The waterfall
Disburse's own data answers first. When a person comes back without a work email or mobile, the waterfall is the next step: a second, explicit ask that looks beyond our data for that one contact, paid from a separate balance of waterfall credits and charged only when something is found.
How it runs
- Own data first. Every search, export, lookup and extension reveal is served from disburse's data and costs the usual one credit per lead. None of it spends waterfall credits.
- The gap is reported. A lookup that found no contact says so, and a search summary counts the rows the waterfall could still fill.
- You say yes. The waterfall runs only when it is asked for: the
waterfalloption onenrich_person,bulk_enrich_peopleandPOST /v1/enrich/person, or the Find via the waterfall buttons in the Chrome extension. Agents are told to confirm with you before setting it. - It walks the sources in order. Each source is asked only for what is still missing, and the walk stops as soon as the contact is filled. A source that is slow, over its limit or down is skipped and the next one is asked.
- The employer is checked. A waterfall email is delivered only when the employer it reports agrees with disburse's record for that person. A different employer usually means an old address, so the email is withheld with a note. A mobile follows the person, so it is always delivered.
- What it finds becomes your data. A contact the waterfall delivered is kept for your organisation and served as disburse data from then on. The next search, export, lookup or reveal that reaches that person carries it, spends no waterfall credits, and the lead itself never costs a credit.
What it costs
| Looking for | Waterfall credits | Charged when |
|---|---|---|
A work email (waterfall: "email") | 1 | an email was found, delivered or withheld |
A mobile (waterfall: "mobile") | 10 | a mobile was found |
Both (waterfall: "both") | 1 + 10 | each, separately |
Nothing found means nothing charged. A withheld email is still charged, because the lookup was made and answered; the note tells you why it was held back.
Waterfall credits are a monthly balance separate from your credits, bought on the dashboard's billing page in blocks of 250 up to 10,000 (Growth and Scale plans). They expire at the end of each month and do not roll over. A batch stops at the balance rather than overdrawing it: rows past that point come back with own data only and say so.
Where it is available
| Surface | How |
|---|---|
| Claude, ChatGPT and any MCP agent | waterfall on enrich_person (one person) or bulk_enrich_people (up to 100 per call) |
| REST | waterfall on POST /v1/enrich/person |
| Chrome extension | The Find email and Find mobile via the waterfall buttons on a profile |
Searches and exports do not run the waterfall themselves. To build a list with
the gaps filled, run the search or export, pass the rows without a contact to
bulk_enrich_people with waterfall set, then run the same export again: it
comes back as one file with the found contacts in place, and the people you
already received are not charged again.
Reading the answer
Every answer that ran the waterfall carries a waterfall block saying what
happened per field:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
delivered | Found and included in the row |
withheld | An email was found at a different employer; held back, with a note |
not_found | The waterfall found nothing either; not charged |
already_held | Our own data had it; the waterfall was not asked |
Without waterfall credits
The ask still succeeds with own data only, and the answer carries a note giving the balance, the cost of the lookup and where to add waterfall credits. Nothing is charged. In the Chrome extension the buttons are replaced by a link to the billing page.
Limits
The waterfall is paced across all of disburse, so a batch of 100 where most rows need it takes around half a minute. There is a daily ceiling on how much the waterfall can ask; past it, an answer says the waterfall is temporarily unavailable, nothing is charged, and the ask can be repeated later.