Candidate contact data enrichment: the 2026 guide
A profile with no phone number is a profile you found and cannot contact. What enrichment actually changes on a sourcing run in 2026.
At Kalent, 250 million profiles already carry a verified phone number and email address.
That is the only figure that decides a sourcing run.
One vendor announces 800 million profiles, another 850 million. On paper, nobody wins. But a profile with no contact detail is a profile you found and cannot reach.
Sourcing does not end when you find the right person. It ends when they reply.
Every sourcing tool announces a database size. Almost none announces how many of those profiles are reachable.
That is where the difference between a list and a hire actually sits.
This guide answers seven questions: what enrichment is, why a database total tells you almost nothing, what vendors publish and what they leave out, what a per-unit enrichment costs, what GDPR requires, how to judge coverage in a demo, and what it changes on a live mandate.
TL;DR:
- A database total decides nothing. The number of reachable profiles does. Kalent publishes 250 million enriched profiles out of 850 million. That is the figure to compare.
- Enriching after the fact costs time and money. At several vendors the contact detail is not in the database: it is fetched one profile at a time and paid for in credits.
- A coverage rate cannot be inferred from a total. A vendor announcing "verified contact details" without a number tells you nothing.
- 80% of what the Kalent agent returns is directly reachable, verified mobile and email.
- The real test is the reply rate. At FAB Group, 50 consultants, it went from 15% on LinkedIn Recruiter to 30% with Kalent, across more than 18,000 qualified profiles in 12 months.
Key facts:
- Kalent database: 850 million profiles, of which 250 million are enriched with verified contact details
- Directly reachable share of what the agent returns: 80%
- Profiles carrying a contact detail at Juicebox: more than 200 million out of 800 million, roughly one in four
- At Profilr: its privacy policy states that its indexing database does not contain contact details; enrichment is a second step
- At Pin: the contact detail is fetched per profile and paid for in credits, as its documentation describes
- At TalentFindr: no published coverage figure, read 6 September 2026
- Geographic breakdown of the database, at every vendor read: not published
What is candidate data enrichment?
It is the step that turns a profile you found into a person you can reach.
A sourcing engine starts from public professional profiles. Those profiles carry a name, a title, a career, sometimes a city. They almost never carry a phone number or a personal email address.
Enrichment goes and finds those details elsewhere, cross-checks them, and verifies them. Verifying means testing that the address exists and accepts mail, and that the number is in service.
The question that matters is not "does the tool enrich", they all do. It is "when".
- Before, the contact detail is already in the database when you find the profile. You go from list to message without leaving the tool.
- After, you find the profile, then request enrichment, one at a time, and wait. Sometimes you pay at that moment.
At Kalent, enrichment is already done on 250 million profiles. Going from the profile found to the message sent does not cross a second system.
Why does database size tell you almost nothing?
Because the bottleneck was never how many names you found.
On a developer role in a capital city, every engine returns more candidates than a team can contact in a quarter. Fifty million profiles apart on a global total does not make a shortlist better.
What fills a shortlist is local density in your trade. And nobody publishes it. Not Kalent, not the vendors read on 6 September 2026.
So the total serves one purpose: reassurance. The figure that works is the reachable one.
| What the vendor announces | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| "850 million profiles" | the order of magnitude of the index, nothing more |
| "250 million enriched profiles" | how many you can contact today |
| "verified contact details" with no number | ⚠️ nothing at all |
| "30 data sources" | the aggregation method, not the coverage |
The demo question is the same for every vendor, us included: how many active profiles in my region and my trade, and how many already carry a number. A comparison page that answers on the vendor's behalf is inventing a figure.
What do vendors publish, and what do they leave out?
Read on 6 September 2026 on public surfaces and documentation.
Juicebox is the most transparent of all on this point, and that should be written. It announces that more than 200 million of its 800 million profiles carry a contact detail, roughly one in four. It is the most honest figure on its sheet, because it shows the gap between the total and the useful.
Profilr says it in its own privacy policy: "The Profilr indexing database does not contain contact details (email, phone)." Enrichment there is a second step, on a second system.
Pin describes a per-unit model in its documentation: the contact detail is fetched profile by profile and consumed in credits. The maths is yours to do. A recruiter contacting 300 candidates in a month, email and phone, consumes up to 600 credits.
TalentFindr announces "verified contact details" and one-click enrichment, without ever putting a number on the coverage.
Kalent publishes the pair: 850 million profiles, of which 250 million are enriched with verified contact details. On the total, several vendors are level. On reachable profiles, we are among the few giving a number against a total.
What does a per-unit enrichment cost?
It depends on a model choice, and that choice decides your invoice.
The credit model charges for each contact detail revealed. It looks cheaper at entry, and becomes unpredictable as soon as a campaign scales. A mandate needing 300 approaches consumes up to 600 credits if you want both email and phone.
The included model puts a volume of contact details in the subscription.
At Kalent, the Sourcing plan includes 100 contact details a month on monthly billing, or 1,500 a year on annual, at $149 a month or $1,490 a year, per licence. A Kalent licence is individual: five recruiters, five licences.
And it must be said: multiplying $149 by twelve does not give the annual plan. Monthly opens 3 active sourcing runs and 100 contact details a month, annual opens unlimited runs and 1,500 contact details. Two offers, not two ways of paying for one.
The right comparison is not the entry price, it is the cost per candidate contacted. A $99 subscription with contact details on credits can cost more than a $149 subscription with 1,500 included.
What does GDPR say about contact data enrichment?
Sourcing candidates from public data is lawful in Europe, and so is enrichment, under conditions.
The two that come up most in procurement files:
- Informing the person. A candidate approached must be able to learn where their contact detail came from and how to object.
- The place of processing. Processing outside the European Union is documented in the record and in the impact assessment. Some vendors write plainly that they host only in the United States, AI models included.
On the AI Act, recruitment is classified high risk, point 4(a) of Annex III, which covers systems intended for recruitment and candidate evaluation. The Digital Omnibus, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, in force since 27 July 2026, pushed part of the standalone obligations to 2 December 2027. Postponed is not cancelled: transparency, documentation and human oversight remain due.
Kalent is built in France, SOC 2 Type 2 certified, with 47 security controls published and readable without a login on our trust center. Our data hosting country is not published to date, so it is not asserted here.
How do you judge coverage in a demo?
Four questions, and they go to every vendor, us included.
- How many active profiles in my region, in my trade? Not the global total.
- What share already carries a number, and what share an email? Two different figures, ask for both.
- Is the contact detail included or billed per unit? And if included, how many per month.
- When was the data last refreshed? A database reindexed monthly and one three years old do not return the same numbers.
A vendor who refers these questions to its sales team has not answered.
What it changes on a live mandate
FAB Group, 50 consultants, sourced on three licensed tools: LinkedIn Recruiter, Sales Navigator and Indeed.
98% of their approaches left as InMails, for a reply rate that plateaued at 15%. Plenty of volume, very little transformation.
Since moving to Kalent: more than 18,000 qualified profiles in 12 months, more than 1,000 interviews, and a 30% reply rate. Double, with the same team.
What multichannel changes, and it is the direct extension of enrichment: a verified contact detail lets you leave InMail behind. Outreach goes out on LinkedIn, email and WhatsApp in the same sequence, and a candidate who does not read their email stays reachable.
Found, reachable, contacted. All three count, and the second is the one comparisons forget.
Related reading
The AI sourcing comparison cluster, all read on the same date against the same criteria:
To see the mechanism on a real account: how FAB Group structured its direct sourcing.
And the product pages carrying the figures quoted here: pricing, ATS integrations, trust center.
Frequently asked questions
What is candidate data enrichment?
It is the step that adds a verified phone number and email address to a public professional profile. Without it, a profile you found is not contactable.
How many Kalent profiles are reachable?
250 million out of 850 million carry verified contact details, and 80% of what the agent returns is directly reachable.
Do you have to pay for contact details one at a time?
It depends on the vendor. At Kalent they are included, 100 a month on monthly billing and 1,500 a year on annual. At others, each contact detail revealed consumes a credit.
Does a bigger database total give better candidates?
No. What fills a shortlist is density in your region and your trade, and no vendor publishes it. The total reassures, it does not decide.
Is enrichment GDPR compliant?
Yes, under conditions: the person must be able to learn where their contact detail came from and object to it, and the place of processing is documented. Kalent is built in France and SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
What reply rate can you expect?
At FAB Group it went from 15% on InMail to 30% with Kalent, across more than 18,000 profiles in 12 months. A reply rate depends on the role, the message and the market: this is a customer case, not a guarantee.
What should you ask in a demo?
How many active profiles in my region and my trade, and what share already carries a number. A vendor who refers you to sales has not answered.
