Cognism vs LeadMagic (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

Cognism is a sales intelligence platform that sells packages by quote. LeadMagic is an enrichment API that sells credits at a public price. Cognism wins for teams that dial phone-verified mobiles. LeadMagic wins for anyone who wants to see a price and start today.

Every price and limit below was checked in September 2026, with its source link. Where a vendor publishes nothing, the page says so.

Verdict

• Pick Cognism if your reps phone prospects all day and you want mobiles that Cognism staff have verified, Do Not Call cross-referencing and intent data on the Pro package. Expect a sales call, a quote and an API that needs a package that includes it.
• Pick LeadMagic if you buy up to about 20,000 emails a month, want a published price from $99 a month and need an API key today. You pay only for valid emails, and a miss is free.
• Pick neither if you need one flat price at volume. Cognism publishes no price at all, and LeadMagic has no public price at 1M. LeadOcean is one option.

Side by side

All figures checked September 2026.

Data and coverage

The two databases are not measured the same way. LeadMagic gives numbers: 400M+ people, 25M+ companies and 46M+ job posts (LeadMagic, September 2026). Cognism says "hundreds of millions" of profiles and no more, and its own FAQ notes that it does not usually make general coverage claims (Cognism FAQ, September 2026).

Neither vendor publishes how many emails it holds. LeadMagic validates every email it finds and charges nothing for a miss. Cognism returns emails and phone numbers only when you ask for them, one credit per revealed contact.

Phones are where they differ most. Cognism claims 10M+ phone-verified contacts, on-demand verification in under 48 hours and Do Not Call cross-referencing in 15 territories (Cognism Diamond Data, September 2026). LeadMagic publishes no phone count. Its mobile finder costs 5 credits per valid mobile.

Cognism's number counts numbers it verified. It does not count every number it holds. A dialing team cares about the first figure. An enrichment job cares about match rate, and neither vendor publishes one.

Run the same 500 people through both before you buy. That is the only coverage number that matters for your list.

API and developer experience

Both are REST APIs with an MCP server. The difference is the job each call does. LeadMagic finds one email from a name and a domain. Cognism searches people by filter and returns pages of records.

LeadMagic's email finder is POST /v1/people/email-finder. It costs 1 credit per valid email and nothing if no email is found (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). The request, with a placeholder person:

curl -X POST 'https://api.leadmagic.io/v1/people/email-finder' \
  -H "X-API-Key: $LEADMAGIC_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"first_name":"Jane","last_name":"Doe","domain":"acme.com"}'

Cognism uses OAuth 2.0 client credentials from Settings, M2M Connect. Tokens last 20 minutes, so your code refreshes them (Cognism authentication, September 2026). Search returns 1 to 100 records a page. Add view=contacts to reveal emails and phones, at one credit per record (Cognism reference, September 2026).

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://api.cognism.com/persons/filter?limit=10' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $COGNISM_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{"person":{"jobTitle":{"include":["VP Sales"],"match":"ONCE"}}}'

If you hold names and domains, LeadMagic fits with no prior step. If you build lists from filters, Cognism's search is the closer match. Its search schema has 13 person filter fields and 21 company filter fields (Cognism API reference, September 2026).

On access, LeadMagic gives an API key on every paid plan. Cognism says API and MCP access are new capabilities on its new packages, and existing customers ask their account team to upgrade (Cognism docs, September 2026).

On agents, both host an MCP server with OAuth sign-in. Cognism's has 15 tools: people and company search and count, eight dictionary lookups and three settings tools. LeadMagic states 43 tools (LeadMagic MCP page, September 2026). Calls on both spend the same credits as the API.

Limits shape how each scales. Cognism allows 500 requests a minute per account, counted separately for search, count and dictionary calls, in a 60-second window (Cognism rate limits, September 2026). LeadMagic caps the email finder at 600 a minute, about 10 a second.

Pricing

Cognism has no price to compare. LeadMagic has a price list, and you can do the sum yourself.

At 10,000 records a month. Take 10,000 valid emails at 1 credit each, which is 10,000 credits. LeadMagic Growth gives 20,000 credits for $249 a month, or $2,490 a year ($208 a month) billed yearly (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).

Mobiles cost more. 10,000 mobiles x 5 credits = 50,000 credits, which needs Professional at $499 a month ($416 a month billed yearly).

Cognism publishes no price per plan, seat or credit. Its pricing page says pricing is tailored to product, team setup and usage (Cognism pricing, September 2026). Ten thousand revealed contacts take 10,000 credits, and each seat includes an allocation whose size is not published. Ask for a written quote.

At 1M records a month. Cognism has no public 1M price. One million revealed contacts is 1,000,000 credits, and no list price exists to multiply. The highest public tier is Pro with 5 seats, quote only.

LeadMagic has no public 1M price either. Its top self-serve plan is Ultimate at $849 a month for 100,000 credits, so 1M is 10 times the largest plan. Top-up prices are not published. Enterprise starts at $2,490 a quarter with custom volume pricing and no per-credit rate (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).

Time matters at 1M too. At 100 records a page and 500 requests a minute, 1,000,000 / 100 = 10,000 search calls, about 20 minutes on Cognism. At LeadMagic's 600 email lookups a minute, 1,000,000 / 600 is about 1,667 minutes, or 27.8 hours.

For more LeadMagic matchups, see LeadMagic vs Kaspr, LeadMagic vs Explorium and LeadMagic vs Datagma. For Cognism alone, see the Cognism alternative page and Cognism alternatives.

Where Cognism wins

• Phone-verified mobiles. Cognism's team verifies mobile numbers on request in under 48 hours. LeadMagic publishes no equivalent (Cognism Diamond Data, September 2026).
• Do Not Call checks. Cognism says it cross-references Do Not Call lists in 15 territories, which matters if your reps cold-call.
• Intent data. Pro adds Bombora Company Surge intent, with up to 12 topics (Cognism pricing, September 2026).
• A sales platform. Cognism is an app for revenue teams, with five seats per package. LeadMagic is an API and a dashboard.

Cognism's weak points are the missing price, the missing coverage counts and API access that depends on your package.

Where LeadMagic wins

• A public price. $99 a month for 5,000 credits, and $249 for 20,000. A 14-day money-back guarantee covers the first payment (LeadMagic help, September 2026).
• Pay on success. A miss on the email finder costs nothing, so you pay only for valid emails.
• Self-serve access. Sign up, buy a plan and call the API. No quote and no package check.
• More than contacts. 46M+ job posts and a job change detector at 3 credits a check (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).

LeadMagic's weak points are the credit meter, no free plan and no public price at 1M.

If you need volume through an API

We build LeadOcean, so weigh this section accordingly. It has a free plan with 1,000 records, one-off, no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with unlimited searches, enrichments and lookups, and no credits or per-record price (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

It holds 693M people, 366M with an email and 166M with a phone number, plus 63M companies. REST and a hosted MCP server with 12 tools run on every plan, at 100 requests per second per key (LeadOcean MCP docs, September 2026).

For bulk pulls, POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request, or you can use the Exports page in the app. 1M rows is 20 requests over two days (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). If your reps dial all day, Cognism's phone-verified mobiles are the reason to pay for it. See pricing for the detail.

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