Choose MCP while you're working out which companies to select. Use REST when a job needs to run the same selection on a schedule. You can use both: explore the criteria in a chat, then put the agreed filters into an import your team can reproduce.
Innovadata's MCP tools call the same company-data service as its REST endpoints. Switching interfaces changes how you request the data; the country's available fields and account charges still apply.
MCP helps you work out the selection
MCP lets an AI client discover tools and call them with structured inputs. In Innovadata, list_countries shows the markets, list_filters describes a country's filters and list_activities helps choose activity codes. The assistant can count your selection before retrieving company rows.
That is useful when the brief is still changing. You can ask how many companies have email, narrow the industry and inspect the filters behind the answer. Save those filters when you settle on a segment, because the conversation alone is a poor specification for a recurring job.
The MCP specification describes tool discovery and recommends controls that let a person deny tool calls. Check the controls in your own client, especially for paid retrievals and any connected CRM writes.
A count and a retrieval are different requests
For example, these REST requests select Estonian companies with an email address. The first counts the selection; the second retrieves a first page of up to five records on your account's terms.
curl 'https://app.innovadata.eu/api/v1/data/count?country=EE&has_email=true' -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'curl 'https://app.innovadata.eu/api/v1/data/companies?country=EE&has_email=true&page_size=5' -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'These are request examples, not a complete import. Counts and metadata are free. On a metered account, company records cost credits; optional subscriptions have their own access conditions. Follow the API reference for pagination and the current response format. Keep the real key in your application's secret configuration.
REST gives a recurring job explicit rules
A daily CRM import needs more than a successful response. Your integration must know when to stop paging, what to do with a failed request and how to match an incoming company to an existing account.
Use country plus registration code for that match. Save the filters with the job, preserve financial periods and record the rows the CRM rejected. Before retrying a paid request, check what your job already received and what the API charged; retry behaviour belongs in the integration's design.
REST also fits a form that looks up a company by registration code or an internal system that refreshes selected fields. Those tasks already have defined inputs, so a chat adds little to the request itself.
Keep the CRM write separate
Innovadata MCP searches and reads company data. It doesn't create accounts in your CRM. That step uses the CRM's own API or connector, with the matching and overwrite rules your team has chosen.
Test one selection through both interfaces before turning it into a scheduled import. The CRM preview should show the same company identifiers and explain every field it will change. See the integration examples to try a count before retrieving a batch.