Head to head · Secintel ip enrichment · October 2026 research run

IPinfo vs Pulsedive

IPinfo scores 62.7 (B) on agent readiness against Pulsedive's 47.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Pulsedive leads on payments & pricing. Both do secintel ip enrichment.

Best threat and security intelligence APIs for AI agents · All 33 security intel comparisons

Which one, for what

IPinfo B

Best for An agent that needs to enrich an IP with location, network and anonymiser flags at volume, free for country and ASN, paid for city and privacy signals.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 38 against 31
  • Agent ergonomics, 84 against 64
  • Security & auth, 60 against 23
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 70 against 57

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

No status page, incident history or SLA was found; the terms supply the service as is

Pulsedive D

Best for An agent that needs a quick risk verdict and linked threats for a domain, IP or URL with no signup, or a passive scan of a new indicator.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 40

Watch for

The key is sent only as a query parameter, with no header option, scopes or rotation documented

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community IPinfo +45

IPinfo 85

Read as a closed service with an official MCP server and SDKs. MCP server v0.2.3 on 29 October 2026, a commit on 3 November, and SDK repositories pushed in October and November (30). Eight MCP releases since 8 September 2026, v0.1.12 to v0.2.3 (20). GitHub releases for the MCP server, a community forum, a help centre and a support form, but no changelog for the API and GitHub issue pages could not be read (10 of 15). The MCP server is in the official registry as io.github.ipinfo/mcp and the SDKs are official (15). The MCP package has tests, CI with pinned actions, CodeQL and Scorecard workflows and a lock file (10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 10 = 85.

Pulsedive 40

Read as a closed service. The site footer shows version 6.3.18 dated 27 October, seven days before the check, and the newest blog post is 29 September 2026 (30). No changelog lists releases, so three dated changes in 90 days could not be shown (0 of 20). A Discord, support@pulsedive.com, a contact form and a docs troubleshooting section; the GitHub feedback repository is archived since 2020 (10 of 15). No entry in the official MCP registry (the docs MCP server is not listed and the registry's pulsedive entries are third-party) and no official SDK (0 of 15). No official packages to assess (0 of 10). 30 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 40.

Security & auth IPinfo +37

IPinfo 60

One access token per account, accepted as a Bearer header, HTTP Basic or a token query parameter, with no scopes found; the hosted MCP server adds OAuth with short-lived tokens (20 less 10 for the query string, plus 4 for OAuth on the MCP server, so 14). Every endpoint is a read and tools return ACCESS_DENIED outside the plan, but there is no read-only or restricted token (16 of 20). Responses are structured network data rather than third-party free text (10 of 15). The dashboard shows request graphs and lookup history per the pricing page, with no per-call log documented (8 of 15). security.txt valid until 21 August 2027 with a PGP key, a SECURITY.md with 2-day acknowledgement and a 90-day disclosure window, no bug bounty or certification found beyond a bank-grade claim (12 of 20). 14 + 16 + 10 + 8 + 12 = 60.

Pulsedive 23

One key per account sent only as a query parameter, with no scopes, header option or rotation documented (10 for one all-powerful key less 10 for the query string, so 0). Lookups read, submit=1 writes to the public dataset and keyless use is read-only in practice, but there is no read-only key (10 of 20). Responses include community comments, banners and DOM snippets from scans with no guidance on treating them as untrusted (3 of 15). The privacy policy says web and API logs are available from the account page (10 of 15). security.txt returns 404 and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found (0 of 20). 0 + 10 + 3 + 10 + 0 = 23.

Agent ergonomics IPinfo +20

IPinfo 84

Field paths such as /country return one value, the Lite and lookup objects are small, and the MCP server has six compact tools with a per-session cache (23 of 25). Batch takes up to 1,000 lookups with filter=1 to drop empty results; no pagination is needed on single lookups, and ASN and range responses have no size control (16 of 20). The only documented error is 429; the MCP server returns coded errors with a message and a suggestion (12 of 20). Every call is a read, batch is a read over POST, and the MCP tools carry tool annotations (18 of 20). One parameter per call, sensible defaults and official SDKs in eleven languages (15). 23 + 16 + 12 + 18 + 15 = 84.

Pulsedive 64

limit on explore, pretty, get=links or properties, historical and schema flags, and submit=0 keeps a scan out of the dataset, but an indicator record carries every property group with no field selection (16 of 25). Linked indicators page with page_current and page_next, 1 to 10 pages per request by plan, explore rows capped by tier, and CSV or STIX output (14 of 20). Errors are a single string with a status code; the 429 body names the limit (12 of 20). Every lookup is a GET, scanning an existing indicator updates it, and polling by qid is free (14 of 20). One required parameter per call and keyless defaults, but no official SDK (8 of 15). 16 + 14 + 12 + 14 + 8 = 64.

Transparency & trust IPinfo +13

IPinfo 70

A closed service with clear terms naming IPinfo Inc. and the governing law, with the MCP server and SDKs under Apache-2.0 (17 of 30). The privacy policy of 29 October 2026 lists processors, links a DPA and says data is kept as long as needed, with no periods (16 of 30). No deprecation policy; the legacy API is maintained for existing users with no end date (6 of 20). Processors named and hosting in the United States (16 of 20). 17 + 16 + 6 + 16 = 55.

Pulsedive 57

A closed service with terms naming Pulsedive LLC and New Jersey law, with the OpenAPI files under Apache 2.0 (15 of 30). The privacy policy of 28 August 2024 lists processors and what is logged, keeps deleted-account data for compliance with no periods, and names no DPA; an enterprise privacy page exists and was not read (14 of 30). The recent field is marked deprecated in the spec with no date and there is no policy (5 of 20). DigitalOcean, Plausible, Stripe, SendGrid, Google Workspace, Monday, QuickBooks and Typeform named, storage in the United States (16 of 20). 15 + 14 + 5 + 16 = 50.

Payments & pricing Pulsedive +10

IPinfo 40

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices and per-1,000 overage rates are public on the pricing page (20). Lite is free with no card and no request cap (20). The token comes from the dashboard after a browser signup, and no key API was found (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.

Pulsedive 50

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Pro $29 a month is on the site menu and the Team and Business API prices are in the vendor's plan post of 11 March 2024, sold as monthly quotas rather than per call (10). A free account needs no card (20). Requests without a key are accepted, so an agent can look up an indicator with no signup at about 10 a day (20). 0 + 10 + 20 + 20 = 50.

Reliability IPinfo +7

IPinfo 38

Read with the hosted lines. No status page was found; status.ipinfo.io does not resolve and the site, docs and llms.txt link none (0). No readable history (5). Limits are published with numbers, Lite unlimited, Core 150,000 and Max 250,000 requests a month, with no per-second cap (15). A 429 is documented in the OpenAPI document and the developer page for the monthly quota, and the MCP server maps it to RATE_LIMITED, but no Retry-After or backoff guidance was found; every call is a read (8 of 15). No SLA; the terms supply the service as is and as available (0). The API and the MCP server are generally available (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 8 + 0 + 10 = 38.

Pulsedive 31

Read with the hosted lines. No status page was found on the site, the docs, the support page or in search (0). No readable history (5). The limits page names Free, Pro, Commercial and Enterprise tiers and three remaining-request headers but gives no numbers, pointing to the account page; the vendor's plan post of 11 March 2024 gives 50 a day on Free and 250 on Pro (8 of 15). A 429 returns a JSON error naming the limit and the headers show what remains, with no Retry-After or backoff guidance; scans are safe to repeat and polling is free (8 of 15). No SLA; the terms supply the services as is and as available (0). The API is generally available (10). 0 + 5 + 8 + 8 + 0 + 10 = 31.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runIPinfoPulsediveEdge
Reliability16%203831IPinfo +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27677Pulsedive +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.28464IPinfo +20
Security & auth14%17.56023IPinfo +37
Payments & pricing10%12.54050Pulsedive +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88540IPinfo +45
Transparency & trust7%8.87057IPinfo +13
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 62.7/100D 47.9/100

Facts side by side

FactIPinfoPulsedive
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorIPinfo Inc.Pulsedive LLC
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.ipinfo.io/no (local only)
TransportsStreamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
Tools exposed60
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.ipinfo/mcpnot listed
Last release2026-10-292026-10-27
Terms last updated2024-06-032022-05-02
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-292024-08-28
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity2 starsnone

Verdicts

IPinfo

A free Lite tier with no request cap, a public OpenAPI document, llms.txt, a batch endpoint of 1,000 lookups and a six-tool hosted MCP server with OAuth. No status page or SLA was found, the only documented error is 429, the token may travel in a query string, and city-level and privacy data need a paid plan.

Pulsedive

Lookups work with no key at all, a free account allows 50 requests a day, and the docs ship llms.txt, per-endpoint OpenAPI files and timestamps for every scan. The key travels only in the query string, numeric limits live in a 2024 blog post rather than the docs, and there is no status page, SLA, security.txt or official SDK.

Before you call either

IPinfo

  1. Call https://api.ipinfo.io/lite/{ip} with Authorization: Bearer on a free token; /lookup/{ip} and detailed=true in the MCP tools return ACCESS_DENIED without a paid plan
  2. Batch up to 1,000 addresses in one POST to /batch/lite or /batch with filter=1; each address counts as one request against the monthly quota
  3. Append a field path such as /country or /asn to get a single plain-text value instead of the full object
  4. On a 429 the monthly plan quota is spent; there is no Retry-After, so stop and report rather than retry
  5. Treat the data as licensed for internal use; selling or reselling it needs IPinfo's written consent under the terms

Pulsedive

  1. Call indicator.php?indicator=<value>&pretty=1&key=...; without a key the limit is about 10 requests a day, so register for 50
  2. Read risk, risk_recommended and stamp_probed together; an old stamp_probed means the scan data may be stale, so queue a scan with analyze.php (probe=0 passive, submit=0 to avoid storing)
  3. Poll analyze.php?qid= no more than every 500 ms; polling does not count against the quota, but each page of linked indicators does
  4. Treat a 429 as the day's or month's quota spent and stop; there is no Retry-After, and explore searches above the plan's row limit also return 429
  5. Expect user comments, banners and DOM snippets in indicator properties, which are third-party content

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, IPinfo or Pulsedive?

IPinfo scores 62.7 (B) on agent readiness against Pulsedive's 47.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Pulsedive leads on payments & pricing.

Do IPinfo and Pulsedive need an API key?

IPinfo takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Pulsedive needs an API key.

Can an agent call IPinfo and Pulsedive without installing anything?

IPinfo has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.ipinfo.io/. No hosted endpoint is listed for Pulsedive.

Other comparisons with IPinfo or Pulsedive

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