7 Best Contact Enrichment Tools (Free & Paid) To Try in 2026

Contact enrichment takes one identifier, such as a name, a domain, an email or a LinkedIn URL, and returns the missing email, phone number, title and company. You need it if you load leads into a CRM, feed an outbound tool or run an agent that researches accounts.

Most roundups quote the headline price. This one asks two things they skip: how big is the free plan, and what 1M records a month cost at list price. We priced the same job for all seven tools from their own pricing pages and docs, checked in September 2026.

If you are leaving a tool, these pages show the head-to-head: FullEnrich, Apollo, Hunter.io, Lusha, BetterContact and Clay. The usual reasons are a credit meter that grows with every lookup, a per-minute rate limit and no way to call the data from an agent.

TL;DR

LeadOcean wins when you pull data through an API, an agent or at volume. Apollo wins when reps work in the same tool. Hunter wins on cheap work emails. FullEnrich and BetterContact win on mobile numbers. Lusha wins for one rep with a browser. Clay wins for table workflows.

Free plans differ more than prices do. LeadOcean gives 1,000 records once, with every feature. Hunter renews 50 credits a month, Lusha 40, and BetterContact and FullEnrich give 50 credits once.

What we evaluated

Every tool got the same five questions, in this order.

• Free plan. How many records or credits you get, whether they renew, and whether the API is included.
• Cost at 1M records a month. One work-email lookup is one record. We use the vendor's list price and write "No public 1M price" when none exists. We never multiply a rate out to 1M.
• API. Is there a documented REST API on the entry plan, or is it gated behind a bigger one?
• MCP. Does the vendor run a hosted MCP server that an agent can call?
• Rate limit. How many requests one key can send, from the vendor's own docs.

1. LeadOcean: best for API, agent and volume buyers

LeadOcean is a people and company data API with a hosted MCP server and no credits. It holds 693M people (366M with an email, 166M with a phone number) and 67M companies in one database (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026).

You enrich with POST /v1/people/enrich, passing exactly one of a LinkedIn URL, an email, a phone or a person ID. Add reveal_email to get the address back. A person we hold nothing for is a 404 and costs nothing. Email status comes back on every record, with 13 values from verified to spam_trap, so you set your own risk line.

Phones come from GET /v2/people/phone. Since October 2026, enrichment also returns career history: past roles, education, certifications and awards. To size a list before you spend, call leadocean_count_leads in MCP. Counts are free.

The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp has 13 tools and signs in with OAuth, so no key is pasted into a chat. For a list you want as a file, POST /v1/exports or the Exports page in the app returns a CSV with a price preview first.

Pros

• Flat monthly price. Agency is $497 a month with a fair-use pace, no credits and no overage invoice.
• 13-tool hosted MCP server on every plan, including Free.
• Phones and bulk CSV export are included on paid plans. Agency exports 50,000 rows a file.
• 5 requests a second on Free, 50 on Solo and 200 on Agency, per account.
• Free plan: 1,000 records for life, no card, every feature.

Cons

• It is a data layer only. There is no rep workspace, sequencer, dialer, CRM or Chrome extension.
• One dataset, not a waterfall. A mobile number we lack is not fetched from a second source.
• Phone coverage is 166M of 693M people, so some contacts have an email and no phone.
• The free 1,000 records are one-off, not monthly. Bulk CSV export is not on Free.

Best for: engineers, RevOps teams and agents that pull data in volume and want a fixed bill.

Pricing: Free $0 (1,000 records for life), Solo $97 a month, Agency $497 a month, Platform $1,997 a month. LeadOcean pricing, October 2026.

2. FullEnrich: best for waterfall mobile numbers

FullEnrich asks 25+ data sources in sequence for each email and phone, and bills only what it finds (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026). That design suits mobile numbers, where one dataset has gaps.

A work email costs 1 credit, a personal email 3 and a mobile 10. A contact with a work email and a mobile is 11 credits. Not found, or a landline, costs 0 (FullEnrich credit docs, September 2026).

The free trial is 50 credits with no card. The API, MCP, search and bulk CSV are on every plan, including the trial. The default limit is 60 API calls a minute, with up to 100 contacts per bulk request (FullEnrich volume docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Waterfall across 25+ sources lifts the find rate on mobiles.
• API and MCP on every plan, with unlimited users.
• No charge for a miss.

Cons

• The top public monthly tier is 100,000 credits for $3,500. Above that you contact sales.
• 60 calls a minute is a low ceiling for batch work.
• The free allowance is 50 credits once, enough for 5 mobile lookups.

Best for: teams that need the most mobile numbers on a modest monthly volume.

Pricing: Pro from $29 a month for 500 credits; $55 a month for 1,000 credits; $3,500 a month for 100,000. FullEnrich pricing, September 2026.

3. Apollo: best for reps who want data and outreach together

Apollo is an all-in-one sales platform with a contact database, sequences and a dialer. It is priced per seat with a monthly credit allowance (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 8. API enrichment runs 1 to 9 credits per person. Credits are pooled across the team and expire at the end of each billing cycle (Apollo API pricing, September 2026).

Every plan includes API access, Free included. Paid plans reach 1,000 enrichment requests a minute, and Free is 50 a minute (Apollo rate limits, September 2026). Apollo runs an official MCP server at https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp on any plan, and MCP enrichment spends the same credits (Apollo MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Data, sequences and a dialer in one product, so reps do not switch tools.
• Official MCP server and API access on every plan, Free included.
• A recurring Free plan: 900 credits per seat a year, granted monthly.
• Enrichment endpoints reach 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans.

Cons

• Priced per seat, so cost at volume grows with seats. 1M lookups at list price needs about 250 Professional seats.
• Credits expire each cycle and do not roll over.
• A phone number costs 8 credits, eight times an email.

Best for: sales teams whose reps live in the tool all day.

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

4. Hunter.io: best for cheap work emails by domain

Hunter started as a domain email finder. Among the credit-based tools here, it has the lowest published price for work emails at scale (Hunter pricing, September 2026).

Email Finder costs 1 credit per email found and the verifier 0.5. Nothing found costs nothing (Hunter credit help, September 2026). The separate Data Platform sells Search credits for API and bulk use: 1,000,000 credits cost $6,900, paid once and valid 12 months (Hunter Data Platform, September 2026).

The Free plan renews 50 credits a month and includes the API. Hunter documents limits per endpoint: 15 requests a second on Domain Search, Email Finder and the enrichment endpoints (Hunter API docs, September 2026). It also runs an official MCP server at https://mcp.hunter.io/mcp, included on all plans (Hunter MCP, September 2026).

Pros

• The lowest published 1M price among the credit-based tools here: $6,900 on Data Platform.
• A Free plan that renews every month.
• Official MCP server, included on all plans.
• Documented per-endpoint rate limits, 15 a second on the core endpoints.

Cons

• Focused on email. It is not a phone or full-profile source.
• Monthly plan credits do not carry over.
• Two plan families (all-in-one and Data Platform) make the real price hard to read.

Best for: teams that mainly need work emails by domain and name, at the lowest price per email.

Pricing: Free (50 credits a month), Starter $49, Growth $149 and Scale $299 a month billed monthly ($34, $104 and $209 billed yearly). Hunter pricing, September 2026.

5. Lusha: best for one rep who enriches in the browser

Lusha is a prospecting platform with a browser extension, an API and an MCP server (Lusha pricing, September 2026). It suits a single rep more than a pipeline.

An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 5. A single API request for both is 7 credits, and a bulk request adds 1 credit per 25 results (Lusha API guide, September 2026). Whether a no-match request is charged is stated two ways in Lusha's own docs.

Every plan has an API key, Free included. Limits are per key: Free and Starter 40 a minute and 100 a day, Pro 50 a minute and 1,500 a day, Premium 300 a minute and 18,000 a day. The MCP server has 50 tools at https://mcp.lusha.com and shares the API credit pool (Lusha MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A Free plan with 40 credits a month and no card.
• An API key and an MCP server on every plan.
• Extension and platform sit beside the API, so one rep can work without code.
• Premium monthly credits roll over up to 2x.

Cons

• Daily request caps: 100 on Free and Starter, 18,000 on Premium. A scheduled job hits them quickly.
• The largest public tier is 10,000 credits a month ($977.40 billed monthly), so 1M is a sales conversation.
• A phone number costs 5 credits, five times an email.

Best for: one rep or a small team that enriches while browsing, not at volume.

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

6. BetterContact: best for waterfall email and mobile on a list you own

BetterContact is a waterfall service. It asks 20+ providers for an email or a mobile and charges only for valid results (BetterContact pricing, September 2026). You upload a list, or call the API.

An email with verification costs 1 credit and a mobile 10, both charged only when the result is valid (BetterContact credit docs, September 2026). Starter is the cheapest paid entry on this list at $15 a month for 200 credits. New accounts get 50 credits free with no card.

The API allows 100 requests a minute per key on Starter and free accounts, and 200 on Pro. Bulk calls take 100 leads (BetterContact rate limits, September 2026). We found no MCP server in its docs index (BetterContact docs index, September 2026).

Pros

• Lowest entry price on the list: $15 a month.
• Charges only for valid results.
• Unused credits roll over, capped at twice the plan.

Cons

• No MCP server found.
• The top public step is 50,000 credits for $1,999 a month. Above that is a custom quote.
• API phone enrichment needs a phone add-on with no published price.
• 100 requests a minute is low for large batches.

Best for: teams that want the highest find rate on a list they already own, and mostly work in uploads.

Pricing: Starter $15 a month for 200 credits; Pro from $49 a month for 1,000 credits to $1,999 for 50,000. BetterContact pricing, September 2026.

7. Clay: best for table workflows over many providers

Clay is a workflow spreadsheet that runs enrichment across many data providers on credits. It is built for people who work in tables, not a data source you call at volume (Clay pricing, September 2026).

Free is $0 for 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions a month, with waterfalls but no phone enrichment. Data Credits start at $0.05 each, and extra credits on paid plans carry a 30 percent premium (Clay pricing, September 2026).

Clay's Public API is on every plan, Free included, and Clay has an MCP server (Clay MCP guide, September 2026). The docs publish no request rate (Clay API docs, September 2026; Clay rate limits, September 2026).

Pros

• Waterfalls, AI research columns and table workflows in one place.
• A Free plan that renews monthly, with unlimited seats.
• Public API on every plan.

Cons

• The largest self-serve tier is 200,000 Actions and 50,000 Data Credits a month. 1M lookups need Enterprise.
• No published API rate limit.
• Free has no phone enrichment.
• It is a resale layer, so you pay for providers inside Clay.

Best for: growth teams that build outbound workflows in tables.

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

Comparison table

How to choose

• You call an API or an agent at volume. Pick LeadOcean. A flat $497 a month beats any per-credit meter once you pass tens of thousands of lookups.
• You need the most mobile numbers on a short list. Pick FullEnrich or BetterContact. A waterfall finds more than one dataset.
• Your reps work in the tool every day. Pick Apollo. Data, sequences and a dialer in one seat.
• You only need work emails by domain, cheaply. Pick Hunter.io. Its Data Platform is the lowest published 1M price among the credit-based tools.
• One rep enriches from LinkedIn pages. Pick Lusha and stay on its free plan until you hit 40 credits.
• You build workflows in tables. Pick Clay, and put a data API under it as the first hop.

Verdict

LeadOcean is the pick when you pull data through an API, an agent or at volume: one flat price, 13 MCP tools and a rate limit that scales to 200 requests a second. Apollo wins for reps who want enrichment and outreach in one seat. Hunter wins on the lowest per-credit email price at 1M. FullEnrich and BetterContact win on mobile numbers, Lusha on single-rep lookups and Clay on table workflows. Many teams pair two: a data API as the source, and a workflow tool on top.

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