Address Labels API Pricing: ChainLabel vs Arkham, Nansen, MetaSleuth & Block Explorers
September 22, 2026
"How much does it cost to label a list of addresses?" sounds like a question with one number for an answer. It isn't — because no two sources price labels the same way. One charges per address, one per API credit, one by a daily cap, one gives the API away but gates access, and one only shows labels on a web page with no bulk API at all. This post lines them up on the only thing that matters to a buyer: the monthly cost to label a real number of addresses.
Prices below are list prices gathered from each provider's public pages as of September 2026 and are simplified to compare like with like. Pricing changes often — treat these as ballpark, and confirm current numbers with each provider before you budget.
The pricing models, in one sentence each
- ChainLabel — per address. Flat monthly plans that include a set number of address labels; one REST call, labels refreshed daily.
- Arkham — free API. A usage-metered developer API offered at no cost through a pilot/access program, built for evaluation and low-volume use, not commercial bulk.
- Nansen — API credits. Buy credits (about $10 per 1,000) and each labels call spends them; premium labels (Smart Money, Fund) cost up to 150 credits per call.
- MetaSleuth (BlockSec) — daily-capped subscription. A fixed monthly fee for an Address Label API with a per-day address quota; buy add-ons to raise the cap.
- Block explorers (Etherscan, BscScan…) — web-only name tags. Public labels show on the website, but they are not returned by the API, and each chain is a separate site.
Cost to label addresses, side by side
| Source | Pricing model | ~1,000 addresses / mo | ~1,000,000 addresses / mo | Self-serve |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChainLabel | Per address | $49 (Starter, 50K incl.) | $499 (Scale, 1M incl.) | Yes |
| Arkham | Free API (gated) | $0 — if accepted | Not offered for bulk | Apply for access |
| Nansen | Credits ($10 / 1K) | ~$49/mo + credits | Cost-prohibitive at 150 credits/call | Partly |
| MetaSleuth | Daily-capped sub | ~$699 (entry tier) | ~$1,900 (base + add-ons) | Sales-assisted |
| Block explorers | Web-only, no label API | Manual lookups | No bulk label API | Manual / per chain |
Reading the table honestly
Each of these is a good tool for a particular job, and the cheapest cell isn't always the right choice:
- Arkham is the best free way to explore one address at a time, and its pilot API is genuinely $0 — but it isn't sold as a bulk, redistribute-into-your-warehouse product, so it doesn't fit 'label a million addresses every month'.
- Nansen's labels are excellent, especially Smart Money and Fund attribution, but at up to 150 credits per call the pricing is designed for high-value per-lookup enrichment, not sweeping a giant list.
- MetaSleuth ships a serious compliance suite around its labels; the trade-off is a higher entry price and a per-day cap you manage with add-ons.
- Block explorers like Etherscan are free and familiar, but their name tags live on the website only — the API won't return them — so labeling a list means manual lookups, chain by chain, with no clean export.
- ChainLabel is the simplest if your job is literally 'here are N addresses, tell me what they are': one endpoint, per-address pricing, labels refreshed daily, and the lowest predictable price at mid volume — no credits or daily caps to reason about.
So which should you pick?
If you need a visual dashboard, use Arkham or Nansen. If you need a full KYT/compliance platform with monitoring and reporting, look at MetaSleuth or a Chainalysis-tier vendor. If you just need to eyeball one address, a block explorer is free and instant. And if you want clean labels for a whole list of addresses as JSON or CSV — across chains, in one call, without a subscription sized for someone else's use case — that's exactly what ChainLabel is for. See the API docs and pricing, or start free and run it on your own addresses before you spend anything. Prefer a file over an integration? Use bulk export.