For B2B enrichment, choose an MCP server by its supported operations, authentication, response evidence and billing. Tool count alone does not establish quality. A compact surface can simplify one workflow; separate, clearly described tools can make search, selection and enrichment easier to control.
TargetWise exposes eleven tools through its REST and MCP gateway. It supports company discovery, contact discovery, employee lookup, contact enrichment, company enrichment and reverse email lookup. It returns available business data; a returned email is not a deliverability guarantee, and a returned phone has phone_type: unknown.
Reviewed 1 October 2026. This guide uses the current TargetWise runtime and supplier documentation. No comparable independent benchmark verified establishes an accuracy, latency or cost winner across these products.
What an enrichment MCP server does
MCP lets a compatible host discover a server's tools and call them with structured arguments. REST exposes the same operation through an HTTP endpoint. Neither transport makes missing source data appear or proves that returned data is current. Your host must support the server's transport and authentication.
A useful workflow separates discovery from revealing contact details: search for candidates, select a supported identity, request only the needed fields, then apply your own acceptance and outreach controls. CRM writes and outreach belong to the tools that actually implement those operations.
The current TargetWise tool surface
| Workflow | Tools | Important boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Company identity and form resolution | targetwise_find_companies, targetwise_autocomplete_company | Resolve a supplied identity; autocomplete is not a keystroke suggestion feed. |
| Employee discovery and details | targetwise_search_employees, targetwise_get_employee | Use an employee ID returned by employee search. Set email and phone switches explicitly. |
| Known-person contact fields | targetwise_find_work_email, targetwise_find_phone, targetwise_enrich_contact | Use a LinkedIn profile URL or supported name and company context. Contact provenance may be unavailable. |
| Company and reverse-email enrichment | targetwise_enrich_company, targetwise_reverse_email_lookup | Available identity context is not proof of mailbox ownership. Company provenance is returned where available. |
| Prospecting | targetwise_search_companies, targetwise_search_contacts | Contact search excludes email and phone. Its person ID is not a contact-enrichment input; use supported identity fields. |
Search is bounded and paginated. Most search operations accept up to 25 results per page and ten pages; company identity search accepts up to five results per page. Check the operation schemas before building a loop.
Compare current supplier capabilities
| Supplier | Published capability | Check before connecting |
|---|---|---|
| TargetWise | Eleven REST/MCP tools; workspace dashboard | Workspace Bearer key, operation permissions, current plan and field evidence |
| Apollo | Prospecting, enrichment and engagement; native MCP advertised | Endpoint credits, waterfall flags, phone completion and plan access |
| Lusha | Contact lookup, API and native MCP advertised | Email and phone credit units, allocation and rollover terms |
| Clay | Configurable enrichment workflows and native MCP advertised | Available MCP operations, Actions, Data Credits and connected-provider costs |
| FullEnrich | Email/phone waterfall, API and native MCP advertised | Field-specific credits, asynchronous completion and supported result statuses |
| Cognism | Contact intelligence, API and MCP advertised | Quoted Standard/Pro package, revealed-contact credits and permitted use |
These are supplier-published capabilities, not an independent performance ranking. Inspect the live tool list and current Apollo, Lusha, Clay, FullEnrich and Cognism documentation for the package you intend to use.
Budget for fields, attempts and repeated calls
Core is $49/month, with $0.15 per returned work email and $0.25 per returned business phone deducted from that included balance; Growth is $149/month, with $0.12 per returned work email and $0.20 per returned business phone deducted from that included balance; Scale is $399/month, with $0.09 per returned work email and $0.16 per returned business phone deducted from that included balance. Free includes 20 emails and 5 business phones. Paid subscriptions renew monthly until cancelled; unused balance resets at renewal. Returned requested work-email and business-phone fields consume the selected plan balance. Unresolved requested fields consume no usage balance, but calls still have limits. A repeated call that returns data can consume balance again.
Company enrichment, prospecting, reverse lookup and expanded professional profiles can have separate account permissions and agreed or configured prices. Do not apply the contact-field rate to every operation. Read current pricing and the API's operation-specific access notes.
For a fair comparison, calculate fixed subscription fees plus actual consumed credits or field charges, then divide by records that pass your acceptance policy. Report requested fields, attempted inputs, returned fields and accepted records separately. Keep hypothetical calculations separate from observed results.
Connect a host that supports Bearer headers
The public workspace endpoint is https://targetwise.ai/api/mcp. Keep a workspace key private and send it as Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TARGETWISE_API_KEY. This gateway uses workspace keys; it does not implement an OAuth authorization flow. A host that accepts only OAuth cannot use it through that connection method.
Cursor
Use the current Cursor MCP instructions and a private .cursor/mcp.json configuration. Start Cursor with the environment variable available.
{"mcpServers":{"targetwise":{"url":"https://targetwise.ai/api/mcp","headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer ${env:TARGETWISE_API_KEY}"}}}}Claude Code
Use the HTTP transport and Bearer header, then inspect the connection with /mcp. The command stores configuration locally; keep it private. See the current Claude Code instructions.
claude mcp add --transport http targetwise https://targetwise.ai/api/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $TARGETWISE_API_KEY"For Claude Desktop, ChatGPT and other hosts, confirm current remote-server and authentication support rather than reusing a configuration from another client. Start from the TargetWise MCP setup guide and the host's documentation.
Read the response evidence
Inspect the discovered schema before calling a tool. For a work-email lookup, the following fictional input demonstrates structure; it does not promise a match:
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"targetwise_find_work_email","arguments":{"first_name":"Alex","last_name":"Reed","company_domain":"example.com"}}}Handle matched, partial and not-found outcomes according to the tool's output schema. Preserve missing values. A retrieval timestamp records when the request ran, not when a source last verified the contact. Validate deliverability, phone classification and current employment separately when your use case needs those assurances.
Keep retries and writes under control
Use a call budget, explicit field switches and bounded pagination. Do not automatically retry an ambiguous metered POST: first determine whether the original request completed. Authentication, balance, rate-limit and operation-pricing failures need different handling. Record request IDs without placing returned contact values or credentials in public logs.
Use REST for deterministic scheduled jobs when it fits your infrastructure. MCP fits host-directed tool use. Either transport needs observability, input validation, permissions and a separate policy for CRM writes. TargetWise does not advertise a general CSV bulk-upload product or an automatic campaign-optimization engine.
Evaluate on a defined sample
- Choose authorized records that represent your countries, industries and company sizes.
- Request the same fields from each candidate and record attempt and return counts.
- Check identity, employment, deliverability and phone outcomes separately.
- Record actual charges, completion time and operational failures.
- Keep a holdout sample and rerun when the source or integration materially changes.
The benchmark workflow helps structure this evaluation. Source count, tool count and result-based billing are architectural or commercial properties; none proves an accuracy winner.
Frequently asked questions
Does TargetWise expose only one MCP tool?
No. The current gateway exposes eleven tools across company and contact discovery, employee lookup, contact and company enrichment, and reverse email lookup.
Does the MCP gateway verify email deliverability or mobile numbers?
It returns available work emails and business phones. Returned emails are not deliverability guarantees; phone_type is unknown. Apply separate verification when your workflow requires it.
Are failed or repeated calls free?
Unresolved requested contact fields consume no usage balance, but attempts have limits. Repeated calls returning fields can consume balance again. Other operations may need separately configured pricing or permissions.
Can any MCP client connect?
The client must support this HTTP gateway and a workspace Bearer header. Check host-specific instructions. OAuth-only connection methods cannot authenticate to this workspace-key gateway.
Which enrichment MCP server is most accurate?
No comparable independent benchmark verified identifies a universal winner. Compare providers on the same authorized sample, requested fields, acceptance criteria and actual charges.