How to get your People Data Labs API usage, balance and spend programmatically

What the People Data Labs API exposes

Call it yourself

Credential. A normal PDL API key, sent as X-Api-Key.

curl -I https://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5/person/enrich \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $PDL_API_KEY"

x-totallimit-remaining: 8412
x-totallimit-purchased-remaining: 0
x-call-credits-spent: 0

Gotchas

• Credits are spent only on a 200 (a match). Misses are free.
• After the plan allotment there's a separate overage allotment (x-totallimit-overages-remaining), then a hard 402.
• There's no plan or reset-date endpoint.

How People Data Labs charges

Per-data-type credit subscriptions (1 credit ≈ 1 matched record); credits spent only on a 200. Overage credits then a 402 hard block.

Free allowance. 100 a month. 100 records/mo, core fields.

At zero. Distinct overage-credit allotment, then 402 when total remaining hits 0.

• 1,000 requests per minute, per key. Per-key per-minute, per endpoint. 1 MB response cap.

Or let Argus track it

Paste the key once. Argus keeps the ledger, and your coding agent reads it through the MCP server.

• Reads the People Data Labs balance every hour and keeps the series, so you get burn per day (top-ups never count as negative spend) and days until it hits zero.
• With the SDK, reads the credit headers on every response, so the balance moves per call instead of per poll.
• Emails you on low balance, days to zero, a spend spike, or projected overage.
• Hands all of it to your coding agent over MCP, so it can ask what a run cost or how much runway is left without leaving the editor.

> what has pdl cost today, and how long until it runs out?

get_overview       → pdl: mtd spend, burn per day, days to zero
get_request_costs  { "provider": "pdl", "limit": 25 }
get_advisories     → credits_low, spend_spike, rate_limit_low …

Questions

Does People Data Labs have an API for its balance?

People Data Labs has no balance endpoint; the balance rides in response headers. A HEAD request to /v5/person/enrich returns X-TotalLimit-Remaining without spending a credit.

Can I get People Data Labs spend per day from the API?

Not as a series. Derive it from how much the balance drops each day, ignoring top-ups.

What happens when People Data Labs credits run out?

Distinct overage-credit allotment, then 402 when total remaining hits 0.

What key does Argus need for People Data Labs?

A normal PDL API key, sent as X-Api-Key.

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