> SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. This is the Markdown copy of https://specstream.ai/alternatives/candid. Every page, with what SpecStream does and costs: https://specstream.ai/llms.txt # Best Candid Foundation Directory alternatives in 2026 | SpecStream Compared on Nov 9, 2026. # Candid Foundation Directory alternatives in 2026 **Every funder that fits your program as a row, at 5¢ to $1 a row.** Candid Premium costs $219 a month on the monthly plan, or $100 a month from $1,199 billed annually. You search 1.9 million organizations and read profiles on Candid, and downloads stop at 250 grants and 750 profiles a month on the monthly plan. The API is sold with Enterprise at a custom price. SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. Describe the funders your program needs in plain words, and each one that meets every condition comes back as a structured row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1, with the filing or page behind each figure. 300 funders with 15 facts each cost $45, and the rows go to your CRM or sheet. [Describe your data](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-candid&utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=candid&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fask%3Fq%3DPrivate%2520foundations%2520in%2520Texas%2520that%2520fund%2520food%2520security%2520programs%252C%2520with%2520total%2520assets%2520from%2520the%2520latest%2520Form%2520990-PF%252C%2520the%2520officers%2520and%2520how%2520to%2520apply.) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. ## SpecStream and Candid Foundation Directory side by side | | SpecStream | Candid Foundation Directory | | --- | --- | --- | | What you send | The funders, grants or nonprofits you want in plain words, with the conditions every row must meet | A search of 1.9 million organizations by name, EIN or keyword, with filters for revenue, assets and organization size | | What you get back | Structured rows, one record per funder, grant or nonprofit, with facts from its filings and its own site joined. Source URL and read time on every value | Profiles to read on Candid, with grants given, grants received, open grant opportunities and a fundraising contact. The Free plan shows one full profile a month | | Data already held | 1,983,169 US nonprofits registered with the IRS, read from the IRS file updated on November 9, 2026, at [specstream.ai/data/nonprofits](https://specstream.ai/data/nonprofits?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=candid). 1,205 federal funding opportunities open or forecast on Grants.gov, read each morning, at [specstream.ai/data/grants](https://specstream.ai/data/grants?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=candid). Ask for your own cut of either | 1.9 million organizations, searched and read inside Candid | | What it costs | A delivered row: 5¢, 15¢ or $1 by how much the row needs, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. The same rate on every plan. 300 funders with 15 facts each cost $45 | Premium $219 a month on the monthly plan, or $100 a month from $1,199 billed annually. Ultimate $142 a month from $1,699 billed annually. Enterprise at a custom price for teams of 10 users or more | | How much you can take out | Every row you paid for is yours. Exporting and sharing cost nothing, and a run keeps working until it reaches the count you asked for | Up to 250 grants and 750 profiles a month on Premium monthly. Up to 1,000 grants and 5,000 profiles a month on Premium annual | | How to start | $10 of credit, no card. Pro $19, Scale $99 and Team $499 a month, all spent as credit at the same row rates. A yearly plan adds 20% more credit | A Free plan at $0 with limited search results. A free year of Premium for nonprofits with revenue or expenses under $1M that earn a 2026 Gold Seal of Transparency | | Before a run | The most the run can cost, quoted before it starts. Nothing runs until you approve it, and there are no automatic overages | A subscription billed monthly or annually. On the API, production quotas are set by contract and Candid's docs say you may incur overage charges past the contracted amount | | Reruns | Hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. A changed or new row costs half its rate, an unchanged row 1¢ | Saved searches that you refresh | | Assistants and agents | MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other assistants, plus A2A. An agent can buy one request with no account, by card or in USDC | A fundraising assistant with 25 or 250 credits a month by plan, and a Claude connector | | API | REST API, Python and TypeScript SDKs and a CLI on every account. Search API at $5 per 1,000 searches, Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, Deep Search at the row rates | Sold with Enterprise at a custom price. A trial key has 500 calls at 10 calls a minute for 30 days. A grants search returns a maximum of 25 results a call | | Where the data goes | Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, monday.com, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Slack, Teams, Zapier, Make, n8n and signed webhooks | Downloads inside the monthly caps. API and data bundling for custom integrations on Enterprise | ## Why fundraising teams move from Candid to SpecStream ### One request returns the funders that fit the program On Candid you search, open profiles one at a time and download what the month's cap allows. On SpecStream you write the job once: "Private foundations in Texas that fund food security programs, with total assets, the officers and how to apply", or "Open federal grants for rural health clinics with an award ceiling above $500,000 and a deadline in the next 90 days". SpecStream reads the request back as parts you can edit, the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring back, then returns one row per funder or grant that meets all of them. ### The records are already here SpecStream holds 1,983,169 US nonprofits registered with the IRS, 1,657,622 of them 501(c)(3) charities, read from the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File as updated on November 9, 2026 and rebuilt every morning: [specstream.ai/data/nonprofits](https://specstream.ai/data/nonprofits?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=candid). It reads Grants.gov each morning too. On November 9, 2026 that was 1,205 federal funding opportunities open or forecast, 872 of them accepting applications: [specstream.ai/data/grants](https://specstream.ai/data/grants?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=candid). For each organization, SpecStream reads the latest Form 990, 990-EZ or 990-PF and returns total revenue, total assets, the year the return covers and the officers it lists, with their titles and pay. See [nonprofits by cause and revenue](https://specstream.ai/for/nonprofits?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=candid). ### Each figure keeps its filing and its year Each number on a SpecStream row carries the URL of its return or page and the time it was read, so the board's pipeline shows which year every asset figure comes from. A result that fails one of your conditions is not delivered and not billed. ### You pay for funders, and you see the price first Candid Premium is $219 a month whether the month's search returns 5 funders or 500. SpecStream bills the rows that meet your request: 5¢ for a row with up to 5 facts, 15¢ for up to 15 facts and one set of related records, and $1 for a deep row with no limit. 300 funders with 15 facts each cost $45. SpecStream quotes the most the whole run can cost, good for 30 minutes, and nothing runs until you approve it. A run that finds nothing costs nothing. ### Reruns follow the grant calendar Save the request and it reruns hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching, a changed or new row costs half its rate and an unchanged row costs 1¢. New funders and new deadlines land in Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion, Slack or email. Rows you already own are never charged again. ### The search behind it leads two public benchmarks SpecStream scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct), and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Scores and method are on [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=candid). ## Other Candid Foundation Directory alternatives ### SpecStream The live web data engine for teams and agents. Every funder, grant or nonprofit that fits your request comes back as a row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1, priced before the run, with $10 of credit on sign-up and no card. ### Instrumentl A grants platform sold by the seat band. Discover costs $299 a month paid upfront annually, or $349 paid monthly, for up to 3 users. Pre-Award is $499 a month for up to 5 users and Full Lifecycle is $999 a month for up to 15. On SpecStream there is no seat price: 300 funders with 15 facts each cost $45, and the whole team reads them. ### GrantStation A membership to a grantmaker database with search tools and writing guides. One quarter costs $219, one year $699 and two years $1,258. On SpecStream you pay for the rows a request returns, and the rows go into your own CRM or sheet. ### Grantsights Pro Foundation funder lists by cause and state. Pro costs $24 a month or $199 a year, with 25 saved grants and up to 3 people on one plan. A SpecStream request carries your program's own conditions, such as the cause, the state and the size of funder, and reruns on your schedule with every change labeled. ## How SpecStream scores The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers. ResultsWideSearchCostSimpleQA Verified | | SpecStream | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/parallel.svg)Parallel | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/exa.svg)Exa | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/tavily.svg)Tavily | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/perplexity.svg)Perplexity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Web research**WideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna | 60.9 | 45.5 | 53.0 | 47.9 | 47.0 | | **Factual accuracy**SimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna | 96 | 94 | 91 | 94 | 94 | | **Factual accuracy**SimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol | 99 | 97 | 91 | 92 | 95 | ## How to switch from Candid Foundation Directory Write the funders you want in plain words, or import the prospects you downloaded from Candid as a CSV, Excel file, Google Sheet or Airtable base of up to 20,000 rows, and SpecStream fills in or checks each row. Import is free. Sign up and you get $10 of credit, no card. At 5¢ a row, that is up to 200 rows. Or send the request from code. This call spends nothing: the `402` reply shows how SpecStream read the request, the columns and the most it can cost. ``` curl -i https://api.specstream.ai/v1/agent/lists \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"request": "Private foundations in Texas that fund food security programs, with total assets from the latest Form 990-PF, the officers and how to apply.", "count": 25}' ``` Approve that maximum and you pay for the rows found. Your assistant uses the MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp` and your team uses the workspace, from the same balance. [Describe your data](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-candid&utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=candid&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fask%3Fq%3DPrivate%2520foundations%2520in%2520Texas%2520that%2520fund%2520food%2520security%2520programs%252C%2520with%2520total%2520assets%2520from%2520the%2520latest%2520Form%2520990-PF%252C%2520the%2520officers%2520and%2520how%2520to%2520apply.) ## Frequently asked questions Something we didn't answer? [Talk to a human](https://specstream.ai/talk-to-a-human.md) How much does Candid Foundation Directory cost? $219 a month for Premium on the monthly plan. On an annual plan Premium is $100 a month from $1,199 billed annually, and Ultimate is $142 a month from $1,699 billed annually. Enterprise is priced by quote for teams of 10 users or more, and the Free plan is $0 with one full profile view a month. Vendr reports that the median Candid buyer pays $7,500 per year. What is the best Candid Foundation Directory alternative? SpecStream, at 5¢ to $1 a row. You describe the funders your program needs in plain words, approve the most the run can cost, and get one structured row per funder that meets every condition, with the filing or page behind each figure. 300 funders with 15 facts each cost $45. Is there a free version of Candid Foundation Directory? Candid's Free plan costs $0 and includes limited search results and one full profile view a month. Nonprofits with annual revenue or expenses under $1M that earn a 2026 Gold Seal of Transparency get a free year of Premium. SpecStream starts with $10 of credit, no card, which is up to 200 rows at 5¢. How many funders can I download from Candid a month? Up to 750 profiles and 250 grants a month on Premium monthly, and up to 5,000 profiles and 1,000 grants on Premium annual. SpecStream has no monthly cap: every row you paid for is yours, and exporting it to CSV, a sheet or your CRM costs nothing. Does Candid have an API, and does SpecStream? Candid lists its API with Enterprise at a custom price, and a trial key has 500 calls at 10 calls a minute for 30 days. SpecStream's API is on every account at published prices: $5 per 1,000 searches, $0.80 per 1,000 pages extracted, and 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row for Deep Search, with an MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`. Does SpecStream cover federal grants as well as foundations? Yes. SpecStream reads Grants.gov each morning: 1,205 federal funding opportunities were open or forecast on November 9, 2026, 872 of them accepting applications. Ask for the ones your organization can apply for and each comes back with its deadline, its award ceiling and its notice. Can SpecStream keep a prospect list up to date? Yes, on any schedule from hourly to yearly. A changed or new row costs half its rate and an unchanged row costs 1¢, and each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. ### Sources SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page, and the Vendr figure from Vendr. 1. [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing)specstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026 2. [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md)specstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 9, 2026 3. [SpecStream nonprofits data](https://specstream.ai/data/nonprofits)specstream.ai/data/nonprofits, read Nov 9, 2026 4. [SpecStream federal grants data](https://specstream.ai/data/grants)specstream.ai/data/grants, read Nov 9, 2026 5. [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks)specstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 9, 2026 6. [Candid pricing](https://candid.org/pricing)candid.org/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026 7. [Candid, free access to Foundation Directory](https://learning.candid.org/free-access-to-foundation-directory)learning.candid.org/free-access-to-foundation-directory, read Nov 9, 2026 8. [Candid API rate limits](https://developer.candid.org/reference/rate-limits-and-thresholds.md)developer.candid.org/reference/rate-limits-and-thresholds.md, read Nov 9, 2026 9. [Candid Grants API, transactions](https://developer.candid.org/reference/grants_transactions.md)developer.candid.org/reference/grants\_transactions.md, read Nov 9, 2026 10. [Vendr, Candid](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/candid)vendr.com/marketplace/candid, read Nov 9, 2026 11. [Instrumentl pricing](https://www.instrumentl.com/pricing)instrumentl.com/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026 12. [GrantStation membership](https://grantstation.com/product/grantstation-membership)grantstation.com/product/grantstation-membership, read Nov 9, 2026 13. [Grantsights pricing](https://grantsights.com/pricing)grantsights.com/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026