How Fresh Is the Data?
Understanding data freshness, caching, and how to get the most up-to-date results.
Enrich Layer serves data from a combination of live lookups and cached results. Understanding how this works helps you balance freshness, speed, and cost.
Default behavior
When you make an API call without cache parameters, Enrich Layer will:
- Check if a cached result exists (regardless of age)
- If yes, return the cached result immediately
- If no, perform a live lookup and cache the result
Controlling freshness
Use these parameters to control cache behavior:
| Parameter | Values | Effect |
|---|---|---|
use_cache | if-present (default), if-recent | Controls whether to return cached data |
fallback_to_cache | on-error (recommended), never | Falls back to cache if live lookup fails |
live_fetch | default (default), force | Controls whether to performs a forced live lookup or not |
Force a fresh lookup
curl -G \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
'https://enrichlayer.com/api/v2/profile' \
--data-urlencode 'profile_url=https://linkedin.com/in/someone/' \
--data-urlencode 'live_fetch=force'bash
This always performs a live lookup. Costs credits even if cached data exists.
Recommended production settings
For most production use cases, use:
use_cache=if-present&fallback_to_cache=on-errortext
This gives you fast responses with automatic fallback if the live source is temporarily unavailable.
How often does data change?
- Job titles and companies — People change roles every 2-3 years on average. Monthly refreshes are sufficient for most use cases.
- Contact information — Email addresses and phone numbers change less frequently. Quarterly refreshes work well.
- Company data — Funding rounds and employee counts change irregularly. Monthly refreshes capture most updates.