# Credits and limits

What each call costs, what is free, and how fast you can go.

Every paid call is metered in credits. You pay for results, not for attempts.

## What each endpoint costs

- **[Search People](/docs/api-reference/search-people)** — 5 credits per returned row.
- **[Enrich People](/docs/api-reference/enrich-people)** — 2 credits per profile found, +10 per email found.
- **[Get Usage](/docs/api-reference/usage)** — Free.

Free, always:

- a profile that does not exist, or a URL that is not a LinkedIn profile;
- an email lookup that finds nothing;
- every error — a bad request, a limit, or a failure on our side.

Every paid response tells you what it cost: the `credits_used` field, the `X-Credits-Used` header and the `X-Credits-Charged` header. They carry the same number. A response that could not run because the balance was too low is `402` with type `insufficient_credits`, plus `code`, `fix` and a `docs` link. Nothing is charged.

## What a credit buys

The same numbers apply in the app, over MCP and on this API. A miss is free.

| Result | Credits |
| --- | --- |
| Company with a signal | 1 |
| Tech-stack company | 20 |
| Lead | 5 |
| Qualified lead | 20 |
| Near-fit lead | 5 |
| Full profile | 2 |
| Work email, only when found | 10 |
| Email and phone, only when the phone is found | 40 |

Free, on top of the misses above: previews, lookups, explanations, and a result you already received. In-app chat turns are free within a daily fair-use limit.

Plans, monthly: Free free / 500 credits; Solo €29 / 3,000 credits; Growth €79 / 9,000 credits; Scale €199 / 25,000 credits. Plan credits roll over for two further months. The free grant expires after 30 days. A top-up of 3,000 credits costs €39 and lasts 12 months.

## Daily limit

Each organization has a daily credit limit — 1,000 credits unless we agreed on another number. The day follows the Europe/Brussels calendar and resets at midnight.

Before a call runs, we check whether its **largest possible** cost still fits: a search counts as a full page of 25 rows, an enrich as every profile found (plus an email each, with `include_email`). If it doesn't fit, you get `429` with the type `daily_limit_reached` and a `Retry-After` header — and nothing is charged. Send a smaller batch, or wait for the reset.

## Rate limits

- **60 requests per minute** per key, over a sliding window.
- **3 requests at the same time** per key.

Above either limit you get `429` with the type `rate_limit_error` and a `Retry-After` header in seconds. Back off for that long, then retry.

## Batch sizes

- **Enrich People:** up to 25 profile URLs per call. Duplicates in one call are fetched and charged once.
- **Search People:** one page per call, up to about 25 rows; the search stops at page 100.

## Follow your usage

- In FounderMCP, under **API → Usage**: today against your limit, this month per endpoint, and your latest calls — failed ones included.
- From code: [Get Usage](/docs/api-reference/usage), which is free.