# Cognism

> Cognism is a B2B sales intelligence platform. Its API lets you search the Cognism database for
> contacts and companies, match records you already hold against it, and redeem full profiles —
> verified emails, mobile numbers, direct dials, firmographics, technographics, hiring/funding/IPO
> signals and job-change events. API access is sales-gated: it must be enabled on the subscription,
> field-level Entitlements are configured by Cognism, and a bearer token is generated in the app.

Generated by the API Evangelist enrichment pipeline on 2026-08-13. Cognism does not publish an
llms.txt of its own (probed /llms.txt on www., app., api. and developers.cognism.com — all missed).

## How the API works

Three services used in sequence. Search or Enrich first, Redeem second.

- Search API — find contacts/companies by filter. Returns PREVIEW records, each with a `redeemId`. Free.
- Enrich API — match a record you hold (email, LinkedIn URL, domain, website) to the best Cognism
  record. Returns a preview, a `matchScore` and a `redeemId`. Free.
- Redeem API — exchange a `redeemId` for the FULL record. Consumes a credit the first time a contact
  is redeemed. Accounts are free. Re-redeeming the same contact is free.

Preview records carry `has*` booleans (hasEmail, hasMobilePhoneNumbers, hasDirectPhoneNumbers…) so
you can see what a record contains before spending a credit on it. That two-phase preview/redeem
shape is the single most important thing to understand about this API.

## Constraints an agent must respect

- Auth: `Authorization: Bearer <token>`. Tokens expire after 6 months. An `api_key` query-string form
  exists but Cognism recommends the header.
- Search: 20-100 records per request. Redeem: 1-20 redeem IDs per request. Redeem throughput: up to
  1,000 records per minute.
- Paging is forward-only via an opaque `lastReturnedKey` cursor. You cannot hop to an arbitrary page.
- Entitlements gate the response. A field your organisation is not licensed for is simply absent —
  query the Entitlement API rather than treating a missing field as missing data.
- Enrich default `minMatchScore` is 30 for contacts, 40 for accounts. Below 27 (contacts) / 35
  (accounts) is a low-quality match. Overridable per request.
- No idempotency key. Redeem is the only credit-spending call; deduplicate redeem IDs client-side.
- Errors come back as a JSON ARRAY of `{key, code, msg}` objects, not RFC 9457 problem+json.

## APIs

- [Cognism API](https://developers.cognism.com/): Search, Enrich, Redeem, Entitlement, Filter and
  Compliance endpoints. Base URL https://app.cognism.com

## Specs

- [OpenAPI 3.1 (derived)](openapi/cognism-api-openapi.yml): 25 operations across 6 tags, derived by
  API Evangelist from Cognism's own published Postman collection.
- [Postman collection (verbatim)](postman/cognism-api-collection.json): the contract Cognism publishes.

## Docs

- [Developer portal](https://developers.cognism.com/)
- [Cognism API Overview](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb/articles/37382868352914-Cognism-API-Overview)
- [API Authentication & Credits](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb/articles/37383428888978-API-Authentication-Credits)
- [API Requirements & Entitlements](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb/articles/37383359556498-API-Requirements-Entitlements)
- [How to Generate an API Token](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb/articles/34195245226258-How-to-Generate-an-API-Token)
- [Search API](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb/articles/37384212207506-Search-for-Contacts-and-Companies-via-Search-API-Endpoint)
- [Enrich API](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb/articles/37384269773586-Enrich-Existing-Contacts-and-Companies-with-Enrich-API)
- [Redeem API](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb/articles/37384309136402-Redeem-Contacts-and-Companies-via-Redeem-API)
- [API FAQ](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb/articles/37384318045970-Cognism-API-FAQ)
- [API Troubleshooting](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb/articles/37384504094226-Cognism-API-Troubleshooting)
- [Help centre](https://help.cognism.com/hc/en-gb)

## Commercial

- [Pricing](https://www.cognism.com/pricing) — Standard and Pro prospecting packages; CRM Enrichment
  and Data-as-a-Service as add-ons. API access requires a prospecting seat plus the
  Data-as-a-Service add-on. No prices published; every tier is "talk to sales".
- [Book a demo](https://www.cognism.com/demo)
- [Log in](https://app.cognism.com/auth/sign-in)
- [Compliance](https://www.cognism.com/compliance) — GDPR/CCPA posture; the API exposes an opt-out
  suppression list you are expected to honour.
- [Security](https://www.cognism.com/security) — SOC 2, ISO 27001.
- [Terms of website use](https://www.cognism.com/terms-of-website-use)
- [Privacy policy](https://www.cognism.com/privacy-policy)

## What Cognism does NOT publish

Recorded so an agent stops looking: no OpenAPI of their own, no GraphQL API, no MCP server, no A2A
agent card, no /.well-known/ documents, no llms.txt, no client SDKs in any registry, no CLI, no
public status page (cognism.statuspage.io exists but is set to inactive/team-only), no public
changelog, no sandbox or test environment, no webhooks or event stream.