7 Best UpLead API Alternatives for Developers (2026)

Developers leave UpLead when an enrichment API meets a pipeline. UpLead sells credits. Essentials is $99 a month for 170, Plus is $199 for 400, and extra credits cost $0.60 or $0.50 (UpLead pricing, September 2026). One credit is one contact or company record, and credit purchases are capped at $2,000 a day (UpLead help center, September 2026).

The API allows 500 requests a minute. One lookup returns one record, so 1M lookups take about 33 hours at the limit. Prospector Pro, Quick Search and Lists are on Professional and above (UpLead API docs, September 2026). Neither the homepage nor the docs mention MCP.

This page ranks seven alternatives on rate limit, auth, bulk export, MCP and the cost of 1M records. LeadOcean is first because it is built for code, agents and volume. For a two-column view, see LeadOcean vs UpLead. For the non-API angle, read UpLead alternatives.

TL;DR

"1M records" here means 1M work-email lookups that return a result, one credit each where the vendor uses credits. Figures are list prices. Where a vendor sells no plan at 1M, the cell says so and names its top public tier. UpLead has no public price at 1M either: extra credits cost $0.50 on Plus, capped at $2,000 of purchases a day, about 124,000 extra credits a month. Enterprise quotes are lower, so ask each vendor at your volume.

What we evaluated

• Rate limit and auth: the default request limit, what a 429 looks like, and how the key is sent.
• Schema and search: what a record looks like, which filters exist and how many rows a page returns.
• Bulk export: how you pull tens of thousands of rows without one call per person.
• MCP: whether an agent can search and enrich through the server, or only read documentation.
• Cost at 1M records: flat, credits or seats, at list price, plus any plan gate on the endpoints you need.

We read each vendor's pricing page and docs in September 2026. We ran no find-rate or accuracy test, so we quote no quality numbers.

1. LeadOcean: best for API, agent and volume buyers

LeadOcean is one dataset behind one REST API and one MCP server. It holds 693M people, 366M with an email and 166M with a phone number, plus 63M companies. You search with 50 people filters and 34 company filters. Counts are free.

The key goes in an x-api-key header, and the limit is 100 requests per second per key on every plan. Over that you get a 429 with Retry-After: 1 (LeadOcean limits docs, September 2026). Search and enrichment return the same leadocean.person.v1 schema, and unknown fields are null. Here is UpLead's person lookup, then the LeadOcean call for the same job.

UpLead:

curl "https://api.uplead.com/v2/person-search?email=jane@example.com" \
  -H "Authorization: $UPLEAD_API_KEY"

LeadOcean:

curl -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/enrich" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"jane@example.com","reveal_email":true}'

UpLead's Prospector call finds contacts by domain and job function. On LeadOcean that is a search with domain and jobFunction, 100 rows a page, paged by cursor. Search rows are thin. Emails and phones come from the enrich call on the people you pick.

UpLead:

curl "https://api.uplead.com/v2/prospector-search?domain=salesforce.com&job_function=finance" \
  -H "Authorization: $UPLEAD_API_KEY"

LeadOcean:

curl -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domain":["salesforce.com"],"jobFunction":["Finance & Accounting"],"limit":100}'

For volume, POST /v1/exports turns a people search into a CSV, up to 50,000 rows per request. Phones are GET /v2/people/phone. The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp signs in with OAuth 2.1 and exposes 12 tools, from search_leads to export_leads. Pro is $499 a month with unlimited searches, enrichments and lookups. There are no credits and no overage invoice. A very large month is paced down to one request a minute until the reset, not cut off.

Pros

• Flat $499 a month at any volume, with no credit meter.
• REST and MCP on every plan, including Free.
• 100 requests per second per key, which is 6,000 a minute.
• Email status on every record, with 13 values from verified to spam_trap.
• Free counts, and a miss on POST /v1/people/enrich is a free 404.

Cons

• No Chrome extension, CRM integrations or intent data. UpLead has all three.
• No accuracy guarantee and no bounce refunds, because there are no credits.
• Exports cap at 500,000 rows a day, so a 1M pull takes two days.
• One search pages to 10,000 rows, so you narrow filters instead of walking the index.

Best for: engineers, RevOps and agents that need volume and a fixed bill.

Pricing: Free is 1,000 records, one-off, no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

2. BlitzAPI: best for flat-price search and enrichment by API

BlitzAPI sells B2B data as an API on flat monthly plans. Its pricing page lists 550M+ profiles, 65M+ companies, 65M+ verified work emails and 45M+ US phone numbers, plus job postings and identity resolution (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).

Auth is an x-api-key header, and typed Python and TypeScript clients handle retries and paging (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). The plan ladder is where it gets fiddly. Core is $399 a month and leaves out emails and phones. Plus is $499 and adds verified work emails. Full is $599 and adds US phone numbers.

Two details to check before you commit. The 50 requests per second and 15,000,000 monthly results are tied to accounts opened by September 30, 2026, against a standard 5 per second. Limits also apply per endpoint (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). The terms state the 15,000,000 results as a launch-offer limit, and limits for accounts opened later are not published (BlitzAPI terms, September 2026). And its MCP server gives an assistant the API documentation, not the data (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Flat monthly price, with a fair-use line of 15,000,000 results a month for accounts opened by September 30, 2026.
• Jobs data and identity resolution sit next to people and company search.

Cons

• Three paid tiers, and phones need the top one.
• Phone numbers are US only on Full.
• The MCP server reads docs. An agent cannot search or enrich through it.
• The fast rate limit depends on when the account opened.

Best for: teams that want a flat-price search and enrichment API and run their own code.

Pricing: Core $399, Plus $499, Full $599 a month (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).

3. LeadMagic: best for a low per-credit price on valid emails

LeadMagic is a credit-based enrichment API. It lists 400M+ people profiles and 25M+ companies, and reaches them through REST, CSV, a command-line tool and a hosted MCP server (LeadMagic, September 2026). Failed lookups cost nothing, and a valid work email costs 1 credit.

The REST API lives at api.leadmagic.io and takes an X-API-Key header. Search runs at 5 requests a second on Professional and 10 on Ultimate. It returns up to 50 rows per cursor page, but only 25 rows a page on that zero-credit Professional and Ultimate lane (LeadMagic agent guide, September 2026). The Email Finder endpoint allows 600 requests a minute. LeadMagic also states that a sustained find rate below 10% can lead to throttling or suspension (LeadMagic docs, September 2026).

Essential is $99 a month for 5,000 credits. Professional is $499 for 50,000. Ultimate is $849 for 100,000, or $0.00849 a credit (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). A mobile costs 5 credits. The MCP server uses OAuth, and a preview_cost call shows the price of a large job first (LeadMagic docs, September 2026).

Pros

• The lowest per-credit list price in this group.
• No charge when an email is not found.
• Hosted MCP with a cost preview before large operations.

Cons

• The top self-serve plan is 100,000 credits, so 1M a month needs an Enterprise quote.
• Search is 5 to 10 requests a second, so bulk pulls queue.
• A minimum find-rate policy can throttle lists with poor match rates.

Best for: teams that enrich a few hundred thousand valid emails a month and want the cheapest credits.

Pricing: Essential $99, Growth $249, Professional $499, Ultimate $849 a month (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).

4. FullEnrich: best for waterfall emails and mobiles behind an API

FullEnrich is the nearest thing to a waterfall with the interface removed. It queries 25+ sources for each contact, and you pay only for data it finds (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026). Its pricing page lists API access, people and company search and an MCP server on Pro.

Credits are the meter. A work email costs 1 credit, a personal email 3 and a mobile 10. Pro starts at $29 a month for 500 credits. The default tier is $55 for 1,000 credits, which is $0.055 each (FullEnrich docs, September 2026).

Bulk enrichment is asynchronous and uses Bearer auth (FullEnrich docs, September 2026). The API allows 60 calls a minute, with up to 100 contacts in a bulk request, and higher limits are an Enterprise feature (FullEnrich docs, September 2026). The MCP server can search, enrich and export, and it asks you before it spends credits (FullEnrich help, September 2026).

Pros

• Waterfall across 25+ sources, so one call can cover several vendors.
• Search, enrichment and export in the MCP server.

Cons

• Mobiles cost 10 credits each, so phone-heavy pulls get expensive fast.
• The default API limit is 60 calls a minute.
• A credit meter at volume. There is no public price at 1M: the top monthly tier is 100,000 credits for $3,500 a month.

Best for: teams that want waterfall contact data, mostly emails and mobiles, through an API or an agent.

Pricing: Pro starts at $29 a month for 500 credits and tops out at 100,000 credits for $3,500 a month. Above that, contact sales (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026).

5. People Data Labs: best for data licences and per-match enrichment

People Data Labs (PDL) is a long-running person and company data API with bulk licences. It is ISO and SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, which matters for procurement (PDL pricing, September 2026). It charges per match: a request that returns a person costs one credit, and a miss costs none.

The schema is its strength. Person Search queries any field in the person schema, 1 to 100 results a page. Its default limit is 10 requests a minute (PDL docs, September 2026). Enrichment allows 1,000 calls a minute on paid plans, and Bulk Person Enrichment takes 100 people per request (PDL docs, September 2026).

The entry price is high per record. Pro starts at $98 a month for 350 credits, which is $0.28 each, and PDL says Pro profiles run about $0.20 to $0.28 each by volume (PDL blog, September 2026). The Free plan gives up to 100 records a month with contact data hidden. Above about 100,000 profiles a year it is Enterprise and quote only, with no public 1M price (PDL docs, September 2026). We found no official MCP server in the docs index (PDL docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A fast enrichment API, with a stated 1,000 calls a minute on paid plans.
• Bulk person enrichment and dataset licences for your own warehouse.
• ISO and SOC 2 Type 2 shown on the pricing page.

Cons

• $0.28 a record at the entry rate, so volume needs a sales call.
• Person Search defaults to 10 requests a minute.
• No official MCP server found, so agents need a wrapper you host.

Best for: teams that license data or need compliance paperwork and accept per-record pricing.

Pricing: Free up to 100 records a month. Pro from $98 a month for 350 credits. Enterprise custom (PDL pricing, September 2026).

6. Crustdata: best for live company and people data in agents

Crustdata sells real-time company and people data through APIs for search, enrichment, jobs, posts and watchers. It lists 1 billion+ people and describes its data as continuously re-verified (Crustdata, September 2026). It fits signal-driven work better than bulk list building.

Auth is a Bearer key plus an x-api-version header (Crustdata docs, September 2026). Pricing is credit based and the public page shows no dollar price per credit. The docs list costs per call. Person search is 0.03 credits per result, person enrichment 1 to 7 credits, and contact enrichment 1 to 5.5 credits (Crustdata docs, September 2026).

Volume is the catch. Standard endpoints default to 15 to 30 requests a minute, and higher limits go through support (Crustdata docs, September 2026). Async batch jobs take up to 10,000 people each (Crustdata docs, September 2026). The MCP server at install.crustdata.com/mcp signs in with OAuth or an API key (Crustdata docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Live data and change watchers that a static database lacks.
• Cheap search at 0.03 credits per result, so you narrow before you enrich.
• MCP server that returns company, people and job data.

Cons

• No public price per credit, so you cannot price 1M records from the site.
• Low default rate limits on standard endpoints.
• Contact data costs more credits than a base profile.

Best for: AI SDR and signal workflows that need fresh data more than raw volume.

Pricing: Credit based, with no public price list. Per-call credit costs are in the docs (Crustdata docs, September 2026).

7. Apollo: best for reps who want a database and a sequencer in one

Apollo is a sales platform with a contact database attached. Its pricing page lists 240M contacts and 30M companies, sequences, a dialer and a Chrome extension (Apollo pricing, September 2026). It ranks last here because the pricing is built around seats, not volume.

Basic is $49 per seat a month with 30,000 credits a year. Professional is $79 with 48,000. Organization is $119 with 72,000 and a three-seat minimum, all billed annually. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 8.

For code, the limits are workable. Enrichment endpoints allow 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans, and search allows 200 a minute and 50,000 a day (Apollo docs, September 2026). The MCP server works on any plan, including Free (Apollo MCP, September 2026). Apollo also says its plans are for internal business use only.

Pros

• Database, sequences, dialer and CRM sync in one tool.
• MCP server on every plan, with OAuth sign-in.
• A free plan to test the API.

Cons

• Seats and credits both scale your bill, and credits expire each cycle.
• Search is capped at 200 a minute and 50,000 a day.
• Internal use only, so you cannot build a product on it.

Best for: sales reps who prospect and send from one workspace.

Pricing: Free. Basic $49, Professional $79, Organization $119 per seat a month, billed annually (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

For reference, UpLead is 500 requests a minute, an Authorization header with no prefix, and no first-party MCP server. Sources are linked in each tool section, all checked in September 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm on the pricing page before you buy. The 1M column is list price on email lookups. Apollo is 250 Professional seats on monthly billing ($24,750) or 400 Basic seats on yearly billing ($19,600). PDL has no public 1M price, so its cell says so. LeadMagic and FullEnrich sell no plan at 1M, so the cell names the top public tier. The Blitz figure holds for accounts opened by September 30, 2026.

How to choose

• You pull data in code or with an agent, at volume: LeadOcean. One flat price, REST and MCP on every plan, 100 requests per second.
• You want a flat-price API from a second vendor: BlitzAPI Plus, if you can live with a docs-only MCP server.
• You buy valid emails by the hundred thousand: LeadMagic, at $0.00849 a credit on Ultimate.
• You need waterfall emails and mobiles: FullEnrich, and budget 10 credits per mobile.
• You need a licensed dataset or compliance paperwork: People Data Labs.
• You need fresh signals and company events: Crustdata, with a rate-limit conversation first.
• Your reps live in the tool: Apollo, or stay on UpLead for its Chrome extension and accuracy guarantee.
• You are comparing other contact APIs too: read Wiza API alternatives, Snov.io API alternatives and SalesIntel API alternatives.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for developers who pull data through an API, an agent or at volume. It has a flat price, a 100-requests-per-second limit, a 50,000-row export and an MCP server that returns records. BlitzAPI is the flat-price runner-up if you run your own code. LeadMagic wins for cheap valid emails and FullEnrich for waterfall mobiles. PDL wins for licensed datasets, Crustdata for live signals and Apollo for reps who want a sequencer. Stay on UpLead if a rep needs its extension and written accuracy guarantee. Otherwise start on the free plan and compare the same lookups.

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