API review

AI Ark API review

Credit-based B2B data API over 400M+ people and 70M+ companies: people/company search (incl. lookalike), flat-cost preview, async export with BounceBan-verified emails (up to 10,000 per job, webhook delivery), single-row email and mobile finders (Clay-compatible v2), reverse email lookup and DISC/OCEAN personality analysis. Best for sizing an ICP for almost nothing: People Preview costs 1 credit per page of up to 100.

Verified 25 Oct 2026 · 19 endpoints listed · Official MCP server

See pricing

AI Ark API docs

What a call costs

The actions you pay for, as AI Ark prices them in credits.

Action	Cost	Per
People Preview	1	credit per page (up to 100)
People Search	0.5	credit per result
Company Search	0.1	credit per result
Export People with Email	0.5 + 0.5	credits per person + per valid email
Email finder / Export single	1	credit per valid email (0 if none)
Mobile phone finder	5	credits per phone found
Reverse lookup	0.5	credit per request
Personality analysis	4	credits per request

Show all 10 priced actionsHide the rest

Action	Cost	Per
Re-export a contact already in your account	0	credits
Re-verify an email you already own (on request)	0.1	credit

Pricing, plan by plan

US dollars, as AI Ark's pricing page shows them on 25 Oct 2026. Monthly and annual billing are shown apart.

Free tier Free Plan: $0, 100 credits/month, always free, select up to 25 records at a time, unused-credit rollover

Free

100 credits/month; select up to 25 records at a time

API included

Usage-Based

$49/mo

billed monthly

$39.17/mo

billed annually ($470 a year)

Entry package: $49/month for 5,000 credits/month, or $470/year for 60,000 credits/year (annual: "Save 20%", all credits allocated on day one).

API included

Plan details

Larger packages via the credit calculator; pricing FAQ: $2-$4 per 1,000 credits on plans above 30K credits/month. Tiers: Starter up to 30K credits/mo (up to 3 seats), Builder 60K-300K (up to 5 seats), Scale 450K+ (10 seats). Unused credits roll over up to 2x the monthly allowance.

Agency & Enterprise

Custom quote

custom; partner program and enterprise back-office

API included

Rate limits

5 requests per second per API key/token by default; 429 when exceeded.

Default 5 req/s per key on every plan (confirmed live: x-ratelimit-limit-second: 5)

Pricing FAQ: "Scaling up unlocks larger API rate limits"; Enterprise gets custom API rate limits; docs: accounts using 450,000+ credits/month can request custom limits

How to get an API key

AI Ark uses API key. The steps below follow AI Ark's own docs.

Create a AI Ark account. The Free plan includes API access.
API Management Dashboard at app.ai-ark.com/settings/api-management/dashboard
Send it with every request: header: X-TOKEN: <key> (no Bearer).

Make a first call: Run any People Search and see matches before paying per result. Keep the key in an environment variable, never in the command.

curl -X POST "https://api.ai-ark.com/api/developer-portal/v1/people/preview" \
  -H "X-TOKEN: $AI_ARK_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}'

Where the docs live

What	Where
Documentation	docs.ai-ark.com/docs/get-started
API reference	docs.ai-ark.com/docs/ai-agents
llms.txt	docs.ai-ark.com/llms.txt
Base URL	`https://api.ai-ark.com/api/developer-portal`
MCP server	`https://api.ai-ark.com/v1/mcp?token={YOUR-API-KEY}`
SDKs	ark CLI (command line)

Strengths and limits

Where it fits

Sizing an ICP for almost nothing: People Preview costs 1 credit per page of up to 100
Search + verified email in one async job (Export People with Email, up to 10,000 people)
Row-by-row email enrichment in Clay/CRMs that only charges when a valid email is found
Lookalike company lists from up to 5 seed companies

Where it falls short

High-concurrency pipelines on the default 5 requests/second per token
Phone-heavy workflows on a budget (mobile finder 5 credits per hit)

Worth knowing

MCP authenticates with the API key in the URL query string (?token=), so the key ends up in client config files and logs; treat those configs as secrets. Source: docs.ai-ark.com/reference/mcp
Export People with Email charges 0.5 credits for every exported person even when no email is found; the trackId email finder charges only for found emails. Source: docs.ai-ark.com/reference/people-export-with-email; docs.ai-ark.com/reference/people-email-finder-by-track-id
People Search at 0.5/result is 50x the cost of People Preview for the same 100 results; always preview first. Source: docs.ai-ark.com/reference/people-preview
page is zero-based and page + size are required on every search; size max 100. Source: docs.ai-ark.com/docs/get-started
Stuck async jobs refund automatically and their trackId endpoints then return 403 (4031013); resubmit. Source: docs.ai-ark.com/docs/ai-agents

6 moreShow fewer

The x-credit response header shows the charge on every billable endpoint (docs mention it only for v2 endpoints).
Company Search on a single domain can return many records (stripe.com returned 19): dedupe by company id or LinkedIn URL.
People Preview masks last names (e.g. "Li***g"): use it to size and check, not for names.
Saved lists: max 10,000 values per list, 50 lists per day, and lists expire after 24 hours. Source: docs.ai-ark.com/docs/ai-agents
Rollover is capped at 2x the monthly allowance. Source: ai-ark.com/pricing
The pricing FAQ says a person export with no valid email still costs the 0.5 profile credit, while the docs for Export Single and Find Emails by Track ID say 0 credits when no email is found. Docs govern API behaviour; check the x-credit header. Sources: ai-ark.com/pricing; docs.ai-ark.com/docs/ai-agents

Our take

AI Ark follows Prospeo in our email-finding waterfall, and we use it to size markets cheaply: a search with a page size of 1 returns the total match count. In a 10-contact live test for a remote-staffing client it found 9 work emails where Findymail found 10; we kept AI Ark as the primary source for its lower cost and richer profiles and added Findymail as the fallback.

Who should use it

Use AI Ark for: Sizing an ICP for almost nothing: People Preview costs 1 credit per page of up to 100
Look elsewhere for: High-concurrency pipelines on the default 5 requests/second per token

If AI Ark is not the answer

Other Sourcing tools in this directory, each with its own review.

Apollo

Sourcing

Free planOfficial MCP

Best for people search at 0 credits on paid plans to size and pull prospect lists.

Apollo API review

BlitzAPI

Sourcing

From $99/moOfficial MCP

Best for high-volume list building at a flat monthly price.

BlitzAPI API review

Cognism

Sourcing

Best for EMEA/UK prospecting where phone-verified mobile numbers and DNC masking matter.

Cognism API review

Before you build

Four things to settle first, each read off AI Ark's own pages.

Confirm the API is on your planThe Free plan includes API access. Free tier: Free Plan: $0, 100 credits/month, always free, select up to 25 records at a time, unused-credit rollover.
Keep the key out of your codeAPI key. It is sent as: header: X-TOKEN: <key> (no Bearer).
Design around the rate limit5 requests per second per API key/token by default; 429 when exceeded.
Know the catch before you scaleMCP authenticates with the API key in the URL query string (?token=), so the key ends up in client config files and logs; treat those configs as secrets. Source: docs.ai-ark.com/reference/mcp

Want us to build it for you?

Tell us what you want AI Ark to do in your stack. We will show you how we would wire it into your data, outbound or CRM, and what we would check first.

Book a call

See case studies

Read from ai-ark.com/pricing, docs.ai-ark.com/docs/ai-agents and docs.ai-ark.com/docs/get-started. Verified 25 Oct 2026.

All 19 endpointsFor developers: method, path, what it does and what it costs.

Base URL: api.ai-ark.com/api/developer-portal

Bulk and async: Export People with Email: up to 10,000 people per async job; jobs not delivered within ~10h are auto-refunded (STUCK_HARD_REFUND). Source: docs.ai-ark.com/reference/people-export-with-email; docs.ai-ark.com/docs/ai-agents

Webhooks: Completion webhooks for async Export People and Email Finder jobs; auto-retried 3 times; free resend endpoints. Source: docs.ai-ark.com/reference/resend-export-people-webhook-1

Filter endpoints

19 endpoints

Method	Path	What it does	Cost
POST	`/v1/people/preview`	Run any People Search and see matches before paying per result	1 credit per page (flat)
POST	`/v1/people`	People Search over 400M+ profiles with account + contact filters; returns a trackId	0.5 credits per returned result
POST	`/v1/companies`	Company Search over 70M+ companies, incl. Lookalike Search (up to 5 seeds)	0.1 credits per returned result
POSTasync	`/v1/people/export`	Search + email finding in one async job, up to 10,000 people; results via webhook or polling	0.5 per exported person (always) + 0.5 per valid email found
POSTasync	`/v1/people/email-finder`	Find emails for a previous People Search result set by trackId	1 credit per valid email found (0.5 data + 0.5 BounceBan); 0 if none
POST	`/v1/people/export/single (v2: /v2/people/export/single, Clay-compatible)`	Real-time single person profile + verified email	1 credit per success (0.5 profile + 0.5 email); 0 if no valid email
POST	`/v1/people/mobile-phone-finder (v2 Clay-compatible)`	Mobile number for a person	5 credits per result found; 0 otherwise (X-Credit header shows charge)
POST	`/v1/people/reverse-lookup`	Identify a person from an email address	0.5 credits per request (docs). Live: a 404 miss was charged 0
POST	`/v1/people/analysis`	DISC and OCEAN personality profile with outreach guidance	4 credits per request
POST	`/v1/lists`	Create/update reusable people or company lists to reference in searches	free
GET	`/v1/payments/credits`	Remaining credits	free
GETasync	`/v1/people/export/{trackId}/statistics`	Export job status/statistics	free (all /statistics, /inquiries, /submissions, /notify endpoints)
GETasync	`/v1/people/export/{trackId}/inquiries`	Export job results (paged)	free (all /statistics, /inquiries, /submissions, /notify endpoints)
GETasync	`/v1/people/export/submissions`	History of export jobs	free (all /statistics, /inquiries, /submissions, /notify endpoints)
PATCHasync	`/v1/people/export/{trackId}/notify`	Re-send the export completion webhook	free (all /statistics, /inquiries, /submissions, /notify endpoints)
GETasync	`/v1/people/email-finder/{trackId}/statistics`	Email-finder job status/statistics	free (all /statistics, /inquiries, /submissions, /notify endpoints)
GETasync	`/v1/people/email-finder/{trackId}/inquiries`	Email-finder job results (paged)	free (all /statistics, /inquiries, /submissions, /notify endpoints)
GETasync	`/v1/people/email-finder/submissions`	History of email-finder jobs	free (all /statistics, /inquiries, /submissions, /notify endpoints)
PATCHasync	`/v1/people/email-finder/{trackId}/notify`	Re-send the email-finder completion webhook	free (all /statistics, /inquiries, /submissions, /notify endpoints)