---
title: "Data and sources"
description: "Openlead reads the public web when you search and links every fact to its source. People found in the last 90 days are reused, and the same search within 7 days is answered from saved results."
canonical_url: "https://openlead.ai/docs/data-and-sources"
last_updated: "2026-11-10"
type: "concept"
section: "Reference"
---

# Data and sources

Openlead reads the public web when you search and links every fact to its source. People found in the last 90 days are reused, and the same search within 7 days is answered from saved results.

This page explains where the companies and people in your results come from, what Openlead keeps, and when it reads the web again.

## Where the data comes from

From the public web. When you search, Openlead reads public pages, company sites and public professional profiles, and keeps every fact with its source. The data is read at the time you search.

## Every fact keeps its source

You can follow each fact back to where it was read:

- **A company.** Its domain links to its website, and the overview on its page is marked with the site it was read from. The results table can show a **Source** column that says where each company came from.
- **A person.** Their profile link opens the public profile. Their page also shows the first lines of that profile that the search read, unedited.

## How your database grows

Every search adds to your database. Openlead saves each company and person it finds before it shows them to you, so a search you never save from still fills your database.

- **One record per company.** A company is identified by its web domain, so a company that several searches find is still one record.
- **One record per person.** A person is identified by their profile address. When there is none, by their name and company.
- **Newer facts replace older ones.** When a later search finds a company again, the newest facts it read are kept.

Your database page lists what your workspace's own searches have found, and the companies and people on your lists. Other workspaces do not see it. For personal data, see the [privacy policy](https://openlead.ai/privacy).

## What is reused, and for how long

Before Openlead looks up people at a company, it checks what it already knows. In a search you see this as the step **Checking your database for known companies**.

- **Companies.** A search that is not identical to an earlier one reads the web to find companies. A company your workspace already has is not charged again. See [Plans and credits](https://openlead.ai/docs/plans-and-credits).
- **People.** People Openlead has found at a company in the last 90 days are reused, and the web lookup for that company is skipped. The 90 days count from the last time Openlead found the person on the web. Reusing a person does not restart the count. After 90 days, a search looks for the people at that company again.
- **The same search.** If you run an identical search within 7 days, Openlead returns the results it saved and does not read the web. Identical means the same words, with capital letters, spacing and punctuation at the ends ignored, the same roles, and the same number of companies.

Openlead looks for up to 3 people at each company.

A company's facts are not refreshed on a schedule. They update when a search that is not identical to an earlier one finds the company and reads the web again.

## What the dates mean

A company page says when it was first seen, and a person page says when they were found. Both are when your workspace first came across them. Openlead does not show a "last checked" date. A person reused from your database was last read from the web within the last 90 days.

## FAQ

### How fresh is the data?

Companies are read from the web each time a new search finds them. People found at a company in the last 90 days are reused, and older ones are looked up again.

### Can I refresh a record?

There is no refresh button. A search that is not identical to an earlier one reads the web for companies again, and it looks up people whose last sighting is older than 90 days.

### Does the same search cost anything twice?

An identical search within 7 days is answered from saved results without reading the web. What a search costs in companies and credits is on [Plans and credits](https://openlead.ai/docs/plans-and-credits).

### Where can I see a source?

On a company's page, its domain and overview link to its website. On a person's page, the profile link opens their public profile. See [Results and sources](https://openlead.ai/docs/results-and-sources).