Build a live B2B database from public data
Build a B2B database live from public data: company rows from Google Maps, people and verified emails from LinkedIn public profiles. Query it the moment you need it, pay only for results that come back, and keep every row you pull.
A bought database ages from day one
The classic B2B database is an export. Someone collected the rows before you showed up, and the moment they did, the clock started. People change jobs. Agencies rebrand. Companies move offices, change phone numbers, or close. Every month a slice of the file quietly goes wrong, and you find out when the emails bounce.
The billing model matches: an annual contract, priced per seat, usually reached through a sales call. You pay for the whole index whether you touch 2% of it or all of it.
CrustAPI works the other way around. You send a query, we fetch the public record right then, and you pay 1 credit per result that comes back. A query that returns nothing costs nothing. The rows land as plain JSON, so they drop straight into Sheets, Clay, or your CRM, and there is no seat, no term, and no renewal date.
Three layers, one credit each
A useful B2B list has a company layer and a people layer. Both run through the same key.
Companies
Name, address, phone, website, category, rating, review count, and hours for any business type in any city. Up to 100 per search, ~1 second. Full detail on the Google Maps scraper API page.
Firmographics
Point type=company at a public LinkedIn company page for the firmographic record. See the LinkedIn company scraper.
People + emails
Search people by keyword, pull full public profiles, and get verified emails on people results. See the LinkedIn people search API.
The company layer, for real
Here is the exact request I ran while writing this page, and the first row it came back with, about a second later. You get it as CSV or as JSON. This is the kind of query a SaaS team runs across 40 metros to map their market, or an agency runs to build a client's prospect list.
One thing to flag on this layer: company records from Maps do not include email addresses. They carry name, address, phone, website, rating, reviews, categories, and hours. Emails live in the people layer below.
Find the humans, get verified emails
A company list becomes an outbound list when you know who to write to. The LinkedIn endpoints search public profiles by keyword, so you can go from "marketing agencies in Denver" to the founders and owners behind them.
A plain search returns fast discovery rows: name, headline, and profile URL. Add enrich=true and each match comes back as a full public profile, and people results include a verified email where one is found. You are billed per profile that actually returns, so a profile that will not load costs nothing. The same endpoint also covers companies, jobs, and posts; the LinkedIn scraper API page has the whole set.
Agencies: a fresh prospect list per client vertical, built the day the campaign starts.
SaaS teams: map your market city by city, then find the buyer at each company.
Ops builders: wire it into Clay, n8n, or LangChain as the enrichment step that only bills on hits.
vs a seat-license database
Tools like ZoomInfo and Apollo sell a prebuilt index with workflow features on top. That is a different product with real strengths. Here is where the models actually differ.
| Seat-license database | CrustAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Annual contract per seat, usually after a sales call | Prepaid credits, self-serve: $49 for 25,000 results |
| When a row is collected | Ahead of time, refreshed on the vendor's schedule | At the moment you query |
| Empty lookups | Varies by vendor and plan | Free. No result, no charge |
| Unused volume | Typically resets or expires with the term | Credits never expire |
| Getting started | A demo and a quote | 3,000 free credits a month, no card |
| What you get | A big prebuilt index plus filters, intent data, and CRM sync | Raw JSON you shape into exactly the list you need |
If you want the deeper head-to-head, the ZoomInfo alternative page walks through it. And if your starting point is local businesses rather than a B2B motion, the business database page covers the same data from that angle.
One credit per result
$49 buys 25,000 credits, which is 25,000 rows: about $1.96 per 1,000. The ladder runs 25k $49 · 100k $149 · 500k $549 · 2.5M $1,999, all ex-tax and self-serve. A maps search that returns 40 agencies costs 40 credits. An enriched people search bills per profile returned. Anything that comes back empty is free, and whatever you do not use this quarter is still there next year.
When a seat-license database is the better pick: your sales team wants a managed workflow with intent signals, org charts, and native CRM sync, and someone else keeps the index current. That is genuinely useful at enterprise scale, and it is not what we sell. We sell the raw material, fresh, priced per row.
Common questions
Related: Business database · ZoomInfo alternative · LinkedIn people search API · Google Maps scraper API
Clay
Query your market tonight
3,000 free credits covers a real company list plus the people behind it. Run one query and look at the JSON.
Get 3,000 free credits