7 Best Contacts Databases Online in 2026

An online contacts database is a searchable store of people records, with titles, work emails and phones, that you query from a browser or an API. Sales teams, agencies, recruiters and agent builders use one to build lists without hand research.

Most teams switch because of the bill at volume. Seat-based credits, quote-only pricing and API access locked to a top plan all show up in the limits below. Related pages: Apollo, ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, RocketReach and UpLead.

LeadOcean is first for readers who pull data by API, by agent or at volume. Others win in other cases, and we say which.

TL;DR

"1M records" means 1M work-email lookups that return a result, at list price. Where a vendor publishes no price at that size, we say so and do not multiply a small-plan rate.

What we evaluated

• Sizing before you pay: whether you can count a segment, by title, country and email status, without spending a credit.
• Price at volume: flat, credits, seats or quote, and the cost of 1M records.
• API access: whether search and enrichment run from code, and on which plan.
• MCP: whether an agent can query the database through an official server.
• Rate limit: the default per second or minute, and what raises it.

We ran no accuracy test and quote no match rates. What we did run is a count, shown next. Each vendor figure links to its source.

A test you can run in a minute

The test is to count one niche before buying anything, then price the pull on each tool. We ran the count on LeadOcean, where counting is free.

On 21 October 2026, VPs in Sales & Business Development located in the United States had 129,494 records with a mailable email (LeadOcean count). Without the email condition the same filters match 350,517 people. They work at about 58,000 distinct employers.

"Mailable" here means verified, catch-all valid or catch-all emails, the default for leadocean_count_leads. The same count over REST is a free call:

curl -s "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search?jobLevel=VP&jobFunction=Sales%20%26%20Business%20Development&country=US&emailStatus=verified,catch_all_valid,catch_all&count=true&limit=1" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY"

meta.total is capped at 100,000 on the REST call, so narrow the segment until the number is exact. The MCP tool returned the exact figure above.

Now price the pull of 129,494 work emails. On Apollo that is 129,494 credits, which is 33 Professional seats at $99, or $3,267 for the month, if its records match yours (Apollo pricing, September 2026). On LeadOcean it fits in one Solo month at $97. Solo's fair-use pace is 100k search records every 5 hours and 500k a week, so the pull spans two 5-hour windows.

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

LeadOcean holds 693M people, 366M with an email and 166M with a phone number, plus 67M companies. You search with 50 people filters and 34 company filters.

Counting is free. leadocean_count_leads and GET /v1/companies/count size a list before you spend, and a people count returns meta.distinctCompanies. One search pages to 10,000 rows, so split a big niche into narrower searches.

Enrichment is POST /v1/people/enrich, phones are GET /v2/people/phone, and POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows a request. Every record has an email_status with 13 values. The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp signs in with OAuth 2.1 and exposes 13 tools.

Pros

• Free counts, so you size a niche before you spend a record.
• REST and MCP on every plan, Free included, with the same data on each.
• Flat monthly price with a fair-use pace, not credits. A miss on POST /v1/people/enrich is a free 404.
• Person enrich returns career history: past roles, education and certifications.

Cons

• No intent data or org charts.
• No rep workspace, sequencer, dialer, CRM or Chrome extension. The app has an Exports page, nothing more.
• No name plus domain lookup. Search by domain first, then enrich by person_id.
• Bulk CSV export is not on Free.

Best for: engineers, RevOps teams and agents that need volume and a fixed bill.

Pricing: Free is 1,000 records, one-off, no card. Solo is $97 a month, Agency $497 a month and Platform $1,997 a month. Rate limits run 5 to 10,000 requests a second (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026).

2. Apollo: best for sales teams that want an app plus a database

Apollo is a prospecting app with a database behind it. Every plan, Free included, has API access (Apollo developer FAQ, September 2026).

Plans bill per seat. Free is $0 with 75 credits a month. Basic is $65 a seat a month with 2,500 credits, 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 8 (Apollo API pricing, September 2026).

Credits are pooled and expire each billing cycle. Paid plans allow 1,000 enrichment requests a minute and 200 search requests a minute (Apollo rate limits, September 2026). The official MCP server works on any plan (Apollo MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A full sales app, with sequences, on the same login as the data.
• API and an official MCP server on every plan, Free included.
• Enrichment at 1,000 requests a minute.

Cons

• Seats set your credits, so 1M email lookups a month works out to about 250 Professional seats.
• A phone number costs 8 credits, and unused credits expire each cycle.
• The price of an add-on credit is not public.

Best for: sales teams that want one app to find, sequence and call.

Pricing: Free, then $65, $99 and $149 per seat a month, or $49, $79 and $119 billed yearly (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

3. ZoomInfo: best for enterprise teams that want intent data

ZoomInfo is an enterprise sales intelligence suite. Its platform plans are sold by sales. zoominfo.com/pricing blocked our fetch with a human check, so we state no platform price.

For code, ZoomInfo sells GTM AI, an API, MCP server and CLI on pay-as-you-go credits. A data credit enriches or exports one company or contact. List price falls from $0.45 each to $0.25 at 100,000 credits, which is $25,000 (GTM AI pricing, September 2026). Search and lookup are free.

A record is charged once per 12 months (ZoomInfo API docs, September 2026). Rate limits are 5 requests a second on Builder, 25 on Standard and 35 on Scaling (ZoomInfo API docs, September 2026). The MCP server needs a GTM AI account or a ZoomInfo subscription with data credits (GTM AI docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Free search and lookup, so you can browse a niche before paying.
• A free tier of 1,000 data credits and 1,000 AI credits, with API and MCP, no card.
• A record is charged once a year, so repeat enrichment costs nothing.

Cons

• The credit slider stops at 100,000 credits. Beyond that is a quote.
• MCP access needs data credits, so a plan with only recurring monthly credits cannot use it.

Best for: enterprise sales teams that want signals and one login.

Pricing: GTM AI credits from $20, $0.45 down to $0.25 each. Platform plans by quote (GTM AI pricing, September 2026).

4. Cognism: best for EU outbound teams that call mobiles

Cognism sells sales prospecting with a focus on phone-verified mobiles and European data. It publishes no dollar price. The pricing page lists Standard and Pro, five seats each, and says pricing is tailored to product, team setup and usage (Cognism pricing, September 2026).

One credit reveals one contact. Each seat includes credits, more can be bought, and the same credits work in the platform, Enrich and the API. Cognism claims over 10M phone-verified contacts and Do Not Call checks in 15 territories (Cognism Diamond Data, September 2026).

The API allows 500 requests a minute per account, per operation (Cognism rate limits, September 2026). The MCP server has 15 tools and OAuth 2.0 sign-in, with search and count tools (Cognism MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Phone-verified mobiles with Do Not Call checks, which suits cold calling.
• API and MCP use the same credits as the app, and both have count routes.
• A revealed contact is not charged twice.

Cons

• No public price at any size, so 1M needs a sales call.
• No credit allocation per seat is published.
• API and MCP need a package that includes them.

Best for: EU outbound teams that call mobiles and can buy through sales.

Pricing: Quote only. Standard and Pro (Cognism pricing, September 2026).

5. Lusha: best for small sales teams on self-serve credits

Lusha sells contact data on self-serve credit plans, with a browser extension and an API. Every plan, Free included, gets an API key (Lusha API guide, September 2026).

Free is $0 for 40 credits a month. Starter is $49.90 a month for 400 credits, or $37.45 billed yearly. Pro is $69.90 for 600, or $52.45 yearly. Premium is $399.90 for 3,400, or $299.95 yearly (Lusha pricing, September 2026). Scale is custom.

An email costs 1 credit and a phone 5. Free and Starter allow 40 requests a minute and 100 a day, and Premium allows 300 a minute. The MCP server has 50 tools on the REST credit pool (Lusha MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• API key and a 50-tool MCP server on the same credits.
• Data Waterfall, 2 credits per work email, on paid plans.
• A free plan with no card.

Cons

• The top public tier is 10,000 credits a month. 1M is 100 times that.
• Free and Starter cap API use at 100 requests a day.
• Yearly credits reset at the end of the cycle.

Best for: small sales teams that want a self-serve extension and a light API.

Pricing: Free, then $49.90, $69.90 and $399.90 a month, or $37.45, $52.45 and $299.95 billed yearly (Lusha pricing, September 2026).

6. RocketReach: best for individual lookups by email or phone

RocketReach is a lookup tool for finding one person's email or phone, with an API on paid plans. Its pricing page showed a bot check on our fetch, so the plan prices below are as reported by G2, not read from RocketReach.

G2 lists Essentials (email only) at $69 a month, Pro (email and phone) at $119 and Ultimate at $209 on monthly billing. Free gives 5 lookups (G2 RocketReach pricing, September 2026). The docs publish no dollar price per credit. A professional email costs 2 Universal Credits and a phone 6 (RocketReach credits, September 2026).

Monthly person lookup caps run from 5,000 on Essentials to 200,000 on Custom, with a global limit of 10 requests a second (RocketReach rate limits, September 2026). The MCP server has 9 tools and OAuth 2.1 sign-in (RocketReach MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Re-lookups of the same profile are free while the plan is active.
• No credit is charged when no data is found.
• An official MCP server with search and lookup tools.

Cons

• No public dollar price per credit and no API plan price.
• A 200,000 monthly cap on the largest lookup tier, so 1M needs a custom deal.
• 10 requests a second globally.

Best for: recruiters and sellers who look up people one at a time.

Pricing: Free for 5 lookups, then $69, $119 and $209 a month on monthly billing, as reported by G2 (G2, September 2026).

7. UpLead: best for small teams that want charged-on-valid emails

UpLead is a prospecting database. It charges a credit for an email only when its status is Valid or Accept All. It states 200M+ contacts with email and 19M+ company profiles (UpLead pricing, September 2026).

Essentials is $99 a month for 170 credits, or $74 a month billed yearly. Plus is $199 a month for 400 credits, or $149 yearly. Extra credits cost $0.60 and $0.50. Professional is a custom quote on annual billing.

API access is a catch. The Enrichment and Full API tick marks sit on Professional only, not on Essentials or Plus. The API allows 500 requests a minute, and extra credit purchases are capped at $2,000 a day (UpLead docs, September 2026). The docs mention no MCP server.

Pros

• Unmatched enrichment rows are refunded, and the same record is not charged twice.
• Clear list prices on two self-serve plans.
• 500 requests a minute on the API.

Cons

• No API on the two self-serve plans.
• No MCP server.
• The $2,000 daily purchase cap makes 1M a month impossible on self-serve.

Best for: small sales teams that work in the app and want clean, charged-on-valid emails.

Pricing: Essentials $99 a month ($74 yearly), Plus $199 ($149 yearly), Professional by quote (UpLead pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

How to choose

• Code, agents or volume: LeadOcean. Free counts, REST and MCP on every plan, a flat monthly price.
• A sales app with sequences: Apollo, if seat-based credits fit your team.
• Intent data and org charts: ZoomInfo, through sales.
• EU mobiles for a calling team: Cognism, on a quote.
• A cheap self-serve start: Lusha, if 100 API requests a day is enough.
• One person at a time: RocketReach, once you have confirmed its current prices.
• Credits charged only on valid emails: UpLead, if you work in the app and not the API.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for API, agent and volume buyers. You can count a niche for free, pull it on a flat plan, and give an agent the same data through MCP. Apollo wins for a sales team that wants an app and sequences, ZoomInfo for enterprise signals and Cognism for EU mobiles. Lusha is the cheap self-serve start, RocketReach suits single lookups and UpLead suits small in-app teams. Count the same niche on any two of them, then compare the price of pulling it.

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