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

Icypeas is cheaper per found email at every volume where both tools publish a price. LeadMagic costs more per email but sells mobile numbers, job data and a much larger MCP toolset. At 1M emails a month, Icypeas lists a price and LeadMagic does not.

Verdict

• Pick LeadMagic if you need mobile numbers, job and company signals, or an OAuth MCP server for agents, and you stay under 100,000 credits a month (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).
• Pick Icypeas if you hold names and domains and want the lowest published price per found email, with credits that never expire (Icypeas pricing, September 2026).
• Pick neither if you need to search an audience by filter and pull it at volume on a fixed bill. LeadOcean is one option, covered below.

Side by side

Both tools say limits and prices can change, so check the pricing pages before you buy.

Data and coverage

Both tools find work emails from a name and a company. Beyond that they diverge. LeadMagic adds a mobile finder, company enrichment, 46M+ job posts and a job change detector at 3 credits a check (LeadMagic, September 2026; pricing). Icypeas adds a standalone verifier, a profile scraper and a reverse email lookup at 10 credits per found profile (Icypeas credit cost, September 2026).

The headline counts do not line up. Icypeas quotes 575M professionals against LeadMagic's 400M+ profiles, and 1.8B emails, which counts addresses rather than people. Neither tool publishes a find rate. Run 200 contacts you already know through both before you trust any count.

Phones are the clearest gap. LeadMagic sells a live Mobile Finder at 5 credits per valid number. Icypeas quotes 280M phone numbers, yet its credit table has no phone route and its pricing page marks Phone Finder as coming soon (Icypeas pricing, September 2026). If you need mobiles today, only one of the two sells them.

Both also have search. LeadMagic searches people, companies and jobs, and the search API is zero-credit on Professional and Ultimate (LeadMagic People Search docs, September 2026). It does not publish a filter count. Icypeas Find People offers 10+ filters and Find Companies 9, at 0.02 credit per result with free counts (Icypeas features, September 2026).

One policy matters for LeadMagic. Its Fair Use terms say a sustained Email Finder find rate below 10% may lead to throttling or suspension (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). Stale lists can trip that.

API and developer experience

LeadMagic answers in one call. Icypeas answers in two. Placeholders below stand in for real people.

LeadMagic, find a work email from a 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 response carries email, status (valid or null) and credits_consumed, and a valid find costs 1 credit (LeadMagic docs, September 2026).

Icypeas, submit a search, then read the result by id.

curl -X POST "https://app.icypeas.com/api/email-search" \
  -H "Authorization: $ICYPEAS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"firstname":"Jane","lastname":"Doe","domainOrCompany":"acme.com"}'

The first call returns an _id and a status of NONE. You then call POST /api/bulk-single-searchs/read with that id until the status moves past SCHEDULED and IN_PROGRESS. A DEBITED status means an email was found and the credit was spent (Icypeas getting started, September 2026). The docs tell you not to use this route for many searches and to use bulk search instead (Icypeas docs, September 2026).

Limits differ in shape. LeadMagic caps Email Finder at 600 requests a minute, so 1M lookups take about 28 hours of steady calls. Icypeas allows 10 single searches a second, which is the same 28 hours. Bulk search takes 5,000 rows per call at 1 call a second, so 1M rows is 200 submit calls. Result reads are capped at 30 calls a minute (Icypeas rate limits, September 2026).

On MCP, LeadMagic's server signs in with OAuth only and lists 130+ tools. Icypeas's has 21 tools and signs in with your API key. A tool count says little about quality, so check the tools you would actually call.

Pricing

Both tools sell monthly credit plans, and both charge one credit per found email. Figures below use the monthly list price first, with the billed-yearly price after it. A "record" here is one found work email, and the sums assume every lookup finds one.

At 10,000 work emails a month

• LeadMagic: 10,000 credits. Essential's 5,000 is too small. Growth is the first plan that covers it. It costs $249 a month for 20,000 credits, or $208 a month billed yearly ($2,490 a year for 240,000 credits) (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). Monthly plans bank unused credits up to twice the allocation. Yearly plans do not roll over (LeadMagic pricing explained, September 2026).
• Icypeas: Advanced is $89 a month for 10,000 credits, or $74.17 a month billed yearly ($890 a year for 120,000 credits) (Icypeas pricing, September 2026). Prices are plus VAT.

That is $249 against $89 a month at list price. Icypeas costs about a third as much at this volume.

At 1M work emails a month

• LeadMagic: 1,000,000 credits. No public 1M price. The top self-serve plan is Ultimate, $849 a month for 100,000 credits ($8,490 billed yearly for 1,200,000 credits a year). Enterprise starts at $2,490 a quarter with custom volume pricing and no published credit rate (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). Expect a quote.
• Icypeas: 1,000,000 credits is a published tier, $3,992 a month ($0.003992 a credit), or $3,326.67 a month billed yearly ($39,920 for 12M credits) (Icypeas pricing, September 2026). That is cheaper than ten 100,000-credit steps at $499 each.

Misses are free on both, so your real bill follows your find rate. Extras change the sums. LeadMagic charges 5 credits per mobile and 0.25 per standalone validation. Icypeas charges 0.1 credit per verification (Icypeas credit cost, September 2026). LeadMagic validates every email it finds, while Icypeas returns a certainty label and sells verification apart.

LeadMagic top-ups exist, but no top-up price is published, so a 10,000-email month on Essential cannot be priced either.

Where LeadMagic wins

• A live Mobile Finder at 5 credits per valid number. Icypeas lists Phone Finder as coming soon.
• Job posts, a job change detector and company enrichment in the same credit pool.
• Zero-credit search on Professional and Ultimate, up to 20,000 searches a day.
• A single synchronous call for an email, with validation included.
• A much larger MCP toolset, 130+ tools, with OAuth and no key to paste into a chat.
• Native fit with Clay, Smartlead and Instantly (LeadMagic, September 2026).

Where Icypeas wins

• A lower price per found email at 10,000 and 100,000 a month ($499 against $849 for 100,000 credits), and an entry plan at $19.
• Credits that roll over with no expiry and no cap, even after a cancellation (Icypeas pricing, September 2026).
• A published 1M tier, so you can budget without a sales call.
• Bulk search of 5,000 rows per call, and free counts on Find People and Find Companies.
• A verifier and catch-all checks sold on their own, for lists you already hold.

For Icypeas against another finder, read Prospeo vs Icypeas. For LeadMagic against other tools, see LeadMagic vs Kaspr and LeadMagic vs Explorium.

If you need volume through an API

LeadOcean is a people and company data API and MCP server with no credits. 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 at 100 requests per second per key and a 12-tool MCP server. POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). It does not take a name and domain in one call, and it has no standalone verifier or job-post data. Read LeadMagic alternatives, the LeadMagic alternative page and pricing, then test it on a list you know.

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