How to classify, approve, and charge for the sources in this catalog — four tiers with distinct economics.
The catalog spans zero-cost government APIs to six-figure enterprise contracts. A single pricing rule cannot work across this range. The framework below classifies sources into four tiers, each with a distinct cost structure, approval model, and billing treatment.
| Tier | Representative Sources | Approval at Runtime | Billing to Customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 0 — Free | SEC EDGAR, USPTO, OFAC, GitHub, GDELT, Wayback Machine, FINRA BrokerCheck, NFA BASIC, Companies House, GLEIF | None required — always available | Included in all plans. No metering, no markup. |
| Tier 1 — Per-call metered | PACER ($0.10/page), OpenSanctions (€0.10/call) | Admin enables source for org once; no per-call confirmation at runtime | 30–50% markup on raw vendor cost, surfaced as data credits consumed per workflow. Credits-per-source published in docs. |
| Tier 2 — Subscription-bundled | UniCourt, SimilarWeb, Factiva, Docket Alarm, Thinknum | Admin enables source for org; users query freely within plan entitlement | Bundled into Business or Professional tier. No per-query charge to users once the plan includes the source. |
| Tier 3 — Enterprise BYOL | LexisNexis, D&B, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, LSEG World-Check, Revelio Labs, Sensor Tower | Customer provides API credentials at org onboarding; OA validates and connects | No markup on API calls — usage billed directly under the customer's own vendor contract. OA charges a connector fee baked into Enterprise plan pricing. |
Per-use confirmation on every paid API call creates workflow-killing friction. The right model is two-level approval that is largely invisible at runtime. At org setup, the fund admin configures which sources are enabled for their organization and sets a monthly data spend cap — a one-time decision with full budget visibility. At runtime, pre-approved sources execute without confirmation. If a workflow would exceed the monthly cap, it stops and the admin is notified rather than prompting the end user on each individual call.
The one exception worth considering: the first time a source with a per-call cost is queried by an organization that has not yet spent anything on it, a one-time informational notification is appropriate — not a confirmation gate. Something like "this source costs X per query; it is enabled for your org." After that first event, it runs silently.
Paid API calls should be marked up. The rationale is not only margin: the markup covers integration overhead, vendor contract management, billing discrepancy handling, and the cost of failed queries that vendors may still charge for. A 30–50% markup on Tier 1 per-call sources is consistent with how data platforms handle pass-through costs.
The recommended billing design is a data credits model — users are allocated credits that each query against a paid source consumes at a published rate. This decouples OA's cost structure from the user-facing price, allows vendor markup rates to be adjusted without changing the user experience, and is a well-understood model in the developer tools economy. The credits-per-source-type schedule should be documented publicly; do not obscure individual vendor rates but also do not expose them directly as OA's prices.
Bringing your own license for Tier 3 sources creates one structural risk: customers carry heterogeneous contracts with different access scopes. An org with a narrow D&B package will receive materially different output quality than one with a full subscription — and both will attribute the gap to OA rather than to their data contract. BYOL must therefore be paired with published minimum contract specifications for each connector: OA should document exactly what a D&B or LexisNexis agreement needs to include for the integration to function as intended, rather than accepting any valid API credential and producing inconsistent results.
BYOL also sidesteps the sublicensing restrictions that D&B, LexisNexis, and similar vendors routinely embed in enterprise contracts — provisions that would prevent OA from reselling or even passing through access at cost. By keeping the contractual relationship between the customer and the vendor directly, OA's obligation is limited to the integration layer alone.
Federal and state civil/criminal filings, judgments, bankruptcies, and enforcement actions.
| Source | Model | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| PACER | Per page | $0.10/page; $3.00 cap per document | Quarterly fee waived if usage is under $30. Transcripts are uncapped. PDF pages billed by actual page count; HTML billed by byte size (4,320 bytes = 1 page). |
| UniCourt | Tiered subscription + usage | Personal $49/mo · Professional $149/mo · Premium $299/mo · Enterprise custom | Billable API calls apply to search, case lookup, and document download. Annual plans available at a discount. Enterprise pricing negotiated directly. |
| Docket Alarm | Flat rate or pay-as-you-go | $99/mo per legal professional (flat rate) · Pay-as-you-go available | Flat rate covers most federal court access but PACER fees for federal/bankruptcy docs are billed separately. Firms with 5+ attorneys or corporate teams should contact sales for enterprise pricing. |
| CourtListener (RECAP) | Free / membership | Free for researchers and non-commercial use; membership pricing for full API access | Operated by the Free Law Project. RECAP API uses your own PACER credentials — PACER fees still apply for document downloads. As of May 2026, full API access is included with a membership. |
Licensed professionals, sanctioned entities, and regulatory enforcement records.
| Source | Model | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| FINRA BrokerCheck | Free | No cost | Public tool for checking broker and investment adviser registration and disciplinary history. No API; programmatic access requires scraping or a third-party aggregator. |
| SEC EDGAR | Free | No cost | Full API access at no charge. Covers filings, enforcement actions, investment adviser registrations, and insider transactions. |
| OFAC SDN & Sanctions Lists | Free | No cost | US Treasury maintains machine-readable sanctions lists available for direct download and API query at no charge. |
| NFA BASIC | Free | No cost | National Futures Association's public background check tool for commodity and futures professionals. |
| FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Registry | Free (restricted access) | No cost for authorized requestors | Access is limited to authorized government agencies and, in some circumstances, financial institutions. Direct public access is not available — verify current access rules before building a workflow around this source. |
| OpenSanctions | Free (non-commercial) · Pay-as-you-go (commercial) | Free for non-commercial · €0.10 per successful API call; volume pricing above 20,000 calls/mo | Only successful responses (HTTP 200) are billed. 30-day trial API key available with a business email. Self-hosted option available under a bulk data license — no per-call metering. |
Incorporations, officer records, UCC liens, and global entity registries.
| Source | Model | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Secretary of State Filings | Free / per-document fees vary by state | Free to low-cost; varies by state | Most states offer free public search. Some charge per-document retrieval fees ($1–$10). Programmatic access varies significantly; some states require scraping or a third-party aggregator. |
| OpenCorporates | Annual subscription | Essentials £2,250/yr · Starter £6,600/yr · Basic £12,000/yr · Enterprise custom | Free for open-data projects. Request-based metering — search attempts are billed even when there's no match. Covers 200+ jurisdictions globally. Enterprise plan available for bulk delivery. |
| Companies House (UK) | Free | No cost | Free public API with generous rate limits. Covers UK incorporations, officers, filings, and dissolution records. Requires API key registration. |
| GLEIF | Free | No cost | Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation. Full bulk data download and API access at no charge. Useful for cross-border entity verification and corporate structure mapping. |
Structured business and people data from providers with established legal rights — purpose-built for background research on business principals.
| Source | Model | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| LexisNexis Risk Solutions | Custom enterprise | No published pricing; custom quote required | Pricing varies by product, user count, transaction volume, and data modules. Multi-product bundling and multi-year commitments typically drive meaningful discounts. Covers people, business, and public records data. |
| Thomson Reuters CLEAR | Custom enterprise | ~$305/mo for 3 users (illustrative example); custom quote required | Pricing structured around named users, content packages, and multi-year commitments. No published rates. Free trial available without a credit card. Commonly used by law enforcement, law firms, and financial compliance teams. |
| Dun & Bradstreet | Custom enterprise | API plans start ~$25,000+/yr; per-seat add-ons $200–$400/mo; API setup fees $5,000–$15,000 | D&B is piloting a credit-based unlimited-seat model as of early 2026. Pricing varies significantly by API product (identity, compliance, market intelligence differ). Budget for setup fees alongside subscription cost. |
Patent and trademark filing history for validating or challenging claimed technical backgrounds.
| Source | Model | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPTO (Patents & Trademarks) | Free | No cost | Full API access to patent and trademark filings, assignment history, and inventor records at no charge via USPTO's developer portal. |
| EPO Open Patent Services | Free (standard) · Paid (high volume) | Free up to usage limits; commercial tiers available for bulk access | EPO's Open Patent Services API is free for standard usage. High-volume or commercial use requires a contract. WIPO PATENTSCOPE is similarly free for standard queries. |
Job postings, web traffic, app metrics, and workforce signals — operational indicators not visible in corporate records.
| Source | Model | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thinknum | Per-user annual subscription | ~$16,800/user/yr (~$400/user/mo); Spark program for early-stage funds (contact for pricing) | Covers job postings, employee headcount, web traffic, and product listing data scraped at scale. Spark program offers flexible payment terms for emerging funds — a relevant entry point for early cohorts. |
| Revelio Labs | Custom annual subscription | Human Capital Dynamics dataset ~$85,000/yr; other datasets custom | Workforce dynamics data derived from public employment records — headcount trends, skill composition, attrition signals, and hiring patterns by company. High signal for operational diligence; pricing reflects institutional buyer positioning. |
| SimilarWeb | Tiered subscription | Starter ~$1,500/yr · Team $14,000–$35,000+/yr (includes API) · Business custom | Web traffic, engagement metrics, and competitive benchmarking. API access included in Business-tier plans or available as a standalone product. Data credits model for API consumption — clarify overage rates before signing. |
| Sensor Tower (includes data.ai) | Custom enterprise | $30,000–$150,000+/yr; global coverage + all modules can exceed $250,000/yr | Sensor Tower acquired data.ai (formerly App Annie) in 2024 — they are now a single platform. Covers app store downloads, revenue, user engagement, and ad intelligence. Annual contracts are standard. Buyers typically achieve 15–30% discounts by bundling modules or committing multi-year. |
| GitHub API | Free (rate-limited) | Free up to 5,000 requests/hr (authenticated) | Public repositories, commit history, contributor records, and organization data available via REST and GraphQL APIs at no charge within rate limits. Sufficient for individual founder and company research at diligence scale. |
Cross-border entity registries, PEP screening, and multi-jurisdiction sanctions databases.
| Source | Model | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow Jones Risk & Compliance | Custom enterprise | $10,000–$500,000+/yr depending on scope; small teams start ~$5,000–$15,000/yr | Covers PEPs, sanctions, adverse media, and state-owned enterprise data across 200+ countries. API access is an additional fee on top of base subscription. Volume discounts of 15–30% common in enterprise negotiations. |
| LSEG World-Check | Custom enterprise | No published pricing; enterprise contract required | Structured risk intelligence database for sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media screening. Used by major financial institutions globally. Pricing driven by screening volume, number of entities, and API integration complexity. |
News archives, web history, and global event databases for baseline research and claim verification.
| Source | Model | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factiva | Per-user subscription | Single user ~$79–$100/mo · 10 users ~$700–$900/mo · 100 users ~$6,000–$8,000/mo | Dow Jones news archive covering 35,000+ sources across 200 countries. Premium content sources billed at additional cost (15–40% increase). Annual price escalation clauses of 3–7% are common — negotiate a price protection cap. |
| GDELT | Free | No cost | Global news event database updated every 15 minutes. Available via Google BigQuery (BigQuery pricing applies for large queries) or direct download at no charge. Strong for international coverage and event-based signals. |
| Wayback Machine | Free | No cost | Internet Archive's historical web snapshots. CDX API available for programmatic access at no charge. Useful for surfacing deleted or significantly revised company and founder content. |
Pricing data sourced from vendor websites (UniCourt, Docket Alarm, PACER, OpenCorporates, OpenSanctions, SimilarWeb, Thinknum, Sensor Tower) and third-party review platforms (Vendr, G2, Capterra, TrustRadius). All figures are estimates — treat as directional for budgeting purposes only. Verify directly with each vendor before procurement.