Quickstart

From a new account to your first search, and what it cost, in five minutes.

This walkthrough takes you through the core loop of the API: create a key, check your balance, search for people, and see what the search cost.

New accounts get $1 of free calls on their first organization. After that, calls draw on a prepaid balance you top up from $10 in the console. A search that finds nobody costs nothing.

1. Create a key

   Sign up, then open API keys in the console and create a key with the scopes it needs. Copy it now: the full key is shown only once. See Authentication for scopes and daily caps.

   export OUTBOUND_API_KEY="ob_live_..."
   
2. Check your balance

   Send the key as a Bearer token on every request. Reading the balance is free:

   curl https://api.outbound.dev/v1/wallet \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $OUTBOUND_API_KEY"
   

   {
     "balanceUsd": "1.000000",
     "heldUsd": "0.000000",
     "availableUsd": "1.000000",
     "autoRecharge": { "isEnabled": false },
     "keyDailySpend": { "spentUsd": "0.000000", "resetsAt": "2026-11-15T00:00:00.000Z" }
   }
   

   A 401 means the key is missing, mistyped, revoked or expired: the error’s code says which.

3. Search for people

   Describe who you want in plain language. limit is how many people the page holds:

   curl https://api.outbound.dev/v1/people/search \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $OUTBOUND_API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"query": "operations directors at logistics companies in Portugal", "limit": 5}'
   

   {
     "data": [
       {
         "linkedinMemberId": "ACoAAB2cdEF",
         "linkedin_url": "linkedin.com/in/ana-ruiz-ops",
         "full_name": "Ana Ruiz",
         "job_title": "Director of Operations",
         "job_company_name": "Halden Freight",
         "job_company_website": "haldenfreight.com",
         "location_name": "lisbon, lisbon, portugal"
       }
     ],
     "pagination": { "nextCursor": "c2Nyb2xsXzI" },
     "filters": {
       "keywords": ["operations"],
       "job_title_levels": ["director"],
       "job_company_location_country": ["portugal"]
     }
   }
   

   The query was turned into filters, which the page answers with. People never carry an email address or a phone number.

4. See what it cost

   Every answer carries what the call cost and the balance after it:

   X-Charged-Usd: 0.000500
   X-Balance-Usd: 0.999500
   X-Request-Id: req_6a1f0c2b9d4e8a7f3c5b2e10
   

   Five people at $0.0001 each cost $0.0005. The same call shows in GET /v1/requests, and the charge in your ledger, GET /v1/wallet/transactions.

5. Get the next page

   Send the filters the first page answered with, and its nextCursor as cursor:

   curl https://api.outbound.dev/v1/people/search \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $OUTBOUND_API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"filters": {"keywords": ["operations"], "job_title_levels": ["director"], "job_company_location_country": ["portugal"]}, "cursor": "c2Nyb2xsXzI", "limit": 5}'
   

   When an answer has no nextCursor, that was the last page.

Where to next

Find people

Refine a search with filters, count before you pay, and keep the search.

Find companies and their people

Search companies, name one from its domain, and list its decision makers.

Errors

The one envelope every failure uses, and every code.

Track your spend

Per-call headers, usage by day, and your request log.