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DATA & SCRAPING · WORTH A LOOK

Ploid

People-data and enrichment platform (YC F26, San Francisco) that claims an index of 2B+ people built from public web, social and professional sources…

Visit ploid.com ↗@ploid_ai on X ↗

What Ploid does

People-data and enrichment platform (YC F26, San Francisco) that claims an index of 2B+ people built from public web, social and professional sources plus third-party enrichment vendors. Offers natural-language people search, identity resolution, LinkedIn/social profile pulls, work/personal email and phone enrichment, 'fill columns' datasets, monitors and technographics, via web app, REST API, CLI and an MCP server for agents.

Good for

  • Send Ploid an access request to see what it holds on you, and ask for removal if you want it. Ploid's privacy policy names Kamran@ploid.co as the contact for access and deletion requests
  • Compare one known contact's Ploid result against Apollo or People Data Labs before trusting any '2 billion' coverage claims
  • If you prospect with it, run a legitimate-interests assessment and send Article 14 notices to UK/EU contacts first
  • Use it for company and role research (who leads X at a firm) rather than harvesting personal emails and phone numbers

Try this in 10 minutes

  1. Send Ploid an access request to see what it holds on you, and ask for removal if you want it. Ploid's privacy policy names Kamran@ploid.co as the contact for access and deletion requests. Start the free trial: pick one real example from your own business and try just that.
  2. Compare one known contact's Ploid result against Apollo or People Data Labs before trusting any '2 billion' coverage claims. Put the result next to how you do it today. Is it faster, cheaper or better?
  3. If you prospect with it, run a legitimate-interests assessment and send Article 14 notices to UK/EU contacts first. Note what you had to fix by hand before you'd show it to a customer.

Mini-tasks based on common small-business uses for this tool.

Honest take

Some claims not independently checked

  • The product is real and live, with documented API, CLI, MCP and public pricing, and it is YC-backed.
  • But '2 billion people' is self-reported and unverifiable, there's no published methodology or dedupe rate, and the team is 2-3 people (YC lists a team size of 2).
  • 'For cents' only holds for bulk search rows; enrichment and full profiles cost $0.15-$5 on a $200/month minimum, and 'data should belong to everyone' is marketing for a paid product.
  • Privacy and GDPR caution for UK users: it profiles private individuals, including personal emails and phones from vendors such as FullEnrich and LinkedIn profile pulls.
  • It relies on the 'disproportionate effort' exemption instead of Article 14 notices, names no UK/EU representative and no DPO, has rights requests handled by one founder's email address, and puts compliance on the customer.
  • The Clearview AI rulings (ICO £7.5m, with UK jurisdiction upheld by the Upper Tribunal in 2025; CNIL €20m) show regulators reach US scrapers.
  • LinkedIn's lawsuit closed Proxycurl in 2025.
  • Using it to cold-contact UK/EU individuals is legally risky.
  • Don't recommend it to an audience without that caveat.
  • On 10 Sept 2026 co-founder and CEO @m9rcn posted that he was leaving Ploid, saying it had not been acting responsibly, and @ploid_ai replied 'ima doxx you'.
  • He is still listed as co-founder and CEO on Ploid's company page and on Y Combinator, and he posted the 28 Oct launch.

What we couldn’t verify

  • Fact or hype: partly fact.

Our Hype or Fact? checks

Pricing

Growth $200/month (1,000 credits, $0.20 each); Scale $600/month (4,000 credits, $0.15 each); Custom by agreement. Search is about 1 credit per 10 people returned, a social profile pull 1 credit, and a full deep person profile 25 credits ($3.75-$5). A 30-day free trial workspace is offered when first connecting via MCP.

Prices as listed by the maker when we last checked (2026-10-29); usually in US dollars. Check the website for current prices.

Latest update

  • 2026-10-28: Public launch ('we indexed over 2 billion people globally'), with paid plans from $200/month and API/CLI/MCP access.
  • : Ploid (YC F26) launched publicly: a people-data API/CLI/MCP claiming 2B+ indexed people. The claim is self-reported. Plans are $200/month (1,000 credits) and $600/month (4,000). It carries significant UK/EU GDPR risk.

Is Ploid worth it? Quick answers

Is Ploid worth it?

Ploid is worth a look if it matches a job you already do (Data & scraping). There is a free trial, so test it on a real task before it ends. Some of the maker's claims have not been independently checked.

How much does Ploid cost?

Growth $200/month (1,000 credits, $0.20 each); Scale $600/month (4,000 credits, $0.15 each); Custom by agreement. Search is about 1 credit per 10 people returned, a social profile pull 1 credit, and a full deep person profile 25 credits ($3.75-$5). A 30-day free trial workspace is offered when first connecting via MCP.

What is Ploid used for?

People-data and enrichment platform (YC F26, San Francisco) that claims an index of 2B+ people built from public web, social and professional sources… Typical uses: send Ploid an access request to see what it holds on you, and ask for removal if you want it. Ploid's privacy policy names Kamran@ploid.co as the contact for access and deletion requests; compare one known contact's Ploid result against Apollo or People Data Labs before trusting any '2 billion' coverage claims; if you prospect with it, run a legitimate-interests assessment and send Article 14 notices to UK/EU contacts first.