RocketReach vs LeadIQ (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

RocketReach and LeadIQ both sell B2B contact data to sales teams, and both bill API use in credits. Neither publishes a price for 1M records. RocketReach fits a buyer who wants a readable seat price and a documented REST API, and LeadIQ fits reps who prospect in the browser and sync to a CRM.

Verdict

• Pick RocketReach if you want email and phone lookups through a documented REST API with published limits, and a seat price you can read. Its API is capped and set up by email.
• Pick LeadIQ if reps prospect in Chrome and push to Salesforce, HubSpot or Outreach, and your volume stays under 6,750 credits a month. Its entry price is the lowest of the two.
• Pick neither if you need volume through an API at a price you can read. LeadOcean is one option: Pro is $499 a month, flat, with no credits.

Side by side

Data and coverage

LeadIQ claims the larger people database, but only by a small margin. It lists 750M+ professional profiles against RocketReach's 700M+ (LeadIQ pricing FAQ, September 2026; RocketReach docs, September 2026). Both are vendor claims, and neither is an audited count.

On companies, only RocketReach gives a number. It says 60M+ on its docs home and 35M on the API account page, so treat it loosely. LeadIQ publishes no company count on the pages we read.

Phone is where the two differ on paper. LeadIQ claims an 85% global mobile match rate, 70% in EMEA, and over 90% accuracy on verified numbers (LeadIQ pricing FAQ, September 2026). RocketReach publishes no phone rate, only a price of 6 credits per phone.

Email quality is signalled differently. RocketReach grades each email A, A-, B or F and charges nothing for a B or F, or when no data is found (RocketReach FAQ, September 2026). LeadIQ marks email as Verified or VerifiedLikely in search filters. Neither publishes an independent accuracy test, and we ran none.

Freshness is a LeadIQ claim only. It says the dataset refreshes every month, with up to 200 million records re-verified. RocketReach states no refresh cadence on the pages we read.

Search depth also differs. RocketReach search returns at most 10,000 results per query (RocketReach FAQ, September 2026). LeadIQ offset paging stops at 10,000 too, but cursor paging reads a larger result set (LeadIQ developer docs, September 2026).

API and developer experience

RocketReach has the plainer API. LeadIQ has the larger tool list. Both route you through a sales or setup step before volume.

RocketReach is REST and authenticates with an Api-Key header. Person lookup is a GET that takes a LinkedIn URL, an email, a phone or a name plus employer (RocketReach docs, September 2026). The values below are placeholders.

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.rocketreach.co/api/v2/person/lookup?name=Jane%20Doe&current_employer=Acme" \
  --header "Api-Key: $ROCKETREACH_API_KEY"

The lookup can return a status of progress, so you poll or register a webhook. Bulk lookup needs a webhook and takes 100 people per batch (RocketReach docs, September 2026). API access is set up through api@rocketreach.co, and the global limit is 10 requests per second.

LeadIQ is GraphQL at one endpoint. The docs show a flat people search with a page size and a cursor, and a country filter on the company (LeadIQ developer docs, September 2026). This is the documented query, with placeholder paging.

query {
  flatAdvancedSearch(input: {
    companyFilter: { locations: [{ country: "United States" }] }
    limit: 50
  }) {
    totalPeople
    people { id name title }
    after { key value }
  }
}

You pass the returned after value back to read the next page. The developer docs publish no rate limit, so ask LeadIQ for one before you plan a bulk job.

LeadIQ's MCP billing differs from its API. The connector charges per data point: 0.1 credit for a profile, 1 for a work email, 10 for a phone and 3 for a company. The direct GraphQL API runs on its own ratesheet (LeadIQ developer docs, September 2026).

LeadIQ's docs and its MCP page disagree on access. The developer docs say a free account can connect. The MCP page says you need an active paid subscription (LeadIQ MCP page, September 2026). Test with your own account before you plan around it.

Pricing

Both tools turn records into credits, and neither prints a dollar price for credits at API volume. Monthly list price comes first, billed-yearly after it. The worked examples count credits and seats, and we do not multiply a rate out to 1M.

The plans

RocketReach lists Essentials at $69, Pro at $119 and Ultimate at $209 a month on monthly billing, reported by G2 because rocketreach.co/pricing blocks automated reads (G2, September 2026). We could not read the billed-yearly prices, so we leave them out.

LeadIQ Pro starts at $20 a month for 200 credits on monthly billing, and $15 a month billed yearly (LeadIQ pricing, September 2026). The slider tops out at 81,000 credits a year (6,750 a month), then reads Enterprise. Annual billing is 25% off.

At 10,000 records a month

RocketReach: the API route is 2 credits per professional email, so 10,000 emails is 20,000 credits (RocketReach credits, September 2026). Pro allows 20,000 person lookups a month, so the volume fits (RocketReach rate limits, September 2026). There is no price per credit.

The seat route is 10 Ultimate seats at 1,000 exports each, so 10 x $209 = $2,090 a month (reported by G2). That is our arithmetic, and the docs do not say whether you can stack seats.

LeadIQ: at the MCP rate, 10,000 work emails is 10,000 credits at 1 credit each. That is above the 6,750 top of the self-serve slider, so there is no public price. With phones it is worse: 11 credits per person means 6,750 credits buys about 613 people with email and phone.

At 1M records a month

RocketReach: no public 1M price. One million professional emails is 2,000,000 credits, with no dollar price published. The highest published person lookup cap is 200,000 a month, so 1M lookups is five months at the Custom tier.

LeadIQ: no public 1M price. At the MCP rate, one million work emails is 1,000,000 credits. At the 6,750 credit self-serve ceiling that is about 148 months, so it is an Enterprise quote.

The result is the same for both. At 1M you ask sales, and the number you get depends on your contract.

Where RocketReach wins

• A readable seat price. $69 to $209 a month on monthly billing, reported by G2, against a LeadIQ slider you must work through.
• Published API limits. Per-minute, hourly, daily and monthly caps for every plan are in the docs (RocketReach rate limits, September 2026).
• No charge for weak data. No credit on a B or F email grade, none when a lookup finds nothing, and free re-lookups while the plan is active.
• A standalone verify endpoint. POST /api/v2/email/verify runs at 300 a minute on every plan.
• Plain REST. One GET with an Api-Key header, with no GraphQL schema to learn.

Where LeadIQ wins

• A lower entry price. Pro from $20 a month, with 5 users included, against RocketReach Essentials at $69 for one seat.
• A browser workflow. The pricing page lists a Chrome extension, job-change tracking for champions and an AI message writer (LeadIQ pricing, September 2026).
• A bigger MCP surface. 23 tools against 9, with list management that uses no credits and Salesforce export (LeadIQ developer docs, September 2026).
• Deeper search paging. Cursor paging reads past 10,000 results, where RocketReach search stops.
• A published mobile claim. 85% global match rate, which RocketReach does not state.

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 MCP. Free is 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with unlimited searches and lookups and 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 also has an Exports page with a filter builder, price preview and CSV download (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). There is no Chrome extension, sequencer or dialer. See the RocketReach alternative page and RocketReach alternatives.

FAQ