Contact data pricing: what you actually pay (and what breaks after rollout)

By Ben Argeband, Founder & CEO of Swordfish.AI

Most contact data tools don’t fail because the data is “bad.” They fail because the pricing model changes behavior: reps ration lookups, ops builds workarounds, and the CRM fills with half-enriched records that decay fast.

This page is written like a software audit. It focuses on hidden costs (seat licenses, add-ons, throttling), data decay, and integration headaches (metered API usage, rate limits, mismatched fields).

Who this is for

This is for recruiters and sales teams doing high-volume enrichment who want predictable usage. If your team touches lots of profiles per day, a credit counter becomes a policy tool, not a billing tool, and it shows up as inconsistent coverage.

Quick verdict

Core answer

Choose a pricing model that matches your workflow. If you need consistent enrichment at scale, credits vs unlimited determines whether your team verifies every profile or ships partial data to “save credits.”

Key stat

There is no universal “cost per connect.” Outcomes vary by seat count, API usage, list quality, and industry. Any vendor quoting one number without those inputs is guessing.

Ideal user

Teams that enrich continuously (recruiting sourcing and outbound sales) and want predictable spend without lookup rationing.

Decision guide

Use The Pricing Reality Check: model → hidden costs → workflow fit before you compare contact data pricing pages. It’s the fastest way to spot where the “cheap” option becomes expensive after adoption.

Model: Identify what you’re actually buying: a credit bucket, seat-based pricing, “unlimited,” or a hybrid. The model dictates behavior.

Hidden costs: Total cost includes seat licenses, add-ons, and throttling. If API usage is metered, integration becomes a second bill and a rate-limit problem.

Workflow fit: Match the model to how your team works. If reps live in LinkedIn and your CRM, they need to verify contacts as they go, not “later.” Later is where data decay wins.

Normalization rule for comparisons: Compare vendors using the same list source and freshness, the same required fields, the same definition of “connect” (call pickup vs email reply vs meeting), the same seat count, and the same API usage pattern. If you don’t normalize, you’re comparing marketing.

Quote anatomy (what a real pricing quote must include): A usable quote itemizes seat licenses, required add-ons, API usage terms (included vs metered), throttling and fair use terms, and renewal conditions. If any of those are missing, you don’t have a price; you have a placeholder.

What Swordfish does differently

Swordfish is designed around true unlimited usage so teams don’t ration enrichment. Credit-based pricing trains people to skip verification on “non-priority” profiles, which reduces coverage and increases manual cleanup when those profiles become relevant later.

Swordfish prioritizes direct dials and mobile numbers where available because phone-first workflows fail when numbers are treated as an add-on. When reps can verify contacts on every profile they touch, you get fewer incomplete records and fewer “we’ll enrich it later” tickets.

Make unlimited concrete: “Unlimited” still needs a boundary, but the boundary should be written and aligned with normal business enrichment. A usable fair use policy distinguishes everyday recruiting and sales workflows from abuse patterns like automated scraping, credential sharing, or bulk harvesting that isn’t tied to human review.

Procurement instruction: Ask for the fair use policy and throttling triggers in writing and attach them to the order form. If it’s not written, it’s not enforceable.

Packaging snapshot (no pricing claims): Confirm whether access is sold via seat licenses, whether “unlimited” applies to the extension workflow, whether API usage is included or separately metered, and whether core fields are gated behind add-ons. Those four items determine your real total cost and rollout friction.

If your team works in-browser, the extension is the shortest path to consistent usage. Unlimited credits means you can verify every profile you visit, not just the best ones. That reduces the hidden cost of rationing: fewer skipped lookups and fewer stale records sitting unverified in your system.

Checklist: Feature Gap Table

Decision Tree: Weighted Checklist

This checklist is weighted by standard failure points that drive real cost: rationing behavior from credits, surprise charges from seat licenses and add-ons, and integration drag from metered API usage and rate limits. It avoids made-up point systems because your weights depend on your workflow.

• High weight: Pricing model prevents rationing. Credit-based pricing often reduces enrichment coverage because reps self-censor lookups. If your workflow requires frequent verification, this becomes a pipeline quality issue, not a budget win.
• High weight: “Unlimited” is defined in writing. If a vendor sells unlimited but won’t define fair use and throttling triggers, you can’t forecast usage risk or enforce expectations internally.
• High weight: Total cost includes seats and required add-ons. Total cost includes seat licenses, add-ons, and throttling. Model cost at your expected seat count in 6–12 months, not today’s headcount.
• Medium weight: API usage matches your integration plan. If you enrich inside an ATS/CRM, metered API usage becomes a second bill and rate limits become an engineering constraint. Confirm whether API usage is included and whether fields match the UI.
• Medium weight: Field coverage matches your outcome. If your outcome is calls, prioritize mobile/direct dials. If your outcome is email sequences, prioritize verified emails. Paying for fields you won’t operationalize is a quiet waste.
• Medium weight: Vendor explains variance drivers. A credible vendor explains variance using inputs you can validate: list quality, industry, region, persona, seat count, and API usage patterns.
• Lower weight: Governance and auditability. Procurement and legal will ask for logs and deletion controls. If the vendor can’t support audits, you pay with internal time later.

Troubleshooting Table: Conditional Decision Tree

• If your team enriches profiles continuously (recruiting sourcing, outbound prospecting) then prioritize true unlimited so reps verify contacts as they work instead of rationing lookups.
• If your usage is sporadic (occasional list cleanup) then credits can fit, but only if you can forecast usage and re-verification doesn’t force you to pay again as data decays.
• If you expect headcount growth then model total cost using seat licenses and required add-ons at your 6–12 month seat count, because that’s where “reasonable” pricing often breaks.
• If you need enrichment inside your systems then validate API usage terms and rate limits before signing, because metering and throttling become integration blockers.
• Stop condition: If a vendor cannot provide a written definition of “unlimited” (including fair use) and cannot explain what triggers throttling, stop the evaluation. You can’t audit what they won’t define.

How to test with your own list (5–8 steps)

1. Define the workflow. Decide whether the test is recruiter sourcing, outbound sales, CRM cleanup, or ATS enrichment. Pricing model fit depends on workflow.
2. Build a representative list. Use a sample that matches your ICP by industry, region, and persona, and reflects your real list quality (freshness, duplicates, and source). If you test on a clean list you never actually have, you’ll buy the wrong plan.
3. Set required fields. Decide what “usable” means for you: mobile/direct dial, work email, personal email, and whether verification is required.
4. Run the same list through each vendor. Keep the process consistent: same inputs, same time window, same enrichment method (extension vs API) so you’re not comparing different workflows.
5. Track operational friction. Note where the tool slows reps down: seat restrictions, add-on prompts, throttling, or missing fields that force a second tool.
6. Check integration reality. If you need API usage, test the API fields you actually need and confirm rate limits won’t break your enrichment jobs.
7. Document variance assumptions. Record seat count, API usage pattern, list source, industry, and region so finance can audit why results differ across vendors.
8. Model total cost. Combine seat licenses, required add-ons, and any metered API usage. Compare that to the workflow outcome you measured, not a generic ROI claim.

Limitations and edge cases

“Unlimited” still has boundaries. Any provider has to prevent abuse. The operational difference is whether the boundary is clear and aligned with normal enrichment, or vague enough that you discover it when throttling hits.

Data decay is not a rounding error. Contacts change jobs and numbers. If your pricing model charges again to re-verify, your “cheap” plan becomes a recurring tax on freshness.

Seat-based pricing can punish adoption. If every occasional user needs a paid seat, enrichment gets centralized in ops, cycle time increases, and reps work from stale records while waiting for updates. Seat creep at renewal is common; model cost at your expected seat count, not your current one.

Integration is where budgets go to die quietly. Metered API usage, rate limits, and field mismatches don’t show up in the demo. They show up when engineering has to build retries, queues, and exception handling.

Evidence and trust notes

I’m the CEO of Swordfish.AI, so treat this as an informed but biased view. The reason it’s still useful is that the failure modes are consistent across vendors: pricing models change behavior, and behavior determines whether your data stays current or decays into noise.

When you see claims about sales data pricing, recruiter data pricing, or “cost per connect,” force a variance explanation. The only honest way to discuss outcomes is to anchor them to seat count, API usage, list quality, and industry, then validate with your own list.

If you want more detail on how unlimited is supposed to work operationally, read how unlimited credits work and the tradeoffs in unlimited credits vs credit-based pricing. If you’re comparing against a common enterprise option, use ZoomInfo vs Swordfish as a reminder to normalize assumptions before you compare invoices.

FAQs

What is contact data pricing?

It’s the commercial model for accessing emails and phone numbers (and sometimes verification). The model matters because it changes behavior: credits encourage rationing; unlimited supports consistent enrichment.

Why do credits create hidden costs?

Because teams adapt by skipping lookups, delaying verification, and enriching only “top” leads. That produces inconsistent coverage and more manual cleanup as records decay.

What does true unlimited mean in practice?

True unlimited means normal day-to-day enrichment isn’t constrained by a credit counter. It still operates under a written fair use policy to prevent abuse, but it shouldn’t force legitimate teams to ration lookups.

What should I watch for in seat-based pricing?

Minimum seat requirements, admin/export seat rules, and whether occasional users require full licenses. Seat licenses often become the largest cost driver as adoption grows.

Where do add-ons usually hide?

Mobile numbers/direct dials, verification, exports, API access, and integrations. If a field is required for your workflow, treat it as base cost during evaluation.

How do I compare cost per connect across vendors?

Define “connect” for your channel (call pickup, email reply, meeting), then test with your own list. Document variance drivers: list quality, industry, region, persona, seat count, and API usage pattern.

Next steps

Week 0 (today): Write down your workflow and constraints: seat count now and in 6–12 months, required fields, and whether you need API usage for ATS/CRM enrichment.

Week 1: Run a pilot on your own ICP list using the test plan above. Track coverage and operational friction (rationing behavior, add-on prompts, throttling, and integration constraints).

Week 2: Model total cost: seat licenses + required add-ons + any metered API usage. Document variance assumptions (list quality, industry, region) so finance can audit the forecast.

Week 3: Choose the model that fits the workflow you actually have. If you need consistent enrichment, start with unlimited contact credits so usage doesn’t collapse into rationing when budgets tighten.

About the Author

Ben Argeband is the Founder and CEO of Swordfish.ai and Heartbeat.ai. With deep expertise in data and SaaS, he has built two successful platforms trusted by over 50,000 sales and recruitment professionals. Ben’s mission is to help teams find direct contact information for hard-to-reach professionals and decision-makers, providing the shortest route to their next win. Connect with Ben on LinkedIn.