7 Best ContactOut API Alternatives for Developers (2026)

Developers leave ContactOut when the API turns into a sales call. The pricing page lists Team / API as Contact Us (ContactOut pricing, September 2026). The API docs say to request a key by booking a meeting (ContactOut API docs, September 2026). There is no price list to budget against.

The limits are tight for a pipeline. People Search allows 60 requests a minute and most other endpoints 1,000. Paid "unlimited" plans stop at 2,000 email and 1,000 phone credits per account a month (ContactOut terms, September 2026). Self-serve plans allow one user per company (ContactOut pricing, September 2026). A million emails is 500 account-months on that ceiling.

This page ranks seven alternatives for developers who pull data through an API, an agent or at volume. LeadOcean is first because its API is open on the free plan and Pro is one flat price. For a two-column view, see LeadOcean vs ContactOut. For a shortlist beyond the API, read ContactOut alternatives.

TL;DR

"1M records" here means 1M work-email lookups that return a result, one credit each where the vendor uses credits. Where a vendor sells a plan that size, the figure is list-price arithmetic. Where none does, the cell says so and names the top public tier. Enterprise quotes differ. ContactOut is the baseline: its API has no public price.

What we evaluated

• Access and auth: who gets a key, which header carries it, and whether a free plan opens the API.
• Rate limits: the default limit and how long 1M single lookups take at that rate.
• Schema: how an email, its status and a phone come back in the response.
• Bulk and MCP: batch or export size, and whether an agent can pull records through the MCP server.
• Price model: flat, credits or seats, and what 1M records a month costs at list price.

We read each vendor's pricing page and docs in September 2026. We ran no find-rate test, so we quote no quality numbers.

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

LeadOcean is one dataset behind one REST API and one MCP server. It holds 693M people, 366M with an email and 166M with a phone number, plus 63M companies. You search with 50 people filters and 34 company filters, and counts are free.

Auth is one header, x-api-key, and the free plan includes a key with no sales call. Enrichment is POST /v1/people/enrich, which takes a LinkedIn URL, a work email, a phone number or a person ID. Phones use GET /v2/people/phone.

The schema is one stable person object. Each address sits in contact_data.contact_emails[] with its own type and status, from verified to spam_trap. ContactOut's LinkedIn endpoint returns plain string arrays: work_email, personal_email and phone (ContactOut API docs, September 2026). In each pair below, ContactOut comes first.

curl -G "https://api.contactout.com/v1/linkedin/enrich" \
  --data-urlencode "profile=https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe" \
  -H "token: $CONTACTOUT_API_TOKEN"

curl -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/enrich" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe","reveal_email":true}'

Pro is $499 a month with unlimited searches, enrichments and lookups, 5 API keys and 100 requests per second per key. At that rate one key sends 1M single lookups in under three hours, against about 17 hours at ContactOut's 1,000 a minute. There are no credits and no overage invoice. A very large month is paced down, not cut off.

Bulk is POST /v1/exports: up to 50,000 rows per request as an async CSV, so 1M rows is 20 calls over two days (LeadOcean docs, September 2026). ContactOut's v2 batch takes up to 1,000 profiles per job and posts to a callback URL (ContactOut API docs, September 2026).

curl -X POST "https://api.contactout.com/v2/people/linkedin/batch" \
  -H "token: $CONTACTOUT_API_TOKEN" -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"profiles":["https://linkedin.com/in/example-person-1"],"callback_url":"https://example.com/hook","include_phone":true}'

curl -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/exports" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"CTOs in Germany","filters":{"title":["CTO"],"country":["DE"],"emailStatus":["verified"]},"limit":5000,"preset":"full"}'

The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp signs in with OAuth 2.1 and exposes 12 tools, from search_leads to find_phone and export_leads. count_leads is free, so an agent sizes an audience before it pulls one.

Pros

• Flat $499 a month at any volume, with no credit meter.
• REST and MCP on every plan, including Free, and a key without a sales call.
• Email status on every address, 13 values from verified to spam_trap.
• A miss on POST /v1/people/enrich is a free 404.

Cons

• No Chrome extension or rep workspace. You work in the app's Exports page, the API or MCP.
• No email campaigns or dialer.
• ContactOut's homepage claims 800 million people profiles, more than LeadOcean's 693M (ContactOut, September 2026).

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

Pricing: Free is 1,000 records, one-off, no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

2. BlitzAPI: best for flat-price people and company data

BlitzAPI sells B2B data as an API on flat monthly plans. Its pricing page lists 550M+ profiles, 65M+ companies and 100M+ job postings (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).

Core is $399 a month without emails or phones. Plus is $499 and adds verified work emails. Full is $599 and adds US phones.

Auth is an x-api-key header. POST /v2/enrichment/email takes person_linkedin_url and returns found, email, an all_emails[] array and a fair_usage block (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). Standard accounts run at 5 requests a second. The 50 a second rate is a lifetime offer for accounts opened by September 30, 2026 (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026). Limits apply per endpoint (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026).

The MCP server gives an assistant the API documentation, not the data (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). The docs index lists no bulk export endpoint (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). We found no bulk or CSV export endpoint in BlitzAPI's docs index or v2 OpenAPI spec. Data comes through the JSON API with cursor pagination (BlitzAPI docs).

Pros

• Flat monthly price, with a stated limit of 15M results a month for accounts opened by September 30, 2026. Limits for later accounts are not published (BlitzAPI terms, September 2026).
• A free trial of 1,000 credits with no card.

Cons

• Phones need the top tier, and cover US numbers only.
• The MCP server reads docs. An agent cannot search or enrich through it.
• At the standard 5 a second, 1M lookups take about 55 hours.

Best for: teams that want a flat-price enrichment API, run their own code and need job signals.

Pricing: Core $399, Plus $499, Full $599 a month (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).

3. LeadMagic: best for pay-on-success emails and unmetered search

LeadMagic is a credit-based enrichment API with a hosted MCP server. A valid email costs 1 credit and a miss costs nothing (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). Its pricing page lists credits from $0.007.

Auth is an X-API-Key header. POST https://api.leadmagic.io/v1/people/email-finder takes a name plus a domain or company name, or a profile URL alone. It returns email, status and credits_consumed.

Essential is $99 a month for 5,000 credits, and Growth is $249 for 20,000. Billed yearly, Essential is $83 a month for 60,000 credits a year and Growth is $208 a month for 240,000 credits a year (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). Searching in the app spends no credits on any paid plan. On Essential and Growth the search API bills about 1 credit per returned person, and nothing when no one returns (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). Unmetered API search runs at 5 to 10 requests a second on $499+ plans, shared across all keys (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). Email Finder is capped at 600 requests a minute (LeadMagic docs, September 2026).

The hosted MCP server at https://mcp.leadmagic.io/mcp signs in with OAuth only (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). A free preview_cost tool prices a job first.

Pros

• No charge when an email is not found.
• Searching in the app spends no credits, and the search API is free on Professional and Ultimate.
• Hosted MCP with a cost preview before large jobs.

Cons

• Credits are the meter, so cost rises in a straight line with volume.
• Exports stop at 10,000 rows a day on Essential and 25,000 on Growth.

Best for: teams that enrich a few hundred thousand valid emails a month and want cheap credits.

Pricing: Essential $99 and Growth $249 a month, larger plans above (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).

4. Findymail: best for verified emails with async webhooks

Findymail is an email finder with a REST API, a verifier and an MCP server. It charges one credit per verified email and 10 per phone. Its docs set a limit of 300 simultaneous requests unless noted (Findymail docs, September 2026).

Auth is an Authorization: Bearer header. The finder takes a name plus a company, or a business profile URL, and accepts a webhook_url so the search runs in the background. Synchronous real-time search is limited to 5 concurrent requests, and async jobs can take up to 24 hours.

Findymail's pricing page blocks automated reading, so see its pricing page for current plans and credit prices. The MCP server has 14 tools (Findymail plugin, September 2026).

Pros

• Async webhooks and a standalone verifier endpoint.
• Only verified emails are returned, and a miss costs nothing.

Cons

• Phones cost 10 credits each, and numbers are US only.
• The self-serve ladder ends at 100,000 credits.

Best for: outbound teams and agencies that want verified emails through a queue.

Pricing: not published here. See Findymail's pricing page.

5. Hunter: best for domain-first email finding and verification

Hunter finds and verifies emails by domain. Auth is an X-API-KEY header, an api_key query parameter or a Bearer token (Hunter API docs, September 2026). Email Finder and Domain Search allow 15 requests a second and 500 a minute, so 1M single lookups take about 18 hours.

A 403 means the rate limit and a 429 means your usage limit. Discover, the company search endpoint, allows 5 requests a second.

Scale is $209 a month billed yearly for 300,000 credits a year (Hunter pricing, September 2026). The remote MCP server at mcp.hunter.io/mcp takes an API key or OAuth, works on every plan including Free and uses your plan credits (Hunter MCP, September 2026).

Pros

• MCP on every plan, including Free.
• A clear 15 a second limit with documented status codes.

Cons

• Built around a domain or a name, not a people database with deep filters.
• Self-serve plans top out at 300,000 credits a year. 1M credits is a separate Data Platform purchase, API and bulk only.

Best for: teams that find emails by company domain and verify before sending.

Pricing: Free 50 credits a month. Starter $34 and Scale $209 a month, billed yearly (Hunter pricing, September 2026).

6. Prospeo: best for reps who want an extension and an API

Prospeo pairs a Chrome extension and search app with a public API. Auth is an X-KEY header. Credits are charged on found emails: 1 per email and 10 per mobile (Prospeo docs, September 2026). Enriching the same record twice inside 90 days costs nothing, and a bulk endpoint takes up to 50 people per request.

Plans and limits are per user. Sources disagree on Free. The pricing table shows no Public API. The help center lists limited access of 50 requests a day, and the API docs say free API access for all users (Prospeo help center, September 2026). The rate-limits article also lists limited access for Free (Prospeo help center, September 2026). Test a Free key before you plan around it.

Pro is $249 per user a month for 15,000 credits, with 30 enrich requests a second and 500,000 a day. Starter and Growth allow 5 a second and 2,000 or 5,000 a day (Prospeo rate limits, September 2026).

Credits reset on renewal. Add-ons start at 500 credits for $10 on monthly billing, and 1,000 credits cost $20 ($0.02 each). The pricing-page FAQ says 1,000 for $10, which its own add-on table contradicts (Prospeo pricing, September 2026). The hosted MCP server has 8 tools (Prospeo docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Extension, search app and API in one product, with free re-enrichment for 90 days.

Cons

• Priced per user, plus credits that expire each cycle.
• Starter and Growth cap enrichment at 2,000 and 5,000 requests a day.

Best for: small teams whose reps use the extension and whose engineers call the API.

Pricing: Free 100 credits a month. Starter $49, Growth $99, Pro $249 per user a month (Prospeo pricing, September 2026).

7. FullEnrich: best for waterfall emails and mobiles behind an API

FullEnrich queries 25+ sources for each contact and charges only for what it finds. Its pricing page lists API access, people and company search and an MCP server on Pro (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026). A work email is 1 credit, a personal email 3 and a mobile 10.

Bulk enrichment takes up to 100 contacts per request and returns results by webhook, with polling as the fallback. Auth is a Bearer token (FullEnrich docs, September 2026). The default limit is 60 calls a minute, which is up to 6,000 contacts a minute, so 1M contacts take about 3 hours (FullEnrich docs, September 2026).

Pro starts at $29 a month for 500 credits ($0.058 each). The 1,000-credit tier is $55 a month ($0.055 each). The MCP server can search, enrich and export, and it asks before it spends credits (FullEnrich help, September 2026).

Pros

• Waterfall across 25+ sources in one call.
• Bulk of 100 contacts, so 60 calls a minute still moves 6,000 contacts.

Cons

• Mobiles cost 10 credits each.
• No public price at 1M work emails. The top monthly tier is 100,000 credits for $3,500 a month ($0.035 a credit). Above that you contact sales.

Best for: teams that want waterfall contact data, mostly emails and mobiles, through an API.

Pricing: Pro from $29 a month for 500 credits, up to $3,500 a month for 100,000. Enterprise is custom (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

Sources are linked in each tool section, all checked in September 2026. Confirm prices before you buy. For Hunter the 1M cell is its Data Platform price for 1,000,000 Search credits, bought once and valid 12 months. Findymail's pricing page blocks automated reading, so its cells are not published here. LeadMagic and FullEnrich publish no plan at 1M, and the cells name their top tiers. For Prospeo the cell is the cheapest public path, built from Pro seats plus its largest add-on.

How to choose

• You pull data in code or with an agent, at volume: LeadOcean. One flat price, a key without a sales call, REST and MCP on every plan.
• You want a second flat-price API: BlitzAPI Plus, if a docs-only MCP server is acceptable.
• You want to pay only for hits: LeadMagic, or Findymail if you prefer async webhooks.
• You find emails by company domain: Hunter, with a 15 a second limit you can plan around.
• Your reps live in an extension and engineers add the API: Prospeo.
• You need waterfall mobiles: FullEnrich, and budget 10 credits per mobile.
• You are weighing other vendors: read the Wiza, UpLead and Snov.io API guides.
• Your team works in a browser, not in code: stay on ContactOut.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for developers who need volume, an agent or a fixed bill. It has an open key, a flat $499 plan and an MCP server that returns records. BlitzAPI is the flat-price runner-up if you run your own code. LeadMagic wins on cheap pay-on-success credits, Findymail on async webhooks, Hunter on domain-first lookups, Prospeo for teams with reps and FullEnrich for waterfall mobiles. Stay on ContactOut if your users work from LinkedIn in a browser. Otherwise start on the free plan and compare the same lookups.

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