Written by the Lusha content team. Lusha publishes this page and lists itself first under contact data. Lusha facts come from our documentation. Every other vendor’s details come from its own public pages, read on November 15, 2026, and linked in Sources. Where a page did not state something, we say so.
Ask Claude or ChatGPT for a prospect’s email and you’ll get one. Whether it reaches anyone depends on where it came from. A model answering from web pages and its training data can’t check that the person still holds the job, or that the address still takes mail.
An MCP server changes the source. It lets the assistant call a sales tool directly, so the answer comes from a data provider or your CRM instead of a guess. This page compares MCP servers for sales data by the job each one does: what the agent can read, what it can write, how you sign in and what it costs.
Key takeaways
- Pick one server per job. A data server answers who to contact and how to reach them. A CRM server records what happened.
- A data server plus your CRM’s server covers prospecting from one chat.
- Start with read access, and keep a person approving anything the agent writes or sends.
- Test before you commit. Run 20 contacts you’ve already confirmed through the server and compare the results against your CRM.
One chat, two servers. The data server finds the people. The CRM server keeps the record.
MCP servers for sales data at a glance
| Server | Job | What the agent gets | Sign in | Tools | Cost model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lusha | Contact and company data, signals | Search, enrichment, signals, buying groups, lookalikes, tables, CRM export | OAuth in Claude, ChatGPT and Codex. API key in other clients | 50 | Lusha credits, the same pool as the API. Every plan, including Free |
| ZoomInfo | Contact and company data, intent | Contacts, companies, intent, Scoops, company signals, research. Writes to ZoomInfo audiences, not to your CRM | OAuth | 27 listed, 3 deprecated | Data credits for enrichment, AI credits for research. Not recurring monthly credits |
| Apollo | Data plus outreach | Search, enrichment, lists, sequences, deals, calls, tasks, one off emails | OAuth 2.0. API key for headless clients | 57 actions listed | Any Apollo plan. Enrichment, company search, research and validation use credits |
| Cognism | Contact and company data | People and company search, matching, intent topics. No write actions documented | OAuth 2.0 or your organization’s SSO | 19 | Search tokens per record, credits per contact revealed |
| Clay | Research workflows built by ops | Built in company and contact search, plus Functions that admins and editors enable | Clay account, added from the Claude or ChatGPT directory | Not stated on the pages checked | The same Clay Actions and Data Credits as work inside Clay |
| HubSpot | CRM of record | Read, create and update records and activities | OAuth 2.1 with PKCE | Not stated on the pages checked | Available to all HubSpot accounts |
| Salesforce | CRM of record | Read records. Other servers depend on what an admin enables | OAuth with PKCE through an External Client App | Not stated on the pages checked | Enterprise Edition and above |
Checked on November 15, 2026. Tool counts change as vendors ship, so treat them as a snapshot.
Contact and company data servers
Lusha
What the agent can do
- Find people and companies by title, seniority, industry, size and location, then enrich them with verified emails and phone numbers. Lusha publishes 98% email accuracy and 85% US phone accuracy (86% global) on its data page.
- Check that a contact still works where your CRM says. Every new connection opens with a starter prompt that does this: find a person, verify they still work at the company, and return their title and verified contact details.
- Read dated buying signals on an account, such as hiring, headcount, job changes and news. Hiring and job-change signals refresh weekly. IT spend and website traffic refresh monthly. The full set is on the Signals hub.
- Map the buying group at an account, find lookalike companies and contacts, and get recommendations.
- Build and run a Workspace table, and add enrichment or AI columns to a list.
- Push enriched contacts and companies into Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive or SalesLoft. Rows that already match what is in the CRM cost nothing.
Setup. In Claude, ChatGPT or Codex, add Lusha from the client’s connector directory and sign in. You don’t need an API key. In Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, n8n or any other MCP client, point to https://mcp.lusha.com and pass your API key in an x-api-key header.
Cost. MCP calls draw from the same credit pool as the Lusha API, at the same rates: a search call that returns 1 to 25 results costs 1 credit, plus the data revealed. It works on every plan, including Free, and admins can turn MCP access off for the account. Plans are on the pricing page.
Where it stops. Lusha doesn’t send email or run sequences, so pair it with your engagement tool. Signals are dated readings that refresh on a schedule, not a live feed.
Try it. Paste these after you connect:
- “Find the VP Sales at [company], check they still work there, and give me their verified email and phone.”
- “Which accounts on this list are hiring sales reps or growing headcount right now? Give me the VP Sales at each.”
- “Map the buying group at [company] for a [your product] deal and show me which functions I haven’t reached.”
ZoomInfo
Gives the agent contacts, companies, intent, Scoops, company signals, and account and contact research at one endpoint for every client. ZoomInfo’s tools page lists 27 tools, 3 of them deprecated. Five tools write to ZoomInfo itself, such as saving audiences, while CRM changes run through a separately connected CRM workflow. You sign in with OAuth. Enrichment uses data credits and research uses AI credits. MCP can’t draw on recurring monthly credits, which some older subscriptions carry, so those accounts need bulk data credits enabled.
Fits: teams already paying for ZoomInfo who want that data in an assistant.
Apollo
Apollo’s developer docs list 57 actions across search, enrichment, contacts and accounts, lists, sequences, email, deals, calls, tasks and analytics. Enrichment, company search, research and validation use credits. People search, creating and updating contacts and accounts, and sequence actions do not. The agent can create sequences, add contacts to them and send one off emails after you confirm. Sign in is OAuth 2.0, with an API key option for headless clients. It is available on all Apollo plans, including free, though free accounts registered with a personal email can’t use search and enrichment. Each action can be set to always allow, approval required or blocked, and Apollo says its MCP does not support bulk delete.
Fits: teams that run their outreach in Apollo and want the agent to enroll contacts.
Cognism
Gives the agent people and company search, matching and intent topics through 19 tools. No tool is described as creating or updating records. Sign in is OAuth 2.0 with your Cognism credentials or your organization’s SSO. Searches cost tokens per record, and revealing a contact costs credits. It allows 500 requests a minute per operation class, and the server masks phone numbers for people in do not call countries.
Fits: teams already on Cognism.
Clay
Gives the agent Clay’s built in company and contact search, plus the Functions that admins and editors build and enable. The agent can’t browse tables. Work through the MCP draws on the same Actions and Data Credits as work inside Clay, with no MCP surcharge. Credit controls and usage monitoring are on the Launch, Growth and Enterprise plans.
Fits: ops teams with enrichment workflows already built in Clay.
CRM servers
HubSpot
Generally available to all HubSpot accounts since April 13, 2026. The agent can read CRM records, content and activities, and create or update contacts, companies, deals, tickets and activities. Users are limited to the records they can already view or edit. OAuth 2.1 with PKCE is required for every connection. The announcement does not describe deleting records.
Salesforce
Generally available since April 29, 2026, for Enterprise Edition and above. The sobject reads server is read only, and an admin enables each server in Setup. Sign in runs through an External Client App with OAuth and PKCE, and every transaction uses the signed in user’s permissions. The announcement does not state how usage is billed, so check with Salesforce before you roll it out.
How to pick an MCP server for sales data
| If you… | Connect |
|---|---|
| Need verified contacts and dated signals inside Claude or ChatGPT | Lusha, plus your CRM’s server |
| Already pay for ZoomInfo | ZoomInfo |
| Run sequences in Apollo and want the agent to enroll contacts | Apollo |
| Have Clay workflows your ops team maintains | Clay |
| Want the agent to update records | HubSpot or Salesforce, with a person approving every write |
Test it on your own list
Every vendor says its data is accurate, and your CRM can settle it. Pick 20 contacts whose details you’ve confirmed in the last month. Ask the agent, through each server you’re considering, for their current title, company, email and phone. Count how many match, how many come back flagged as moved, and how many come back empty. Then email the new addresses and count the bounces.
Run the 20 contact test with Lusha in your own AI client. Connect Lusha to your AI client or see Lusha for Claude.
FAQ
What is an MCP server for sales data?
An MCP server lets an AI assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor call a sales tool directly, using the Model Context Protocol. A sales data server returns verified contact and company details and signals. A CRM server reads and writes your records.
Which B2B data providers have an MCP server?
Lusha, ZoomInfo, Apollo, Cognism and Clay all document one, and so do others. The full list, checked monthly, is in Which B2B data providers have an MCP server? HubSpot and Salesforce publish CRM servers.
Does Lusha have an MCP server?
Yes. It is at https://mcp.lusha.com and generally available, on every plan including Free. The documentation lists 50 tools across enrichment, prospecting, signals, lookalikes, recommendations, buying groups, tables and CRM export. It works with Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, VS Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, n8n and any other MCP client.
How do I connect Lusha to Claude?
Add Lusha from Claude’s connector directory and sign in. Setup, example prompts and answers to common questions are on Lusha for Claude.
Do MCP calls cost extra?
It depends on the vendor. Lusha MCP calls use the same credit pool as its API, on every plan including Free. ZoomInfo uses data credits for enrichment and AI credits for research. Cognism charges search tokens and credits. Clay uses the same credits as work inside Clay, with no MCP surcharge. HubSpot’s server is available to all accounts.
Can’t the AI find contacts without a data server?
It can search the web. But nothing on a public page confirms that a person still holds the role, and direct dials are rarely published. A data server returns verified details, and Lusha returns the person’s current company and title next to them.
Is it safe to let an agent write to my CRM?
Start with read access. HubSpot limits each user to the records they can already view or edit. Salesforce runs every transaction with the signed in user’s permissions, on servers an admin enables. Keep a person approving writes until you trust the results.
Related
Sources
All pages accessed November 15, 2026.
- Lusha MCP documentation
- Lusha MCP server user guide (plans, CRM export)
- How Lusha credits work
- ZoomInfo: MCP clients (gtm.ai docs)
- ZoomInfo: MCP server
- ZoomInfo: MCP tools (gtm.ai docs)
- ZoomInfo: MCP getting started, credits (gtm.ai docs)
- Apollo: MCP product page
- Apollo developer docs: Apollo MCP
- Apollo knowledge base: Use Apollo with AI tools
- Cognism: MCP server documentation
- Clay University: MCP settings
- Clay: Clay MCP guide
- HubSpot developer changelog: Remote HubSpot MCP server is now generally available
- Salesforce Developers Blog: Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers are now generally available
