If you’re building AI agents that need company intelligence (tech stacks, verified emails, decision-makers, or buying signals) you’ve probably hit the same wall everyone else hits: the data layer costs more than the rest of your stack combined.
Apollo charges $49-$119 per user per month and burns credits on every lookup. Databar starts at $99/month for 5,000 credits. ZoomInfo needs a five-figure annual contract before you make your first API call. People Data Labs bills per record. For an agent processing thousands of companies, the data bill scales faster than the value it creates.
AgentData is the alternative. Completely free. No credits, no tiers, no annual contracts. A REST API, a native MCP server, 130M+ company profiles, 8M+ verified emails, 845+ technologies detected, and 1,000 lookups per day, all for $0. This isn’t a trial. There are no paid plans. Every feature is available to every user.
This post compares AgentData to every major B2B data API used by AI-native teams in 2026, explains exactly what you get, and shows how to connect it to your agent in under two minutes.
Why B2B data APIs break agent workflows
An agent is only as useful as the data it can access. When a sales agent needs to enrich 500 accounts, or a research agent needs tech stacks for a market analysis, or a prospecting agent needs verified emails for outreach, the data API is the bottleneck.
Three things break agent workflows with existing providers:
Credit systems kill batch operations.Apollo gives you 1,000 credits per month on its Basic plan. An agent enriching 500 companies with emails uses 500 credits in one run, half your monthly allocation gone in seconds. Need phone numbers? Those cost 8 credits each. Your agent runs out of credits before it finishes the first task, and there’s no fallback.
Per-seat pricing doesn’t map to agent usage.Apollo, Cognism, and ZoomInfo charge per user per month. An AI agent isn’t a user. A single agent might make 10,000 API calls in a day, but it’s one process running on one server. Per-seat pricing forces you to pay for human access patterns your agent doesn’t use.
Feature gating blocks the best data.Apollo locks advanced API access behind its $119/month Organisation plan (minimum 3 users = $357/month minimum). Tech stack detection, the kind of data that makes an agent actually useful for competitive intelligence, isn’t available from Apollo at any price. Databar has it, but at credit-based pricing that scales with every query.
AgentData: what you actually get for free
AgentData is a company intelligence API built specifically for AI agents. Everything described below is available on the free plan, because there is only a free plan.
Data coverage
- 130M+ companies tracked with full firmographic data: company name, domain, industry sector, business model (B2B/B2C/both), employee estimates, social links, and web signals
- 8M+ verified emails: every address is SMTP-verified against the recipient’s mail server. Verification includes 8 layers: syntax validation, MX resolution, disposable detection, role-based flagging, SMTP RCPT TO check, catch-all detection, TLS fallback, and confidence scoring
- 845+ technologies detected across analytics, live chat, help desk, CRM, marketing automation, CMS, e-commerce, hosting, CDN, and infrastructure categories. Detection uses three methods: Wappalyzer pattern matching (6,849 patterns), custom HTML signatures (55+ competitor-specific patterns), and DNS-based analysis (SPF records, TXT verification records, DMARC)
- 2.9M+ people profiles with names, titles, seniority levels (executive/senior/mid/junior), departments, LinkedIn URLs, and decision-maker flagging
- Switch signals: real-time detection of technology changes. When a company drops Zendesk and adopts Freshdesk, or adds Stripe, or switches email providers, AgentData detects it and exposes it via the signals API
- Web signals: 8 boolean indicators per company: has pricing page, has free trial, has careers page, has API documentation, has blog, has case studies, primary CTA type, and multilingual support
API endpoints
All endpoints return JSON. Authentication via Bearer token (API key generated free in account settings).
Every endpoint is free. No credits, no per-call charges, no tier restrictions.
Rate limit: 5 requests per second.
Daily budget:1,000 lookups per day, resetting at midnight UTC. That’s roughly 30,000 per month. For context, Apollo’s Basic plan ($49/month) gives you 1,000 credits per month. AgentData gives you that every day. Once a company is looked up, the data remains cached for 30 days without counting against your daily budget.
MCP server
AgentData has a published MCP server for native AI agent integration. Install it in Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client:
{
"mcpServers": {
"agentdata": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["agentdata-mcp-server", "--api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY"]
}
}
}The MCP server exposes six tools your agent can call natively:
- lookup_company: full company profile by domain
- search_companies: find companies by sector, size, technology, or keyword
- find_people: people at a company with contact details
- get_technologies: browse detected technologies or find companies using a specific tool
- get_signals: technology switches and career moves
- check_usage: current lookup balance
Your agent doesn’t need HTTP client code, JSON parsing, or auth boilerplate. It describes what it wants in natural language, and the MCP server handles the structured API call.
Example prompt to an MCP-connected agent:
“Find B2B SaaS companies with 50-200 employees that use Intercom. Get me the decision-makers at each one with verified emails.”
The agent calls search_companies with the filters, then find_people for each result. Two tool calls. No code.
How AgentData compares to every major B2B data API
Every price and feature below was verified in May 2026 from official pricing pages and documentation.
AgentData vs Apollo API
Apollo is the most common starting point for B2B data. Its API is available on paid plans, with the same credit system that governs the web UI.
AgentDataApollo’s real cost for active agent workflows is $150-400/user/month once credit overages kick in. Phone number lookups cost 8 credits each. Credits expire monthly with no rollover. Advanced API access requires the $119/user/month Organisation plan with a 3-user minimum ($357/month minimum spend).
AgentData provides more lookups per month (30,000 vs Apollo’s 1,000-15,000), includes tech stack detection Apollo doesn’t offer at any tier, and costs nothing.
AgentData vs Databar
Databar is the leading aggregator. It routes queries across 100+ data providers and has a strong MCP server. It’s the closest competitor to AgentData’s agent-first positioning.
AgentDataDatabar’s strength is breadth: 100+ providers means higher match rates across geographies. AgentData’s strength is depth and cost: first-party data from its own crawlers, SMTP verification it controls end-to-end, and tech stack detection that comes from actually scanning websites rather than buying from a third party. And it’s free.
For teams that need both, AgentData works alongside Databar. Use AgentData as the free primary layer for tech stacks and verified emails, and Databar as a paid supplement for phone numbers and intent signals AgentData doesn’t cover.
AgentData vs ZoomInfo API
ZoomInfo has the deepest US enterprise dataset but prices accordingly.
AgentDataZoomInfo is built for enterprise sales teams with dedicated RevOps managing the stack. AgentData is built for developers who need company data in their agent and don’t want to negotiate an enterprise contract or wait 3 weeks for onboarding.
AgentData vs Hunter API
Hunter is the leading email-finding API but doesn’t provide company intelligence beyond email addresses.
AgentDataIf you only need email finding, Hunter is excellent. If your agent needs company intelligence (who they are, what tools they use, who works there, and what’s changing) AgentData provides everything Hunter does plus everything Hunter doesn’t.
AgentData vs People Data Labs
People Data Labs (PDL) has the largest raw dataset (3.1B+ profiles) and the most developer-friendly API.
AgentDataPDL wins on sheer database size. AgentData wins on tech intelligence, email verification quality, and price. For agents that need to identify what technologies a company uses (for competitive intelligence, market research, or targeted prospecting) AgentData’s first-party tech detection is a unique capability PDL doesn’t match.
Three agent workflows you can build today
1. Competitive intelligence agent
Prompt:“Which companies switched away from Zendesk in the last 30 days? What did they switch to? Get me the Head of Customer Support at each one.”
How it works with AgentData MCP:
- Agent calls
get_signalswithmoved_from: "zendesk"anddays: 30 - Returns companies that dropped Zendesk, what they switched to, and when
- Agent calls
find_peoplefor each company, filtering for customer support leadership - Returns named contacts with verified emails, titles, and seniority
Cost on AgentData: Free. Cost on Apollo: Not possible. Apollo doesn’t detect technology switches. Cost on Databar: Credits per signal lookup + credits per people enrichment.
2. Market sizing agent
Prompt:“How many B2B SaaS companies use Intercom? Break down by company size and sector.”
How it works:
- Agent calls
get_technologieswithslug: "intercom" - Returns company count and paginated list
- Agent calls
search_companieswith technology filter to segment by size and sector
Cost on AgentData: Free. Cost on Apollo: Not possible. No tech detection. Cost on ZoomInfo: Paid add-on to a five-figure contract.
3. Lead enrichment agent
Prompt:“Enrich this list of 200 company domains with tech stacks, verified emails for decision-makers, and web signals.”
How it works:
- Agent loops through domains, calling
lookup_companyfor each - Each call returns full profile: tech stack, emails, people, signals
- Agent structures output as CSV or pushes to CRM
Cost on AgentData: 200 lookups (20% of daily budget). Free. Cost on Apollo: 200+ credits minimum ($49/month plan). Cost on Databar: 200+ credits ($99/month minimum plan).
Getting started in under two minutes
Option 1: MCP server (for Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client)
1. Sign up at agentdata.run/signup (free, no credit card)
2. Go to Settings → generate an API key
3. Add to your MCP config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"agentdata": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["agentdata-mcp-server", "--api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY"]
}
}
}4. Ask your agent: “Look up stripe.com and tell me their tech stack”
Or use the hosted endpoint (no npx required):
{
"mcpServers": {
"agentdata": {
"transport": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.agentdata.run/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
}
}
}
}Option 2: REST API (for any language or framework)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
"https://agentdata.run/api/v1/lookup?domain=stripe.com"Returns JSON with company profile, tech stack, emails, people, and signals.
Option 3: Web (no code needed)
Browse agentdata.run/company/stripe.com. 130M+ company pages are publicly accessible. Sign up free to reveal full tech stacks, verified emails, and people profiles.
“How is this free?”
AgentData is built by the same team behind DragApp (200,000+ users, shared inboxes for Gmail) and HeyHelp (AI email assistant). The crawling infrastructure that powers AgentData already runs to detect competitor signals for these products.
AgentData is free because:
- The infrastructure cost is already covered by the portfolio
- Free access builds the largest company intelligence dataset on the web
- Every relevant company page promotes DragApp and HeyHelp to qualified prospects
- The MCP server creates distribution through AI agents that recommend tools
There are no paid tiers planned. No “upgrade to Pro” surprise after you build your workflow around it. The data is the product. The product is free.
The bottom line
Every other B2B data API charges you for the data, charges you for the API access, and charges you again when your agent uses more than the plan allows. AgentData charges nothing.
If you’re building AI agents that need company intelligence (tech stacks, verified emails, decision-makers, switch signals) start with the free layer. Add paid providers if and when you need capabilities AgentData doesn’t cover. But don’t start by paying $99-$15,000/month for data your agent can get for $0.
AgentData is company intelligence for AI agents and growth teams. 130M+ companies. 8M+ verified emails. 845+ technologies. Native MCP server. Completely free.
