The Best Company Database APIs - Real Pricing, Real Data
Finding the right company database API shouldn't require a sales call. Yet most vendors hide pricing behind a demo request, and most listicles regurgitate feature bullets without a single dollar figure. The data enrichment market hit $7.55B in 2025 and is projected to reach $16.72B by 2034, which means more vendors, more noise, and more opaque pricing pages.
We've spent months testing these APIs in production enrichment workflows. Here are actual costs, match rates, and the tradeoffs vendors don't put on their landing pages.
Here's the thing: in a benchmark of 847 API calls across 22 providers, 68% claimed 95%+ email accuracy but only 12 actually delivered it. Accuracy claims are marketing until proven otherwise.
Our Top Picks
- Best for verified contact data: Prospeo - 98% email accuracy, 92% API match rate, ~$0.01/email
- Best for raw company enrichment at scale: People Data Labs - transparent per-credit pricing, credits consumed per successful match only
- Best free starting point: Apollo - API access on the free plan, 275M+ contacts
Pricing Compared
Every tool below has a real number attached. No "contact sales" cop-outs.
| Tool | Starting Price | Model | Freshness | Self-Serve? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People Data Labs | $0.10/credit | Per-match | Continuous | Yes | Company data at scale |
| Apollo | Free tier | Per-user/mo | Monthly | Yes | Free starting point |
| Coresignal | $49/mo | Subscription | 3-4 months | Yes | Bulk datasets |
| The Companies API | $95/mo | Credit packs | Monthly | Yes | Dev-friendly basics |
| Grata | $15,000/yr | Annual | Weekly | No | Private companies |
| Breeze Intelligence (Clearbit) | ~$30/mo (100 cr.) | Credit packs | Monthly | Partial | HubSpot teams |
| ZoomInfo | ~$15k-$40k/yr | Quote-based | Not public | No | Enterprise + intent |
| Bold Data | From EUR425 | Dataset | Monthly adds | Partial | Bulk analysis |
| SMARTe | $25/50 credits | Credit-based | Not public | Yes | Lightweight enrichment |
Most company database APIs serve records that are weeks old. Prospeo refreshes every 7 days - not 6 weeks. With a 92% API match rate, 98% email accuracy, and 50+ data points per enrichment, your pipeline stays current.
Start enriching for $0.01/email with zero contracts or sales calls.
Best Company Database APIs in 2026
Prospeo
Best for: verified emails and direct dials via API.
Prospeo's enrichment API returns 50+ data points per contact from 300M+ professional profiles, 143M+ verified emails, and 125M+ verified mobile numbers. The 92% API match rate is the highest we've seen in self-serve tools, and the 98% email accuracy means your sequences don't bounce.
The 7-day data refresh cycle is the real differentiator for pipeline builders. The industry average sits around six weeks, so most APIs serve stale records by default. If you're enriching leads flowing into Salesforce, HubSpot, or sequencers like Lemlist and Instantly, that freshness gap compounds fast - you're emailing people who changed jobs a month ago and wondering why reply rates tanked.
Pricing starts at roughly $0.01 per email with a free tier of 75 emails/month plus 100 Chrome extension credits/month. No contracts, no sales calls. Native integrations with Clay, Zapier, and Make mean you can plug it into an existing workflow in minutes.
Use this if you need verified contact data - emails and mobiles - not just firmographics. Skip this if you only need raw company-level data without contacts.
People Data Labs
Best for: high-volume company enrichment with transparent pricing.
PDL's pricing model is refreshingly honest. Company enrichment runs $0.10/credit at Tier 1 (1,000-10,000 credits), $0.075 at Tier 2 (10,001-25,000), and $0.065 at Tier 3 (25,001+). Person enrichment starts at $0.28/credit. Credits are consumed per successful match (HTTP 200) - failed lookups don't burn budget.
The Autocomplete and Cleaner APIs don't consume credits at all, which is a nice touch. Both bulk enrichment and search API requests can consume up to 100 credits per call depending on the size parameter, so watch your batch sizes carefully. Enterprise plans for volume above 100k credits require a sales conversation, but everything below that is fully self-serve.
Use this if you're building enrichment pipelines that need company firmographics at scale. Skip this if you need verified emails or phone numbers - PDL's strength is company data, not contact accuracy.
Apollo
Apollo includes API access on its free plan. That's 275M+ contacts across 73M+ companies with 65+ search filters. For a startup testing enrichment workflows, it's the obvious starting point.
Paid plans run $49-$119/user/month billed annually. Compared to enterprise suites like ZoomInfo, Apollo covers most core prospecting workflows at a fraction of the cost. But email deliverability is the weak spot. Apollo's email accuracy runs closer to 79%, which means more bounces in production. If your outbound volume is high enough that bounce rates matter, the savings evaporate fast.
Let's be honest: if you're closing deals under $10k, Apollo's free tier is probably all you need. Once you're selling six-figure contracts, the cost of a bad email - missed pipeline, burned domain reputation - dwarfs the cost of better data.
Coresignal
Coresignal covers 67M+ company profiles with plans starting at $49/mo (Starter), $800/mo (Pro), and $1,500/mo (Premium). Dataset purchases start at $1,000 if you prefer bulk delivery over API subscriptions. The free trial gives you 200 Collect and 400 Search credits over 14 days, no card required.
The catch is data freshness. Third-party reviews flag that company records can be 3-4 months old, which kills time-sensitive workflows like job-change triggers. Raw datasets also require significant preprocessing before they're usable - plan for engineering time on top of the subscription cost.
The Companies API
A lightweight, developer-friendly option at $95/mo for 50k credits ($0.00119/credit). Higher tiers run $295/mo (250k) and $595/mo (500k). The database covers 50M+ companies, and the API advertises 300+ data points in a single call.
If you're building LLM-assisted research workflows, it also exposes AI-style endpoints like /companies/:domain/ask and /companies/:domain/context. Useful when you want structured company data plus a question/answer layer on top.
Grata
Grata specializes in private company data - 19M+ global profiles focused on the mid-market companies other databases miss entirely. The Basic plan runs $15,000/year with a 4.3/5 rating on Capterra. API and Data Warehouse access are quote-based with weekly refreshes.
Use this if you're a PE/VC firm or M&A team hunting for acquisition targets. Skip this for outbound sales - it's not built for that.
Breeze Intelligence (Clearbit)
Credit packs range from ~$30/mo (100 credits) to ~$150/mo (1,000 credits) to ~$700/mo (10,000 credits). The Name to Domain API is free. Python and Node.js libraries plus webhook support make integration smooth.
If you're already deep in the HubSpot ecosystem, this is the path of least resistance. If you're not on HubSpot, there are cheaper standalone options that'll give you more flexibility.
ZoomInfo
The enterprise default. $15,000-$40,000+/year gets you intent signals, technographics, webhooks, and bulk enrichment. The data is solid, but the pricing model is built for large sales orgs with dedicated RevOps teams.
Use this if you need intent data bundled with enrichment and have the budget. Skip this for API-first enrichment workflows - it's overkill for most teams that just need company data endpoints, and the annual contracts lock you in.
Bold Data / CompanyData.com
303M+ companies and 287M contacts with 600k+ new records added monthly. Starts from EUR425 depending on datasets. This is a dataset-delivery model, not a real-time API - better for bulk analysis and market research than live enrichment pipelines.
SMARTe
Pro plan at $25 for 50 credits with API access. Enterprise starts at $15,000. We haven't tested this deeply enough to recommend it confidently, but it's on our radar for teams needing a lightweight enrichment layer without a big commitment.
You just saw the numbers: 68% of providers claiming 95%+ accuracy can't deliver. Prospeo's 5-step verification and proprietary email infrastructure hit 98% in production - not just on a landing page. Plug it into Clay, Zapier, or Make in minutes.
Run your first 75 enrichments free and see the match rate yourself.
How to Choose the Right API
The right pick depends on what you're actually building, not which vendor has the slickest landing page.
For company firmographics only - industry, revenue, headcount - People Data Labs or The Companies API will get you there at the lowest cost per call. PDL is the better choice at high volume thanks to its tiered pricing and pay-per-match model. The Companies API wins on simplicity and developer experience for smaller projects.
When you need verified contacts layered on top of company data, the combination of a 7-day refresh cycle and 98% email accuracy makes Prospeo the clear pick. Apollo's free tier works for teams still validating their ICP, but the accuracy gap becomes expensive once you're sending more than a few hundred emails per week. The consensus on r/sales leans the same way - free tools get you started, but bounce rates eat your domain reputation fast.
Private company research is Grata's territory. Enterprise teams needing intent signals should evaluate ZoomInfo or Cognism, both of which bundle intent data into their platforms.
Data freshness is the most overlooked criterion when choosing a company database API, and it's the one that'll cost you the most if you get it wrong. A 7-day refresh cycle means your enriched records reflect reality. A 3-4 month cycle means you're emailing people who changed jobs two quarters ago. Ask every vendor about refresh cadence before you sign anything.
Compliance
GDPR applies to any company processing EU resident data, regardless of where you're headquartered. Penalties run up to EUR20M or 4% of global annual revenue. Look for SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications when evaluating providers - Cognism holds both. Don't treat this as a checkbox exercise. One complaint from an EU data subject can trigger an audit, and "we didn't know" isn't a defense. For a deeper checklist, see our guide to B2B compliance and what a GDPR compliant database should include.
FAQ
What data does a company database API return?
Most return firmographics like industry, revenue, headcount, and location. Many also include technographics, funding history, and verified contact data such as emails and direct dials. Depth varies widely - some return 10 fields per record, others return 50+ data points per enrichment call.
How much does a company data API cost?
It ranges from free (Apollo) to $40,000+/year (ZoomInfo). Self-serve APIs typically land between $0.01 and $0.28 per credit depending on data type and volume. PDL charges $0.10/credit for company data at entry tier; Prospeo runs ~$0.01/email with a free 75-credit monthly tier.
Do I need GDPR compliance for a business data API?
Yes, if you process data on anyone in the EU - regardless of where your company is based. Choose providers with explicit GDPR compliance, opt-out enforcement, and available DPAs. Penalties reach EUR20M or 4% of global revenue, so this isn't optional.
What's the best free company database API?
Apollo offers the most generous free tier with API access, 275M+ contacts, and 65+ filters. Prospeo's free plan includes 75 verified emails plus 100 Chrome extension credits monthly - a stronger option if email accuracy matters more than raw search volume.