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Apollo.io Pricing Explained (2026)
Four tiers from free to $119 a seat. But seats are not what you are really buying — credits are, and they are the number that decides both your plan and the moment your team gets stuck mid‑campaign.
- Free plan
- Yes — 900 credits a year
- Entry paid
- $49/seat/mo, billed annually
- Annual saving
- 24%
- What forces an upgrade
- Credits, not seats
The short version
Apollo charges per seat, but every seat comes with an annual credit allowance, and credits are what you spend when you reveal an email address, a phone number, or export a list. A two-person team doing heavy prospecting can exhaust an allowance faster than a ten-person team doing careful, targeted work.
- Start free if
- You want to test data quality against your own market. 900 credits a year is not a working budget, but it is enough to judge the hit rate — which is the only test that matters.
- Budget by credits
- Estimate how many contacts you will reveal per month, multiply by twelve, and pick the tier that covers it. Seat count is the secondary question.
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What each tier costs
| Plan | Per seat / month | Credits per seat / year | Notable gates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 900, granted monthly | 2 sequences, AI assistant capped at 5 chats, basic filters |
| Basic | $49 | 30,000, granted upfront | Unlimited sequences, advanced filters, CRM integrations, email warmup |
| Professional | $79 | 48,000, granted upfront | Adds A/Z testing, 6 intent topics, call recording with AI insights, automated workflows |
| Organization | $119 (min 3 seats) | 72,000, granted upfront | Adds advanced security, custom solutions and support |
Read from the vendor pricing page on 11 September 2026. All paid figures are the annual-billing rate; Apollo advertises annual billing as a 24% saving over monthly. Organization requires a minimum of three seats, so its real entry cost is roughly $357 a month rather than $119. Check the current plans before committing.
How credits actually work
This is the part worth understanding before you choose, because it is where budgets go wrong.
Credits are consumed when Apollo reveals information — an email address, a mobile number, an export. Browsing and filtering the database costs nothing. So two teams on identical plans can have wildly different experiences depending on how disciplined their list building is.
The second mechanic matters just as much: on paid tiers the annual allowance is granted upfront, not drip-fed monthly. That is generous in principle and dangerous in practice. A team that burns through 30,000 credits in its first quarter has nine months with nothing left, and the only remedy is upgrading or buying more.
The free plan works the opposite way — 900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly. That is roughly 75 a month, which is an evaluation budget rather than a prospecting one, and it is honest about being so.
What forces an upgrade
Three things, in rough order of how often they bite.
Credit exhaustion is the most common and the least anticipated. Model it before you buy: if you expect to reveal 1,500 contacts a month, that is 18,000 a year and Basic covers it. Reveal 4,000 a month and you are at 48,000 — Professional, with no headroom left.
Sequencing limits come next. The free plan caps you at two sequences, which is the wall most people hit first when they try to run real outreach on it.
Intent data and testing appear at Professional. If you are not going to use them, the $30 a seat between Basic and Professional is buying you mostly credits — worth comparing directly against simply buying more credits on Basic.
How far the free plan really goes
Not far as a working tool, and that is fine — it is not meant to be one. What it is genuinely good for is the only evaluation that means anything: take 50 contacts you already know are correct, run them through Apollo, and check the hit rate on email and direct dial against your market.
Apollo’s coverage is strongest in North American technology, SaaS and professional services, and noticeably thinner for smaller European companies and non-English-speaking markets. A single global accuracy percentage from any vendor is marketing; your own 50-contact test takes an afternoon and is worth more than every comparison page on the internet, including this one.
Who the pricing suits
Good value for
- Small outbound teams replacing a data provider and a sequencing tool with one subscription
- Teams selling into US and Canadian technology, where coverage is strongest
- Anyone who wants to evaluate properly before paying — the free tier makes that genuinely possible
Frequently asked questions
Is the Apollo.io free plan actually usable?
For evaluation, yes. For sustained prospecting, no. 900 credits per seat per year works out at about 75 a month, and sequences are capped at two. Treat it as a test bench rather than a tool.
What uses up Apollo credits?
Revealing an email address, revealing a phone number, and exporting records. Searching and filtering the database does not consume credits, so disciplined list building materially changes how long an allowance lasts.
Do Apollo credits reset every month?
On paid plans the annual allowance is granted upfront, so there is no monthly reset to protect you from overspending early. On the free plan credits are granted monthly instead. This is the single most important mechanic to understand before budgeting.
Is annual billing worth it?
Apollo advertises a 24% saving for annual billing, which is a larger discount than most competitors offer. The counterweight is that data quality is market-specific, so run the 50-contact test on a free account before committing to twelve months.
How we compiled this
Figures were read directly from the vendor’s own pricing page on 11 September 2026 and are published as a dated snapshot rather than a permanent claim. We lead with pricing structure — how credits are granted and spent, and which limit binds first — because that stays true after the numbers change.
Spotted a figure that has changed? Tell us and we will correct it. Read our full methodology →
Is Apollo.io the right tool at all?
Our full review covers what it does well, where its data thins out, and who should skip it.