> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tryhuntr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Research vs direct endpoints

> When to use POST /research and when to call enrichment APIs directly.

Huntr gives you an **agent** (`/research`) and **deterministic endpoints** (search, enrichment, pages). Both use the same API key and credit balance.

## Research agent (`POST /research`)

**Best for:** open-ended questions where you want Huntr to decide which sources to check and how to combine them.

```
Prompt in → investigation → synthesized answer out
```

**Strengths**

* One call for account briefs, buyer research, competitive questions
* Optional `schema` for structured top-level fields
* Tiers (`lite`, `standard`, `deep`) control capability depth

**Limits**

* One primary target per request
* Not for bulk list + per-row enrichment
* Price is per completed research run (see `/pricing` for current tiers)

### Research tiers

| Tier       | Typical use                                                     |
| ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `lite`     | Public-web research — search, news, pages                       |
| `standard` | Company research + tech, contact, and page enrichment           |
| `deep`     | People and contact research — profiles, email finding, LinkedIn |

## Direct endpoints

**Best for:** repeatable workflows where your code (or Clay column) already knows the operation.

| Family    | Examples                                                                                 | Billing                                      |
| --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| Companies | `/company-search`, `/company-enrichment`, `/waterfall-icp-search`                        | Per row on search; beta enrichment per plan  |
| People    | `/person-search`, `/person-email`, `/employee-finder`, `/reverse-email`                  | Per row on search; per request on enrichment |
| LinkedIn  | `/company-linkedin-url`, `/person-linkedin`, `/linkedin-post`, `/company-linkedin-posts` | Per request or page                          |
| X         | `/x-profile`, `/x-post-search`, `/x-post`, `/x-thread`                                   | Per request or page                          |
| Web       | `/page-find`, `/page-scrape`, `/company-tech-stack`, `/company-jobs`, `/company-contact` | Per request; some free when no data found    |

**Strengths**

* Predictable inputs and outputs
* Lower cost for single-purpose lookups
* Easy to chain in automations (search → enrich → email)

## Cost intuition

| Task                                                     | Prefer                                     |
| -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| "What should we say to Stripe about fraud partnerships?" | `/research`                                |
| "Get stripe.com's tech stack"                            | `/company-tech-stack`                      |
| "Find the CEO email at notion.so"                        | `/person-email` or `/research` tier `deep` |
| "500 SaaS companies in the US with 50–200 employees"     | `/company-search`                          |

When in doubt: if you can name the endpoint, call it directly. If you need judgment and synthesis, use `/research`.

## MCP exposes the full API

The Huntr MCP server mirrors **every** REST endpoint as a tool — not just `research`:

* **Research:** `research`
* **Companies:** `company_search`, `company_search_count`
* **People:** `person_search`, `person_search_count`, `person_email`
* **LinkedIn / X / Web:** `person_linkedin`, `tech_stack`, `job_postings`, `company_contact`, and more
* **Meta (free):** `get_pricing`, `get_balance`, `get_usage`

Agents should call **direct tools** for known lookups and **`research`** for open-ended synthesis on one target. See the [full tool list](/build-with-ai/huntr-mcp#all-mcp-tools).

## Next step

* [Research Agent guide](/guides/research-agent)
* [Credits and pricing](/concepts/credits-and-pricing)
* [API Reference](/api-reference)