Apollo.io pricing in 2026: plans, credits and hidden costs

Apollo.io pricing, as of Oct 2026, has four plans: Free, Basic at $49 a month, Professional at $99 a month on monthly billing, and Custom through sales. Annual billing is cheaper. Every seat must be on the same plan, and credits for emails, phone numbers and AI research reset each billing cycle without rolling over.

This guide covers each plan as published on Apollo's pricing page, how credits work in practice, the costs teams often miss and cheaper options. Prices change, so check the vendor page before you buy. For the tools themselves, see our Apollo alternatives page.

Apollo plans at a glance

Prices as of Oct 2026, from apollo.io/pricing, on monthly billing:

Plan	Price	Who Apollo says it suits
Free	$0	Exploring Apollo or very light usage; founders and early-stage teams
Basic	$49/month	Individual sellers doing regular outbound; includes email sequencing and core integrations
Professional	$99/month	Full-time reps needing higher credit limits, AI features, call recording and advanced CRM integrations
Custom	Contact sales	Teams needing custom volumes, SSO, advanced security and dedicated support

Annual billing is offered at a discounted rate, paid upfront for 12 months. Apollo does not let you mix plans: all seats on an account are on the same plan.

What each plan means in practice

Free

The free plan has no time limit and includes email campaigns. On the free plan you can connect Gmail accounts only. It is enough to test the database and run a small sequence, but not to prospect full time.

Basic

Basic is aimed at one seller doing regular outbound. It adds email sequencing and core integrations. If you only need emails for a modest list each month, this is the plan to model first.

Professional

Professional adds higher credit limits, AI features, call recording and advanced CRM integrations. It is the plan most full-time reps end up on, and because every seat must match, a team with one heavy user may need Professional for everyone.

Custom

Custom covers custom volumes, single sign-on, advanced security and dedicated support. Apollo says API access for advanced or custom integrations is available on Custom plans.

How Apollo credits work

Apollo uses credits as the currency for actions across the platform. Depending on your plan, credits pay for emails, phone numbers, email warm-up, domains and mailboxes, AI-researched data and more. Apollo says credits are:

• Pooled across the whole team, so one heavy user can use up the team's allowance.
• Granted upfront at the start of each billing cycle.
• Reset each cycle, with no rollover. Unused plan credits and purchased add-on credits both expire.

Admins can track usage under Settings and set per-user credit caps. If you run out, you can add credits with a slider. Apollo notes that add-on credits are charged immediately and renew automatically each cycle until you remove them.

What that means for your budget

Work out how many emails and phone numbers you actually reveal each month, and how much AI research you run. Apollo points customers to its knowledge base and to the account itself for what each action costs in credits, so check those figures in your own workspace rather than assuming one flat rate.

Monthly vs annual billing

Apollo explains the trade-off plainly on its pricing page:

• Monthly billing lets you pay month to month and cancel at any time, at a higher effective monthly cost.
• Annual billing is paid upfront for a full year at a discounted rate.
• Switching from monthly to annual is allowed at any time, with payments already made prorated.
• Switching from annual to monthly means cancelling the annual plan and waiting for it to expire.

For a new team, monthly billing is the safer start. Move to annual once you know your seat count and credit use are stable.

Questions to ask before you buy

• How many credits does each action we use cost on our chosen plan?
• What record selection limit applies on our plan?
• Which email providers can we connect on our plan?
• If we add credits mid-cycle, when do they renew and how do we stop them?
• What security features, such as single sign-on, need a Custom plan?

Write the answers down and compare them with the alternatives before you sign.

Hidden costs to plan for

• Seat matching. Everyone pays for the same plan, even light users.
• Recurring add-on credits. Extra credits renew automatically until you set the slider back to zero.
• No refunds on downgrades. Apollo says downgrades take effect immediately, with no refund for unused time in the current cycle.
• Annual lock-in. Mid-cycle downgrades on annual plans are not permitted, and moving from annual to monthly means waiting for the annual term to end.
• Record selection limits. Some plans cap how many records you can select in one action; higher plans raise or remove the cap.
• Internal use only. Apollo's standard plans are for internal business use. Using Apollo data to power products for your customers needs a separate agreement.
• Deliverability. Sending at volume needs separate domains and mailboxes, which cost money and credits.

Is Apollo good value?

For email- and phone-led teams, Apollo puts a large database, sequences and a dialer in one tool, and the free plan lets you test before paying. It is less of a fit if your buyers reply best on LinkedIn, because Apollo is database- and email-led.

To check value for your own numbers, use our lead generation ROI calculator: plug in your expected reply rate, deal size and cost per seat.

Cheaper or different options

If you need a database

Lusha offers a free plan and lower-cost paid tiers for emails and phone numbers. ZoomInfo sits at the other end, with deeper data and custom pricing; see our ZoomInfo pricing guide and the Apollo vs ZoomInfo comparison.

If you need custom data workflows

Clay combines many data vendors and AI research in custom tables. Read Clay vs Apollo to see how they differ.

If your buyers are on LinkedIn

GTM Plays is not a contact database. It is an AI agent that finds people showing intent signals on LinkedIn, scores each one for fit against your ICP, writes a message for each person and sends it from your own account. Replies arrive in one inbox; it does not book meetings by itself. It includes credits for email and phone enrichment of your prospects, and Pro is $149 a month after a 7-day free trial.

How to choose an Apollo plan

1. Count seats and note that all must be on one plan.
2. Estimate monthly reveals: emails, phone numbers and AI research.
3. Start on Free to test coverage for your target accounts.
4. Pick monthly billing first if you are unsure, since annual plans cannot be downgraded mid-term.
5. Set per-user credit caps from day one if several people share the pool.
6. Review usage after one cycle before adding credits or seats.

The bottom line

Apollo's published plans make it easy to start, and the free plan is genuinely useful for testing. The real cost depends on seats, credit use and add-ons, so model a typical month before committing, and remember that credits do not roll over.