the rivals, so we print no hit rates for them. Vendor figures are vendor claims, and each vendor counts "contacts" its own way.

How to run the Korea test

Take 25 contacts you really sell to in Seoul, Pangyo, Busan and Daejeon. Use your own list, not ours. Include a few whose names you hold only in Hangul, and a few at small firms. Run them through each free tier below and count how many return a work email.

Free tiers are enough: Lusha Free gives 40 credits a month, Apollo Free 75, ZoomInfo GTM AI 1,000 data credits and LeadOcean 1,000 records for life. ContactOut Free gives 5 emails and 5 phones a day.

1. LeadOcean: best for API and agent buyers

LeadOcean holds 693M people and 67M companies. We ran leadocean_count_leads for country: KR on 2026-10-21, which spends no records. South Korea returns 1,151,074 people across all email statuses. 168,838 of them have a verified, catch-all valid or catch-all email, in 17,819 distinct companies. 44,024 have a phone number, any email status.

The C-Team is 108,319 people across all email statuses, and 12,802 of those are mailable. A free company count (leadocean_count_companies, hqCountry: KR) returns 28,950 companies. 17,800 of them have 1 to 10 staff, and 27 have 10,001 or more. IT services is the largest industry at 2,892 companies.

Here is the Hangul check. We pulled 10 Korea people with leadocean_search_leads and read the names and headlines. Three had Hangul in a person or company name, such as a Hangul surname followed by a Latin one, or a company filed as its Hangul brand. Every headline and job title was in English. Several people were foreign staff of Korean employers. That is 10 records, not a rate, so treat it as a sign to test your own list. Searching with Hangul text is not something we tested.

The call below sizes Korea for free, with count=true as a query parameter.

curl -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search?count=true&limit=1" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"country": ["KR"], "jobLevel": ["C-Team"], "hasEmail": true}'

That count is people with an email of any status, not a mailable count. Add emailStatus to narrow it. Over REST, meta.total stops at 100,000, so use narrow filters or the MCP leadocean_count_leads tool for exact totals. The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp exposes 13 tools and signs in with OAuth 2.1.

Pros

• A free, exact count for Korea, with email status, phone and seniority filters.
• Agency is $497 a month flat, with 200 requests a second, 5 keys and no credit meter.
• REST and MCP on every plan, including Free.
• A free company count for Korean HQ sizing, by industry and headcount.

Cons

• No rep workspace, sequencer, dialer or CRM.
• About 15% of Korea people are mailable (168,838 of 1,151,074), and phones are on about 4% (44,024).
• Job titles and headlines come back mostly in English, and Hangul coverage in names is partial.

Best for: engineers, agencies and agents that pull Korean contacts by API and want a fixed bill.

Pricing: Free is 1,000 records for life, no card. Solo is $97 a month, Agency $497 and Platform $1,997 (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026).

2. Lusha: best for small batches with email and phone

Lusha prints no Korea figure today. Its data page shows 515M+ contacts, 29M+ companies and 165M+ verified emails worldwide, with no country split (Lusha data page, October 2026).

An email costs 1 credit and a phone 5 (Lusha API docs, September 2026). The MCP server has 50 tools and shares the API credit pool (Lusha MCP docs, September 2026).

Korea test. Lusha Free gives 40 credits a month, so you can look up 25 Korean contacts and read the hit rate yourself. Lusha does not document Hangul handling that we found, so put Hangul-only names in your 25.

Pros

• Email, phone and company data in one lookup.
• Every plan includes an API key, Free included.
• MCP server with 50 tools.

Cons

• Credits end at a small plan: 1M work emails by bulk API is 1,040,000 credits.
• No public 1M price, and Scale is custom.
• No Korea figure on its data page.

Best for: small teams that look up Korean contacts in batches of hundreds.

Pricing: Free $0 for 40 credits a month. Starter $49.90 a month ($37.45 billed yearly). Pro $69.90 ($52.45). Premium $399.90 ($299.95) (Lusha pricing, September 2026).

3. ZoomInfo: best for a published Korea mobile count

ZoomInfo maps South Korea at 789K contacts, 212K mobile numbers and 60K companies (ZoomInfo data page, October 2026). Those are rounded vendor figures with no email split.

Its pay-as-you-go product, GTM AI, sells data credits from $20: $0.45 a credit at 100 and $0.25 at 100,000. Search and lookup are free, and a record is charged once per 12 months (GTM AI pricing, September 2026; GTM AI docs, September 2026).

Korea test. GTM AI Free includes 1,000 data credits, no card. Because search is free, run a Korea location filter first and spend credits only on rows you keep. ZoomInfo has an official MCP server (GTM AI docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Published Korea figures for contacts, mobiles and companies.
• Free search, with a record charged once a year.
• Official MCP server and a free tier with API access.

Cons

• Rounded figures, with no email split.
• The public slider stops at 100,000 credits, so 1M is an Enterprise talk.
• Hangul handling is not documented on the pages we read.

Best for: teams that need Korean mobile numbers and accept a sales call at volume.

Pricing: GTM AI pay as you go from $20, with 1,000 free data credits at signup (GTM AI pricing, September 2026).

4. Apollo: best for a free Korea count plus sequences

Apollo prints no Korea figure. Its data page lists 240M contacts and 30M companies worldwide, with no regional split (Apollo, September 2026). You can measure Korea yourself, because Apollo's people search costs 0 credits and returns a total_entries count (Apollo API docs, September 2026).

Filter with person_locations[], which takes cities and countries, such as south korea. The search shows at most 50,000 records, 100 a page. An email costs 1 credit and a phone 8, and credits are pooled across the team (Apollo API pricing, September 2026).

Korea test. Apollo Free gives 75 credits a month and an API key. Read total_entries for Korea, then spend credits on your own 25 contacts. The MCP server is at mcp.apollo.io and works on any plan (Apollo MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A free, public way to count Korea people by location.
• Sequences, dialer and extensions on the same plan.
• Official MCP server on every plan.

Cons

• Credits expire each billing cycle and do not roll over.
• A phone costs 8 credits, and 1M emails means 250 to 400 seats.
• The search display limit is 50,000 records.

Best for: reps who want a free Korea count and a sequencer in one app.

Pricing: Free $0 (75 credits a month). Basic $65 per seat a month ($49 billed yearly). Professional $99 ($79). Organization $149 ($119) (Apollo pricing, September 2026). 1M work emails is $24,750 a month at list on monthly billing, from 250 Professional seats.

5. ContactOut: best for profile-led lookups outside the US

ContactOut prints no Korea figure. Its global totals disagree by page: 350 million professionals on the homepage, 800 million on the data page (ContactOut, September 2026). It sells a regional plan for contacts outside the US. Regional Email is $25 a month ($19 billed yearly) and Regional Email + Phone is $49 ($39), against $49 and $99 for global coverage (ContactOut pricing, September 2026).

For a small team that looks Korean buyers up one at a time, that is the cheapest paid plan on this page. It is not a bulk source: self-serve fair use is 2,000 emails and 1,000 phones per account a month, with one user per company (ContactOut terms, September 2026).

Korea test. ContactOut Free gives 5 emails, 5 phones and 5 exports a day, marked limited time. Run five of your own Korean contacts a day. API keys come from a sales meeting, with no public price (ContactOut API, September 2026). The MCP page shows 15 tools (ContactOut MCP, September 2026).

Pros

• Regional plans start at $25 a month ($19 billed yearly).
• Profile-led lookups for people outside the US.
• MCP server with 15 tools.

Cons

• No Korea figure, and the global profile total differs by page.
• 2,000 emails per account a month and one user per company.
• No public API price.

Best for: recruiters and small sales teams that look up Korean contacts one by one.

Pricing: Regional Email $25 a month ($19 billed yearly). Regional Email + Phone $49 ($39). Global Email $49 ($39). Global Email + Phone $99 ($79) (ContactOut pricing, September 2026).

6. Cognism: best for teams that will take a quote and a sample

Cognism prints no Korea figure and no price. Its pricing page lists Standard and Pro plans, quote only (Cognism pricing, September 2026). One credit is one revealed contact.

The API search takes a location filter with region and country sub-filters, and a count endpoint to size a list first (Cognism API docs, September 2026). It also runs an MCP server (Cognism MCP docs, September 2026).

Korea test. Ask for the free data sample. You describe your ideal customer profile and Cognism says it returns a sample with verified mobiles and emails in about 72 hours (Cognism data sample, September 2026). Ask for it built from Korean accounts, and check the names for Hangul.

Pros

• A location filter with region and country, and a count endpoint.
• A free data sample built on your own profile.
• MCP server using the same tokens and credits.

Cons

• No public price and no Korea figure.
• The sample takes about 72 hours, not minutes.
• Korea is not named as a market on the pages we read.

Best for: teams that will go through sales and judge Korea coverage from a sample.

Pricing: No public price. Plans are Standard and Pro, quote only (Cognism pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

How to choose

• Code, agents or volume: LeadOcean. Flat price, free exact Korea counts, REST and MCP on every plan.
• Email and phone lookups in small batches: Lusha.
• Mobile numbers: ZoomInfo, which prints 212K Korea mobiles. Test them on the free tier first.
• A free count plus a sequencer: Apollo, searched by person_locations[].
• Cheap one-by-one lookups outside the US: ContactOut Regional.
• A sample before a contract: Cognism, built from Korean accounts.
• Hangul-only names or small Korean firms: none of the six documents this. Run the 25-contact test on each free tier first.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for API and agent buyers. It gives a free, exact Korea count, Agency at $497 a month flat and an MCP server that returns records. It is not deep: 168,838 mailable Korea people, with English job titles. Lusha wins for small batches with phones and ZoomInfo for a published Korea mobile count. Apollo wins for a free count with a sequencer, ContactOut for cheap regional lookups and Cognism for buyers who want a sample first. Run the same 25 contacts through each free tier, then pay the one that finds the most.

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