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Yearly company-data plans vs one credit balanceOpenCorporates sells 500 API calls a month for £2,250 a year, and 1Lookup looks up an LEI for $0.010 and charges nothing when no record is found.
Both can return a legal entity from its LEI. 1Lookup reads the LEI index when you ask, bills each record found from one shared credit balance and searches by LEI or by legal name. OpenCorporates is a company-register database with records from over 140 jurisdictions, officers and filings, and it shows an LEI as one attribute of a matched record.
OpenCorporates is a database of company records collected from over 140 government registries. Its API returns a company with its officers, filings and identifiers, and an LEI appears as an attribute on companies it has matched. API plans are sold by the year, from £2,250 for 500 calls a month. 1Lookup sells the LEI record on its own: 2 credits, about $0.010 on the Starter plan, charged only when a record is found.
The LEI search, priced per record found
OpenCorporates sells monthly call allowances inside yearly plans, and an LEI search is one call. This is the LEI record on its own, as a single API call on a shared balance.
1Lookup vs OpenCorporates: the same criteria, side by side
Both products measured on identical criteria, with OpenCorporates’s numbers taken from its own published pricing.
1lookup1lookup.ioData and validation APIs
opencorporates.comLegal entity data- OpenCorporates · Starts at
- Essentials at £2,250 a year (£225 per month as printed) for up to 500 API calls a month and 200 a day.
- 1Lookup: $99/mo for 20,000 credits. At 2 credits each (LEI Lookup API), that is $9.90 per 1,000 LEI lookups on Starter, down to $4.00 on Enterprise.
- OpenCorporates · Do credits expire?
- Call allowances reset on a clock: the API docs say daily usage refreshes at midnight UTC each day and monthly usage at midnight UTC on the last day of the month.
- 1Lookup: Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year
| Criteria | 1Lookup | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Monthly plans with universal credits; core phone, email and IP lookups cost 1 credit, enrichment and intelligence products cost more | Annual API plans priced in pounds sterling, with a monthly figure printed beside each: Essentials £2,250 a year (£225 per month) for up to 500 API calls a month and 200 a day; Starter £6,600 a year (£660 per month) for up to 2,500 calls a month and 500 a day; Basic £12,000 a year (£1,200 per month) for up to 5,000 calls a month and 1,000 a day. Enterprise is bulk data delivery over SFTP plus a bespoke API, with no price printed. Public-benefit projects can ask for free at-scale access. Per-1,000 figures are the yearly price divided by 12 and by the plan's monthly calls, rounded down to the penny. |
| Starting price | $99/mo for 20,000 credits. At 2 credits each (LEI Lookup API), that is $9.90 per 1,000 LEI lookups on Starter, down to $4.00 on Enterprise. | Essentials at £2,250 a year (£225 per month as printed) for up to 500 API calls a month and 200 a day. |
| Free option | Free single lookups via the online tools at 1lookup.io/tools, no account required | Commercial plans start at Essentials. The API docs say access is free for open data projects, investigative journalists, NGOs, universities and anti-crime research groups can ask for free at-scale access, and the knowledge base says LEIs show on company records on the website after a free login. |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise, with no payment today | None published |
| Do credits expire? | Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year | Call allowances reset on a clock: the API docs say daily usage refreshes at midnight UTC each day and monthly usage at midnight UTC on the last day of the month. |
What OpenCorporates costs at volume
| Volume | OpenCorporates price | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 500 API calls a month (Essentials) | £2,250 a year (£225 per month as printed) | £375.00 |
| 2,500 API calls a month (Starter) | £6,600 a year (£660 per month as printed) | £220.00 |
| 5,000 API calls a month (Basic) | £12,000 a year (£1,200 per month as printed) | £200.00 |
OpenCorporates' prices are in pounds sterling, and its per-1,000 figures spread the yearly price over 12 months and divide by the plan's calls, rounded down. 1Lookup's lookup is $9.90 per 1,000 on Starter and $4.00 on Enterprise, drawn from a balance that also pays for every other lookup. An LEI search takes one OpenCorporates call.
Before you sign: OpenCorporates and 1Lookup on the operational terms
The terms that decide what a year actually costs, rather than what the first month does. “Not listed” means we could not verify it on either product’s published pages, not that the answer is nothing.
| Term | 1Lookup | OpenCorporates |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum commitment | None. Monthly plans with no contract and no minimum volume; cancel any time | API plans are priced per year (£2,250, £6,600 and £12,000), with a monthly figure printed beside each. |
| API access | Included on every plan and during the free trial; there is no tier that unlocks it | API plans are sold from Essentials up; the API needs a key and usage limits depend on the plan. |
| Rate limit | 200 requests per 10 seconds for each API key on standard lookups and 1,000 requests a minute for each key on number type, HLR and MNP, and each account can make up to 1,000 requests a minute in total across all its keys; higher limits are available on request | Daily call caps by plan: 200 (Essentials), 500 (Starter) and 1,000 (Basic), plus the monthly call allowance. |
| Compliance | Not listed | ISO/IEC 27701:2025 certification for privacy information management, announced 3 September 2026 (home page news). |
| Support | Starter: Email Support; Growth: Priority Email & Chat Support; Professional: Chat + Live Meeting; Enterprise: Dedicated CSM | An Enterprise support plan is listed on the Enterprise package; a knowledge base and a Support link are on every page. |
1Lookup
OpenCorporates
Where 1Lookup wins
- A lookup costs about $0.010 on Starter, and a code the index does not hold, a mistyped LEI or a search with no matches costs nothing
- Starter at $99 a month covers 10,000 lookups, where OpenCorporates' cheapest plan holds 500 calls a month for £2,250 a year
- A first lookup reads the LEI index when you ask, funds included, and a name search returns up to 10 entities with their LEIs
- The same key and balance also pay for EU VAT checks, phone, email and IP validation, and credits roll over for 3 months
Where OpenCorporates wins
- It holds company records from over 140 government registries and other official sources, so one API covers registration data for companies in 140 or more jurisdictions, not only the ones that hold an LEI.
- A company record carries officers (directors and agents, with start and end dates), filings, and links to previous and subsequent registrations.
- Enterprise plans deliver whole jurisdictions as bulk data over SFTP on a schedule you choose.
- Its home page says 80% of North America and Europe's largest banks use it, and it announced ISO/IEC 27701:2025 certification on 3 September 2026.
OpenCorporates pricing and product facts verified against opencorporates.com as of October 2026. Prices change; always confirm on the vendor’s site. 1Lookup numbers come from the live rate card.
Who this is for
A quick, honest read on which tool fits your use case.
Choose 1Lookup if: you have an LEI, or a company's legal name, and want its status, renewal date and parent companies read from the LEI index when you ask, for a price per record found and with no yearly plan to buy first.
Consider OpenCorporates instead if: you need company records beyond the LEI: OpenCorporates holds registration data from over 140 jurisdictions with officers, filings and company history, delivers bulk data on Enterprise plans and gives researchers and journalists free access on request.
Frequently asked questions
What is OpenCorporates used for?
Looking up companies and the people behind them across many countries. It holds company records from over 140 government registries and other official sources, with officers, filings and identifiers, and sells them by API and in bulk for onboarding, due diligence, investigations and master-data work. Its home page says 80% of North America and Europe's largest banks use it.
How does OpenCorporates pricing work?
Yearly API plans priced in pounds, with a monthly figure printed beside each. Essentials is £2,250 a year (£225 per month) for up to 500 API calls a month and 200 a day, Starter is £6,600 (£660 per month) for 2,500 a month and 500 a day, and Basic is £12,000 (£1,200 per month) for 5,000 a month and 1,000 a day. Enterprise is bulk delivery and a bespoke API, with no price printed. Journalists, NGOs and researchers can ask for free access.
How much does 1Lookup charge for the same lookup?
2 credits per record found, free when nothing is found. On the Starter plan ($99 a month for 20,000 credits) a lookup is about $0.010, which covers 10,000 records a month and is $9.90 per 1,000. At the Enterprise end of the rate card it is about $0.004. OpenCorporates' cheapest plan holds 500 calls a month.
Does OpenCorporates have LEI data?
Yes, as an attribute. OpenCorporates' knowledge base says an LEI is shown on a company record when the two were matched, and the API can search for one with the identifier_uids parameter. The same article says funds and annulled or duplicate LEIs are left out of the matching, and that over 1.3 million of over 2 million LEIs had been matched (figures as of 1 June 2023). A free login shows LEIs on the website.
How current is an LEI record?
OpenCorporates' knowledge-base article says it updates LEI data monthly; the article was last updated on 9 June 2023. 1Lookup's first lookup reads the LEI index when you ask, so you get the record as it stands at that moment, and a repeat lookup of the same input by you within 7 days comes from your saved result at no charge.
Does 1Lookup cover funds and search by name?
Yes to both. An LEI issued to a fund is looked up like any other, because 1Lookup reads the index and not a set of matched company records. A legal name search, with an optional country, returns up to 10 entities with their LEIs, and it is charged only when at least one match comes back.
What is the best OpenCorporates alternative?
If the job is to identify an entity from its LEI, check that the registration is current and see its parent companies, a per-record price is the simpler purchase. 1Lookup's LEI Lookup bills 2 credits only when a record is found, takes a CSV with an lei column and shares one balance with every other lookup. If you need company records from other registries, officers or filings, those stay with a vendor that sells them.
Where does OpenCorporates beat 1Lookup?
On breadth. OpenCorporates holds company records from over 140 jurisdictions, including companies that have no LEI, with officers, filings and links to previous and subsequent registrations, delivers bulk data over SFTP on Enterprise plans and gives free access to public-benefit projects. It announced ISO/IEC 27701:2025 certification on 3 September 2026. 1Lookup returns the LEI record and its parent companies, not officers or filings.
Is OpenCorporates worth it in 2026?
If you need company registry data across many countries, officers or bulk delivery, yes: the data is the point and the yearly plans are priced for a team that uses it every day. If you only need to look up legal entities by LEI, compare the per-record price and the size of the plan you would buy.