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

RocketReach is the cheaper way to start, and SalesIntel is the one that sells verified contacts. Neither publishes a price for 1M records. Pick by who does the prospecting: one rep or a small team on RocketReach, a sales team that wants one quoted contract on SalesIntel.

Verdict

• Pick RocketReach if one rep or a small team prospects by hand and wants a seat price you can read. Its API is real, but it is capped and set up through api@rocketreach.co (RocketReach rate limits, September 2026).
• Pick SalesIntel if your reps want human-verified mobiles, intent data and a success manager in one contract, and you accept a quote and an annual term (SalesIntel pricing, September 2026).
• Pick neither if you pull people and company data through an API at volume and want a flat monthly bill. LeadOcean is one option, covered below.

Side by side

RocketReach's own pricing page blocks automated reads, so its plan prices come from G2. Both vendors change plans and counts often, so confirm on their pages before you buy.

Data and coverage

RocketReach claims the larger database, and SalesIntel sells verification. RocketReach lists 700M+ professionals and 60M+ companies (RocketReach docs, September 2026). SalesIntel lists 200M+ verified contacts, 54M+ verified mobiles and a 90-day refresh cycle (SalesIntel, September 2026).

All of these are vendor claims, and we tested none. Both vendors also disagree with themselves. RocketReach says 60M+ companies on its docs home and 35M on the API account page. SalesIntel says 200M+ contacts on its homepage and 120 million machine verified contacts on its API page (SalesIntel API page, September 2026).

The two sell different things under the word "verified". SalesIntel's people API has a verified parameter that returns human-verified records only, plus an is_ev_contact flag for records with a verified email (SalesIntel people API, September 2026). RocketReach has no human tier. It grades each email A, A-, B or F, and A is about 98% deliverable by its own figure (RocketReach FAQ, September 2026).

RocketReach also bills around quality. It charges no credit when nothing is found or when the email grade is B or F, and re-lookups of the same profile are free while the plan is active. That is a billing rule, not an accuracy test.

Phone is the clearest gap on paper. SalesIntel claims 54M+ mobiles and direct dials. RocketReach publishes no phone count, only a price of 6 credits per phone.

Neither vendor publishes an independent accuracy test. Run the same 200 contacts through both before you sign.

API and developer experience

RocketReach's API is quick to read and slow to scale. SalesIntel's is simple to call and slow to get. RocketReach lets you generate a key from your account settings, but heavy use needs a paid API plan set up by email (RocketReach docs, September 2026). SalesIntel hands you a key through your success team.

RocketReach authenticates with an Api-Key header. This request looks up one person by name and employer, using placeholders (RocketReach docs, September 2026).

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 come back unfinished, so you poll the status endpoint or register a webhook. Each lookup uses an export credit, and one export in the app equals one API credit.

SalesIntel authenticates with an X-CB-ApiKey header. This request appends one contact by email (SalesIntel people API, September 2026).

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.salesintel.io/service/people?email=jane.doe@acme.com" \
  --header "X-CB-ApiKey: $SALESINTEL_API_KEY" \
  --header "Accept: application/json"

SalesIntel charges credits per record returned, not per request. A 402 means you are out of credits and a 403 means your account lacks permission (SalesIntel API docs, September 2026). A /service/people/preview route returns masked contacts and takes no credits.

At 1M records, throughput matters less than caps. RocketReach tops out at 10 requests a second, and its highest published person lookup cap is 200,000 a month. SalesIntel allows 30 requests a second per user, but a result set stops at 10,000 records, so you need at least 100 separate searches for 1M.

For agents, RocketReach is the only one with an MCP server, with 9 tools. SalesIntel's developer docs list REST, webhooks and a Snowflake share, and no MCP server. Its terms also bar extracting its materials with crawlers, bots, scripts or intelligent agents, in section 1.5(c) (SalesIntel terms, September 2026). SalesIntel does not say publicly how that applies to API use, so ask before you wire an agent to it.

Pricing

RocketReach publishes seat prices through a third party, and SalesIntel publishes no dollar figure at all. Prices below are monthly list first, with the billed-yearly figure after it.

RocketReach lists Essentials at $69, Pro at $119 and Ultimate at $209 a month on monthly billing, reported by G2 (G2, September 2026). Those plans carry 100, 250 and 1,000 exports a month. We could not read the billed-yearly prices, because rocketreach.co/pricing blocks automated reads, so we leave them out.

RocketReach publishes no dollar price per Universal Credit and no API plan price (RocketReach credits, September 2026).

SalesIntel's pricing page lists unlimited export and enrichment credits per user, a dedicated success manager and add-ons for advanced intent, ads and visitor identification (SalesIntel pricing, September 2026). Vendr reports a median of $17,599 a year, with deals from $8,670 to $41,380 (Vendr, updated February 2026). There is no billed-yearly price because there is no monthly one.

At 10,000 records a month

• RocketReach: 10,000 exports a month is 10 Ultimate seats, since Ultimate allows 1,000 exports at $209. So 10 x $209 = $2,090 a month at monthly list, reported by G2. That is our arithmetic, and the docs do not say whether you can stack seats on self-serve.
• RocketReach by API: a professional email costs 2 Universal Credits, so 10,000 emails is 20,000 credits (RocketReach credits, September 2026). The Pro person lookup cap is 20,000 a month, so that volume fits. There is no dollar price per credit.
• SalesIntel: no public 10,000 price. The terms cap each user at 3,000 reveals a month, and 10,000 / 3,000 = 3.3, so at least 4 users (SalesIntel terms, September 2026). Vendr's median works out to about $1,467 a month ($17,599 / 12), for a typical deal, not for this volume.

At this size RocketReach gives you a number you can plan around. SalesIntel may cost less or more, and a quote is the only way to find out.

At 1M records a month

• RocketReach: no public 1M price. One million professional emails is 2,000,000 Universal 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 (RocketReach rate limits, September 2026).
• SalesIntel: no public 1M price. At 3,000 reveals per user, 1,000,000 / 3,000 = 334 users. That is a floor on seats, not a quote, and volume deals are negotiated. Vendr reports contact overages of $0.50 to $2.00 per contact (Vendr, February 2026).

We do not multiply a seat or credit rate out to 1M for either tool. Prices change by tier and by contract before you get there. Ask both for a written price at your volume, your term length and your renewal increase.

Where RocketReach wins

• A seat price you can read, from $69 a month on monthly billing, reported by G2.
• A free plan with 5 lookups and no card.
• No credit charged on a B or F email grade, or when a lookup finds nothing.
• Free re-lookups of the same profile while the plan is active (RocketReach FAQ, September 2026).
• An official MCP server, which SalesIntel does not list.

Where SalesIntel wins

• Human-verified contacts, with a verified parameter in the API that filters to them.
• A higher claimed phone count: 54M+ verified mobiles, with the data refreshed every 90 days.
• Intent and technographics in one contract, with 60,000+ intent topics and advanced intent as an add-on (SalesIntel, September 2026).
• A success manager, onboarding, a Chrome extension and unlimited export credits per user on the core plan (SalesIntel pricing, September 2026).
• A free preview endpoint that checks a match before you spend credits, and a Snowflake data share.

If you need volume through an API

We build LeadOcean, so weigh this section accordingly. LeadOcean is a data API and MCP server with no credits and no seats. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with unlimited searches, enrichments and lookups at 100 requests per second per key. Free gives you 1,000 records one-off with no card, and both plans get the same REST API and 12-tool MCP server (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 sequencer, dialer, CRM or Chrome extension, and no human-verified tier. Read the RocketReach alternative page and RocketReach alternatives, then check pricing.

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