Lusha vs Prospeo (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

Prospeo is the cheaper way to buy verified emails and mobiles. Lusha is the bigger database with a browser extension and buying signals. Both sell credits. Only Prospeo's public price list reaches 1M records a month, by stacking seats and add-ons. The numbers below come from each vendor's own pages, checked in September 2026.

Verdict

• Pick Lusha if your reps work in a browser and a CRM. You get a Chrome extension, a larger stated database (525M+ contacts, 117M+ direct dials) and 26 buying signals refreshed weekly (Lusha homepage, September 2026).
• Pick Prospeo if you buy by the verified email and watch cost per record. A credit costs $0.0245 on Starter and falls to $0.0166 on Pro, and a lookup that finds nothing costs nothing (Prospeo pricing, September 2026).
• Pick neither if you pull data in code at volume and want a flat bill. Both meter every reveal. Lusha turns into a quote past 10,000 credits a month, and Prospeo needs 44 seats plus an add-on to reach 1M. LeadOcean fits that case and is covered below.

Side by side

Every cell links to the page it came from. "Not published" means the vendor prints no figure.

Data and coverage

Lusha states the larger database on every line. It claims 525M+ contacts, 165M+ emails, 117M+ direct dials and 29M+ companies, with 78 fields per record (Lusha homepage, September 2026). Prospeo claims 280M leads and companies and 143M verified emails (Prospeo, September 2026). All of these are vendor claims, and neither vendor publishes how it counts a record.

Prospeo's pitch is verification. It charges only for a verified email (Prospeo help center, September 2026), and the homepage claims 98% data accuracy (Prospeo, September 2026). Treat the accuracy figure as marketing until you test it on your own list.

Phones are where the two differ most. Lusha publishes a direct-dial count and charges 5 credits per phone number. Prospeo publishes no mobile count and charges 10 credits per mobile, with the email included (Lusha API guide, September 2026; Prospeo help center, September 2026).

Lusha also sells signals. It tracks 26 buying signals, such as job changes, funding and hiring surges, and exposes lookalikes and buying-group search through its API (Lusha homepage, September 2026). Prospeo is narrower. Its search returns 25 results a page with no contact data, so you pay again to enrich them (Prospeo search docs, September 2026).

API and developer experience

Both have a REST API and a hosted MCP server. The shape differs. Lusha searches first and then enriches by returned id, and the enrich step spends the credits. Prospeo enriches in one call. Placeholders below stand in for real people.

Lusha, search for a contact by name and company domain.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.lusha.com/v3/contacts/search \
  --header "api_key: $LUSHA_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "contacts": [
      { "clientReferenceId": "my-ref-1", "firstName": "Jane", "lastName": "Doe", "companyDomain": "acme.com" }
    ],
    "options": { "includePartialProfiles": true }
  }'

Search returns matches. You pass the returned contact id to the enrich endpoint, and that reveal is the step that spends credits (Lusha API overview, September 2026). One contact with email and phone is 7 credits through a single request. That is 5 for the phone, 1 for the email and 1 for the request (Lusha API guide, September 2026).

Prospeo, enrich a person by name and company website.

curl -X POST "https://api.prospeo.io/enrich-person" \
  -H "X-KEY: $PROSPEO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"only_verified_email": true, "data": {"first_name": "Jane", "last_name": "Doe", "company_website": "acme.com"}}'

The response is synchronous. The flags only_verified_email and enrich_mobile control when credits are spent, and a miss costs nothing. Re-enriching the same record within 90 days is free (Prospeo enrich docs, September 2026). Prospeo's own docs advise the bulk endpoint, up to 50 people per request, for speed.

Limits matter more than syntax at volume. Lusha's quotas are low on small plans: Free and Starter get 100 requests a day, and Pro gets 1,500. Premium reaches 18,000 a day and 300 a minute. A separate Lusha page adds a default ceiling of 25 requests a second per account (Lusha rate limits, September 2026). Prospeo's Pro plan allows 30 enrich requests a second and 500,000 a day, which is the higher ceiling of the two (Prospeo rate limits, September 2026).

Two points are unsettled in the vendors' own docs. Lusha's API guide says a request costs at least 1 credit even with no data (Lusha API guide, September 2026). Its billing FAQ says a no-match request is not charged (Lusha billing FAQ, September 2026).

Prospeo's pricing table shows no public API on Free. Its help center lists limited API access at 50 requests a day (Prospeo help center, September 2026). The API docs intro says free API access for all users (Prospeo API docs, September 2026). Test a free key on each before you plan around either.

MCP follows the same split. Lusha's server has 50 tools and covers search, enrichment, lookalikes and signals. Prospeo's has 8 tools (Lusha MCP tools, September 2026; Prospeo MCP docs, September 2026). Lusha's MCP calls draw on the same credits as its REST API, so an agent spends from one balance.

Pricing

Both tools sell credits, so cost scales with volume. The worked example uses work emails only, one credit each, every lookup a hit. A phone costs 5 credits at Lusha and 10 at Prospeo, so a phone pull multiplies the credit count. Prices are monthly list first, billed-yearly after.

Cost per credit. Lusha's Premium plan runs $0.1176 a credit at its base step ($399.90 for 3,400 credits) and $0.0977 at its top step ($977.40 for 10,000). Prospeo's plans run $0.0245 on Starter, $0.0198 on Growth and $0.0166 on Pro, all monthly (Lusha pricing, September 2026; Prospeo pricing, September 2026). A Lusha phone at the base Premium rate is 5 x $0.1176 = $0.588. A Prospeo mobile on Starter is 10 x $0.0245 = $0.245.

10,000 records a month

• Lusha: a bulk request adds 1 credit per 25 results on top of the email credit. 10,000 emails need 10,000 + (10,000 / 25 = 400) = 10,400 credits. The top public monthly step is 10,000 credits for $977.40, or $9,539.10 for 120,000 credits billed yearly, about $794.93 a month. That step covers 9,600 emails (9,600 + 384 request credits = 9,984). Lusha prints no price for 10,400 credits a month (Lusha pricing, September 2026; Lusha credit docs, September 2026).
• Prospeo: one Growth seat gives 5,000 credits for $99. The 5,000-credit add-on is $90. That is 10,000 credits for $189 a month. Billed yearly, 2 Growth seats at $74 a month ($888 a year each) give 120,000 credits a year for $1,776, or $148 a month (Prospeo pricing, September 2026).

At 10,000 a month Prospeo is the clear winner on list price, and Lusha's own top public step sits just below the volume.

1M records a month

• Lusha: 1,000,000 emails need 1,000,000 + (1,000,000 / 25 = 40,000) = 1,040,000 credits. That is 104 times the 10,000-credit top public tier. Lusha's Scale plan is custom and gives 50%+ off price per credit, with no figure. No public 1M price. Ask Lusha for a quote (Lusha pricing, September 2026).
• Prospeo: no single tier reaches 1M. On monthly billing the cheapest public mix is 44 Pro seats: (1,000,000 - 350,000 add-on credits) / 15,000 = 43.3, rounded up to 44, and 44 x $249 = $10,956. Add the 350,000-credit add-on at $3,500. That is 1,010,000 credits for $14,456 a month. Billed yearly, 3 Pro seats at $2,241 plus the 500,000-credit yearly add-on at $4,500 is $11,223 for the year, with 1,040,000 credits upfront. That covers one 1M pull, not 1M every month (Prospeo pricing, September 2026).

Prospeo publishes nothing above 350,000 add-on credits a month or 500,000 a year, and extended pricing is enabled on request (Prospeo help center, September 2026). A real quote for 1M may differ from the list arithmetic.

Rollover. Prospeo credits never roll over, monthly or yearly (Prospeo help center, September 2026). Lusha's monthly Pro and Premium plans roll credits over up to 2x. Its yearly plans grant everything upfront and reset at the end of the cycle (Lusha pricing, September 2026).

Where Lusha wins

A bigger stated database. Lusha claims 525M+ contacts against Prospeo's 280M leads and companies. It is also the only one that publishes a phone count.

Signals and account scoring. Lusha has 26 buying signals, lookalikes and buying-group search. Prospeo lists job-change tracking on Growth and up and intent topics instead (Prospeo pricing, September 2026).

Reps in a browser. Lusha has a Chrome extension and native CRM apps, and its MCP server has 50 tools (Lusha homepage, September 2026; Lusha MCP tools, September 2026). A rep can reveal a contact on LinkedIn without an engineer.

An API key on every plan. Lusha's API guide says Free users get a key too, which makes testing simple.

Where Prospeo wins

Cost per record. Prospeo's public price list reaches both 10,000 and 1M records a month, and Lusha's reaches neither. Its per-credit rate is also well below Lusha's.

You pay for results. Credits are charged on verified emails, a miss costs nothing, and a repeat lookup inside 90 days is free (Prospeo enrich docs, September 2026).

Higher API ceilings. Pro allows 500,000 enrich requests a day against Lusha Premium's 18,000.

A published path to volume. Add-ons run to 350,000 credits a month and 500,000 a year at $0.01 and $0.009 a credit. Lusha prints nothing past 10,000 credits a month.

If you need volume through an API

LeadOcean is a people and company data API with a hosted MCP server, with no seats and no credits. Free gives 1,000 records one-off with no card, and Pro is $499 a month flat over REST and MCP. POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request, so a 1M-row pull is 20 requests over two days. There is no sequencer or Chrome extension, so reps who prospect in a browser should keep Lusha or Prospeo. See LeadOcean pricing, the Lusha alternative and the Prospeo alternative.

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