---
title: "Moving off Explorium: what WhoLayer covers and what it doesn't"
description: "What happened to Explorium, a feature-by-feature map to WhoLayer endpoints and MCP tools, honest gaps, and the steps to switch."
url: https://wholayer.com/switch/explorium
---

Switch guide

# Moving off Explorium?

If you used Explorium's API or MCP server to find and enrich people for an AI agent, WhoLayer's Data API and MCP server cover the core contact jobs: enrich a person, search people, verify emails, look up a mobile, and get a company profile.

Checked November 4, 2026.

## What happened

Winding down

Explorium announced on November 3, 2026 that it is shutting down operations. Its AgentSource platform remains available until December 2, 2026, when data exports also end; account data is deleted by December 31, 2026, and unused credits are refunded. [\[4\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/switch/explorium#source-4)

## What maps across

Every WhoLayer endpoint and MCP tool below exists today. Where there's no equivalent, we say so.

Explorium jobs mapped to WhoLayer
| What you used Explorium for | WhoLayer | REST endpoint | MCP tool | Status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Enrich prospects with contact details (email, phone) | Enrich a person by LinkedIn URL, email, or name + company domain | `POST /v1/people/enrich` | `enrich_person`<br>1 credit per work email, 2 per personal email, and 5 per mobile returned, plus 10 for a reverse lookup when you send only an email and we find the person. Nothing if no match. | Available (US only) |
| Match prospects | Send the identifiers you have to the same enrich call | `POST /v1/people/enrich` | `enrich_person`<br>1 credit per work email, 2 per personal email, and 5 per mobile returned, plus 10 for a reverse lookup when you send only an email and we find the person. Nothing if no match. | Available (US only) |
| Fetch prospects by title, seniority, department, company size, industry | Search people (profiles without contact details) | `POST /v1/people/search` | `search_people`<br>1 credit per 10 results returned, rounded up; nothing if none. | Available (US only) |
| Phone numbers | Mobile lookup with a carrier and line-type check | `POST /v1/phones/lookup` | `lookup_phone`<br>5 credits when a mobile is returned; nothing if not found. | Available (US only) |
| Match and enrich a business (firmographics) | Company profile by domain: size, revenue range, industry, HQ | `GET /v1/companies/{domain}` | `get_company`<br>1 credit when a profile is returned; nothing if not found. | Partial |
| Email validation | Verify up to 1,000 emails per call, graded A to F | `POST /v1/emails/verify` | `verify_emails`<br>0.25 credits per address. | Available |
| Bulk enrichment | Bulk enrich or verify: up to 1,000 rows per synchronous request, or async jobs of up to 100,000 rows | `POST /v1/jobs` | `create_job`<br>1 credit per work email, 2 per personal email, and 5 per mobile returned, plus 10 for a reverse lookup when you send only an email and we find the person. Nothing if no match. Verify rows: 0.25 per address. | Available (US only) |
| Fetch businesses (company search) and statistics | No equivalent | — | — | Not offered |
| Business and prospect events (funding, hiring, role changes) | No equivalent | — | — | Not offered |
| Technographics, funding, financial filings, intent enrichments | No equivalent | — | — | Not offered |
| Research endpoint with your own output schema | No equivalent | — | — | Not offered |
| Autocomplete | No equivalent | — | — | Not offered |

REST base URL: `https://api.wholayer.com/v1`. MCP server: `https://mcp.wholayer.com/mcp`. Full reference in the [API docs](https://wholayer.com/docs/api) and [OpenAPI spec](https://wholayer.com/openapi.json).

## What you'll lose

WhoLayer isn't a complete replacement. Plainly:

- WhoLayer's person-level data is US-only. Explorium covered businesses and professionals globally. If most of your prospects are outside the US, WhoLayer won't replace it.
- There's no company search, statistics or count calls, business events, or web research endpoint.
- Business enrichment is a basic company profile (size, revenue range, industry, HQ). There are no technographics, funding, financial filings, workforce trends, or intent data.

## How to switch

1. Step 1

    ### Create a free account

    Sign up with your work email. The Free plan needs no card.

2. Step 2

    ### Create an API key

    Under Settings, API keys. Use a wl\_test\_... key first: every endpoint and MCP tool returns sandbox data and never spends credits.

3. Step 3

    ### Swap the MCP server

    Remove the Explorium server from your agent's MCP config and add WhoLayer's. The tool names differ, so update any prompts or code that call tools by name: for example enrich\_person replaces enrich-prospects, and search\_people replaces fetch-prospects.

4. Step 4

    ### Set limits before the agent runs

    Give the agent its own key with a daily credit cap, and use a read-only key for agents that should only look things up.

5. Step 5

    ### Export what you need from Explorium first

    Explorium says data exports are available until December 2, 2026 only. Export anything you want to keep before then.

[Start free](https://wholayer.com/signup) [Install the MCP server](https://wholayer.com/docs/mcp)

## Questions

### Will WhoLayer honor my unused Explorium credits?

No. Explorium says it will refund unused credits to your original payment method. WhoLayer's Free plan lets you test the API and MCP server before you pay anything.

### Does WhoLayer cover prospects outside the US?

Not at the person level. WhoLayer's person-level data is US-only. Company profiles by domain are available for any company we have data on.

### Can I test without spending credits?

Yes. Test keys (wl\_test\_...) return sandbox data from every tool and endpoint and never spend credits.

## Sources

- \[1\] [Explorium developer docs](https://developers.explorium.ai/) (vendor's own page, checked November 4, 2026)
- \[2\] [PricingSaaS: Explorium pricing](https://pricingsaas.com/companies/explorium/diffs/2026W37) (third-party source, checked November 4, 2026)
- \[3\] [Explorium docs: contact information enrichment](https://developers.explorium.ai/v2/prospects/enrichments/contact_information_job) (vendor's own page, checked November 4, 2026)
- \[4\] [Explorium: AgentSource will be discontinued on December 2, 2026](https://www.explorium.ai/blog/news-and-updates/important-notice-agentsource-will-be-discontinued-on-december-2-2026/) (vendor's own page, checked November 4, 2026)
- \[5\] [explorium.ai](https://www.explorium.ai/) (vendor's own page, checked November 4, 2026)

Competitor information is from public sources as of November 4, 2026 and may have changed. Trademarks belong to their owners. WhoLayer wrote this page; if something here is wrong, [tell us](https://wholayer.com/contact?topic=sales) and we'll fix it.

[All switch guides](https://wholayer.com/switch) · [Explorium alternatives](https://wholayer.com/alternatives/explorium)

Ready when you are

## Try WhoLayer before you move off Explorium

The Free plan includes 100 credits a month for visitor ID, the Data API, and the MCP server. No card needed.

[Start free](https://wholayer.com/signup) [Talk to sales](https://wholayer.com/contact?topic=sales)