# People Data Labs vs RocketReach API

> People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) to RocketReach's 51.2 (D) for lead search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-rocketreach
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-rocketreach.md (~2,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-rocketreach.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-rocketreach.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against RocketReach API's 51.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do lead search.

- People Data Labs: grade B, 64.2/100, rank #362 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/people-data-labs.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/people-data-labs.json
- RocketReach API: grade D, 51.2/100, rank #755 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rocketreach.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rocketreach.json
- Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/lead-data/index.md
- All 120 leads comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lead-data/index.md

## Which one, for what

### People Data Labs (B)

Good for: Products and pipelines that enrich or search person and company records at volume and can write Elasticsearch or SQL queries.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 78 against 64
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 72
- Security & auth, 43 against 34
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 31
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 58

Watch for: No OpenAPI file was found. The machine-readable material is a Postman collection and Elasticsearch mappings

### RocketReach API (D)

Good for: Teams that already hold a RocketReach plan and want an agent to search people and companies, reveal emails and phones, and verify single addresses over MCP.

Watch for: The pricing page is drawn by script and was not read, and the docs tell users without a paid plan to email for an API plan


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | People Data Labs | RocketReach API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 78 | 64 | People Data Labs +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 72 | RocketReach API +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 72 | People Data Labs +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 34 | People Data Labs +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 10 | People Data Labs +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 31 | People Data Labs +48 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 58 | People Data Labs +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.2 · B** | **51.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | People Data Labs | RocketReach API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | People Data Labs, Inc. | RocketReach, LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5` | `https://api.rocketreach.co/api/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Services Subscription Agreement. The Python and JavaScript SDKs are MIT | Proprietary service under RocketReach's Terms of Service. The Python SDK on GitHub is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 9 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | none |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2024-01-31 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-09-30 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | 40 stars, 133k npm/wk, 30k PyPI/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**People Data Labs.** Monthly dated release notes, a free sandbox with synthetic data, response headers that report credits and rate limits, and a free plan of 100 records a month make the API easy to start with. No OpenAPI file was found, keys carry no scopes and may travel in the URL, and the agreement allows changes without notice.

**RocketReach API.** The hosted MCP server has nine documented tools, OAuth 2.1 with dynamic client registration and machine-readable error codes, and searches cost no credits. Plan prices were not readable, the docs send API plan requests to email, the terms require a human account holder, and the `account` tool returns the account's API key to the model.

## Before you call either

### People Data Labs

1. Send the key in the `X-Api-Key` header. The `api_key` query parameter puts the secret in URLs and logs
2. Build and test queries against `https://sandbox.api.peopledatalabs.com/v5/...` first. It costs no credits and allows five calls a minute
3. Set `size` deliberately on search. Every record returned costs one credit, and responses over 1 MB fail
4. Treat `404` on enrichment as no match, not an error, and `402` as credits exhausted. Neither is worth a retry
5. On `429`, wait until the `x-ratelimit-reset` time. Limits are fixed-window per key and per endpoint

### RocketReach API

1. Search first with `person_search` or `company_search`, which cost no credits, then look up only the profile IDs needed
2. Treat `status: "pending"` as normal. Poll `check_person_status` after at least 3 seconds, and polling is free
3. Do not echo the `account` tool's output to users or logs. It includes the account's API key
4. Send the key in the `Api-Key` header. The `api_key` query parameter is deprecated
5. Bulk lookup takes 1 to 100 queries and needs a webhook. Results arrive at the webhook, signed in `X-RocketReach-Signature`
6. Do not loop on `unknown` from `email_verify`, or on `lookup_failed` and `not_found`. The last two are terminal

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, People Data Labs or RocketReach API?

People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against RocketReach API's 51.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do People Data Labs and RocketReach API need an API key?

People Data Labs needs an API key. RocketReach API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call People Data Labs and RocketReach API without installing anything?

Yes. People Data Labs has a hosted endpoint at https://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5 and RocketReach API at https://api.rocketreach.co/api/v2.


## For agents

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

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