What is api key?

An API key is how software, rather than a person, talks to a data platform. Instead of clicking through a web app, an application sends authenticated requests carrying the key, and the platform responds with data. It's the foundation of any automation: a workflow that enriches new leads, a script that pulls a fresh segment nightly, an agent that looks up a contact on demand.

The practical value is removing the human bottleneck. With an instant key — issued the moment you sign up, no sales call — you can wire contact search and enrichment directly into your stack within minutes. The REST API mirrors the app's capabilities: search, reveal, lookup, enrich, and usage checks, all with typed errors and clear rate-limit headers so your integration behaves predictably.

Billing stays unified, which matters more than it sounds. API spend draws from the same credit balance as the app, and those credits never expire. There's no separate API meter to reconcile, no parallel budget to watch — one fair pool serves both your team in the UI and your automations in the background.

API keys carry security responsibility. A key is a credential: keep it server-side, never embed it in client code or commit it to a repo, and rotate it if it's exposed. Treat it the way you'd treat a password, and the convenience of programmatic access comes without the risk.