BlitzAPI vs Explorium (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

BlitzAPI and Explorium both sell B2B data to developers, but they bill and ship it differently. BlitzAPI is a flat monthly subscription with an MCP server that only searches its docs. Explorium is a prepaid credit platform with an MCP server that returns data.

For accounts opened by September 30, 2026, BlitzAPI is far cheaper at volume. Explorium is broader on companies and signals.

Verdict

• Pick BlitzAPI if you want verified work emails and US phones at a flat monthly price, and you call the API from code. It was $499 a month for work emails at 1M results for accounts opened by September 30.
• Pick Explorium if you want company data, events and an MCP server that returns records. It also starts cheaper, from $29.99 for 500 credits against BlitzAPI's $399 a month.
• Pick neither if you want one flat price with an MCP server that returns records and a bulk export. LeadOcean is one option: Pro is $499 a month, flat.

Side by side

Data and coverage

Explorium claims the larger dataset, and BlitzAPI publishes the clearer contact counts. Explorium says 767M+ professional profiles and 146M+ business entities. BlitzAPI says 550M+ contacts and 65M+ companies, all tied to LinkedIn profiles.

Those are marketing counts, and they measure different things. A profile is not a mailable contact. BlitzAPI publishes the contact figures: 65M+ verified work emails and 45M+ phone numbers. Explorium publishes no email or phone counts, so you cannot compare contact coverage on paper.

Phones are the sharpest split. BlitzAPI's docs say phone enrichment is United States only, so a list outside the US gets no numbers. Explorium's contact endpoint returns a mobile number and a phone list and names no country limit, but it publishes no coverage by country (Explorium docs, October 2026).

Email quality is stated differently. BlitzAPI says it returns a work email only when it has verified it, and a miss returns found: false. Explorium returns valid, invalid or catch-all beside each professional email, so you get unverified addresses and a label.

Scope also differs. BlitzAPI adds 100M+ job postings behind its job search endpoints. Explorium adds events such as funding rounds, hiring and M&A, plus business enrichments for technology and financials.

Test on your own list before you commit. Run the same 500 people through each and compare match rate and email status.

API and developer experience

BlitzAPI is one call per lookup. Explorium is two. BlitzAPI takes a LinkedIn URL and returns a work email. Explorium needs a prospect_id from a match call first, then a contact call with that ID.

BlitzAPI sends the key in an x-api-key header. Here is the Find Work Email request from its docs, with a placeholder profile. It costs 1 record when it finds an email (BlitzAPI docs, October 2026).

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.blitz-api.ai/v2/enrichment/email \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header "x-api-key: $BLITZ_API_KEY" \
  --data '{"person_linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe"}'

Explorium sends the key in an API_KEY header. You first match a person to a prospect_id, then call the contact endpoint. The docs price this body at 2 credits for email only (Explorium docs, October 2026).

curl -X POST "https://api.explorium.ai/v2/prospects/contact_information/enrich" \
  -H "API_KEY: $EXPLORIUM_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"prospect_id": "PROSPECT_ID_FROM_MATCH", "parameters": {"contact_types": ["email"]}}'

Rate limits shape how each one scales. BlitzAPI lists 50 requests a second per endpoint on every plan for accounts opened by September 30, against a standard 5. The pricing page ties the faster figure to the launch offer (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).

Explorium has one limit for the key: 200 queries a minute in a 60-second sliding window. A request with 50 IDs uses 50 queries. Going over returns a 429 with a Retry-After header (Explorium docs, October 2026).

On MCP the two are not alike. BlitzAPI's server at docs.blitz-api.ai/mcp gives an AI tool the API documentation, not records, so an agent cannot search people through it. Explorium's AgentSource MCP has 11 tools at https://mcp.explorium.ai/mcp, and its fetch and enrich tools return business and prospect data (Explorium MCP docs, October 2026).

For big pulls, BlitzAPI documents cursor pagination and no export. Find People returns 50 results a page and stops at 50,000 results per query (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). Its pricing page, docs index and v2 OpenAPI spec list no bulk or CSV export (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). Explorium async jobs take up to 10,000 records from an uploaded ID list and run for at most 24 hours, so 1M records is at least 100 jobs.

Pricing

BlitzAPI charges a flat fee by data type. Explorium charges credits per action. To compare them, price the same job on both.

BlitzAPI has three plans, billed monthly. Core is $399 and leaves out verified emails and phones. Plus is $499 and adds verified work emails. Full is $599 and adds US phone numbers (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026). The docs call the same tiers Unlimited Leads, Unlimited Email and Unlimited Phone Numbers (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026).

One caveat applies to every BlitzAPI figure below. The $399, $499 and $599 prices, the 50 requests a second and the 15,000,000 results a month all belong to the launch offer for accounts opened by September 30, 2026. BlitzAPI has not published prices for accounts opened after that date. The only published standard figure is 5 requests a second (BlitzAPI Terms, September 2026).

At 10,000 records a month

For 10,000 work emails, BlitzAPI needs one Plus plan: $499 a month. Only emails actually found count as results, so 10,000 lookups return at most 10,000 results. With US phones, you need Full at $599.

For Explorium, 10,000 work emails is 20,000 credits at 2 each. Four Starter packs give 20,000 credits: 4 x $149.99 = $599.96. With phones at 5 credits, 10,000 lookups need 50,000 credits. A Growth pack (30K, $749.99) plus four Starter packs (20K, $599.96) comes to $1,349.95 (Explorium pricing, October 2026).

Explorium does not publish what the match step costs, so these figures are a floor. Packs also expire after 12 months, so unused credits are lost money.

At 1M records a month

For BlitzAPI, 1M work-email results sit under the 15,000,000 results a month fair use line. One Plus plan covers it: $499 x 1 month = $499 at list, for an account opened by September 30. For an account opened from October 1, there is no public price, so ask BlitzAPI for a quote.

Time is the other cost. At 50 requests a second, 1,000,000 lookups take 20,000 seconds, about 5.6 hours. At the standard 5, they take 200,000 seconds, about 2.3 days.

For Explorium, 1M work emails is 2M credits. The cheapest published pack is Scale, 500K credits at $7,499.99 ($0.015 a credit). So 4 packs x $7,499.99 = $29,999.96 at list. With phones, 1M lookups is 5M credits, which is 10 packs and $74,999.90 (Explorium pricing, October 2026).

Enterprise is a custom quote with volume discounts, so a negotiated price could be lower. Credits are a one-off purchase and Plus is monthly, so for an account opened by September 30, a single 1M pull still favors BlitzAPI by a wide margin. At 200 queries a minute, 1M rows take 5,000 minutes, about 3.5 days.

Where BlitzAPI wins

• A flat bill at volume, for older accounts. On an account opened by September 30, 2026, one Plus plan at $499 covers 1M work emails at list. Stacking Explorium packs for the same job comes to at least $29,999.96.
• Contact counts you can read. BlitzAPI publishes 65M+ verified work emails and 45M+ phone numbers. Explorium publishes neither.
• Faster calls. 50 requests a second against 200 queries a minute, for accounts opened by September 30.
• One call per lookup. A LinkedIn URL goes in and a work email comes out, with no match step first.
• Job postings. 100M+ live postings behind dedicated search endpoints.

Where Explorium wins

• Company breadth. 146M+ business entities against BlitzAPI's 65M+ companies, by each vendor's own count.
• An MCP server that returns data. AgentSource MCP has 11 tools, and its statistics tools size an audience before you pull.
• Events. It tracks funding rounds, hiring, M&A and product launches (Explorium MCP docs, October 2026). BlitzAPI's docs list no event stream.
• A cheaper start and a no-code path. Lite is $29.99 against $399 a month, and its Vibe Prospecting connector works without an API key.
• Phones outside the US. Explorium names no country limit. BlitzAPI's phone data stops at the US border.

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 a 12-tool MCP server that returns records, with OAuth sign-in. Free is 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with unlimited searches and lookups, 100 requests per second per key and 166M people with a phone number (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

For bulk work, POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request, and the app has an Exports page with a CSV download (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). LeadOcean is smaller than Explorium on companies and has no event stream. See the BlitzAPI alternative page and BlitzAPI alternatives for line-by-line versions.

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