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Explorium alternatives

AgentSource ends Dec 2, rows from 5¢.

Explorium is shutting down, and AgentSource stops on December 2, 2026. Data exports end that day, unused credits are refunded within 30 days, and account data is deleted by December 31. Its credit packs ran from $29.99 for 500 credits to $7,499.99 for 500,000.

SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. Ask in plain words, through the API or MCP, for the companies and people you need, and get typed rows that meet every condition, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row.

Get an API key

New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

SpecStream and Explorium side by side

SpecStreamExplorium AgentSource
StatusLive. The Search API, the Extract API and Deep Search run from one keyDiscontinued on December 2, 2026, the last day for data exports. Account data is deleted no later than December 31, 2026
What you sendThe companies or people you want in plain words, with the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring backFirmographic, technographic, role, location, size or intent filters, through the REST API or the hosted MCP server
What you get backStructured rows, one record per company or person, with facts from many sites joined. Source URL and read time on every valueCompany and prospect records: firmographics, technographics, funding, financials and workforce trends for 150M+ companies
The unit you pay forA 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 planA credit, drawn by search, enrichment and event calls. The credits a call takes depend on the dataset and fields
The price to start$10 of credit on sign-up, no card. Plans at $19, $99 or $499 a month turn their whole price into credit, with no yearly commitmentLite at $29.99 for 500 credits, Starter at $99.99 for 2,500, Growth at $749.99 for 25,000 and Scale at $7,499.99 for 500,000, each charged once
Price per 1,000$50 per 1,000 rows with up to 5 facts, $150 with up to 15. An email adds $50 per 1,000 rows that carry one$60 per 1,000 credits on Lite, $40 on Starter, $30 on Growth and $15 on Scale
What failed or empty work costsNothing. A row left out, a retry and a run that finds nothing are not chargedEach API call consumes credits, by the type and complexity of the request
The cost cap before a runThe most the whole job can cost, quoted before it starts. Nothing runs until you approve it, and there are no automatic overagesAn estimate before an operation runs, and a sample preview before a full export is paid for
Rate limitsThe Search and Extract APIs answer each account up to its per minute limit, and a call past it gets 503 with Retry-After and is not charged200 queries per minute per API key
Signals and keeping data up to dateSave the request and it reruns hourly to yearly, each row labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching, and an unchanged row costs 1¢. Funding rounds, new executives and layoffs at specstream.ai/signalsDated business and professional events: funding, hiring, headcount, product, acquisition and role changes
MCP and APIMCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp, REST API, Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and A2A. An agent can buy one request with no account, by card or in USDCA REST API and a hosted MCP server, until December 2, 2026

Why Explorium buyers move to SpecStream

Move before December 2

AgentSource data exports end on December 2, 2026. Export the companies and prospects you enriched, then import the file into SpecStream, up to 20,000 rows from a CSV, Excel file, Google Sheet or Airtable base. Importing is free. SpecStream fills in or checks each row: a row that matches your request pays its row rate, and a row that does not match costs a 5¢ check.

The whole request, written once

Explorium answers from its own records through filters, and the credits a call takes depend on the dataset and fields you ask for. A SpecStream request is the whole job in plain words: "Software companies in the United States with 50 to 500 employees that raised a round in the last 12 months, with the CEO, the head of sales and a work email for each". SpecStream reads the request back as parts you can edit, the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring back, then searches the live web, reads each page and joins what it finds into one record per company or person.

A row costs 5¢, and a miss costs nothing

SpecStream's rates are on pricing: 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, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. 1,000 rows with 5 facts cost $50. A row that fails one of your conditions is not delivered and not billed, and duplicates and rows you already own are never charged.

Your agent spends under a maximum you approved

Every request gets a quote of the most it can cost, good for 30 minutes. Nothing runs until you approve it, the charge never goes past that amount, and whatever the run does not use goes back to your balance. An API key carries its own limits: total, per run, monthly, and the operations it allows. Agents connect to https://api.specstream.ai/mcp with OAuth or an API key, and people and agents spend from one balance.

Signals we hold, and rows that stay current

SpecStream holds public databases and reads them on schedule, among them Form D filings, H-1B and PERM filings by employer, layoff notices (WARN) and UK companies, at specstream.ai/data. Funding rounds, new executives and layoffs are at specstream.ai/signals. Save a request and it reruns hourly to yearly: a changed or new row costs half its rate and an unchanged row 1¢, and changes arrive by signed webhook, through the API, or in Sheets, HubSpot, Salesforce or Slack.

The most accurate web search API, in the same account

The Search API answers one question from the live web from $1 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results. It 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 reads pages for $0.80 per 1,000 and scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Scores and method are on benchmarks.

Other Explorium alternatives

SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. One request in plain words, through the API or MCP, returns every company or person that meets your conditions as a typed row, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

Coresignal

Company, employee and job records sold by the credit. Mini is $49 a month for 2,500 credits, a full employee record takes 20, and unused monthly credits do not roll over. SpecStream bills a delivered row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 on every plan. Compare SpecStream and Coresignal.

People Data Labs

Person and company records sold by the credit. Person plans start at $98 a month for 350 credits, 28¢ a record. SpecStream bills a delivered row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1, and a run that finds nothing costs nothing. Compare SpecStream and People Data Labs.

Crustdata

A people and company data API billed in credits, with people enriched from 1 credit and companies from 2. New accounts start with $20 in credits, and enterprise plans start at four figures a month. SpecStream prices the whole request before it runs and bills only the rows that meet your conditions. Compare SpecStream and Crustdata.

How SpecStream scores

The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers.

SpecStreamParallelExaTavilyPerplexity
Web researchWideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna60.945.553.047.947.0
Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna9694919494
Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol9997919295

How to switch from Explorium

Export your AgentSource data before December 2, 2026. Write the companies or people you want in plain words, in place of the filters you send today, or import the exported list, up to 20,000 rows, and SpecStream fills in or checks each row. Sign up and you get $10 of credit, no card. At 5¢ a row, that is up to 200 rows.

To test it from code before you pay, send this call. It 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": "Software companies in the United States with 50 to 500 employees that raised a round in the last 12 months, with the CEO, the head of sales and a work email for each", "count": 25}'

Approve that maximum by card through Stripe's Link agent wallet, or in USDC on Base, Arbitrum or Polygon, and you pay for the rows found. If your agent used Explorium's MCP server, point it at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp instead; your team uses the workspace, from the same balance.

Get an API key

Frequently asked questions

Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human

Is Explorium shutting down?
Yes. Explorium's notice says it is shutting down operations and will discontinue AgentSource on December 2, 2026. Data exports are available until that day, and account data is deleted no later than December 31, 2026.
What happens to my unused Explorium credits?
Credits unused on December 2, 2026 are refunded within 30 days to the original payment method, according to Explorium's notice. Until then the credits can still be spent on AgentSource.
How much did Explorium cost?
Lite was $29.99 for 500 credits, Starter $99.99 for 2,500, Growth $749.99 for 25,000 and Scale $7,499.99 for 500,000, each charged once: $60 down to $15 per 1,000 credits. Paid credits expired 12 months after purchase.
What is the best Explorium alternative?
SpecStream, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row. Your product or agent asks in plain words through the API or MCP, you approve the most the run can cost, and you get one typed row per company or person that meets every condition, read from the live web.
Can SpecStream enrich the list I exported from Explorium?
Yes, up to 20,000 rows from a CSV, Excel file, Google Sheet or Airtable base. Importing is free. Each row that matches your request pays its row rate, and a row that does not match costs a 5¢ check.
Does SpecStream have an API and an MCP server?
Yes. Deep Search costs 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, the Search API from $1 per 1,000 searches and the Extract API $0.80 per 1,000 pages. They run through the REST API, the Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and the MCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp.
How accurate is SpecStream?
The Search API 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. The scores and method are on benchmarks.

Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page, read on the date shown.

  1. SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
  2. SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  3. SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 12, 2026
  4. SpecStream dataspecstream.ai/data, read Nov 12, 2026
  5. Explorium notice: AgentSource will be discontinued on December 2, 2026explorium.ai/blog/news-and-updates/important-notice-agentsource-will-be-discontinued-on-december-2-2026/, read Nov 12, 2026
  6. Explorium pricingexplorium.ai/pricing.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  7. Explorium for agentsexplorium.ai/llms.txt, read Nov 12, 2026
  8. Explorium site overviewexplorium.ai/index.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  9. Explorium rate limitdevelopers.explorium.ai/reference/rate-limit, read Nov 12, 2026
  10. Explorium credit trackingdevelopers.explorium.ai/reference/credits/tracking_your_credits, read Nov 12, 2026
  11. Coresignal pricingcoresignal.com/pricing/, read Nov 12, 2026
  12. People Data Labs person pricingpeopledatalabs.com/pricing/person, read Nov 12, 2026
  13. Crustdata pricingcrustdata.com/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026