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Choose Lusha's MCP server if you want one vendor's contact and company database, buying signals, workspace tables and CRM export inside an AI assistant on a monthly plan, and choose RichAPI's MCP server if you want read-only lookups across 40+ data providers at a fixed credit price per tool, with no seats and credits that never expire. Both are hosted servers with OAuth sign-in for chat clients, and both work in ChatGPT. The difference is how many things the agent may do, where the data comes from and how credits are bought.
What is the short answer?
Lusha's server is a front end for the Lusha platform. Its docs list 50 tools covering enrichment, prospecting, buying groups, lookalikes, signals, recommendations, workspace tables, CRM export and call recordings (Lusha MCP tools). It draws from Lusha's own database of 515M+ contacts and 29M+ companies (Lusha MCP).
RichAPI's server is a data layer. It exposes the same endpoints as the REST API, and every tool is a read-only lookup that sends no email and writes to no CRM (RichAPI ChatGPT integration). New accounts get 100 free credits with no card (RichAPI MCP).
How do Lusha MCP and RichAPI MCP compare side by side?
Checked against each vendor's own pages on November 9, 2026.
| Lusha MCP | RichAPI MCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Server URL | https://mcp.lusha.com | https://mcp.richapi.ai/mcp |
| Sign-in | OAuth for Claude, ChatGPT and Codex. API key header for other clients | OAuth sign-in, click Allow, no API key to copy |
| Data behind it | Lusha's own database, 515M+ contacts and 29M+ companies | 40+ data providers behind 65+ endpoints |
| Tools | 50, including tables, CRM export and call search | Same endpoints as REST, all read-only |
| Writes | Export to Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive and SalesLoft, table edits | None. Nothing writes to a CRM or sends email |
| Work email | 1 credit | 5 credits, 0 on a waterfall miss |
| Phone | 5 credits | 25 credits, 0 on a waterfall miss |
| No-match billing | No credit for a request with no match | Free on email and phone waterfalls only |
| Plans | Free, then monthly or annual plans with seats | Credit bundles, no seats or minimums |
| Credit expiry | Monthly credits roll over up to twice the plan, annual credits reset | Bundle credits never expire |
| Free start | Up to 40 credits a month | 100 credits, no card |
Sources: Lusha MCP overview, Lusha MCP setup, Lusha MCP tools, Lusha credits FAQ, Lusha pricing, RichAPI MCP, RichAPI pricing.
What does Lusha's MCP server do?
Lusha's server turns the Lusha platform into tools an assistant can call. A rep can enrich a contact, search prospects by title and seniority, map the buying committee at an account, find lookalikes of a best customer and check signals such as job changes, funding and hiring surges (Lusha MCP overview). The server also builds and runs workspace tables, searches call recordings and pulls transcripts (Lusha MCP tools).
CRM export is the main write action. The agent connects a CRM through an OAuth link that only an admin can generate, then pushes contacts or companies to Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive or SalesLoft. Exports run synchronously with a per-run cap per CRM, for example 150 records for Salesforce and 100 for HubSpot (Lusha MCP tools).
Some tools depend on how you connect. The recommendations tools work only over OAuth, and an API-key session gets a 403 on them (Lusha MCP setup). Admins can also switch off MCP access for everyone except admins and managers (Lusha user guide).
What does RichAPI's MCP server do?
RichAPI's server gives the assistant LinkedIn profile and company enrichment, people and lead search, email finder, email verifier, phone finder, job and post signals, web scraping, tech stack and website intelligence (RichAPI API). Contact and company lookups are fetched live, and web-scraping endpoints cache server-side.
Setup takes three steps. Create an account, paste the server URL into the client, then sign in and click Allow. The same URL works in every client that supports remote HTTP MCP (RichAPI MCP).
Email finder, email verifier and phone finder are waterfall endpoints. They try providers in order, return an execution_log showing which ones ran, and cost zero credits when nothing is found. Every other endpoint bills on a successful 2xx response, including an empty one (RichAPI ChatGPT integration).
How do the two sign-in methods differ?
Lusha supports two methods. Claude, ChatGPT and Codex connect through the client's connector directory with OAuth. VS Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI and n8n pass a Lusha API key in an x-api-key header (Lusha MCP setup). Every Lusha user connects with their own account, and all users and API keys on the account share one credit pool (Lusha credits FAQ).
RichAPI uses OAuth for its MCP server. You sign in when the client opens RichAPI and click Allow, and the same credits and prices apply over REST and MCP (RichAPI pricing). There are no seats, so a second teammate needs only a RichAPI account.
What does a lookup cost?
Lusha prices per revealed field. An email reveal costs 1 credit and a phone reveal costs 5 (Lusha pricing). Plans are Free with up to 40 credits a month, Starter at $49.90 a month for 400 credits, Professional at $69.90 for 600 and Premium at $399.90 for 3,400, with lower effective prices when billed annually. RichAPI sells one-time bundles, so the dollar cost of each call is known up front.
| Task | Lusha credits | Lusha at Starter monthly ($0.125 per credit) | RichAPI credits | RichAPI at Growth ($0.018 per credit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work email | 1 | $0.125 | 5, 0 on a miss | $0.09 per hit |
| Phone | 5 | $0.62 | 25, 0 on a miss | $0.45 per hit |
| Profile enrichment | Charged per revealed field | Varies by field | 1 | $0.018 |
| People search | Charged per successful result | Varies | 0.1 per result | $0.0018 per result |
Sources: Lusha pricing, Lusha credits FAQ, RichAPI pricing.
RichAPI bundles are Starter at $100 for 5,000 credits, Growth at $450 for 25,000 and Scale at $800 for 50,000. They never expire or renew on their own (RichAPI pricing). On Lusha's monthly plans, unused credits roll over and accumulate up to twice the plan limit, while annual credits reset at the end of the cycle (Lusha pricing).
What happens when a lookup finds nothing?
Lusha charges only for matched results. Its credits FAQ says no credit is deducted for a request that returns no match or for an API error, and a 402 comes back when the balance is empty (Lusha credits FAQ). Scoring is the exception. A score of 0 is still charged at 1 credit.
RichAPI's free misses apply to its waterfall endpoints, which are email finder, email verifier and phone finder. Other endpoints bill on a successful 2xx response, including an empty one (RichAPI ChatGPT integration). Hard failures that are not 2xx never consume credits (RichAPI API). On no-match billing, Lusha's rule is broader.
Which limits and terms matter?
Lusha's default rate limit is 25 requests per second on general endpoints (Lusha API FAQ). Its MCP documentation notes that data from the API may not be used to train or develop AI or ML systems, and that data brokers and other platforms may not embed or expose the API without written consent (Lusha user guide). Read the Lusha terms before building a product on it.
RichAPI's rate limit follows the credits bought in a month. It is 10 requests per second from 5,000 credits and 25 from 25,000, and a request over the limit gets a 429 with a Retry-After header (RichAPI pricing). An empty balance returns a 402, and auto top-up is off by default.
When should you pick each?
Pick Lusha's MCP server when:
- your team already pays for Lusha and wants reps to use it from an AI assistant
- you want the agent to push records into Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive or SalesLoft
- you want buying signals, lookalikes, buying groups and call search in one tool
- you want a free plan to try the server first
Pick RichAPI's MCP server when:
- you want lookups fetched live from 40+ providers at a published credit price
- you want an agent that can read data but cannot write to a CRM or send anything
- you want misses on email and phone waterfalls to cost nothing
- you want credits that never expire and no seats
Our take
Lusha's server is an agent interface to a database and a platform. It does more, including writing to a CRM, and it makes sense for teams that already run on Lusha. RichAPI's server only reads. It fetches from many providers and bills a fixed credit price per call. For an assistant that only needs to look up and verify data, a read-only server is easier to approve. For an assistant that must move records into a CRM, Lusha already has the tools.
FAQ
Is Lusha's MCP server free?
Lusha's Free plan includes up to 40 credits a month, and Lusha says any plan can connect to the MCP server. MCP calls use the same credits as the REST API.
Does RichAPI work in ChatGPT?
Yes. Add https://mcp.richapi.ai/mcp as a connector, sign in and click Allow.
Can Lusha's MCP server write to my CRM?
Yes. It exports contacts and companies to Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive and SalesLoft, with a per-run cap for each CRM. RichAPI's tools are read-only.
Which one costs less per work email?
Lusha charges 1 credit per email, about $0.125 on the Starter monthly plan. RichAPI charges 5 credits, $0.09 at the Growth bundle rate, and nothing when the waterfall finds no email.
Do both servers charge for empty results?
Lusha does not charge when a request returns no match. RichAPI does not charge on email finder, email verifier and phone finder misses, and bills other endpoints on a successful response.
Do RichAPI credits expire?
No. Bundle credits never expire. On Lusha, monthly credits roll over up to twice the plan limit and annual credits reset at the end of the cycle.
Related
RichAPI MCP, RichAPI pricing, API overview, MCP server glossary, waterfall enrichment, email finder tool, phone finder guide, MCP to Smartlead playbook.