LeadMagic vs Hunter.io (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

Hunter is cheaper at both ends of the scale and starts from a company domain. LeadMagic is the better fit when you also need mobile numbers, catch-all resolution or an agent-ready MCP server. At 1M records, Hunter publishes a price ($6,900 once) and LeadMagic does not.

Verdict

• Pick LeadMagic if your lists need mobile numbers as well as emails, you run Clay or other waterfalls, or you want unused monthly credits to roll over (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).
• Pick Hunter if you start from a domain or a name, want a free plan, or need a published price at volume: 1M Search credits for $6,900 (Hunter Data Platform, September 2026).
• Pick neither if you pull whole people and company records by API at volume, filtered by title and industry. Per-credit pricing on both tools grows with every record. LeadOcean is one option, covered below.

Side by side

Data and coverage

LeadMagic states a larger dataset. Its homepage cites 400M+ profiles, and it adds company, jobs and mobile data to the email finder (LeadMagic, September 2026). Hunter publishes no database size. Its homepage shows a counter of 150,430,313 email addresses verified (Hunter, September 2026). The two numbers count different things, so do not subtract one from the other.

Hunter starts from a domain. Domain Search lists the addresses found at a company, and Email Finder returns the likeliest address for a name. Email Finder can return an inferred address. A second endpoint, Email Finder (Found), returns only addresses seen on the web (Hunter API docs, September 2026).

LeadMagic starts from a person. You send a name plus a domain or company, or a profile URL, and it returns an email only if it validates. By default an email on an unrelated domain comes back as a free not-found (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). LeadMagic says it has no domain search (LeadMagic comparison, September 2026).

Phones are the clearest split. LeadMagic sells mobile numbers at 5 credits each. Hunter has no phone endpoint, only an optional phone_number field, which is null in its Domain Search sample response. Neither publishes a phone count, so run a sample of your own contacts before you buy.

On accuracy, LeadMagic states 97% for its Email Finder on its own comparison page. That is a vendor claim, and Hunter publishes no equivalent figure. Run the same 500 contacts through both and compare bounces.

API and developer experience

Both tools have a REST API on every plan and a key in a header. LeadMagic finds an email with POST /v1/people/email-finder. Hunter uses GET /v2/email-finder. Placeholders below stand in for real people.

LeadMagic, find a work email by name and domain.

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"}'

The call costs 1 credit for a valid email and nothing when no email is found (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). The search API is different. On Essential and Growth it bills about 1 credit per returned person, and Professional and Ultimate get zero-credit search (LeadMagic People Search docs, September 2026).

Hunter, find an email by name and domain.

curl -G "https://api.hunter.io/v2/email-finder" \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $HUNTER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "domain=acme.com" \
  --data-urlencode "first_name=Jane" \
  --data-urlencode "last_name=Doe"

A miss costs no credit (Hunter help, September 2026). One quirk to plan for: Hunter returns 403 when you hit the rate limit and 429 when you run out of credits or plan quota (Hunter API docs, September 2026).

On limits, LeadMagic is faster per minute and Hunter is faster per second. LeadMagic allows 600 Email Finder requests a minute with a burst near 10 a second. Hunter allows 15 a second but 500 a minute. Hunter documents limits per endpoint: Email Verifier is 300 a minute and Discover is 50 a minute.

Both ship a hosted MCP server. LeadMagic's takes OAuth only, with no static key, and states 130+ tools on its MCP page while its docs say "dozens" (LeadMagic MCP, September 2026). Hunter's is included in every plan and takes an API key header (Hunter MCP, September 2026).

Pricing

LeadMagic sells a monthly plan with a shared credit pool. Hunter sells credits on a plan, or one-off Data Platform credits for API and bulk use. Figures below use the monthly list price first, with the billed-yearly price after it. USD, September 2026.

At 10,000 work emails a month

Assume every lookup finds a valid email. A miss is free on both tools, so you pay only for finds.

• LeadMagic: 10,000 credits at 1 credit per email. Essential has 5,000 credits, so you need Growth: 20,000 credits for $249 a month, or $208 a month billed yearly ($2,490 a year for 240,000 credits) (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).
• Hunter: Growth includes 10,000 credits for $149 a month, or $104 a month billed yearly (Hunter pricing, September 2026).

Hunter is cheaper at this size: $149 against $249 monthly, $104 against $208 yearly. LeadMagic leaves 10,000 spare credits, and on monthly billing they roll over up to 2x the allocation (LeadMagic pricing explained, September 2026). Hunter monthly credits reset each month (Hunter help, September 2026).

At 1M work emails

• LeadMagic: No public 1M price. The top self-serve tier is Ultimate, $849 a month for 100,000 credits, which is one tenth of 1M. Top-up prices and Enterprise credit rates are not published. Enterprise starts at $2,490 a quarter, paid upfront, with custom volume pricing (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).
• Hunter: 1,000,000 Search credits on the Data Platform cost $6,900, paid once and valid 12 months, which is $0.0069 a credit (Hunter Data Platform, September 2026). Above 1M is custom, so 1M every month means buying again or asking for a quote.

The all-in-one route on Hunter costs more. Scale is $299 a month for 25,000 credits, then 975,000 pack credits at up to $0.02 each is $19,500, about $19,799 in total. Packs cap at 180,000 per purchase (Hunter help, September 2026). At 1M, use the Data Platform.

Two caveats. Hunter API enrichment endpoints cost 0.2 credit per enriched email on all-in-one plans, so enrichment is cheaper than finding. LeadMagic's pricing page still prints "Credits roll over" on the annual view, while its docs say annual plans do not roll over. Ask before you rely on it.

Where LeadMagic wins

• Mobile numbers on the same credit pool, 5 credits per valid mobile.
• Catch-all validation that resolves accept-all addresses at 0.25 credits per definitive answer (LeadMagic comparison, September 2026).
• A bigger stated dataset, plus company, jobs and hiring data.
• Monthly credits that roll over up to 2x the allocation.
• Native Clay integration and a CSV enrichment flow, per its own comparison page.
• A higher per-minute Email Finder limit: 600 against 500.
• An MCP server with a stated 130+ tools.

Where Hunter wins

• A free plan with 50 credits a month. LeadMagic has none.
• A published price at volume: $6,900 for 1M credits against no public 1M price.
• Cheaper at 10,000 emails a month: $149 against $249.
• Domain Search, a browser extension and cold email sequences in the same product, per LeadMagic's own comparison.
• Unlimited team members on a shared pool. LeadMagic caps seats at 3 to 20.
• Bulk Email Finder takes 50,000 rows per file.
• Limits documented per endpoint, with a 15-a-second burst.

If you need volume through an API

Both tools meter by the credit, so cost grows with every record. LeadOcean is a people and company data API with an MCP server. Pro costs $499 a month, flat, with unlimited searches, enrichments and lookups, and the Free plan gives 1,000 records one-off with no card. Both plans get the same REST API and 12-tool MCP server, and POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). Read LeadMagic alternatives, the LeadMagic alternative page and pricing, and test it on a list you already know.

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