# ExploreYC, free, GET /companies: Cached company discovery API

> List and filter companies across all tracked sources (YC + a16z).

ExploreYC's cached company discovery API on its Free plan. It costs $0.00 per 1,000 companies. It returns 8 of the 13 key fields we check: Description, Industry, Type and status, Images, Employees, Headquarters, Funding, Parents.
The cheapest of the 358 plans we rank by price is [Deepline, top-up](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/deepline/top-up/llms.txt). Deepline's cached company discovery API costs nothing beyond the plan price.
[GetProspect](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/getprospect/49-monthly/llms.txt), [Hunter](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/hunter/49-monthly/llms.txt) and [Skrapp](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/skrapp/349-monthly/llms.txt) are the best cached company discovery API providers in our benchmark.

- This page: https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/exploreyc/free-get-companies
- [Best company discovery API in 2026](https://datacircle.dev/best-company-discovery-api.txt)
- Get it: https://exploreyc.com/api-docs
- Request: `GET https://api.exploreyc.com/api/v1/companies`
- API key: with the plan, on https://exploreyc.com/api-docs
- Its API docs: https://exploreyc.com/api-docs
- Sold by: ExploreYC (https://exploreyc.com)
- Checked: 2026-10-28

## In the answer

- Completeness: 62%
- Description: ✓
- Industry: ✓
- Type and status: ✓
- Images: ✓
- Employees: ✓
- Headquarters: ✓
- Funding: ✓
- Parents: ✓

## Price

- $ per 1,000 companies: $0.00
- Per: page of 100
- Billing: free

## Aggregators

- Aggregators: none

## Charges

- Also pays for: from the same budget: Available sources (incubators / VCs) · Batch 'wrapped' analytics · Company by id · Company by slug · Distinct YC batches · Distinct countries · Distinct industries · Founder leaderboards (ranked) · Founder profile + stats + companies · Full-text company search · Geo-located companies · Portfolio stats (Y Combinator)

## Overage

- Units cap: hard

## Not found

- $ per 1,000: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: List and filter companies across all tracked sources (YC + a16z).

## Data

- Freshness: 1 day
- Keep data: no API terms
- Use data: no API terms

## Plan

- Pay: $0
- You get: 5 requests a day
- Enough for: 5 pages a day

## Rate limit

- Per day: 5
- Batch: 1

## Speed

- Answer: in the call

## The call

- You send: nothing required. Optional: limit, offset, source, batch, industry, country, is_hiring, top_company, search
- Method: GET
- Path: /companies

## About the plan

- Plan: Free
- Who can get it: anyone

## The 42 fields the plan's answer can hold

total results, limit, offset, has more, company ID, source, source ID, company name, slug, website, one-liner, description, team size, batch, status, industry, subindustry, all locations, is hiring, top company, nonprofit, stage, country, latitude, longitude, logo thumbnail URL, founders, year founded, exit type, acquirer, ticker symbol, funded date, source URL, total funding, last round amount, last round name, last round date, valuation, employee count, employee growth 6 months, created at, updated at

## ExploreYC's plans (3)

- [ExploreYC, free, GET /companies](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/exploreyc/free-get-companies/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 62% complete, 1 day
- [ExploreYC, $50 monthly, Pro, GET /companies](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/exploreyc/50-monthly-pro-get-companies/llms.txt): $0.033 per 1,000, 62% complete, 1 day
- [ExploreYC, $500 monthly, Max, GET /companies](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/exploreyc/500-monthly-max-get-companies/llms.txt): $0.033 per 1,000, 62% complete, 1 day

## ExploreYC's calls for this API (2)

- `GET /search`: [ExploreYC, free, GET /search](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/exploreyc/free-get-search/llms.txt)
- `GET /companies`: [ExploreYC, free, GET /companies](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/exploreyc/free-get-companies/llms.txt)

## ExploreYC's APIs (4)

- [ExploreYC: cached people search API pricing, 3 plans](https://datacircle.dev/cached-people-search-apis/exploreyc/free/llms.txt)
- [ExploreYC: cached people enrichment API pricing, 3 plans](https://datacircle.dev/cached-person-enrichment-apis/exploreyc/free/llms.txt)
- [ExploreYC: cached company enrichment API pricing, 3 plans, GET /companies/{company_id}](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-enrichment-apis/exploreyc/free-get-companies-company-id/llms.txt)
- [ExploreYC: cached company enrichment API pricing, 3 plans, GET /companies/slug/{slug}](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-enrichment-apis/exploreyc/free-get-companies-slug-slug/llms.txt)
- [ExploreYC: cached company discovery API pricing, 3 plans, GET /companies](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/exploreyc/free-get-companies/llms.txt)

## ExploreYC: cached company discovery API alternatives

- [DanskCVRAPI, DKK 99 monthly, Basis, GET /companies/search](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/danskcvrapi/dkk-99-monthly-basis-get-companies-search/llms.txt): $0.006 per 1,000, 46% complete, 1 minute
- [Implisense, €379 pack, 5,000 Implicents, GET /v2/search](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/implisense/379-pack-5000-implicents-get-v2-search/llms.txt): $0.086 per 1,000, 8% complete, 1 day
- [Pubrio, $495 pack](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/pubrio/495-pack/llms.txt): $0.36 per 1,000, 62% complete, 1 day
- [Hirebase, $2,390.40 yearly](https://datacircle.dev/cached-company-discovery-apis/hirebase/2390-40-yearly/llms.txt): $3.984 per 1,000, 69% complete, 1 hour

## Sources

From each provider's own pricing page and docs, and from what providers tell us. We read this row from these pages on 2026-10-28.

- https://api.exploreyc.com/api/v1/openapi.json
- https://exploreyc.com/api-docs
- https://exploreyc.com/llms.txt
- https://exploreyc.com/pricing