Apollo.io pricing in 2026 runs from $0 (Free, 900 credits/year) to $119 per user per month on annual billing ($149 monthly) across Basic, Professional, and Organization tiers, but the real cost is driven by a credit meter — 1 credit per verified email, 8 per phone number — and Vendr data on 101 purchases puts the median annual contract at $19,000. If you'd rather buy outcomes than seats and credits, SentFirst is a done-for-you form-outreach agency starting at $497 one-time for 1,500 unique businesses contacted, with monthly packages from $597/mo. Apollo suits teams that want self-serve data and sequencing in-house; SentFirst suits agencies that want the outreach executed for them.
Bottom line: Apollo.io wins on self-serve flexibility and database size for teams running outreach in-house; the credit system and per-seat fees mean real costs often exceed the rate card. SentFirst wins for buyers who want done-for-you execution with flat, predictable pricing and no credit metering.
TL;DR
- Apollo.io's published seat prices in 2026 are $49 (Basic), $79 (Professional), and $119 (Organization) per user per month on annual billing; monthly billing runs $65, $99, and $149.
- The Organization tier requires a 3-seat minimum, making its real entry price $357/month billed annually ($4,284/year).
- Credits are the hidden cost: 1 credit per verified email, 8 per phone number, 1–8 per enrichment, and 2 per US dialer minute — and unused credits expire each billing cycle with no rollover.
- Vendr data on 101 Apollo purchases shows a median contract of $19,000/year (range $4,284–$45,000); third-party estimates suggest heavy outbound teams budget $150–$400 per user per month once overages and add-ons are included.
- Add-ons Inbound and the Advanced Dialer each cost $119 per team per month on annual billing, so a small calling team can add $238/month before a second seat.
- User reviews report Apollo data accuracy around 65–70% with email bounce rates of 15–25%, which may require supplementary verification tools.
- SentFirst offers flat, done-for-you pricing — $497 one-time Pilot (1,500 businesses), $597/mo Launch (2,000/mo), $997/mo Growth (5,000/mo), $1,997/mo Scale (15,000/mo) — with no seats, credits, or annual contract.
Head-to-head
| Dimension | Apollo.io | SentFirst |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $49–$119/user/mo annual ($65–$149 monthly) + credits; median contract $19,000/yr (Vendr) | $497 one-time Pilot; $597–$1,997/mo; white-label from $3,500/mo — flat, no creditswinner |
| Ease of use | Self-serve platform with 14-day trial, but credit budgets, mailboxes, and sequences must be configured by your team | Fully done-for-you — no hiring, configuring, or learning anythingwinner |
| Features | 275M+ contact database, sequencing, US/international dialer, enrichment, intent signals, call recordingwinner | Form outreach with Maps targeting, per-business enrichment, AI-personalized messages, reply routing; forms-only at launch |
| Support | Dedicated support reserved for Custom plans; paid tiers use standard channels | Dedicated campaign manager at Scale tier; human review on every messagewinner |
| Integrations | Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft, Marketo, Sendgrid, LinkedIn; API on Customwinner | White-label for lead-gen agencies; no CRM sync catalog |
| Setup | Self-serve start; configuring sequences, mailboxes, and credit caps takes internal effort | Pilot run completes 1,500 businesses inside 7 days with no client configurationwinner |
| Contract flexibility | Annual billing saves ~24% but locks 12 months; no mid-term refunds; cancellations at term end | Month-to-month, cancel with 30 days' noticewinner |
| Data quality | Reported 65–70% accuracy with 15–25% email bounce rates per user reviews; may need a verification tool | Per-business enrichment from each business's real data; targeting quality guaranteedwinner |
Scores
Apollo.io
apollo.io ↗Apollo.io is an all-in-one sales intelligence and outreach platform that packages a B2B contact database of more than 275 million contacts together with an email sequencer, a phone dialer, and credit-based data enrichment. It is built to consolidate separate subscriptions for contact data, email sending, and calling into a single platform, and it serves companies from solo founders to enterprises — Apollo cites customers including Intel, AT&T, Adobe, SAP, and Shopify, and reported approaching $200M in ARR with nearly 100,000 paying customers in February 2026. Pricing is structured across four tiers (Free, Basic, Professional, Organization) with a unified credit system that meters emails, phone numbers, enrichment, AI research, and dialer minutes. The company is independent, appointed Matt Curl as CEO in February 2026 with founder Tim Zheng as chairman, and is in litigation with ZoomInfo, having filed counterclaims in January 2026. It holds a 4.7/5 rating based on 9,690 reviews per its own pricing page.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 900 credits per seat per year, 2 active sequences, 250 daily emails, Gmail only, 1 seat |
| Basic (annual) | $49/mo | 30,000 credits/year granted upfront, unlimited sequences, CRM integrations, email warmup, 6 intent topics; $65 monthly |
| Professional (annual) | $79/mo | 48,000 credits/year, unlimited mailboxes and daily sends, A/Z testing, call recordings with AI insights (4,000 minutes), US dialer; $99 monthly |
| Organization (annual) | $119/mo | 72,000 credits/year, 3-seat minimum ($4,284/year entry), SSO, advanced security, custom reports, international dialer; $149 monthly |
| Inbound add-on | $119/mo | Per team, annual billing; website visitor identification up to 50,000 companies, form enrichment, domain tracking |
| Advanced Dialer add-on | $119/mo | Per team, annual billing; parallel and power dialing, international calling, local presence |
Pros
- Published, self-serve pricing with a genuinely free tier and a 14-day Professional trial — rare transparency in the category
- Consolidates contact data, email sequencing, and dialing into one platform, replacing multiple subscriptions
- Huge database (275M+ contacts) with cheap per-email credits, making email-only prospecting stretch far
- Deep integration catalog including Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft, Marketo, and LinkedIn
- Annual billing saves roughly 24%, and paid plans grant the full year of credits upfront
- 4.7/5 rating across 9,690 reviews per its own pricing page
Cons
- The credit system is the real cost driver: phone numbers cost 8 credits, so phone-heavy teams burn their allocation roughly 8x faster — a Basic seat's monthly credits can run out on the seventh working day for an active dialer
- Unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle with no rollover, and add-on credits are charged immediately and renew automatically until removed
- Vendr's median buyer pays $19,000/year — well above what list seat prices suggest — and third-party estimates put heavy-outbound real cost at $150–$400 per user per month
- Reported data accuracy of 65–70% and email bounce rates of 15–25% may force teams to buy a verification tool on top
- Organization tier's 3-seat minimum and annual-commitment terms (no mid-term refunds, cancellations only at term end) reduce flexibility
SentFirst
SentFirst is a done-for-you B2B form-outreach agency operated by AIQ Labs, built for businesses that want their offer placed directly into the contact forms of target businesses at scale rather than running outreach software in-house. Targeting is Google Maps-driven by niche and city, with per-business enrichment and AI-personalized messages written from each business's real data. Every message is LLM quality-judged with human review before send, submitted via browser-agent form submission, and replies are tracked and AI-classified, with interested replies routed to the client within minutes. Packages run from a $497 one-time Pilot (1,500 unique businesses, one niche/region, full run inside 7 days) through monthly Launch, Growth, and Scale tiers up to 15,000 businesses per month, plus white-label from $3,500/mo for lead-gen agencies. Month-to-month with 30 days' notice to cancel. Target customers include marketing/design/dev agencies, MSPs, staffing firms, commercial services, B2B SaaS and consultants, and commercial suppliers.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot — 'The First Send' | $497/mo | One-time; 1,500 unique businesses, one niche/region, full run inside 7 days |
| Launch | $597/mo | 2,000 unique businesses contacted per month |
| Growth (featured) | $997/mo | 5,000 businesses/mo, up to 2 niches/regions, two segmented campaigns |
| Scale | $1997/mo | 15,000 businesses/mo, priority throughput, dedicated campaign manager |
| Agency white-label | $3500/mo | From $3,500/mo; white-label for lead-gen agencies |
Pros
- Flat, published pricing with no seats, credit metering, or annual contract — month-to-month, cancel with 30 days' notice
- Fully done-for-you: no hiring, configuring, or learning anything; the Pilot completes a full 1,500-business run inside 7 days
- Human-reviewed, AI-personalized messages built from each target business's real data rather than generic templates
- Interested replies routed to the client within minutes, with transparent attempted/confirmed/failed reporting
- Volume is measured in unique businesses contacted per month, so budgets map directly to outreach outcomes
Cons
- Forms-only at launch — cold email on warmed domains is a coming-soon lane offered privately later, so there's no email or multichannel sequencing equivalent to Apollo's
- Single-touch per business — no follow-up sequences sold at launch
- No guaranteed-reply claims: the guarantee covers targeting quality, delivery attempts, sender identification, opt-out honoring, and reporting — not reply volume
- Not a self-serve data platform: no CRM sync, contact database, or dialer for teams that want to run outreach in-house
Apollo.io pricing compared: the seat rate vs the credit invoice
Hidden costs and fine print on both sides
Which should you pick?
FAQs
How much does Apollo.io cost in 2026?
On annual billing, Apollo.io costs $49/user/month for Basic, $79 for Professional, and $119 for Organization (3-seat minimum, so $4,284/year minimum). Monthly billing runs $65, $99, and $149. The Free plan is $0 with 900 credits per seat per year. Add-ons — Inbound and the Advanced Dialer — each cost $119 per team per month on annual billing. Vendr's data on 101 purchases puts the median actual contract at $19,000/year, because credits, overages, and add-ons sit on top of the seat fee.
What are Apollo.io credits and how fast do they run out?
Credits are Apollo's internal currency for platform actions: 1 credit per verified email, 8 per phone number, 1–8 per enriched record, 1 per AI research run, and 2 per US dialer minute. Credits are pooled across the team, granted upfront each billing cycle, and expire with no rollover. Phone-heavy teams burn credits roughly 8x faster than email-only teams — a Basic seat's 2,500 monthly credits buy only about 312 phone numbers, and the Bridge Group's 2025 median of 44 dials/day means an active dialer can exhaust that in about seven working days.
Does Apollo.io have a free trial or free plan?
Both. The Free plan stays free with no time limit and includes 900 credits per seat per year granted monthly, 2 active sequences, 250 daily emails, and basic filters — enough to test data quality, not to run real outbound. There is also a 14-day free trial of the Professional plan with 100 credits and access to most plan features, though non-Gmail/Microsoft mailboxes stay locked until you pay.
Is Apollo.io cheaper than a done-for-you outreach service?
It depends on what you're buying. Apollo's seat fees start lower ($49/user/month annual vs SentFirst's $597/mo), but Vendr's median Apollo contract is $19,000/year and third-party estimates put heavy-outbound real costs at $150–$400 per user per month once credits and add-ons are included. SentFirst charges flat rates — $497 one-time for a 1,500-business Pilot, then $597–$1,997/mo for 2,000–15,000 businesses contacted — with no credits, seats, or annual contract. Apollo is cheaper for self-serve software; SentFirst is buying executed outreach rather than a tool.
What does SentFirst actually do?
SentFirst is a done-for-you B2B form-outreach agency operated by AIQ Labs. It places your offer directly into the contact forms of your target businesses at scale, using Google Maps-driven targeting by niche and city, per-business enrichment, and AI-personalized messages written from each business's real data. Messages are LLM quality-judged with human review before send, submitted via browser agent, and tracked replies are AI-classified with interested replies routed to you within minutes. Packages run from the $497 one-time Pilot (1,500 businesses, full run inside 7 days) to Scale at $1,997/mo (15,000 businesses/mo), month-to-month with 30 days' notice to cancel.
What are Apollo.io's hidden fees and gotchas?
The main ones: add-on credits are charged immediately when added and renew automatically each billing cycle until you manually drag the slider back to zero; unused credits (including purchased ones) expire with no rollover; annual billing locks you for 12 months with no mid-term refunds and no annual-to-monthly switching until term expiry; Vendr reports onboarding fees of $2,000–$5,000 when charged and renewal clauses commonly carrying 5–10% annual increases; and the Organization tier's 3-seat minimum sets a $4,284/year floor. User reviews also report 65–70% data accuracy and 15–25% email bounce rates, which may require paying for a separate verification tool.
Sources
- Apollo.io Pricing Plans | Sales Intelligence Platform Pricing
- Apollo Pricing 2026: Seats, Credits, and the Real Cost
- Apollo.io Pricing 2026: Plans, Credits & Is It Worth It?
- Apollo.io Pricing Breakdown 2026: Plans, Credits, and Real Costs
- Apollo.io Pricing 2026: Free Plan to $119/mo (Real Costs)
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