17 Best B2B Intent Data Providers (2026), Compared

Quick Answer: The five Leaders in the latest Forrester Wave for B2B intent data (Q1 2025) are Intentsify (highest Current Offering score), 6sense, Bombora, Informa TechTarget and Demandbase. In the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for ABM platforms, 6sense, Demandbase and ZoomInfo say they are Leaders. Most intent vendors quote prices only. Vendr buyer data puts median contracts between $25,000 (Bombora) and $68,591 (Demandbase) a year. Apollo and Dealfront have free plans. Intent data shows what an account reads. Signal data shows what an account did: funding, hiring, job changes, 8-K filings. Most teams need both. See the comparison table, intent data vs signal data and the decision framework.

6sense's 2025 Buyer Experience Report (4,000+ buyers surveyed) found that 94% of B2B buying groups rank their preferred vendors before they talk to sales. Most of that research is anonymous. If your team cannot see it, you are not in the consideration set for most of your market.

That is the promise of intent data: a view of research that buyers do before they raise a hand. Adoption is high, but results lag. Only 24% of teams report exceptional ROI from intent data. DemandScience's 2026 State of Performance Marketing report (750 senior marketing leaders) found that two-thirds of leaders see dashboard success that does not turn into revenue.

The gap is rarely the technology. It is vendor fit plus activation. This guide covers both: where each vendor's data comes from, what it costs, how to test it, and when signal data is the better buy.

Below are 17 intent data providers for 2026. Each review links the vendor's own page. Prices appear only with a public source. Where a vendor quotes prices only, we say so and cite third-party buyer data from Vendr where it exists. Vendor facts were checked on November 5, 2026.

What Changed in the Intent Data Market in 2025-2026

• New Gartner ABM Magic Quadrant (October 2026). 6sense and Demandbase each say they are a Leader for the sixth year in a row. ZoomInfo says it is a Leader for the third year. These are the vendors' own statements. The full report is behind Gartner's paywall.
• No new Forrester intent Wave. The Q1 2025 Wave is still the latest one for intent data. Forrester's Q1 2026 Wave covers marketing and sales data providers, a different category.
• Review-site intent is consolidating. In January 2026, G2 agreed to acquire Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp from Gartner. G2 now says over 200 million software buyers research across the four sites each year. In June 2025, HG Insights acquired TrustRadius.
• Intent now reaches AI agents. 6sense lists APIs and an MCP server in every package. Cognism lists MCP and API access. The Autobound Signal API serves intent and events to Claude and ChatGPT through its MCP server. The shift is from a dashboard a rep opens to data an agent queries.
• Bombora's co-op keeps growing. Bombora now tracks 25,300+ intent topics and says it added 1,765+ sites in the last two years. It also says 86% of the co-op's data is shared only with Bombora.
• Clearbit lives inside HubSpot. Clearbit's data now enriches HubSpot records. HubSpot states that data enrichment does not consume HubSpot Credits.

Types of Intent Data: First-Party vs. Second-Party vs. Third-Party

Each provider emphasizes a different type of intent data. The type decides what you can see, how fresh it is and whether you can check it.

• First-party intent data comes from your own properties: website visits, content downloads, pricing page views, webinar sign-ups. You already own it. Providers: Dealfront, Warmly, Breeze Intelligence.
• Second-party intent data comes from a partner's audience. Review sites like G2 and TrustRadius see a prospect compare vendors or read reviews, and share that with you. The behavior is clearly tied to a purchase.
• Third-party intent data is pooled across many websites. Providers like Bombora and Intentsify track content consumption across their networks to find companies that research your category before they visit your site.

Five places intent data comes from

Underneath the three types, every vendor collects from one or more of five sources. ABM platforms such as 6sense and Demandbase do not add a sixth. They combine several, add their own models, and sell scores, stages and audiences.

Why the source matters for privacy. Bidstream carries the most risk. The UK ICO reported in 2019 that real-time bidding raised serious data protection concerns. In 2022, the Belgian data protection authority found that the ad industry's consent framework broke GDPR. Co-ops say their member publishers collect consent. Ask every vendor for the same answer in writing. Company-level scores carry less personal data than person-level intent.

The strongest programs layer types. A prospect who views your pricing page (first-party), reads G2 reviews in your category (second-party) and researches your problem across the web (third-party) is a different lead from one who triggers a single signal. For more on combining intent with other signals, see the complete guide to signal-based selling.

Intent Data vs Signal Data

Intent data and signal data answer different questions. Intent data asks: is this account reading about my category? Signal data asks: what just changed at this account? Vendors often sell both under the word "intent," so it pays to separate them.

Use topic intent when you have a large account list and need to rank it, when you sell into a crowded category with lots of published research, or when you run ABM ads that need in-market audiences.

Use signal data when you need a reason a rep or an AI agent can quote, when you sell to small or private companies that read too little to surge, or when the trigger itself predicts the purchase. Examples:

• Job changes: a champion moves to a new company, or a new VP starts in your buyer persona.
• Form D funding filings and funding news: new money often comes before new tools.
• Hiring trends: a team that hires for a function needs the tools that function uses.
• 8-K current reports: CEO, CFO and other executive changes, acquisitions and other material events, filed with the SEC.

Use both for the best results: rank with intent, write with events. An account that surges on your topic and just hired a new VP of Sales is a stronger lead than either signal alone. The Autobound Signal API returns both from one API key: co-op topic intent plus dated events across 35 signal types and 700+ subtypes. See intent data by API below.

How Should You Evaluate an Intent Data Provider?

Five dimensions separate high-ROI programs from expensive shelf-ware:

1. Data sourcing. Co-op publisher networks (Bombora), your own website (Dealfront, Warmly), editorial content (TechTarget), review sites (G2, TrustRadius), bidstream, or a blend? The source decides signal quality and coverage.
2. Resolution. Account-level intent tells you which company is researching. Contact-level intent tells you which person. Most providers deliver account-level only. For sales teams, this is the biggest difference.
3. Integration and delivery. Intent data is only useful if it reaches your reps, campaigns or agents fast. Check native CRM and sales tool integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Salesloft), API access, bulk files and MCP.
4. Activation. Some providers (Bombora, SalesIntel) mainly sell data. Others (6sense, Demandbase, Intentsify) bundle ads, orchestration and content syndication. More is not always better if you already have an activation stack.
5. Pricing model. Most vendors quote prices only. Know whether you pay per seat, per account, per topic or per record. Check credit expiry, account caps and auto-renewal terms.

Twelve questions to send every vendor

Intent products look alike in a demo. These questions show the differences that matter after you sign. Compare the written answers.

How to run the backtest:

1. Pick 20 accounts that closed in the last two quarters, and 20 that did not.
2. Ask each vendor what it showed for those accounts in the 90 days before each deal.
3. Count how often the winners stood out. Evidence you can open beats a score you have to trust.

Comparison Table: 17 Intent Data Providers at a Glance

Pricing, data type, resolution and analyst recognition, to narrow your shortlist. "Quote" means the vendor publishes no price. Vendr medians are third-party buyer data, not list prices.

The 17 Providers: Detailed Reviews

1. Bombora

Bombora pioneered B2B intent data with its cooperative model. Its Data Co-op pools consumption events from thousands of B2B publishers and websites. When people at a company read a topic above that company's normal level, Bombora flags a Company Surge. It now tracks 25,300+ intent topics.

Why it matters: Bombora is the most widely resold third-party intent source. 6sense includes 12 Bombora topics at no extra cost, and SalesIntel names Bombora as its topic network. Bombora was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Intent Data Providers for B2B, Q1 2025.

Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams that want topic-level third-party intent to feed an existing ABM or sales intelligence stack.

Pricing: Quote only. Vendr reports a median of $25,000 a year from 35 purchases, with a range of $13,000 to $80,450.

Key limitation: Account-level only. You know which company surges, not which person, and you do not see the pages behind the score. Your team still needs the right contacts and a reason to reach out. Pair it with signal data such as job changes and hiring.

2. ZoomInfo

Data type: Third-party (proprietary collection)
Resolution: Account-level
Analyst recognition: Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader, ABM Platforms (2024 and 2025, two consecutive years); only vendor in Gartner's Customers' Choice quadrant, Voice of the Customer 2025, 4.7/5.0 average rating
Pricing: $15K-$40K/year (intent add-on; full platform pricing custom)

ZoomInfo's intent layer is proprietary, not a Bombora resell — a distinction that matters for teams evaluating sourcing methodology. ZoomInfo Intent tracks 210 million IP-to-Organization pairings and six trillion keyword-to-device pairings sourced monthly across the open web. Guided Intent, exclusive to ZoomInfo, identifies the specific topics historically correlated with closed-won deals in a given pipeline rather than surfacing generic category-level research signals. That moves intent from account-level awareness to deal-correlated prioritization. WebSights layers first-party behavioral data on top, resolving anonymous website visitors to company and contact level. The activation layer is the GTM Context Graph, which fuses ZoomInfo's proprietary intent signals with a customer's CRM records, conversation intelligence from Chorus, and engagement history into one intelligence layer — addressing the activation gap this article identifies as the primary ROI failure mode. GTM Workspace delivers those signals directly to sellers as prioritized actions. The platform also connects through APIs and an MCP server, meaning intent signals are available in any external workflow or AI agent.

Strengths:

• Proprietary intent collection (210M IP pairings, 6T keyword-to-device pairings monthly) rather than a co-op resell
• Guided Intent identifies deal-correlated topics from pipeline history, not manual topic selection
• GTM Context Graph fuses intent with CRM, conversation intelligence, and engagement history into a single activation layer
• WebSights adds first-party website visitor resolution, layering signal types the article identifies as highest-ROI when combined
• Gartner Customers' Choice (only vendor, 4.7/5.0) and Gartner MQ Leader two consecutive years validate enterprise adoption at scale
• ZoomInfo MCP server delivers intent signals to Claude, ChatGPT, and any external AI agent or workflow

Weaknesses:

• Intent is sold as an add-on to the core platform, not a standalone product — requires a broader ZoomInfo commitment
• Account-level resolution only; contact-level intent remains a gap for teams needing individual-level signal precision
• Custom pricing requires a sales conversation; no self-serve entry point at the intent tier
• Full activation value requires CRM integration and configuration investment

Pricing: Intent add-on: $15K-$40K/year on top of core platform subscription. Full platform (Sales, GTM Workspace, GTM Studio): custom-quoted. ZoomInfo Lite available free as a no-commitment entry point to the data layer.

Best for: Enterprise revenue teams that already run ZoomInfo for contact and firmographic data and want intent signals, deal-correlated prioritization, and AI-driven activation consolidated in one platform rather than managing a separate intent vendor alongside their core data stack.

3. 6sense

6sense is an ABM platform that combines its own intent data, predictive scoring and multichannel activation. Its keyword intent comes mainly from its own publisher network, where a web tag observes reading behavior. Licensed external networks and ad metadata from its own demand-side platform add coverage. You can also combine 6sense intent with Bombora, G2, TrustRadius, SourceForge, PeerSpot and Informa TechTarget. 12 Bombora topics are included; the other partners need their own subscription.

Why it matters: 6sense says it is a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for ABM Platforms for the sixth year in a row (2026). It was also a Leader in Forrester's Q1 2025 intent data Wave. Its website matching resolves traffic across 570M+ IP addresses and 75M+ company profiles. Custom keywords are unlimited and go live within 24 hours.

Best for: Enterprise teams running mature ABM programs that want intent, predictive scoring and activation in one platform.

Pricing: Quote only. Packages cover Revenue Marketing, Sales Intelligence and 6sense Intelligence, with APIs and an MCP server in every package. Vendr reports a median of $62,220 a year from 388 purchases, with a range of $11,191 to $175,915.

Key limitation: A steep learning curve is a common theme in Gartner Peer Insights reviews. The platform can tell you an account is in a late buying stage. Your SDR still has to decide who to call and what to say.

4. Demandbase

Demandbase is the other major full-stack ABM platform. It turns account, buying-group, engagement and signal data into programs: advertising, website personalization and sales intelligence.

Why it matters: Demandbase says it is a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for ABM Platforms for the sixth year in a row (2026). It was a Leader in the Forrester Wave for Intent Data Providers, Q1 2025, with the highest possible score for volume of signals. Forrester also named it a Leader in Revenue Marketing Platforms for B2B, Q1 2026.

Best for: Enterprise marketing teams running multi-stakeholder ABM plays that want ads, website personalization and intent in one place. See our behavioral analytics platforms guide for related analytics tools.

Pricing: A platform fee plus a flat fee per user, by quote. Data can be bought on its own. Vendr reports a median of $68,591 a year from 187 purchases, with a range of $24,000 to $164,037.

Key limitation: Costs grow as you add advertising, orchestration and more users. Budget for the full deployment, not the entry quote.

5. Informa TechTarget

Informa TechTarget's Priority Engine generates intent data from research on its own technology publications. Informa TechTarget states 58M+ permissioned members across 220 media properties. Because members are known, Priority Engine shows prospect-level intent, not only account signals.

Why it matters: Named both a Leader and Customer Favorite in The Forrester Wave Q1 2025. If you sell to IT buyers, this is close to seeing what they evaluate, because the activity happens on Informa TechTarget's own sites, not through IP inference.

Best for: Technology vendors selling to IT, security, cloud infrastructure or enterprise software buyers.

Pricing: Quote only. The product page lists no price. Content syndication can be bundled with intent data.

Key limitation: Narrow focus. Strong for technology purchases, thin for non-tech buying (HR, finance, operations).

6. Intentsify

Intentsify received the highest score in the Current Offering category in The Forrester Wave Q1 2025, with the highest possible scores in 12 of 21 criteria. It sells buyer intelligence, buying-group intent, audiences and website visitor resolution.

Why it matters: Intentsify states 1.1 trillion intent signals per month from 460K+ B2B content sites. It runs on a managed-service model, so it can also activate the data through advertising, lead generation, email and events for you.

Best for: Mid-market and enterprise B2B teams that want intent plus managed activation, especially teams without internal resources for data-driven targeting campaigns.

Pricing: Quote only. The site lists no price. Expect a subscription plus activation fees for managed programs.

Key limitation: The managed model suits teams that want hands-off execution. It can feel inflexible for teams that want full self-service control or raw data.

7. G2 Buyer Intent

G2 Buyer Intent captures second-party signals from software review research: product and category page views, competitor comparisons, pricing page engagement, and review reading. You see the companies researching your software.

Why it matters: The behavior, comparing vendors and reading peer reviews, points straight at an active evaluation. G2 says over 200 million software buyers research across G2, Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp each year. G2 agreed to buy the other three from Gartner in January 2026. Data flows to Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, 6sense, Demandbase and Outreach.

Best for: SaaS companies that want to know which prospects evaluate their category. Strong when combined with other buying signals like job changes or funding.

Pricing: Quote only. Vendr reports a median of $28,000 a year across G2 purchases (531 purchases, range $12,000 to $73,310). That figure covers all G2 products, not Buyer Intent alone.

Key limitation: Coverage stops at software buyers on G2's sites, and only for categories where your product is listed. Company-level only.

8. Warmly

Warmly identifies website visitors at the person level and adds chat and automated outreach. It is a first-party intent and activation tool, not a third-party data feed.

Why it matters: Warmly goes beyond the company to the person on your site, then routes that visitor into chat or outbound. That makes it an activation layer for teams without an ABM platform.

Best for: SMB and mid-market teams that want person-level website intent and automated follow-up.

Pricing: AI Web-Deanonymization from $10,000/year, Inbound Chat from $20,000/year, AI Inbound Autopilot from $30,000/year. Add-ons: GTM Signals Package and Warm Experiences, each from $10,000/year.

Key limitation: It sees only your own traffic. Person-level match rates depend on your audience; Warmly publishes no rate on its pricing page, so test on your own site.

9. Cognism

Cognism sells B2B contact data with phone-verified mobiles, aimed at European markets with Do-Not-Call coverage across Europe. Intent data is part of its Pro plan.

Why it matters: If your target accounts are in the EU or UK, Cognism pairs topic intent with contact data built for those markets. You get the account signal and a phone number in one subscription.

Best for: B2B teams selling into Europe that run phone-heavy outbound.

Pricing: Quote only. Standard and Pro plans each include 5 seats and use credits (1 credit reveals 1 contact). Intent is on Pro: admins pick up to 12 topics from a library of over 11,000.

Key limitation: 12 topics is a narrow window. If you need many topics or raw intent rows, a dedicated provider fits better.

10. Apollo.io

Apollo.io has the most accessible intent offering on this list. It bundles topic intent filters into a sales platform with 240M contacts and 30M companies, email sequencing and call tools.

Why it matters: For startups that cannot justify a five-figure intent contract, Apollo puts intent inside the prospecting tool they already use.

Best for: Startups, SMBs and lean sales teams that want intent bundled with prospecting.

Pricing: A free plan with no time limit, then Basic, Professional and Custom plans billed per seat with credits. API access is on Custom plans. Apollo's pricing page does not state how many intent topics each plan includes, so confirm it in the trial.

Key limitation: Intent depth is shallower than dedicated providers. Treat it as a complement to Apollo's prospecting, not a standalone intent source.

11. Dealfront (formerly Leadfeeder)

Dealfront identifies the companies that visit your website from their IP address, then adds firmographics for scoring. It has a strong European focus.

Why it matters: A prospect on your pricing page is a stronger sign than a third-party topic surge. Dealfront captures that and pushes it to your CRM.

Best for: SMB and mid-market teams that want affordable first-party website intent, especially in Europe.

Pricing: The free Lite plan shows the last 100 companies a month with 7 days of visitor history. Paid plans start at €79 a month billed annually (€113 billed monthly).

Key limitation: Account-level only. IP matching struggles with VPNs and remote workers. No third-party intent breadth.

12. SalesIntel

SalesIntel combines verified contacts with topic intent. It states 95% accuracy on AI-and-human-verified contacts on a 90-day refresh cycle, 200M+ verified B2B contacts and 54M+ verified mobile numbers.

Why it matters: Intent is only useful if you can reach the right person. SalesIntel pairs its own PredictiveIntent with Bombora's topic network across 60,000+ intent topics, and groups 30+ signal categories into one ranked queue.

Best for: Teams that value contact accuracy above all, especially phone-heavy outbound.

Pricing: Quote only. SalesIntel describes a flat fee with unlimited data: "No credit counting. No per-seat gatekeeping."

Key limitation: Topic intent is partly Bombora-based, so it overlaps with other Bombora resellers. The main difference is contact data quality.

13. TrustRadius (now part of HG Insights)

TrustRadius provides second-party intent from its B2B technology review community of more than 12 million annual B2B technology evaluators. HG Insights acquired it in June 2025.

Why it matters: Like G2, TrustRadius sees buyers actively compare vendors. HG Insights adds technographic data, so you see both that a company researches your category and what stack it runs today.

Best for: Technology vendors that want review-based signals combined with technographics. 6sense lists TrustRadius as an intent partner.

Pricing: Quote only.

Key limitation: A smaller buyer audience than G2. Most useful in technology categories with strong TrustRadius review coverage.

14. Breeze Intelligence (formerly Clearbit)

Breeze Intelligence is Clearbit's data inside HubSpot. Clearbit has joined HubSpot, and its data enriches contact and company records there, with IP-based visitor intent.

Why it matters: For HubSpot-native teams, there is no integration to build. Enrichment and website visitor activity land on HubSpot records and feed workflows and lead scoring.

Best for: HubSpot-centric teams that want enrichment and visitor identification without another vendor.

Pricing: Sold through HubSpot. Data enrichment is available on Starter and above for most hubs and does not consume HubSpot Credits. Smart properties do consume credits.

Key limitation: Locked into HubSpot. Intent is limited to first-party visitor data, much thinner than dedicated providers.

15. Anteriad

Anteriad was named a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave: Intent Data Providers for B2B, Q1 2025. It received the top score in future-proofing data collection, data integration and delivery, and data security and compliance.

Why it matters: Anteriad sells both the data and the execution. It states 460M+ B2B contacts across 180+ countries, 50B weekly intent signals and 11K+ intent topics. You can use the data in your own programs, or let its teams run them.

Best for: Marketing teams that want an alternative to the big ABM platforms, with global coverage and managed campaigns.

Pricing: Quote only.

Key limitation: Less name recognition than the major providers. Its strength is managed services more than self-serve data access.

16. DemandScience

DemandScience is a demand generation company. It sells in-market buyer activation, content syndication, propensity-based leads and HQL/BANT leads, all human-verified.

Why it matters: DemandScience sells outcomes, not signals. Its own line: "Stop paying for tools. Start paying for outcomes." For marketing teams measured on lead volume, that is a turnkey path from intent to leads. Its 2026 State of Performance Marketing report found that 76% of organizations create content not informed by verified buyer signals.

Best for: Enterprise marketing teams that need guaranteed lead volume from intent-driven syndication, mostly in technology.

Pricing: Quote only, based on lead volume and targeting. No platform license.

Key limitation: You buy leads, not data, so it is hard to compare with data providers. Leads may need significant nurturing.

17. Artisan

Artisan takes the opposite approach to everyone else on this list: instead of selling intent data, it activates it. Artisan's AI BDR agent, Ava, consumes intent and trigger signals and converts them directly into personalized outbound, email, LinkedIn, and call queuing, then handles replies, objections, and meeting booking autonomously. Ava prospects from a 250M+ contact database enriched through a waterfall across 22+ data sources.

Why it matters: The most common failure mode with intent data is buying it and never operationalizing it. Artisan closes the gap between "this account is surging" and "someone actually contacted them" with 20+ prebuilt campaign types, including intent-triggered plays, CRM reactivation, and upsell motions, plus two-way Salesforce and HubSpot sync. SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliant.

Best for: Lean teams that want intent signals wired straight into execution without hiring SDRs or building a signal-routing workflow.

Pricing: Custom (contact for pricing); annual contracts standard.

Key limitation: Artisan is not an intent data source you can license, there is no raw data delivery, API, or warehouse export, so it complements rather than replaces the providers above for data teams.

Which Intent Data Provider Fits Your Situation?

With 17 options, the real question is which 2-3 to evaluate. Start from the job, not the vendor.

Startups and SMBs (under $10K/year budget)

Start with Apollo.io for intent bundled with prospecting tools, and add Dealfront for first-party website visitors. Both have free plans. Add signal data by API for job changes, funding and trigger events: small companies read too little to show a topic surge.

Mid-market teams ($25K-$75K/year budget)

Evaluate Bombora or Intentsify for third-party intent that feeds your Outreach or Salesloft workflows. Add G2 Buyer Intent if buyers compare you on G2. Layer dated events (hiring, funding, executive changes) for the reason to reach out.

Enterprise ABM programs ($75K+ budget)

Evaluate 6sense and Demandbase head-to-head. Both are Gartner ABM Leaders for 2026, by their own statements. Choose 6sense for predictive scoring and partner intent in one place; choose Demandbase for advertising and buying-group orchestration. Keep an independent data feed (Bombora, or intent and events by API) for your own warehouse and models. See our ABM strategy guide.

European-focused teams

Cognism pairs topic intent with European contact data and Do-Not-Call coverage. Dealfront adds website visitor identification across EU markets.

Technology vendors

Informa TechTarget gives prospect-level intent for IT buyers. Combine it with G2 or TrustRadius for review-based signals: editorial research plus active vendor comparison.

HubSpot-native teams

Breeze Intelligence gives the tightest native fit. Add Bombora or Apollo for third-party coverage.

Data teams, platforms and AI agent builders

You need raw rows, not a dashboard. Pick a provider with an API or bulk files, and score intent with your own fit data. The Autobound Signal API serves topic intent and dated events by REST API, MCP, GCS push or flat file.

When not to buy intent data

• Your market is a few hundred named accounts. Watch them directly: their news, filings, hiring and visits to your site. A topic score adds little.
• Nobody will act on it within a week. Intent loses value fast. A surge in a dashboard nobody opens is money spent for nothing.
• Your buyers do not research your category online. A new category or a niche with little published content gives thin, noisy topic data.
• You sell to very small companies. A ten-person company reads too little to surge. Events such as funding, formation and hiring cover it better.
• You have no fit model yet. Intent on accounts you cannot sell to is noise. Fix your ideal customer profile and contact data first.

Intent Data by API: Topic Intent and Signals in One Call Flow

The Autobound Signal API serves co-op topic intent from Five by Five's Market Pulse (see the partnership). Each company and topic gets a composite score from 0 to 100, measured against that company's own baseline. The snapshot loads once a week and covers 38,000+ topics. The same API key returns dated events across 35 signal types, so you can rank with intent and write with events.

1. Find a topic ID. GET /v1/buyer-intent/topics?q=intent%20data. Free.
2. Get companies surging on it. POST /v1/buyer-intent/companies. 1 credit per company-topic row returned, up to 10 topics per call.
3. Add the reason to reach out. POST /v1/companies/enrich. Funding, filings, hires and posts for each company, 2 credits per signal returned.

curl -X POST https://signals.autobound.ai/v1/buyer-intent/companies \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $AUTOBOUND_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"topic_ids": ["b2b_5149"], "composite_min": 60, "page_size": 25}'

A trimmed response (the company is replaced with a placeholder):

{
  "companies": [
    {
      "topic_id": "b2b_5149",
      "topic": { "id": "b2b_5149", "name": "Intent Data", "category": "Marketing" },
      "intent_score": 93,
      "signal_week": "2026-11-02",
      "company": {
        "domain": "example.com",
        "name": "Example Co",
        "industry": "Investment Management",
        "employee_count": "11 to 25"
      }
    }
  ],
  "count": 1,
  "next_cursor": "...",
  "effective_floor": 75
}

The response states the score floor of the weekly snapshot (effective_floor). A call with no results is free, and new accounts get 1,000 free credits. Note the example: a small investment firm surging on "Intent Data" may be researching, not buying. That is why you check intent against fit and events. The same data is available to Claude and ChatGPT through the Autobound MCP server. Full reference: buyer intent companies. For contact and company data vendors, see the B2B data providers comparison.

How to Actually Get ROI from Intent Data

The 76% of teams without exceptional ROI share common failure patterns. Here is what top performers do differently:

Layer multiple signal types. No single intent source is enough. Combine first-party (website), second-party (G2, TrustRadius) and third-party (Bombora, 6sense) intent. Then add events: job changes, funding, hiring. This is the core of signal-based selling.

Set short decay windows. Weight signals from the last 7-14 days most. Discount anything older than 30 days. Stale intent creates false confidence.

Act fast. UserGems research shows vendors who act on buying signals within 48 hours see 4x higher conversion rates. Intent has a half-life of days, not weeks.

Personalize on the signal. "I noticed your company is in-market for CRM software" is table stakes, and it tells the buyer you are watching. Use the event behind the account instead: the new VP, the funding round, the new office. See our guides to cold email templates and AI sales email tactics.

Measure signal-to-pipeline, not signal volume. Track what share of intent-flagged accounts enter pipeline within 30, 60 and 90 days. If few convert, the problem is signal quality, speed or messaging. See our outbound sales playbook.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between intent data and buying signals?

Intent data is one kind of buying signal. It tracks research behavior: topics read, content consumed, vendors compared. Buying signals are broader. They include trigger events like job changes, funding, SEC filings and hiring. Intent shows who may be in-market. Events show why and when to reach out. See intent data vs signal data above.

How much does intent data cost in 2026?

Most intent vendors quote prices only. Bombora, 6sense, Demandbase, G2, Informa TechTarget and Intentsify publish no list price. Vendr buyer data shows median contracts of $25,000 a year for Bombora, $28,000 for G2, $62,220 for 6sense and $68,591 for Demandbase. Public prices exist at the low end: Apollo and Dealfront have free plans, Dealfront paid plans start at €79 a month, and Warmly starts at $10,000 a year. Autobound publishes credit prices: company intent costs 1 credit per company-topic row, and new accounts get 1,000 free credits.

Is account-level or contact-level intent data better?

Contact-level is more actionable for sales, because it names the person. But most third-party providers deliver account-level only, for privacy reasons. Contact-level is strongest with first-party data (Warmly identifies people on your site) and with publishers whose members are known (Informa TechTarget). To bridge the gap, combine account-level intent with data enrichment to find the right contacts in surging accounts.

Which intent data provider does Forrester rate highest?

In The Forrester Wave: Intent Data Providers for B2B, Q1 2025, five providers were Leaders: Intentsify (highest Current Offering score, top marks in 12 of 21 criteria), 6sense, Bombora, Informa TechTarget (also Customer Favorite) and Demandbase. Anteriad was a Strong Performer. Forrester has not published a newer intent data Wave as of November 2026.

Can intent data work with my existing CRM and sales tools?

Yes. Most providers integrate with Salesforce and HubSpot and with sales engagement tools such as Outreach and Salesloft. For Clay or n8n workflows, API-based providers give programmatic access. Ask how data reaches your reps: a CRM push, a daily batch or a manual export can mean hours versus weeks.

Can I get intent data through an API?

Yes. The Autobound Signal API has buyer intent endpoints for companies and contacts by topic, plus search and enrich endpoints for 35 signal types, all with one API key in the X-API-KEY header. The same data is available to AI assistants through the Autobound MCP server. 6sense lists APIs and an MCP server in its packages, and Cognism lists MCP and API access.

Is intent data GDPR compliant?

It depends on the source, not the category. Ask how consent was collected, whether the vendor signs a data processing agreement and how people opt out. Bidstream carries the most risk: the UK ICO raised serious concerns about real-time bidding in 2019, and the Belgian data protection authority found in 2022 that the ad industry's consent framework broke GDPR. Company-level scores carry less personal data than person-level intent.

How is intent data different from contact data or enrichment?

Data enrichment gives you static attributes: firmographics, technographics, verified emails. Intent data gives you behavior: what a company researches now. Enrichment tells you who to target; intent tells you when. Use enrichment to build an ICP-filtered list, and intent to pick which accounts on it to work this week.

What is the biggest mistake teams make with intent data?

Treating it like a lead list. A high-intent account is a company showing research activity, not a warm lead. It still needs context: who to contact, what problem they solve, and what your angle is. Teams that drop intent accounts into a generic cadence see little lift.

How fresh is intent data?

It varies, so ask each vendor for a written refresh cadence and the delay to your CRM. Website visitor tools see visits as they happen. Co-op topic intent is usually scored in weekly snapshots; Autobound's intent snapshot loads once a week. Event signals such as news, hiring and job changes refresh daily or weekly, depending on the type.

Can intent data predict exactly when a company will buy?

No. It improves timing, but no platform can promise a deal date. Run a backtest on your own closed-won deals before you trust any vendor's timing claims.

How do I avoid intent data false positives?

Combine signal types. A company surging on "CRM" might be researching a blog post, not buying. If it also hires SDRs, just raised funding and visits your pricing page, it is a real buyer. Layering topic intent, events and first-party visits cuts false positives.

B2B Intent Data Explained: Definitions and Nuances

What Is B2B Intent Data?

B2B intent data captures digital signs that a company or person is researching a solution in your category. It tells you who may be in-market now from observed behavior: reading content on relevant topics, comparing products on review sites, and visiting your website. Intent data is one part of the broader category of buying signals. Signals also include trigger events like job changes, funding rounds and SEC filings.

Contact-Level vs. Account-Level Intent

Account-level intent says "someone at Acme Corp is researching CRM software." Contact-level intent says "Sarah Chen, VP of Sales Ops at Acme Corp, is researching CRM software." Contact-level is far more actionable but harder to do at scale with privacy compliance. Most third-party providers deliver account-level only. To bridge the gap, match surging accounts to the right contacts with an enrichment layer or contact-level intent.

The Bottom Line

The intent data market in 2026 is maturing and consolidating. ABM platforms like 6sense and Demandbase keep adding activation. Dedicated providers like Bombora and Intentsify deepen coverage. Review-site intent is merging under G2 and HG Insights. And more vendors now deliver intent to AI agents, not just dashboards.

Topic surges alone are table stakes. The teams that win combine topic intent with dated events: job changes, funding, hiring, SEC filings. Rank with intent, write with events.

Do not start by picking a vendor. Answer three questions first. Which signals would most change how your team ranks accounts? How will those signals reach your reps or agents? What is your real annual budget? The answers narrow 17 options to 2-3, and then the backtest decides.

For more, see our guides to data enrichment APIs, predictive analytics platforms, signal database architecture and signal-based selling.