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Head to head · Lead search · October 2026 research run

Crustdata API + MCP vs Explorium AgentSource

Crustdata API + MCP scores 53.4 (D) on agent readiness against Explorium AgentSource's 48.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Explorium AgentSource leads on payments & pricing. Both do lead search.

Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents · All 120 leads comparisons

Crustdata API + MCPCrustdata · HTTP API D53.4/100#708 of 950 Explorium AgentSourceExplorium Ltd. · HTTP API D48.1/100#821 of 950

Which one, for what

Crustdata API + MCP D

Good for Agents that monitor companies, people, jobs or posts over time and need change notifications.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 76
  • Agent ergonomics, 73 against 63
  • Security & auth, 56 against 37
  • Maintenance & community, 67 against 28

Watch for

No status page and no SLA

Explorium AgentSource D

Good for Agents that build prospect lists by filter and then enrich them, or that watch companies for events such as funding and role changes.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 5

Watch for

No status page was found, and no SLA is published

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCrustdata API + MCPExplorium AgentSourceEdge
Reliability16%204542Crustdata API + MCP +3
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28976Crustdata API + MCP +13
Agent ergonomics13%16.27363Crustdata API + MCP +10
Security & auth14%17.55637Crustdata API + MCP +19
Payments & pricing10%12.5540Explorium AgentSource +35
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86728Crustdata API + MCP +39
Transparency & trust7%8.85559Explorium AgentSource +4
Negative events≤15-3-2
Total53.4 · D48.1 · D

Facts side by side

FactCrustdata API + MCPExplorium AgentSource
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCrustdataExplorium Ltd.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.crustdata.comhttps://api.explorium.ai
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy)
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary service under the Explorium Terms of Use. The mcp-explorium repository of connection files is MIT
Tools exposednone11
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last releasenone2026-09-02
Terms last updatedno date given2026-06-14
Privacy policy last updated2025-05-192026-06-28
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Crustdata API + MCP

Per-field credit prices, readable per account from /account/endpoints, and X-Credits-Used on every response. No status page and no SLA.

Explorium AgentSource

AgentSource v2 has a public OpenAPI 3.1 file, Markdown docs, a 200 queries a minute limit with Retry-After, public credit prices and a 100-credit trial. No status page or published SLA was found, each company shares one API key with no scopes, and the vendor's two published price tables disagree.

Before you call either

Crustdata API + MCP

  1. Always send x-api-version: 2025-11-01. Unpinned calls get the latest version
  2. Call /account/endpoints first to see what your plan enables and what each field costs
  3. Ask only for the premium field groups you need, since each one bills
  4. Poll GET /batch/{id} before submitting more batch jobs. Active jobs count against a cap of 5 to 30
  5. Read the crustdata://catalog resource before calling MCP tools

Explorium AgentSource

  1. Send the key in the api_key header to https://api.explorium.ai and use /v2 paths. v1 is deprecated
  2. Point MCP clients at https://mcp-v2.explorium.ai/mcp. The site's agent files still name the v1 server at mcp.explorium.ai
  3. Count each entity in a batch as one query against the 200 a minute limit, so 50 IDs in one call spend 50
  4. Call the statistics endpoint first to size an audience for free. Fetch costs 1 credit a result, or 2 with the Bombora intent filter
  5. Call /v2/autocomplete before filtering on category, tech stack or job title, and never mix two category types in one request

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Crustdata API + MCP or Explorium AgentSource?

Crustdata API + MCP scores 53.4 (D) on agent readiness against Explorium AgentSource's 48.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Explorium AgentSource leads on payments & pricing.

Do Crustdata API + MCP and Explorium AgentSource need an API key?

Crustdata API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Explorium AgentSource needs an API key.

Can an agent call Crustdata API + MCP and Explorium AgentSource without installing anything?

Yes. Crustdata API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.crustdata.com and Explorium AgentSource at https://api.explorium.ai.

Other comparisons with Crustdata API + MCP or Explorium AgentSource

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