Crunchbase no longer offers new Basic API keys. The Crunchbase API is a read-only REST API for company, people, and funding data, and new access to it is now arranged through the Crunchbase sales team. Existing Basic key holders keep their legacy access. Everyone else needs a Crunchbase license, or another source of funding data.
What is the Crunchbase API?
The Crunchbase API is version 4 of Crunchbase's data API. Crunchbase describes it as "a read-only RESTful service for approved developers." You can read data with it, but you can't create or edit records.
Every request goes to the same base URL.
https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/
All requests must use HTTPS. A plain HTTP request gets an HTTP 426 "Upgrade Required" response.
The data is organized into collections, such as organizations and people. Your key can only reach the fields and collections that your license includes. Two people calling the same endpoint with different licenses can get different fields back.
The official Crunchbase API documentation lives at data.crunchbase.com. The v4 reference lists each endpoint and its parameters.
How do you get Crunchbase API access?
- New customers arrange API access through the Crunchbase sales team.
- Existing licensees find their key in Crunchbase's API integrations settings by selecting "Show Key."
- Existing Basic key holders can keep using the legacy Basic API. It covers three endpoints, Organization Search, Organization Entity Lookup, and Autocomplete, with "a limited set of Organization data fields." Crunchbase's Basic API page states: "Crunchbase no longer offers new Basic API keys."
What the API packages include
Crunchbase sells API access as data packages. The API packages overview splits Fundamentals data into three packages and adds Insights and Predictions on top.
| Package | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Firmographics | Core and advanced firmographic data |
| Core Financials | A financial snapshot, including funding stages, aggregate and latest funding, and investor details |
| Advanced Financials | Round-by-round funding history |
| Insights | Fundamentals data plus Crunchbase's AI-powered analyses of private market activity |
| Predictions | Fundamentals data plus Crunchbase's AI-powered forecasts of private market milestones |
| Predictions & Insights | Fundamentals data plus both Insights and Predictions |
Funding data is split across two packages. Core Financials gives you a company's funding stage, its total and latest funding, and investor details. A list of each funding round is in Advanced Financials. If you need that list, be sure to confirm that your license includes Advanced Financials before you build anything that depends on it.
What can you do with the Crunchbase API?
The Crunchbase API has three main endpoints and one for tracking deletions.
- Entity Lookup (
GET /v4/data/entities/{collection}/{permalink}) returns one entity, such as a single organization, by its identifier or permalink. - Search (
POST /v4/data/searches/{collection}) finds entities in a collection that match your filters and lets you page through the results. Each request returns up to 1,000 results, or 100 by default. - Autocomplete (
GET /v4/data/autocompletes) suggests matching entities for a name or partial name. - Deleted Entities (
GET /v4/data/deleted_entities) lists recently deleted entity IDs. A version with a collection ID in the path returns deletions for that collection only.
You can use the endpoints together. Autocomplete turns a company name into a Crunchbase identifier. Entity Lookup then fetches the full record for that identifier. Search covers the cases where you don't have a name yet, such as building a list of companies that match a set of filters. If you keep a local copy of records, Deleted Entities tells you which ones to remove.
Authentication
Send your key in the X-cb-user-key request header. Crunchbase also accepts a user_key query parameter, but recommends the header "because URLs can appear in browser history, logs, and monitoring systems." A key in a query string can end up in any of those places.
The request below is an entity lookup for Crunchbase's own organization record.
curl --request GET \
--url 'https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/entities/organizations/crunchbase' \
--header 'X-cb-user-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
--header 'accept: application/json'
Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key. The fields in the response depend on the packages your license includes.
To get a company's funding rounds, add the raised_funding_rounds card to the same lookup. A card is a group of related records attached to an entity, such as a company's founders or its funding rounds. The field_ids parameter picks which of the company's own fields to return.
curl --request GET \
--url 'https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/entities/organizations/crunchbase?field_ids=identifier&card_ids=raised_funding_rounds' \
--header 'X-cb-user-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
--header 'accept: application/json'
The raised_funding_rounds card is part of the Advanced Financials package. A card in a lookup returns at most 100 items. If a card has more, Crunchbase's single-card lookup pages through the rest.
How much does the Crunchbase API cost?
Crunchbase does not publish Crunchbase API prices on its website, as of October 2026. Pricing is set through the sales team and depends on the license and data packages you buy. Crunchbase's pricing page is the starting point for plans and for contacting sales.
The packages you license decide which fields your key returns. Consider these three questions before you talk to sales.
- Do you need round-by-round funding history, or is a funding summary per company enough? The former is best covered by Advanced Financials.
- Will the data stay inside your company, or will your customers see it? The default license terms restrict sharing with third parties (see below).
- How many records will you fetch, and how often? The rate limits below set how long a large job takes.
What are the Crunchbase API's limits?
Rate limits
An Enterprise API key allows 200 requests per minute and 3 requests in progress at the same time. The API can also return HTTP 429 "Too Many Requests" during periods of heavy platform load, even when you're within these limits.
Crunchbase gives this guidance for handling 429 responses.
- If a 429 response includes a
Retry-Afterheader, wait at least that long before retrying. - If it doesn't, use exponential backoff with jitter. Crunchbase suggests four attempts in total, with waits of 1, 2, and 4 seconds plus jitter.
- If 429 responses continue, pause the job and contact your Crunchbase Customer Success Manager. Don't include your API key in that report.
At 200 requests per minute, looking up 50,000 companies one at a time takes at least 250 minutes, a little over four hours, before any retries. Running more than three requests at once on the same key won't speed the job up. The extra requests exceed the concurrency limit.
Search needs far fewer requests for the same list. At up to 1,000 results per request, a list of 50,000 companies can take as few as 50 Search requests. Search returns only the company's own fields. Cards, including funding rounds, still need one lookup per company.
Field access by package
A key returns only the fields and collections your license covers. If a field you expected is missing from a response, check your package before you debug your code. Crunchbase's documentation notes that endpoint and field availability depends on your license.
Licensing and redistribution
Crunchbase's documentation says: "We encourage you to leverage the API for your internal business and research needs." Unless your license says otherwise, you may not "license, sublicense, sell, offer to sell, distribute" Crunchbase data to third parties. If you plan to show Crunchbase data inside a product your customers use, check your license terms before you build that feature.
Where you do display Crunchbase data, attribution must include a hyperlink to Crunchbase. If the content is mainly about one company, the link must point to that company's Crunchbase page. The link must be "plainly visible to the end user" and placed close to the data it credits. It must not use nofollow, and it must be visible to search engines.
Other ways to get company funding data
The Crunchbase API is one way to get funding data into your own tools. Teams that want different terms, or a different way to buy data, have three other options.
License a dataset. Some data providers sell funding data as bulk files or database feeds. Ask the same questions you would ask Crunchbase: which fields are included, how often the data updates, and what the terms say about showing the data to your own customers.
Use an enrichment API. An enrichment API returns data about one company at a time, often with funding rounds as part of the company profile. This fits workflows where you start with a company you already know, such as a new sign-up or a target account.
Collect from public filings and announcements. In the US, companies raising money under certain exemptions file Form D notices with the SEC, and those filings are public. Companies also announce rounds in press releases. This option costs nothing to access but takes more work, because you match companies, read amounts, and keep records current yourself. Our post on alternative data for investment research covers more public sources.
Enrich Layer offers the enrichment API option. The Company Profile endpoint costs 1 credit per successful request. Adding funding_data=include can include the company's funding rounds in the response, for 1 extra credit. The Company Search endpoint can filter companies by funding with funding_amount_min, funding_amount_max, and funding_raised_after.
Our guide to building a target account list with the Company Search API walks through those filters in practice, and the GTM operator's guide to funding rounds covers how sales and marketing teams use round data.
Frequently asked questions
Does Crunchbase have an API?
Yes. The Crunchbase API is a read-only REST API, currently at version 4, with the base URL https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/. Access requires a Crunchbase license arranged through the sales team.
How do I get a Crunchbase API key?
If your company already has a license, open Crunchbase's API integrations settings and select "Show Key." If it doesn't, contact the Crunchbase sales team. Crunchbase no longer issues new Basic API keys.
Is there a free Crunchbase API tier?
Crunchbase's documentation doesn't offer one to new users. It no longer issues new Basic API keys and directs new API customers to the sales team. Existing Basic key holders can still use the legacy Basic API.
Where is the Crunchbase API documentation?
The main guide is Using the API on data.crunchbase.com. The v4 reference documents each endpoint, and the API packages overview shows which data each package includes.
Can I connect Crunchbase data to AI tools?
Crunchbase runs an MCP server that connects AI assistants to Crunchbase data, including company profiles and funding rounds. Data retrieved through it counts against a data-token allowance that varies by account tier. The Crunchbase MCP overview lists the supported AI tools and setup steps.
