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

Crustdata and LeadMagic both sell B2B people data over an API and an MCP server, but they solve different problems. Crustdata is a large profile graph with live web endpoints and change alerts, priced in credits with no public dollar rate. LeadMagic finds and validates emails and mobiles, with a price list you can read.

Verdict

• Pick Crustdata if you need profile depth, live web data or change alerts, and you can get a quote. It claims 1B people, and a search result costs 0.03 credits.
• Pick LeadMagic if the job is verified work emails and mobiles by API. Prices are public, you pay only for valid results, and a miss is free.
• Pick neither if you need volume through an API at a price you can read. Neither publishes a 1M price. LeadOcean is one option: Pro is $499 a month, flat.

Side by side

Data and coverage

Crustdata claims the bigger index: 1B people against LeadMagic's 400M+. Treat both as vendor claims, because neither publishes how many records carry an email or a phone (Crustdata, September 2026; LeadMagic, September 2026).

Company counts do not settle it. Crustdata's homepage states two company figures, 60M and 200M+, so this page quotes no single count. LeadMagic states 25M+ companies and adds 46M+ job posts (LeadMagic, September 2026).

The two return different things. Crustdata returns a full profile: employment history, education, skills and developer platform data when you ask for them. LeadMagic returns the contact: a validated work email, a mobile, a company or a job change.

Email status differs too. Crustdata labels each address deliverable, catch_all, invalid or unknown (Crustdata contact docs, September 2026). LeadMagic validates every email it finds and returns it only when valid, so a miss comes back null (LeadMagic docs, September 2026).

One gate matters. Crustdata's dedicated contact endpoint needs an enterprise plan, and self-serve keys get a 403. On a self-serve key you take emails through /person/enrich at extra credits.

API and developer experience

Both have a REST API with a key header and a hosted MCP server. Crustdata is built around a profile URL and a filter tree. LeadMagic has one endpoint per job.

Crustdata sends a Bearer key and a required x-api-version header. Person enrich takes up to 25 profile URLs per request (Crustdata docs, September 2026):

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.crustdata.com/person/enrich \
  --header "authorization: Bearer $CRUSTDATA_API_KEY" \
  --header 'content-type: application/json' \
  --header 'x-api-version: 2025-11-01' \
  --data '{
    "professional_network_profile_urls": [
      "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe"
    ]
  }'

That call returns a base profile for 1 credit. Search is a separate POST /person/search with nested and/or filter groups. It costs 0.03 credits per result plus extra for premium field groups such as experience or skills (Crustdata docs, September 2026).

LeadMagic uses an X-API-Key header. The email finder takes a name and a domain (LeadMagic docs, September 2026):

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"}'

A valid email costs 1 credit. No email found returns a null status and costs nothing. Mobiles are a separate call at 5 credits each.

Limits differ in kind. Crustdata's defaults are low per endpoint, and raising live-endpoint limits is done by email to Crustdata (Crustdata rate limits, September 2026). LeadMagic's email finder runs at 600 requests a minute, about 28 hours for 1M single lookups.

MCP is close. Crustdata's server takes OAuth for interactive clients and an API key for code. LeadMagic's takes OAuth only and accepts no static key, so a headless script cannot use it (Crustdata MCP docs, September 2026; LeadMagic MCP, September 2026).

Pricing

Crustdata publishes credits per call and no dollar price per credit. LeadMagic publishes a plan ladder in dollars. So at any volume you can price LeadMagic from its page, and Crustdata only from a quote.

Price basis below: monthly list price first, billed-yearly figure after it.

At 10,000 records a month

Take 10,000 work emails. On Crustdata's /person/enrich that is 10,000 x (1 base + 1 business email) = 20,000 credits. Ten thousand search results alone are 10,000 x 0.03 = 300 credits (Crustdata docs, September 2026).

The dollar figure is credits times your quoted rate, and that rate is not public. A Crustdata blog post reports a lowest tier from $95 a month, but the pricing page lists no plans (Crustdata blog, September 2026).

For LeadMagic, 10,000 valid emails is 10,000 credits. That does not fit Essential's 5,000, so you need Growth: $249 a month for 20,000 credits, or $208 a month billed yearly (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). Misses are free, so real spend is lower if some lookups fail.

For 10,000 mobiles, LeadMagic needs 10,000 x 5 = 50,000 credits. That is Professional at $499 a month, or $416 a month billed yearly. On Crustdata, a phone adds 2 credits to a 1-credit base profile. So 10,000 phones is 10,000 x (1 + 2) = 30,000 credits, at a price you must ask for.

At 1M records a month

For Crustdata, 1,000,000 work emails is 1,000,000 x (1 + 1) = 2,000,000 credits on /person/enrich. On the enterprise-only contact endpoint it is 1,000,000 credits, and misses there are not billed (Crustdata docs, September 2026). No public 1M price.

For LeadMagic, 1,000,000 valid emails is 1,000,000 credits. The top public plan is Ultimate at 100,000 credits a month, so 1M is ten times that. Top-up prices and Enterprise credit rates are not published. Enterprise starts at $2,490 a quarter, paid upfront (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). No public 1M price.

It is tempting to multiply a per-credit rate by 1M and call it a quote. Do not. For both tools the real number comes from a sales conversation.

Credits behave differently. Crustdata's docs say purchased credits expire 12 months after purchase. A July 2026 Crustdata blog post says 6 months, so confirm the term before you buy in bulk (Crustdata credits, September 2026). LeadMagic monthly plans roll over up to 2x the allocation, and annual plans do not roll over (LeadMagic pricing guide, September 2026).

Where Crustdata wins

• A larger index. 1B people on its homepage, against LeadMagic's 400M+. A long-tail profile is more likely to sit in the bigger index.
• Live data and signals. Live web fetch, job and social post search, and watchers that alert on a person or company change, at 5 credits per changed person on the 30-day tier (Crustdata docs, September 2026).
• Cheap discovery. Search is 0.03 credits per result. LeadMagic's search API bills about 1 credit per returned person on Essential and Growth (LeadMagic search docs, September 2026).
• Profile depth and a key-based MCP. Employment history, education and skills sit behind one call, and the MCP server works from a script with an API key.

Where LeadMagic wins

• A price you can read. Plans from $99 a month, and a plan ladder to $849 for 100,000 credits (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). Crustdata lists no plan prices.
• You pay for valid results. One credit per valid email and nothing for a miss. Crustdata's contact endpoint also skips misses, but it is enterprise only.
• Faster email lookups. 600 requests a minute on the email finder, against 15 a minute on Crustdata's enrich.
• Job posts and no enterprise gate. 46M+ job posts and a job change check at 3 credits, with emails and mobiles sold on the public plan ladder (LeadMagic, September 2026).

If you need volume through an API

We build LeadOcean, so weigh this section accordingly. LeadOcean holds 693M people and 63M companies, reachable over REST and a 12-tool MCP server. Free is 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with unlimited searches and lookups at 100 requests per second per key (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

For bulk work, POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request. The app has an Exports page with a filter builder and CSV download (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). It has no live web data, job posts or change watchers. If you need those, keep Crustdata or LeadMagic for them. See the Crustdata alternative page for the full comparison.

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