Of 120+ OSINT tools surveyed in February 2026, 5 have permanently shut down, 6 moved behind paywalls, and ~12 face reduced functionality. Key casualties: BinaryEdge (dead), Clearbit (now $75/month), Pipl ($3K–$130K/year). Counter-trends: Maigret now checks 3,000+ sites, AI-powered OSINT tools are proliferating, and Bluesky's open AT Protocol enables social intelligence that X/Facebook/LinkedIn no longer permit.
Of 120+ OSINT tools surveyed in February 2026, 5 shut down permanently, 6 moved behind paywalls, and ~12 face reduced functionality. Counter-trends: AI-powered tools proliferating, Maigret checks 3,000+ sites, and Bluesky's AT Protocol enables social intelligence that X, Facebook, and LinkedIn block.
Key Findings at a Glance
Of 120+ commonly recommended OSINT tools surveyed, at least 5 have shut down or gone effectively dead, 6 have moved behind significant paywalls, and roughly a dozen more face reduced functionality or uncertain futures. The dominant forces: platform API lockdowns (Twitter/X, Reddit, Facebook, LinkedIn), corporate acquisitions funneling open tools into enterprise products, and a broader shift toward paid SaaS models. AI-powered OSINT tools are the major counter-trend — proliferating rapidly alongside Bluesky's open protocol as a rare bright spot for social media intelligence.
Methodology: Between January and February 2026, we checked the live status, pricing, ownership, and recent changelog of every tool listed here. Sources include official announcements, vendor changelogs, Bellingcat's Online Investigation Toolkit, Intelligence X tools changelog, industry newsletters (OSINT Newsletter, Indicator), Krebs on Security, and direct URL verification. Where possible, we link to primary sources.
Which Free OSINT Tools Shut Down in 2024–2026?
| Tool | Category | Status | What Happened | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BinaryEdge | Network Scanning | Dead | Shut down after Coalition acquisition; tech absorbed into Coalition Control | Mar 31, 2025 |
| ThreatCrowd | Threat Intel | Dead | SSL expired Jan 2025, no HTTP response; Palo Alto deprecated integration | ~Mid 2025 |
| Skype | Comms / Data Source | Dead | Retired by Microsoft; OSINT tools lost Skype as a data source | May 5, 2025 |
| Twint | Twitter/X Scraping | Dead | Broken by X's anti-scraping; no updates since 2020 | Effectively 2023+ |
| Illicit Services | Data Search | Dead | Voluntarily shut down due to exploitation concerns | 2024 |
BinaryEdge is the highest-profile casualty. Acquired by Coalition (a cyber insurance company) in 2020, the standalone platform was permanently shut down on March 31, 2025. All subscriptions — free and paid — were terminated. The scanning technology lives on inside Coalition's products but is no longer independently accessible.
ThreatCrowd went dark around mid-2025 with no formal announcement. The SSL certificate expired in January 2025 and was never renewed, the site returns no HTTP response, and Palo Alto's Cortex XSOAR deprecated its ThreatCrowd integration in June 2025, citing "service is down." The tool should be considered permanently defunct.
Skype's retirement dealt a surprising blow to OSINT. Tools like OSINT Industries and Epieos relied on Skype as a data source for digital footprint mapping. With Skype profiles disappearing by January 2026, those investigative data points are gone. Twint — the once-popular Twitter scraping tool — is effectively dead, broken by X's updated anti-scraping systems. Illicit Services (search.illicit.services) was voluntarily shut down by its operator after evidence of exploitation for malicious purposes.
Additional smaller casualties confirmed by Intelligence X's tools changelog (Oct 2025): Spytox, Matbea (Bitcoin lookup).
Which OSINT Tools Moved From Free to Paid in 2024–2025?
| Tool | Was | Now Costs | Status | What Changed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearbit → Breeze Intelligence | Free | $75/mo minimum | Paid | HubSpot acquired; all free tools sunset Apr 30, 2025 |
| Pipl | Free search | $3K–$130K/year | Paid | Enterprise-only; no free tier, no self-signup |
| Phonebook.cz | Free | Paid IntelX account | Paid | Locked due to spam abuse; requires paid Intelligence X |
| GeoGuessr | Free mode | ~$4.99/mo | Paid | Free mode eliminated Feb 2024; Steam version requires sub too |
| MarineTraffic | Generous free | $10–$100/mo | Paid | Jan 2025: eliminated add-ons, 3 free "unlocks" then paywall |
| Etherscan (multi-chain) | Free API | $49/mo per chain | Paid | Free API cut for Avalanche, Base, BNB, Optimism; ETH mainnet still free |
The most dramatic pivot belongs to Clearbit, acquired by HubSpot in December 2023 and rebranded as Breeze Intelligence. Every free Clearbit tool — the platform, Weekly Visitor Report, Connect Chrome extension, TAM Calculator, Slack integration — was sunset on April 30, 2025. The Logo API followed on December 8, 2025. Using Breeze Intelligence now requires a HubSpot subscription ($30/month) plus a credit pack ($45/month), creating a $75/month floor where there was once zero cost. (We built a free, self-hosted replacement: Open Logo API.)
Pipl completed its transformation from free consumer search to enterprise-only identity verification. Custom pricing ranges from $3,000 to $130,000 annually (average ~$58,000/year), with no free tier and no self-signup. For individual OSINT practitioners, Pipl is no longer viable.
Other tools have shifted to restrictive freemium models. Epieos now charges €29.99/month for full access to 140+ modules. OSINT Industries starts at ~£19/month. VirusTotal restructured pricing into four tiers (October 2025) but preserved its free Community tier at 500 requests/day — a key win for the open OSINT community.
How Are Corporate Acquisitions Reshaping the OSINT Landscape?
| Tool | Acquired By | Status | Impact on Free Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| SecurityTrails | Recorded Future → Mastercard ($2.65B) | Acquired | Free tier significantly restricted |
| SpiderFoot | Intel 471 (Thoma Bravo) | Acquired | Open-source version abandoned; 24+ pending PRs, 100+ issues |
| AlienVault OTX | AT&T → LevelBlue (WillJam Ventures) | Acquired | Still free (235K+ members); long-term uncertain |
| Sentinel Hub | Planet Labs | Acquired | EO Browser shut down Feb 2025; split into free Copernicus + paid Planet |
| FlightAware | Collins Aerospace (RTX/Raytheon) | Acquired | Consumer tracking still free |
| Netcraft | Spectrum Equity ($100M+) | Acquired | Enterprise focus deepening; acquired FraudWatch |
SecurityTrails underwent a double acquisition — purchased by Recorded Future for $65 million in 2022, then Recorded Future was acquired by Mastercard for $2.65 billion (closed Q1 2025). SecurityTrails now feeds into Recorded Future's Intelligence Graph as a subsidiary of a credit card company. The free tier has been significantly restricted.
SpiderFoot was acquired by Intel 471 (Thoma Bravo portfolio) in November 2022. The open-source version on GitHub has been effectively abandoned — no updates for 2+ years, 24+ pending pull requests, 100+ untriaged issues. Its capabilities were folded into Intel 471's TITAN platform.
What Is the Current Status of 120+ OSINT Tools by Category?
People Search
All 20 people search tools surveyed remain operational. PeopleConnect Holdings (H.I.G. Capital) controls TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, Intelius, and ZabaSearch — all paid at ~$25–30/month. Whitepages Inc. owns 411.com and AnyWho, and launched Property Intel (Dec 2024) and a Pro API (Aug 2025).
A March 2024 Krebs on Security investigation exposed that TruePeopleSearch, FastPeopleSearch, SearchPeopleFree, USPhoneBook, and FamilyTreeNow are interconnected sites registered via Alibaba Cloud in Beijing with fabricated founder identities. Despite this exposure, all remain fully operational and free (ad-supported). The paid/free divide has held stable — no tool has newly moved from free to paid.
Email & Username Tools
Have I Been Pwned is thriving. A major 2.0 redesign launched in May 2025, and the database expanded with 2 billion new email addresses, plus data from Operation Endgame 2.0 (15.3 million victim emails). The free personal search remains intact. DeHashed expanded with WHOIS domain search (April 2025). Intelligence X updated to tools version 18 (October 2025), adding 204+ million DNS records.
Maigret has effectively surpassed Sherlock for username searches, now checking 3,000+ sites versus Sherlock's 400+, with better false-positive handling and MCP server integration for AI assistants. Sherlock remains actively maintained (v0.16.0, included in Kali Linux), but the community has shifted. WhatsMyName covers 640+ platforms. Holehe (v1.61, 120+ platforms) and h8mail (v2.5.6) remain functional open-source tools.
Domain, Network & IP
The biggest infrastructure shift: ICANN officially replaced WHOIS with the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) on January 28, 2025. RDAP offers structured data and better internationalization, but many records remain GDPR-redacted. Censys launched a new platform (February 2025) with credit-based pricing, new query language (CenQL), and 100 free credits. Shodan continues its familiar model — limited free tier, one-time $49 lifetime membership, tiered subscriptions. GreyNoise launched Recall, Feeds, and query-based blocklists while maintaining its free Community tier.
Threat Intelligence
The abuse.ch ecosystem (MalwareBazaar, URLhaus, ThreatFox, YARAify, Feodo Tracker) deepened its Spamhaus Technology partnership, adding commercial API access alongside community-free usage. All platforms now require authentication. PhishTank remains online but has had new user registration disabled since 2020; an ML-based redesign is underway. MITRE ATT&CK released version 18 (October 2025) with a defensive overhaul, and the companion ATLAS AI security framework expanded to 15 tactics and 66 techniques. OpenSanctions incorporated as a German GmbH and added ~50 new data sources.
Government & Public Records
The 43-day government shutdown (October 1 – November 12, 2025) — the longest in U.S. history — temporarily disrupted federal OSINT resources. FOIA.gov was hit hardest: beyond the shutdown, FOIA staff have been eliminated at 24+ agencies, and extreme processing delays persist. USAspending.gov emerged as an unexpectedly critical tool during the DOGE initiative. SEC EDGAR remains fully free and unchanged. OCCRP Aleph was rebuilt as "Aleph Pro" (December 2025) with AI-powered risk scoring — free for nonprofit journalists, with commercial licensing for others.
Crypto Investigation
Blockchain.com Explorer, Blockchair (now 48 chains), and core Etherscan web searches remain free. OXT.me technically works but is effectively orphaned — parent company Samourai Wallet was shut down after co-founder arrests in April 2024 (domain expires June 2026). Chainalysis and Crystal remain enterprise-only.
Documents & Archives
Wayback Machine recovered from its 2024 breach and DDoS attacks, reaching 1 trillion archived pages in October 2025 — though archiving frequency dropped 87% for major news sites after May 2025. CourtListener/RECAP launched RECAP Search Alerts (June 2025) and won the 2025 American Legal Technology Award. DocumentCloud shipped a complete UI rebuild (January 2025) with OCR injection. Sci-Hub remains operational but was blocked in India (August 2025) with no new uploads since December 2020.
Transport, Geo & Mapping
FlightRadar24 expanded to ~50,000 ground stations with space-based ADS-B data. Google Earth introduced paid Professional tiers while keeping core features free. Mapillary continues growing under Meta (2+ billion photos). SunCalc remains functional but aging — the developer noted it "hasn't been updated in 15 years."
What New OSINT Tools Launched in 2024–2025?
| Tool | What It Does | Status | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeoSpy / Picarta | AI image geolocation — estimates geographic origin from photos | New | Free tier + paid |
| Taranis AI | Open-source NLP entity extraction from news items | New | Free (EUPL license) |
| Cylect.io | AI-powered OSINT search engine / modern OSINT Framework | New | Freemium |
| Blackbird | Fast username search across 600+ sites | New | Free / open-source |
| IntelHub | Privacy-first browser extension (all analysis local) | New | Free |
| Bluesky OSINT tools | Multiple tools for AT Protocol (Bluesky Insights, Hoaxy, Open Measures) | New | Free / open-source |
| Bellingcat Toolkit v2 | Redesigned community-maintained OSINT tool directory | Updated | Free |
The most significant trend is AI integration across the OSINT landscape. GeoSpy and Picarta use computer vision to estimate where a photo was taken — increasingly adopted by law enforcement and journalists. Taranis AI applies natural language processing to automate entity extraction from news feeds. Cylect.io positions itself as a next-generation alternative to the classic OSINT Framework site.
Bluesky's open AT Protocol has emerged as the most OSINT-friendly social platform, enabling tools that the locked-down APIs of Twitter/X, Facebook, and LinkedIn no longer permit. Multiple analysis tools already exist for Bluesky, and the community expects this ecosystem to grow substantially in 2026.
Bellingcat launched a completely redesigned Online Investigation Toolkit in late 2024, now receiving 1,000+ daily visitors with community-maintained reviews. DocumentCloud shipped a complete UI rebuild with OCR capabilities. The DW Innovation KID Verification Toolkit was released as a free resource for journalists.
What Does the OSINT Tool Landscape Mean for Practitioners in 2026?
The free OSINT toolkit is fragmenting under three compounding pressures. First, major platforms are systematically closing data access — Twitter/X's API restrictions, Facebook hiding UIDs, LinkedIn removing search filters, Reddit's tighter API rules, and Google restricting account data have collectively degraded the foundation many OSINT tools were built on.
Second, the free-to-paid migration is accelerating: Clearbit, Pipl, GeoGuessr, MarineTraffic, and Phonebook.cz all crossed that threshold in 2024–2025, and tools like Epieos and OSINT Industries have made paid tiers the practical default.
Third, corporate acquisitions funnel open tools into enterprise products — SecurityTrails into Mastercard's empire, SpiderFoot into Intel 471 (open-source version abandoned), BinaryEdge into Coalition (then killed entirely).
The counter-trend is equally clear: open-source community tools like Maigret, WhatsMyName, and Blackbird continue to grow, AI-powered tools are lowering the barrier to sophisticated analysis, and Bluesky's open protocol offers a model for OSINT-friendly platform design.
Practitioners who relied on a static toolkit from 2022 will find significant gaps. Those who track the Bellingcat toolkit, Intelligence X changelog, and GitHub trending projects quarterly will stay ahead of the churn. The era of a free, stable, comprehensive OSINT toolkit is over — replaced by a more powerful but more fragmented landscape that rewards constant adaptation.
The fragmentation of OSINT tools mirrors the broader fracturing of the search engine landscape, where Google's share dropped below 90% for the first time and AI answer engines are absorbing hundreds of millions of queries. For investigators, mastering advanced search operators and maintaining awareness of 50+ active search engines across regions is now as important as maintaining your OSINT tool portfolio. Max Intel provides free, up-to-date access to 100+ OSINT tools across every category. Explore all tools →