Apollo.io Pricing 2026: Plans, Credits, and Real Annual Cost

By Lara Meunier, Compliance Researcher · Jun 28, 2026 · 12 min read · Last reviewed Jun 28, 2026

Apollo.io pricing explained for 2026: Free, Basic $59, Professional $99, Organization $149+. Real credit math, hidden costs, and team-size comparisons.

Apollo.io pricing, decoded by an operator who actually pays the invoice

Apollo.io is the default sales engagement and B2B database stack for thousands of outbound teams in 2026. The sticker price looks reasonable. The invoice after twelve months usually does not. This guide breaks down every plan, every credit type, and every gotcha so you know what a 1, 5, or 20 seat Apollo deployment actually costs across a year. We also compare Apollo against the tools founders ask about most: Outreach, Salesloft, Lemlist, Clay, ZoomInfo, LeadIQ, Cognism, and Lusha.

Quick note before we start. Apollo updates pricing pages a few times per year, sometimes quietly. The numbers below match Apollo's public pricing as of June 2026 (Free, Basic at $59 per seat per month, Professional at $99 per seat per month, Organization starting at $149 per seat per month, billed annually). Month-to-month billing is roughly 20 to 25 percent higher. If you want help mapping these tiers to your own outbound stack, see how Puzzle Inbox works and our notes on Apollo specifically.

The four Apollo plans in 2026

Apollo runs a classic four-tier ladder. Free at the bottom to capture self-serve users, two paid tiers for individual reps and small teams, and an Organization tier that triggers a sales call. Here is what each tier actually delivers.

Free plan: $0 per user per month

The Free plan exists to get you addicted. You get unlimited email credits (with a low monthly cap, around 1,200 per year on most accounts, distributed monthly), 60 mobile credits per year, 120 export credits per year, basic sequence automation (up to 250 active contacts), and Gmail and Outlook integration. CRM sync is read-only. You cannot use the Chrome extension on LinkedIn Sales Navigator the way paid users can. The Free plan is enough to test the database for an afternoon. It is not enough to run an outbound program.

Basic plan: $59 per seat per month (annual)

Basic is the most common starting point for solo founders and individual SDRs. Billed annually you pay $708 per seat per year. Month to month it is around $79 per seat. Basic gets you 5,000 email credits per month per seat, 75 mobile credits per year, 1,000 export credits per year, sequence automation up to 10,000 active contacts, A/B testing on two variants, Salesforce and HubSpot CRM sync (bidirectional), and the Chrome extension with LinkedIn integration.

What Basic does not include: advanced filters like buying intent, job change alerts, AI Plays, the dialer, conversation intelligence, the API, or webhook access. If your team uses any of those, you are pushed to Professional within a quarter.

Professional plan: $99 per seat per month (annual)

Professional is where the real Apollo experience starts. Billed annually it is $1,188 per seat per year. You get everything in Basic plus 10,000 email credits per month per seat, 100 mobile credits per year, 2,000 export credits per year, the built-in dialer (with international calling at extra cost), call recordings, AI-assisted email writing, A/B testing on multiple variants, advanced reporting, job change alerts, buying intent data (limited topics), and access to AI Plays (Apollo's workflow automation layer).

Professional is the tier most growth-stage startups land on after they outgrow Basic. The dialer and intent data are usually the trigger.

Organization plan: starting at $149 per seat per month (annual)

Organization is sales-led. The published floor is $149 per seat per month annual, but in practice deals close anywhere between $149 and $199 per seat depending on volume, contract length, and add-ons. At $149 it is $1,788 per seat per year. You get everything in Professional plus higher credit ceilings (typically 15,000 email credits per month per seat, customizable), advanced security and SSO, custom roles and permissions, full API access, webhook events, custom reports, dedicated customer success, and call transcription on recordings.

Organization is required for teams above 10 seats who need SSO, custom permissions, or any meaningful API usage. If you plan to pipe Apollo data into Clay or your own warehouse, you need this tier.

Apollo credits, explained without the marketing fog

Apollo's pricing is not really about seat cost. It is about credits. Credits are how Apollo meters the data you actually pull. The plan you choose sets your credit ceiling. Most teams blow through that ceiling and pay for overages or upgrade mid-cycle.

Email credits

One email credit reveals one verified business email address from Apollo's database. On Basic you get 5,000 per month per seat. On Professional, 10,000. On Organization, 15,000 or higher. Email credits roll over for 30 days only. Use them or lose them. If you bulk export 5,000 contacts, that costs 5,000 email credits if Apollo did not already have them revealed for your account.

Mobile credits

Mobile credits are scarce and expensive. You get 75 per year on Basic, 100 per year on Professional, and customizable on Organization. Each verified mobile number reveal costs one mobile credit. Mobile numbers are roughly 35 to 50 percent accurate at Apollo's current data freshness (lower than Cognism or ZoomInfo in our testing). If you run cold calling at scale, you will need to top up mobile credits or supplement with a dedicated dialer data provider.

Export credits

This is the one that catches teams off guard. Every time you export contacts to CSV, sync to your CRM, or push to Clay, you burn export credits. On Basic you get 1,000 per year. On Professional, 2,000. That sounds like enough until you realize one CSV pull of 500 leads is 500 export credits. A Clay enrichment job on 1,000 accounts can cost 1,000 export credits if each account pulls multiple contacts.

Enrichment credits

Apollo's enrichment API uses a separate credit pool. If you enrich your existing CRM (say 50,000 contacts to add titles, company size, tech stack), each successful match costs one enrichment credit. Apollo bundles a small enrichment allowance into Professional and Organization but most teams buy enrichment credits as a one-time add-on at roughly $0.02 to $0.05 per record depending on volume.

Real annual cost: three team sizes worked out

Sticker price is not the question. The question is what your Apollo bill looks like in month twelve. Here are three realistic scenarios with the numbers we actually see on customer invoices.

Scenario 1: Solo founder or 1 SDR (10,000 credits per month)

A solo founder running outbound usually needs around 10,000 email credits per month to keep a 3-step sequence fed with fresh contacts. Basic gives you 5,000. Professional gives you 10,000. So you either run Basic and buy overage (around $0.03 per extra credit, so $150 extra per month, $1,800 per year on top of Basic's $708 = $2,508 per year), or you upgrade to Professional at $99 per month annual ($1,188 per year).

Professional wins on math alone. Add a domain or two for sending and 2 dedicated Google Workspace inboxes from Puzzle Inbox at roughly $80 per month, and you are at around $2,150 per year all in. Compare that to running cold email with no data tool at all, where you are paying a list provider per pull. Apollo wins for solo operators if you actually use it.

Scenario 2: 5 SDR team (50,000 credits per month)

Five reps each consuming 10,000 email credits per month means Professional at 5 seats. That is $99 x 5 x 12 = $5,940 per year on Apollo alone. Add 200 mobile credits per rep per year (most teams need 300+, so you buy a top-up of around $500), add export credits because Clay and CRM sync chews through the included 2,000 per seat per year (budget another $800), and you are at roughly $7,250 per year for Apollo.

Now layer the rest of the stack. You will need a dedicated sending infrastructure (5 reps x 3 inboxes each = 15 dedicated inboxes from Puzzle Inbox, around $600 per month, $7,200 per year), a CRM ($150 to $300 per seat per month for HubSpot Sales Hub Pro or Salesforce), and maybe Clay for waterfall enrichment ($349 per month minimum). Apollo is now around 25 percent of your real outbound stack cost, not 100 percent.

Scenario 3: 20+ SDR org (250,000 credits per month)

At 20 seats Apollo's sales team will quote Organization at $149 to $179 per seat annual. Take the midpoint at $164. That is $164 x 20 x 12 = $39,360 per year on Apollo alone. Mobile credits at this scale are usually negotiated as a flat pool (say 10,000 per year, around $5,000). Enrichment for your CRM is typically a separate $15,000 to $40,000 line item if you enrich more than once per quarter.

Total realistic Apollo spend for a 20 seat team: $55,000 to $85,000 per year. That puts Apollo in the same conversation as ZoomInfo, which is the moment most VPs of Sales start asking whether they should consolidate.

Apollo vs Outreach vs Salesloft vs Lemlist: pricing compared

Apollo competes with three sequencing tools you have heard of. Here is how the pricing breaks down on a per-seat per-year basis at the tier most teams actually buy.

Apollo Professional: $1,188 per seat per year, includes 10K email credits per month and a basic dialer. Database access is bundled.
Outreach Standard: $130 to $160 per seat per month, so $1,560 to $1,920 per seat per year. No database. You bring your own data from ZoomInfo or Cognism.
Salesloft Advanced: roughly $125 to $165 per seat per month, $1,500 to $1,980 per seat per year. Also no database. Strong AI features in 2026.
Lemlist Multichannel: $99 per user per month, $1,188 per year. Includes a database (Lemlist's data, smaller than Apollo's), LinkedIn automation, and warmup.

Headline takeaway: Apollo is the cheapest all-in-one because data is bundled. Outreach and Salesloft are sequencing-only, so the real cost is plan + a separate data tool ($15K to $40K per year). Lemlist is the closest spiritual competitor at the SMB end.

If you want a side-by-side, see Apollo vs Clay in our compare hub.

Apollo vs Clay vs ZoomInfo vs LeadIQ: data compared

If you only care about the database side, not sequencing, Apollo competes with a different set of tools. Here is how they stack up on cost and coverage in 2026.

Apollo: ~275M contacts, ~73M companies. Email accuracy around 85 percent, mobile around 40 percent. $99 per seat per month Professional. Best value per dollar.
Clay: Not a database itself. Clay waterfalls across 75+ data providers (including Apollo). Plans start at $349 per month (Starter), $800 per month (Pro), $2,000+ per month (Enterprise). You pay per credit for the providers Clay calls. Best for hybrid enrichment workflows.
ZoomInfo: ~321M contacts, deeper firmographic and intent data. Pricing starts around $15,000 per year and climbs fast. Mobile accuracy is the industry leader at around 65 percent.
LeadIQ: Smaller database (~140M contacts) but stronger LinkedIn workflow. Pro at $89 per user per month, Enterprise custom. Great for Chrome-extension-driven prospecting.
Cognism: EU-strong, GDPR-compliant data with phone-verified mobile numbers (~65 percent accurate). Starts around $15,500 per year for 3 seats. Best for outbound into Europe.
Lusha: Pro at $36 per user per month for 480 credits, Premium at $59 per user per month for 960 credits. Smaller pool than Apollo but cheaper for low-volume use.
Hunter.io: Email-finding only, no sequencing. Starts at $34 per month for 500 searches. Useful as a verification top-up, not a primary data source.

The pattern: Apollo is the price-per-record winner for general North American outbound. ZoomInfo wins for mobile-heavy outbound. Cognism wins for Europe. Clay wins when you want to combine multiple sources programmatically. Lusha and Hunter win for low-volume one-off use.

Hidden costs and gotchas Apollo will not advertise

Sticker price is the friendliest number you will see all year. Here is what actually inflates the bill.

Annual prepayment is mandatory for the advertised rate

The $59, $99, and $149 numbers all assume annual prepayment. Month-to-month is 20 to 25 percent higher. If you sign annual and want to cancel mid-year, you forfeit the rest. Apollo does not pro-rate refunds.

Seat minimums on Organization

The Organization plan typically requires a minimum of 5 seats. Some quotes we have seen require 10. If you are a 3 person team that needs SSO or the API, you are paying for empty seats.

Mid-cycle upgrades cost full annual

If you add a seat in month 7 of an annual contract, Apollo bills you a full annual seat (pro-rated for the remaining months but renewing on the original anniversary). This creates a gnarly renewal where your seat count balloons. Negotiate seat flexibility before signing.

Overage credits are expensive

Hitting your monthly email credit cap and buying overages costs roughly $0.03 per email credit. That is 2x to 3x the marginal cost of upgrading to the next tier. If you hit overages two months in a row, upgrade instead.

Deliverability gap

This is the one nobody mentions. Apollo's sequencing tool sends from whatever Gmail or Outlook inbox you connect. Apollo does not run any warmup, deliverability monitoring, or domain rotation. If you send 200 cold emails per day from one Gmail inbox, you will land in spam within 2 weeks. Apollo will not warn you. You need dedicated sending infrastructure (separate domains, IP isolation, inbox rotation) to actually land in the inbox. That is the problem Puzzle Inbox solves and Apollo does not.

The dialer is not a real dialer

Apollo's built-in dialer works for low-volume calling. If you run a 20 person SDR team making 100 dials each per day, you will hit rate limits and call quality issues. Most serious outbound teams pair Apollo with Aircall, JustCall, or Orum.

AI Plays count against credits

Apollo's AI Plays (automated workflows) are billed against your existing credit pool. Running an AI Play that enriches 1,000 contacts uses 1,000 enrichment credits. The Plays are useful but not free.

When Apollo is worth it: a team-size breakdown

Solo founder or 1 to 3 person team

Buy Professional at $99 per seat per month annual. Skip Basic, you will outgrow it in 60 days. Pair Apollo with 2 to 5 dedicated sending inboxes from Puzzle Inbox so the emails actually land. Total stack cost: around $200 to $300 per month. This is the cheapest credible outbound setup in 2026.

5 to 15 person team

Professional for sequencing seats, plus a dedicated dialer (Orum or Aircall), plus a deliverability layer (Puzzle Inbox dedicated infrastructure). Consider Clay on top for waterfall enrichment if your TAM is small and high-value. Total stack: $3,500 to $6,000 per month.

15 to 50 person team

This is the Apollo Organization sweet spot, or the moment to consider Outreach plus a dedicated data tool. The math gets close. If your team is mostly North American outbound, Apollo Organization is usually 20 to 30 percent cheaper than Outreach plus ZoomInfo for similar capability. If you need deep intent data and mobile accuracy, ZoomInfo plus Outreach wins.

50+ person team

Apollo Organization is still viable but you will be in custom-pricing territory. At this scale most enterprises run Outreach or Salesloft for sequencing, ZoomInfo or Cognism for data, and Clay for enrichment workflows. Apollo can still slot in as a secondary data provider inside Clay.

Alternatives to Apollo at every price point

If Apollo is too expensive

Try Hunter.io for email finding ($34 per month) plus a manual sequencing tool like Instantly or Smartlead ($30 to $97 per month). You will spend more manual effort but the cash outlay drops to under $130 per month. Or run Lusha Pro at $36 per seat for low-volume prospecting.

If Apollo data is too thin

Switch to ZoomInfo for North America or Cognism for Europe. Both cost 3x to 5x more but the mobile data is meaningfully better and intent signals are deeper. Or stay on Apollo and use Clay to waterfall through Apollo, Cognism, LeadMagic, and Datagma in a single workflow.

If Apollo sequencing is too basic

Move to Outreach or Salesloft for sequencing and keep Apollo just for data. Or try Lemlist for multichannel (email plus LinkedIn) at a similar price point.

If deliverability is the actual problem

Apollo will not save you. You need dedicated domains, isolated IPs, and proper inbox rotation. See Puzzle Inbox dedicated Google Workspace inboxes and our infrastructure pricing. This is the piece most teams skip and it is the reason 70 percent of cold email lands in spam.

Apollo pricing FAQ

Is Apollo.io really $59 per month?

Yes, on the Basic plan, billed annually. Month-to-month is roughly $79. Most teams need Professional at $99 per seat annual within their first quarter.

What is the cheapest paid Apollo plan?

Basic at $59 per seat per month, billed annually. You get 5,000 email credits per month, basic sequencing, and CRM sync.

Does Apollo charge per contact?

No, Apollo charges per seat plus a credit ceiling. You pay per seat per month and your credits refill monthly. Overages are billed per credit.

Can I get a free trial of Apollo Professional?

Yes, Apollo offers a 14-day Professional trial without a credit card. The Free plan is permanent but limited.

Is Apollo cheaper than ZoomInfo?

Significantly. Apollo Professional is $1,188 per seat per year. ZoomInfo typically starts around $15,000 per year for a 3 seat package. Apollo wins on cost. ZoomInfo wins on mobile data accuracy and intent depth.

Can I just buy Apollo for data and use a different sequencer?

Yes. Many teams run Apollo for the database and CRM enrichment, then push contacts to Outreach, Salesloft, Instantly, or Lemlist for sending. Apollo's API is on the Organization plan.

What is the cost of Apollo for a 5 person team?

Roughly $7,000 to $9,000 per year for Professional including realistic overages on mobile and export credits. Add dedicated sending infrastructure and you are at $14,000 to $16,000 per year for the full outbound stack.

Bottom line on Apollo pricing in 2026

Apollo is still the best price-per-feature deal in sales engagement for teams under 50 seats. Professional at $99 per seat annual is the tier most teams should buy. The credit math is real and you will hit limits faster than you think, so plan for one tier above what the website suggests.

The piece Apollo will not solve is deliverability. Apollo finds the email, writes the sequence, and presses send. Whether that email lands in the inbox or spam depends entirely on your sending infrastructure, which Apollo does not provide. Pair Apollo sequencing with Puzzle Inbox dedicated Google Workspace inboxes (real domains, isolated tenants, warmup included) and you have the full picture: Apollo for the data and workflow, Puzzle Inbox for the actual delivery.

If you want to see how the two stacks fit together, check how Puzzle Inbox works or browse our infrastructure pricing.

Ready to start sending?

Puzzle Inbox provisions pre-warmed Google Workspace and Outlook 365 cold email inboxes ready to send within 24-72 hours. See the pricing page, the how-it-works walkthrough, or the our-process page for full details.