# LeadMagic API + MCP vs ZeroBounce

> LeadMagic and ZeroBounce score within a point of each other for email verification, 63.3 and 62.4 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leadmagic-vs-zerobounce
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leadmagic-vs-zerobounce.md (~4,100 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

LeadMagic API + MCP and ZeroBounce score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 63.3 (B) and 62.4 (B). ZeroBounce leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do email verification.

- LeadMagic API + MCP: grade B, 63.3/100, rank #522 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/leadmagic.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/leadmagic.json
- ZeroBounce: grade B, 62.4/100, rank #561 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zerobounce.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zerobounce.json
- Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/lead-data/index.md
- All 231 leads comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lead-data/index.md

## Which one, for what

### LeadMagic API + MCP (B)

Good for: Verification and email or mobile finding in automated pipelines, especially at volume on the plans with credit-free search.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 54
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 70

Watch for: No free credits, and payments are non-refundable; plans from $99 a month

### ZeroBounce (B)

Good for: Email verification before outreach, the verification-first listing in lead-data.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 52
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Every documented example sends the key as an `api_key` query parameter


## Why the edge

### Schema & documentation: LeadMagic API + MCP +39

- LeadMagic API + MCP (93): OpenAPI file at leadmagic.io/openapi.json, per the 30 September check (25). llms.txt (10). MCP tools state their purpose and credit cost, and the server tells the model to report only data the tools returned (16 of 20). Typed request bodies (12 of 15). RFC 9457 problem details with a `request_id` on every error, and documented 400, 401, 402 and 429 cases (15). A dated changelog versioned per component, api 3.3.1 on 2026-09-17 (15).
- ZeroBounce (54): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract found; a Postman collection is linked (5 of 25). llms.txt lists marketing pages, and the docs have no Markdown twins (5 of 10). Endpoint pages explain timing, credits and when to use batch or file APIs (14 of 20). Parameter tables and listed status and sub-status values, including the ai_agent_mailbox sub-status added in July 2026 (10 of 15). Examples per endpoint, a sandbox and an error-code page (12 of 15). v2 paths, an API migration page and dated maintenance notices on the status page, with no API changelog (8 of 15). 5+5+14+10+12+8 = 54.

### Reliability: ZeroBounce +23

- LeadMagic API + MCP (52): Own status page at leadmagic.io/status listing the REST API, web app, Email Finder, Mobile Finder, Email Validation and integrations, with a live API health check but no incident history, re-read on 4 November (10 of 20). No history to read (5). Per-second and per-minute limits published, 5 or 10 requests a second for credit-free search with a fair-use ceiling of 13,333 searches a day, and 300 or 600 Email Finder and Validation lookups a minute by plan (15). 429 carries Retry-After with advice to back off, a rejected 429 consumes no credits, and 400s aren't charged. Bulk job submissions and the MCP's Tables tools write data, and no idempotency key or safe-retry guidance for writes was found, so safe-retry guidance without keys, as runway and fal-video read retries of billed jobs (12). The Service Level and Availability Policy states there's no guaranteed uptime and service credits are discretionary, per the 1 October check (0). Generally available (10). 10 + 5 + 15 + 12 + 0 + 10 = 52.
- ZeroBounce (75): Hosted lines. Statuspage at status.zerobounce.net with API, API-US, API-EU, Bulk API, website and Cloudflare components (20). The incident feed for 8 August to 6 November shows a 6-minute members platform disruption on 9 September, about 3 minutes of reduced EU API availability on 1 October, and a file upload issue on 26 October resolved within 6 minutes, all minor (20). Limits published per endpoint group with numbers and block lengths (15). 429 is documented with advice to throttle, but no Retry-After, and a block can last an hour or a day (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 20+20+15+10+0+10 = 75.

### Payments & pricing: ZeroBounce +15

- LeadMagic API + MCP (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices, annual prices and per-endpoint credit costs are public, re-read on 4 November (20). There are no free credits, the pricing FAQ now calls payments non-refundable except where law or a signed agreement says otherwise, and a 14-day Search trial 'with no automatic charge' covers search only, with no word on whether a card is needed (0). A person signs up and pays in a browser (0).
- ZeroBounce (35): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-credit prices public, from $39 for 2,000 validations (20). Freemium of 100 validations a month for business or premium domains; a card requirement isn't stated, and free webmail addresses don't qualify (15 of 20). A person signs up in a browser (0). 0+20+15+0 = 35.

### Maintenance & community: LeadMagic API + MCP +10

- LeadMagic API + MCP (80): The hosted MCP server is in the official MCP registry as io.leadmagic/server (and io.leadmagic/sheets) since 3 October 2026, with 2.23.5 published on 15 October 2026, 20 days before 4 November (30). The changelog's newest entry is api 3.3.1 on 17 September, which alone would give 20. In the 90 days from 6 August, changelog entries on 25 August (web 3.2.0 and api 3.3.0) and 17 September (api 3.3.1), and ten io.leadmagic/server versions between 3 and 15 October (20). Public changelog and support, issue handling not visible (10 of 15). In the official MCP registry under the verified io.leadmagic namespace (15). No packages to judge (5 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 5 = 80. The MCP section of the changelog stops at mcp 2.5.0 (2 May 2026), while the server card reports 2.23.6, undated.
- ZeroBounce (70): Closed service. The JavaScript SDK 3.0.0 was published on 25 October 2026 (30). No API changelog; the dated changes found in 90 days are that release and status-page notices, fewer than three releases (10 of 20). Support by email and 24/7 chat per the docs, a public status page; replies not tested (10 of 15). Official SDKs in many languages and an MCP server (15). Package health not checked (5 of 10). 30+10+10+15+5 = 70.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | LeadMagic API + MCP | ZeroBounce | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 52 | 75 | ZeroBounce +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 93 | 54 | LeadMagic API + MCP +39 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 69 | LeadMagic API + MCP +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 65 | ZeroBounce +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 35 | ZeroBounce +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 70 | LeadMagic API + MCP +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 63 | LeadMagic API + MCP +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63.3 · B** | **62.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | LeadMagic API + MCP | ZeroBounce |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | LeadMagic | Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.leadmagic.io` | `https://api.zerobounce.net/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under ZeroBounce's terms of use; SDKs and the MCP server are open source |
| Tools exposed | 48 | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.leadmagic/server` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-25 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-31 | 2026-05-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-20 | 2026-06-30 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### LeadMagic API + MCP

- +2.9 on 4 November 2026 (C to B): product
- +0.1 on 28 October 2026: new evidence
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist

### ZeroBounce

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**LeadMagic API + MCP.** RFC 9457 problem-details errors with `request_id`, Retry-After on 429 and credit headers on every response. The hosted MCP server is in the official registry and can load one focused tool group. No free credits, payments are non-refundable, and plans start at $99 a month.

**ZeroBounce.** ZeroBounce's v2 API verifies emails with detailed status and sub-status codes, publishes per-endpoint limits, a Statuspage with short incidents only in the last 90 days, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001, and $0.0195 per email at the smallest pack. The documented key travels in the query string, and there is no OpenAPI contract.

## Before you call either

### LeadMagic API + MCP

1. Connect only the focused MCP group the task needs, such as https://mcp.leadmagic.io/mcp/enrichment-core for lookups
2. Call `preview_cost` before bulk work. It's free
3. Read `X-Credits-Remaining` after each call instead of polling the balance
4. Treat 402 as out of credits and wait out Retry-After on 429
5. Follow each table tool's returned approval step before deletions, cell edits or runs over 5 credits

### ZeroBounce

1. Use the regional host (api-us or api-eu) that matches the data, and test with the sandbox addresses, which spend no credits
2. Set `timeout` (3 to 60 seconds); slow mail servers return unknown, which is free to retry later
3. Stay under 80,000 validations per 10 seconds and avoid repeated bad requests, which block the key for an hour
4. Use the bulk file API for large lists instead of looping on /v2/validate
5. Keep the key out of logs; the API takes it only as `api_key` in the URL

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, LeadMagic API + MCP or ZeroBounce?

LeadMagic API + MCP and ZeroBounce score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 63.3 (B) and 62.4 (B). ZeroBounce leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Do LeadMagic API + MCP and ZeroBounce need an API key?

LeadMagic API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ZeroBounce needs an API key.

### Can an agent call LeadMagic API + MCP and ZeroBounce without installing anything?

Yes. LeadMagic API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.leadmagic.io and ZeroBounce at https://api.zerobounce.net/v2.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leadmagic-vs-zerobounce.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leadmagic-vs-zerobounce.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "leadmagic", "b": "zerobounce"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare leadmagic zerobounce`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/leadmagic.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zerobounce.json

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- [Databar vs LeadMagic API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-leadmagic.md)
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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp