Pick AI Ark for verified people and company data at volume, with every email checked at export and a lower cost per valid lead. Pick Ocean.io to learn your ICP from closed-won CRM deals and rank accounts against it. As an Ocean.io alternative, AI Ark suits teams with their own outreach stack.
Key takeaways
Different starting points. AI Ark starts from a database of 400M+ people and 70M+ companies and hands you a verified file. Ocean.io starts from your CRM's closed-won deals and ranks every company in your market against them.
Verification at export. AI Ark checks every email with BounceBan at export and delivers only addresses that pass, with a bounce rate under 1.5% expected. Ocean.io says it confirms emails by SMTP handshake and cross-referencing.
Pay once per contact. AI Ark's Net New vs Saved Records means a contact exported on the platform is never charged again, and unused credits roll over up to 2x the monthly plan. Ocean.io's yearly credits are valid for 12 months; its duplicate policy is not published.
Cost per valid lead. At 5,000 valid emails a month, AI Ark's annual plan works out to $12.63 per 1,000. That volume sits at or past Ocean.io's reported 60,000-credit yearly self-serve cap, in custom pricing that is not published.
Lookalikes on both sides. AI Ark's Company Lookalike works from up to five seed URLs, with no CRM history required. Ocean.io seeds lookalikes from a domain or from segments of your won deals.
Refresh cadence. AI Ark refreshes its entire database every 30 days. Ocean.io re-crawls about half of its domain index each month.
AI Ark vs Ocean.io at a glance
Features | AI Ark | Ocean.io |
Category | B2B people and company discovery database with verified export | Account discovery and scoring platform that learns from your CRM |
Database size | 400M+ people, 70M+ companies | 250M+ employee profiles, 67M companies |
Email validation | BounceBan, in real time at export | SMTP handshake and cross-referencing |
Published accuracy | Only addresses that passed verification are delivered; bounce rate under 1.5% expected | No email accuracy figure; headline figure is an 82% CRM match rate |
Catch-all addresses | Validated individually, delivered only when confirmed, labeled "Catch-All Valid" | Double verification including catch-alls |
Database refresh | Entire database every 30 days | About half the domain index each month |
Pricing model | Credits: 0.5 per profile, 0.5 per valid email, 5 per mobile, 0.1 per company | Credits: 1 per email found, 10 per phone, 0.2 per search result |
Published entry price | $49/month for 5,000 credits; $470/year for 60,000 | $567/year for 9,000 credits |
Credit rollover | Up to 2x the monthly plan | Yearly credits valid 12 months |
Free tier | 100 credits a month, no card | Free signup and a no-signup search |
Invalid-email charge | None; the email credit is charged only when a valid one is found | None; charged per email found |
API | Yes, 300 requests per minute, same credit pricing as the web app | Yes |
MCP server | Yes, works in Claude, Cursor and Windsurf | Yes |
Bulk export | 10,000 records per batch, repeat with the Net New filter | Yes |
Duplicate protection | Net New vs Saved Records; re-exporting a saved record on the platform is free | Not publicly stated |
What Teams Say About AI Ark
My favorite AI Ark niche feature is bulk uploading website domains. It’s perfect for working backwards from a set list of target companies, then using lookalike search to expand it. This small workflow shows how thoughtful the product is, world class compared to other databases that feel archaic.
Aaron Gusinov
Founder @ LeadForce Solutions
What is AI Ark?
AI Ark is a B2B prospect and company discovery database for teams and agencies that build their own lists. It covers 400M+ people and 70M+ companies, refreshes the entire database every 30 days, and holds verified mobile numbers for more than 100M profiles.
It assumes you already own your outreach stack, a sender, a CRM and often Clay, and that its job is to hand you a verified file. Every email is checked with BounceBan in real time at export, catch-alls included when confirmed, so the file can go straight into your sender.
What sets it apart: Company Lookalike, which finds companies similar to up to five seed URLs by reading what they actually do; Net New vs Saved Records, so you never pay twice for a contact already exported on the platform; and filters for headcount growth, employees by department, time in role vs time at company, and company HQ set separately from person location.
What is Ocean.io?
Ocean.io is an account discovery and enrichment platform for B2B sales and marketing teams. Connect your CRM and Ocean.io clusters your closed-won deals into segments by win rate, deal size and close time, then scores every company in your market against the segment you pick, with the reason shown. It answers one research question per company from its website, flags events such as new funding or leadership hires, and pushes ranked accounts into Salesforce, HubSpot and Clay. It also offers lookalike people search, a REST API with 25 endpoints and an MCP server.
Ocean.io lists 67M company profiles and 250M+ employee profiles, built from the open web, with more than 25 data scientists working on accuracy and a context-vector similarity model behind its lookalike scores. Contact data comes through a waterfall across 16+ providers with double email verification, catch-alls included, according to a 2026 third-party review.
Ocean.io prices on a credit slider rather than fixed plans. An indexed copy of its pricing page shows a yearly minimum of 9,000 credits for $567, with larger volumes on a custom plan, though the live page now shows a sign-up screen before prices. It suits teams with a CRM history worth learning from.
Data quality: where validation happens
How AI Ark does it
AI Ark verifies every email with BounceBan at export, covering standard SMTP addresses and catch-all domains. Catch-alls are delivered only when confirmed and labeled "Catch-All Valid". Invalid, unknown and risky addresses are left out, which is why the expected bounce rate is under 1.5%.
Because verification happens at export, AI Ark cannot pre-filter a search to "has email". About 70% of exported contacts come back with a valid email. The rest still arrive with LinkedIn URL, title and company, at the 0.5-credit profile fee only.
How Ocean.io does it
Ocean.io's pricing page says emails are confirmed via a real-time SMTP handshake and cross-referencing and that you pay only for verified results. Its API returns an email from a LinkedIn URL with a confidence score, and its own cost examples assume a find rate of about 79%. It says it re-verified about 14 million domains this month, half its index. The refresh cadence for people records and any bounce rate are not publicly stated.
Ocean.io holds 3.1 out of 5 on G2 from 12 reviews, with data accuracy the most common complaint. Organic reviews dated 14 June 2024 and 9 December 2024 describe outdated company information and a database not worth the money; an October 2024 reviewer praised its lookalike precision. None gives a bounce rate.
The trade-off, stated fairly
Both vendors verify before delivery and charge only for emails they find. The difference is where the check sits and what is published: AI Ark checks each address live at export and publishes an expected bounce rate, while Ocean.io runs a multi-provider waterfall and publishes a CRM match rate instead. Its small review base mostly predates that waterfall, so treat it as a signal, not a verdict. The fairest check is your own: send the same 500 contacts through both and compare valid emails delivered and bounces after sending.
True cost: what a valid lead actually costs
List price is the wrong comparison here, because a credit means different things on each side. What matters is total annual spend divided by valid emails delivered, at the cheapest plan that covers your volume.
Published pricing
AI Ark plans:
Plan | Credits per month | Monthly billing | Annual billing (credits per year) | Seats included |
Free | 100 | $0 | $0 | 1 |
Starter | 5,000 to 30,000 | $49 to $119 | $470 for 60,000 to $1,142 for 360,000 | Up to 3 |
Builder | 60,000 to 300,000 | $219 to $879 | $2,102 for 720,000 to $8,438 for 3,600,000 | Up to 5 |
Scale (Agency & Enterprise) | 450,000 to 5,000,000 | $1,249 to $9,999 | $11,990 for 5,400,000 to $95,990 for 60,000,000 | 10 |
Ocean.io pricing, by billing option:
Option | Price | Credits |
Subscription, yearly billing (minimum) | $567/year ($47.25/month) | 9,000 a year, $0.063 per credit |
Subscription, yearly billing (calculator example) | About $99/month | 1,700 a month, about $0.058 per credit |
Subscription, monthly billing | $56.80/month for 800 credits | 750 minimum, from $0.071 per credit |
Pay as you go | $81 for 1,000 credits | 1,000 minimum, $0.081 per credit |
Custom plan | Not publicly stated | Above the self-serve maximum |
AI Ark charges 0.5 credits per person profile, 0.5 per valid email (only when one is found), 5 per mobile number and 0.1 per company record. Ocean.io charges 1 credit per email found, 10 per phone found, 0.2 per search result, 0.1 per enrichment and 0.05 per lookup, with misses free.
Worked scenario
Same method on both sides, as above. Ocean.io publishes no accuracy figure, so every email it reveals counts as valid. A valid email costs about 1.21 AI Ark credits once the 0.5-credit profile fee is spread across exports without one. On Ocean.io it costs 1 credit from a list you already have, or about 1.25 if you search first (0.2 per result at its 79% find rate).
Scenario 1: 5,000 valid emails a month (60,000 a year). AI Ark needs about 72,860 credits (85,714 profiles at 0.5 plus 60,000 emails at 0.5), covered by the 180,000-credit annual plan at $758. That is $12.63 per 1,000 valid emails. Ocean.io needs 60,000 to 75,190 credits. A third-party capture puts its yearly self-serve maximum at 60,000, so this volume sits at or past the top of the slider, in custom pricing that is not publicly stated. For reference only, at the lowest per-credit rate Ocean.io shows (about $0.058), it would cost $3,494 to $4,379 a year, or $58 to $73 per 1,000; that price also covers unlimited seats, CRM push and account scoring, and a custom quote may undercut it. On AI Ark the same 60,000 valid emails cost $758.
Scenario 2: Ocean.io's minimum yearly plan. Ocean.io's $567 buys 9,000 credits: 9,000 valid emails if you reveal from your own list ($63.00 per 1,000), or about 7,182 if you search first ($78.95 per 1,000). AI Ark delivers the same 7,182 to 9,000 valid emails with 8,721 to 10,929 credits, inside the 60,000-credit annual plan at $470. That is $52.22 to $65.44 per 1,000, with most of the 60,000 credits left over.
The counterpoint, stated honestly
At Ocean.io's entry point the gap is small: AI Ark comes in about 17% lower per valid email, so at a few hundred accounts a month, price alone should not decide this.
Ocean.io charges nothing for a contact without an email when you reveal from your own list. AI Ark charges 0.5 credits for every exported profile, which you keep and never pay for again on the platform. Ocean.io's seats are unlimited, which matters for a large team at low volume. AI Ark rolls unused credits over up to 2x your monthly plan and charges 5 credits for a mobile number against Ocean.io's 10.
The line item neither price list shows is a second verification pass: teams that re-verify anyway pay twice per address and wait for the file to clear. On AI Ark the BounceBan check is inside the 0.5-credit email charge, and the file goes from export to your sender without that step. See the full tier list on our pricing page.
Features side by side
Finding the right accounts
Feature | AI Ark | Ocean.io |
Lookalike companies | Up to 5 seed URLs; matches on description, SEO description, products and services, and keywords; refine with "+" | Yes |
Industry, location and technology filters | Yes, plus annual revenue and funding filters | Yes |
Real headcount vs self-reported size | Filters on the actual headcount of associated profiles, not the LinkedIn range | Headcount filter |
Headcount growth | Minimum growth % over 6 months, 1 year or 2 years | Yes |
Employees by department | For example, a large Engineering team with a small Sales team | Department data |
Bulk company input | Paste up to 10,000 domains or LinkedIn company URLs, then click "Find People" | Lookup by domain |
Exclude lists | Upload a CSV blacklist or exclude past exports | Not publicly stated |
Ocean.io's account side is built around ranking against your wins. AI Ark's is built around filters you control, with lookalikes as one of them.
Finding the right people
Feature | AI Ark | Ocean.io |
Job title matching | Smart, Word and Strict match; batch paste up to 300 terms | Yes |
Seniority and function | Organization Role filter (C-Suite, VP, Director) plus functions | Yes |
Time in role vs time at company | Separate filters, for example long tenure plus a new title to spot promotions | Not publicly stated |
Company HQ vs person location | Separate filters, down to city, state, continent or economic zone (EU, G7) | Not publicly stated |
Keyword search by profile section | Limit a keyword to the headline, summary or skills | Skills data |
People with several current roles | Searches all active positions, with a toggle for the primary role only | Not publicly stated |
Personality analysis | 4 credits per profile, in bulk through the API | Not publicly stated |
This is where the two tools differ most in daily use: AI Ark's people filters are built for list builders who know exactly who they want.
Getting data out and using it
Feature | AI Ark | Ocean.io |
Verified emails | BounceBan at export; "Catch-All Valid" when confirmed; 0.5 credits, only when found | Yes |
Mobile numbers | 100M+ verified mobile profiles; 5 credits | Yes |
CSV export | Saved export templates; 10,000 records per batch | Yes |
Getting records into your CRM | Export templates, or the API via Zapier, Make and n8n | Yes |
Clay | API through Clay's HTTP Request module, with ready templates | Yes |
API | 300 requests per minute; Email Finder endpoints return up to 10,000 valid emails per request, by webhook or polling | Yes |
MCP server | Claude, Cursor and Windsurf | Yes |
Re-export without a new charge | Saved Records re-export free on the platform | Not publicly stated |
Dedupe API pulls on your side, since the API charges per profile returned; on the platform, Net New vs Saved Records does that for you and a saved record is never charged twice.
Compliance and data sourcing
Our legal basis for processing B2B contact data is GDPR Article 6(1)(f), legitimate interests, for B2B purposes, and we follow the CCPA. We aggregate data from public sources, community contributions and partner networks, and clean it with validation algorithms.
Anyone who wants their record removed can ask at opt-out and we take it out. Our terms prohibit automated extraction and scraping. Data you upload for enrichment or exclusion lists stays in your workspace; we don't fold it back into the database. Accounts showing robotic search activity are blocked for 24 hours and reviewed by our security team.
Ocean.io's trust center lists SOC 2 Type 1, SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 3 reports, a penetration test report and a data processing agreement. Its GDPR page says it relies on legitimate interest, processes only professional, publicly available emails and phone numbers, and skips personal emails and free-provider addresses. It also tells customers they need their own lawful basis under local marketing rules.
Choose Ocean.io if
Your CRM holds a meaningful closed-won history and you want your ICP learned from it, with every account in your market ranked by fit and the reason shown.
You want ranked accounts pushed straight into Salesforce, HubSpot or Pipedrive without a CSV step.
Your reps want each account researched from its own website, and event signals such as new funding and leadership changes now rather than later.
You prospect profile by profile in the browser and want a Chrome extension, which AI Ark does not offer.
You want lookalike people search for contacts who resemble your best buyers.
You have a large team at modest volume and want unlimited seats on one plan.
Choose AI Ark if
You need people at volume: 400M+ people and 70M+ companies, exported 10,000 records per batch and repeated with the Net New filter.
You want a file that goes straight to your sender: every email checked with BounceBan at export and a bounce rate under 1.5% expected.
Cost per valid lead decides the budget: at 5,000 valid emails a month, the annual plan works out to $12.63 per 1,000.
You want lookalikes without a CRM history: up to five seed URLs, matched on what each company does.
Your targeting depends on people filters: time in role vs time at company, company HQ vs person location, employees by department.
You build in Clay, n8n or an AI assistant: an API at 300 requests per minute on web-app credit pricing, and an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and Windsurf.
AI Ark is built for teams that own their outreach stack and need verified, current data at a low cost per valid lead. If that is your gap, run your own ICP on the free tier.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is AI Ark a good Ocean.io alternative?
Yes, if your main job is getting verified contacts into an outreach tool. It covers 400M+ people and 70M+ companies, checks every email with BounceBan at export, and expects a bounce rate under 1.5%. Ocean.io ranks accounts against your closed-won CRM deals, so some teams keep it for ranking and use AI Ark as the contact source.
2. How much does Ocean.io cost?
Ocean.io prices on a credit slider: an indexed copy of its pricing page shows a yearly minimum of 9,000 credits for $567, a found email costs 1 credit and a found phone 10, and larger volumes go to a custom plan that is not publicly stated. AI Ark starts at $49 a month for 5,000 credits, or $470 a year for 60,000, with a free tier of 100 credits a month and no per-seat fee.
3. Does AI Ark connect to my CRM the way Ocean.io does?
AI Ark delivers CSV files from saved export templates, such as a CRM import layout, and an API that connects to Zapier, Make, n8n and Clay. It has no native CRM sync, while Ocean.io pushes ranked accounts straight into Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive. If your CRM imports already run through Zapier or n8n, AI Ark's API fits that pipeline on web-app credit pricing.
4. Which lookalike search should I use, AI Ark or Ocean.io?
AI Ark's Company Lookalike takes up to five seed URLs and matches on what each company does: description, products and services, and keywords. Ocean.io seeds lookalikes from a domain or from segments of your won deals. With no CRM history to learn from, AI Ark works from a handful of known customers.
5. How does AI Ark handle catch-all emails?
AI Ark validates catch-all addresses one by one with BounceBan at export. An address is delivered only when confirmed and is labeled "Catch-All Valid"; risky and unknown catch-alls are left out. Ocean.io says its emails are double verified, catch-alls included, without a separate catch-all figure. On AI Ark the file can go into Smartlead, Instantly or Email Bison without a second verification pass.
6. Does AI Ark charge for contacts without an email?
Yes. Every exported profile costs 0.5 credits, with or without an email, and a valid email adds 0.5 only when one is found. Ocean.io charges nothing for a contact without an email when you reveal from your own list. On AI Ark, that profile still arrives with its LinkedIn URL, title and company for LinkedIn outreach, moves to Saved Records, and is never charged again on the platform.
7. Is Ocean.io worth it?
Ocean.io is worth a look if your CRM holds a solid closed-won history and account ranking is the gap; its G2 score is 3.1 out of 5 from 12 reviews, with data accuracy the most common complaint. AI Ark is built for teams whose bottleneck is verified contacts at volume: at 5,000 valid emails a month, its annual plan works out to $12.63 per 1,000.
8. Can I try both before deciding?
Yes. AI Ark has a free tier of 100 credits a month with no card, enough to run a real export against your own ICP. Ocean.io offers a free signup and a lookalike search without signing up. Run the same 50 accounts through both and compare valid emails delivered and bounces after sending.
More Comparisons
Transform your
B2B data
