Integrations · Instantly
Instantly has its own lead database. Use it until it cannot see the segment you want (people hiring this month, people who posted about a problem last week, businesses on a map), then build that list with RichAPI, verify it, and upload. No app, no sync, and nothing on our side sends mail.
Last updated September 22, 2026
Create a RichAPI account at app.richapi.ai/signup and copy your API key.
25 free credits, no card.
Export the leads already in your Instantly workspace and dedupe against them before you spend anything. Enriching a contact you already own is the most common way to waste credits on this workflow.
Build the new segment from the signal Instantly cannot filter on: linkedin_job_search for hiring, post_keyword_search for who is talking about the problem, google_maps_places_scraper_keyword for local, web_tech_stack for who runs a competitor.
Run email_finder on the survivors, then email_verifier on every address that comes back.
Upload the valid rows to a campaign as a CSV, or through Instantly's own leads API.
We hand you a file; moving it is yours. Add anything you skipped to your blocklist so the next run does not re-buy it.
Copy, paste, edit the brackets, run.
Why it matters
Built-in lead databases are all snapshots of the same few sources, so everyone running them emails the same people in the same week. The lists worth having come from a signal with a timestamp on it, and that means building them yourself.
Instantly has a lead database built in. For a lot of campaigns that is the correct tool and this page is a waste of your time. Filter, push to campaign, done, no second vendor. The reason you are reading this is that the built-in filters describe companies by attributes: industry, headcount, location, title. Attributes do not have a timestamp on them. Everyone running the same filter this month gets the same people, and those people got eleven other emails that week. What has a timestamp is a signal. Who posted a role on Monday. Who wrote about the problem on Thursday. Who put a competitor's tag on their site last quarter. None of those are filters in a lead database, which is why the list is worth having. We have no Instantly app and no sync. We build that list and verify it. You upload it.
Before anything else: export the leads already in your workspace and dedupe against them. This is the number one way people burn credits on this workflow. You build a fresh segment, it overlaps 30% with a campaign you ran in March, and you pay to find emails you already own. A `grep -f` against an export takes a minute and it is the highest-return minute in the pipeline. Add whatever you deliberately skip to your Instantly blocklist at the same time, so next month's run does not rediscover it.
Pick the endpoint that matches the signal, not the persona: - **`linkedin_job_search`**: hiring is the most reliable public budget signal there is. A company posting three of a role has a problem right now. - **`post_keyword_search`**: who wrote about the topic recently. This is people who are in-market this week rather than in a database from last year. It is not intent data and we do not sell it as such; it is public posts with a keyword and a date. - **`google_maps_places_scraper_keyword`**: local businesses by category and area, which no B2B database covers properly. - **`web_tech_stack`**: run it across a domain list and keep the accounts on a competitor's tooling. - **`people_search`**: the conventional attribute filter, when you do want one. Then `email_finder` on the survivors and `email_verifier` on everything. Same discipline as any list: valid ships, catch-all goes to its own low-volume campaign on a domain you can afford to burn, invalid dies. Detail in [catch-all email handling](/use-cases/catch-all-email-handling).
| Endpoint | Cost | | --- | --- | | `email_finder` | `5 credits` | | `email_verifier` | `2 credits` | | `phone_finder` | `25 credits` | | `enrich_company` / `enrich_profile` | `1 credit` | | `people_search` | `0.1 credits per result — a number without a result count means nothing` | Full price only on results, scoped to the waterfall: `email_finder`, `email_verifier` and `phone_finder` return 2xx with `"billed": false` when nothing is found, and cost zero. **The signal endpoints do not work that way.** `post_keyword_search`, `linkedin_job_search`, the Maps scraper and `people_search` bill on a successful 2xx, including a query that comes back with nothing in it. A badly scoped search costs you. Non-2xx never bills, anywhere. Tiers on [/pricing](/pricing). Which is a real argument for narrowing the search before you widen it. Run the keyword across a week before you run it across a quarter.
Before you blame the list, read `execution_log`. Waterfall calls return one entry per provider attempt with a status, so an empty result tells you whether anyone actually looked. On a list where 200 of 600 people had no findable email, that log tells you whether the segment is unreachable or your input format was wrong. Usually it is the input format. We do not publish the provider roster. It changes as we add and drop providers, and the per-call log is the version that is true on the day you ran it.
No app in Instantly, no OAuth, no sync, no sending, no warmup, no inbox rotation, no reply handling, no deliverability reporting. Instantly owns all of that. We do not know your campaign exists. We are also not a prospecting UI. There are no tables to click here: an API, a key, and a credit balance. Related, from the [integrations index](/integrations): [Smartlead](/integrations/smartlead) for the agency version of this handoff, [signal-based prospecting](/use-cases/signal-based-prospecting), [hiring signal to outbound](/use-cases/hiring-signal-to-outbound), [tech stack intent outbound](/use-cases/tech-stack-intent-outbound), and [email finder API](/api/email-finder) for the request shape.
**Why not just use Instantly's built-in lead finder?** Use it. It is bundled and it is fine for attribute-based segments. Come here when the segment you want is defined by something that happened on a date. **Is there an Instantly integration to connect?** No. Nothing to authorise. CSV upload, or script it against their leads API. **Do you push leads into a campaign?** No. Their API accepts leads; ours returns them. The glue between is yours, or put a workflow tool in the middle. **Will your verification match the "verified" flag in Instantly?** Not always, and neither is lying. Verification is a point-in-time check against a mail server, two checks on different days can disagree, and a catch-all domain is unknowable to both. **Can I re-verify an existing campaign?** Yes, and you should before restarting anything that has been paused. It is the cheapest endpoint we have. **Do you offer a deliverability score?** No. We return a verification status. Deliverability is about your domain, your warmup and your copy, and we can see none of those.
25 free credits, no card. Pull last week's job posts for one role, find five emails, and see whether the segment is better than the one you were about to filter.