> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.investorlift.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Frequently asked questions > What a credit is, what the Free plan includes, the markets, the freshness, the contact fields, MCP, the limits, the support and who can subscribe. Short answers. Each one links the page that has the full answer. ## What is a credit? A credit is the unit every plan measures. The API charges one credit for a deal, an investor or a parcel the first time your account gets it, on any route or tool. To read the same record again costs nothing while the plan has credit. A buyer match costs 2 credits a call, plus 1 per investor new to your account. [Plans and limits](/guides/plans-and-limits#what-counts) has the full table. ## What does the Free plan include, and why does it ask for a card? The Free plan gives 250 credits in the first month, then 100 a month. It asks for a card at sign-up and never charges it. The card raises the cost of a fake account, and a change to a paid plan charges it as the checkout shows. [Get an API key](/get-a-key) has the steps. ## Is there a sandbox? No. A Free key is the test key. It sees the same data under the same rules as a paid key, because the data is the product. Develop on Free, then change plan when the allowance is not enough. [Sandbox is production](/guides/plans-and-limits#sandbox-is-production) says why. ## Which markets does the API cover? Read [Which data is available where](/coverage/markets). It lists every market in production, every dataset the market serves and the as-of date of each. Every response carries `meta.coverage[]`, one entry per loaded market, so a new market answers the day it lands. ## How fresh is the data? Every response carries the as-of date of the data it reads, in `meta.coverage[]`. The API counts every "days since" number from that date, not from today. The financing, lien, valuation and lender numbers are a dated snapshot, and `meta.dated[]` says so. Read the dates, and design for data that is weeks old. [Coverage and freshness](/guides/concepts/coverage) and [Dated data](/guides/concepts/dated-data) have the detail. ## Can I get phone numbers or emails? Not on this host. The API never serves the fields that identify a natural person. Those are the people behind an entity, their mailing addresses, the skip-trace targets, and the listing agents' names, phones and emails. Every such field comes back null, and the record says so with `contact_redacted: true`. [Authentication](/guides/concepts/authentication) says who does get them. ## Can I use it from Claude, Cursor or another MCP client? Yes. `POST /mcp` at `https://api.investorlift.com/mcp` answers Model Context Protocol clients with twenty-six read-only tools, out of the tables `/v1` serves. The same key, the same credits and the same terms apply. [The MCP endpoint](/mcp/overview) explains it, and [Connecting a client](/mcp/connect) has the entry for each client. ## What occurs when I reach a limit? At the plan's requests a minute or a day, the API answers `429 rate_limited` with `Retry-After`. Wait, then retry the same request. At the period's credits, the charged routes answer `403 quota_exceeded` until the period resets or the plan changes. A request over what the plan allows answers `403 plan_limit` and names the limit. [At a limit](/guides/plans-and-limits#at-a-limit) has every case. ## Is there an uptime commitment? No plan below Enterprise carries an uptime commitment or service credits. The support times on the plans page are targets in US business hours, not commitments. An uptime commitment exists only where a signed Enterprise agreement states it. [Support](/guides/plans-and-limits#support) has the table. ## Who can subscribe during the beta? Businesses and professionals with a billing address in the United States. During the beta, Investorlift offers Data Services only there, and the checkout asks where your billing address is. Section 1.2 of the [Developer agreement](/guides/terms) has the words. ## How do I cancel, or change plan? Cancel in the console, under Keys and usage. Change plan through [Pricing](/pricing), which opens the console's plans. A paid plan's cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period. Cancelling the Free plan takes effect at once. An upgrade applies at once, prorated, and a downgrade from the next period. Section 11.2 of the [Developer agreement](/guides/terms) has the words. ## How do I get support? Support is what the plans page states for your plan. From Starter up, write to [support@investorlift.com](mailto:support@investorlift.com) from your account email, and the page names a first-response target per plan. The Free plan has no support channel yet. For a privacy request, a removal or an appeal, write to the same address. Quote the [request id](/guides/concepts/request-ids) when you have one, and the UTC time of your request when you do not. [Support](/guides/plans-and-limits#support) has the table. ## Related topics - [Changelog](/changelog.md) - [Walkthroughs](/guides/walkthroughs.md) - [The MCP endpoint](/mcp/overview.md) - [Coverage and freshness](/guides/concepts/coverage.md) - [Top buyers in a place](/guides/walkthroughs/top-buyers.md)