Reply.io vs Apollo.io: An AI SDR or Agents Inside the Seat

The short answer: if you are weighing an AI SDR against hiring one, start with the price gap: Reply.io's Jason AI SDR starts at $500 a month billed annually, or $800 on monthly billing, for 1,000 active contacts, while Apollo.io's three agents come inside a Professional seat at $99 a month, per Reply's pricing page and its pricing file and Apollo's pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026. Choose Reply.io when you want one agent to source, write, answer and book across email and LinkedIn, behind an approval queue that can hold every message. Choose Apollo.io when you want agents that propose prospects and sequence changes to a rep who still runs the outreach.

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Before you hand outreach to an agent:

1. Cost per person reached. For example, Jason's Starter tier at $800 a month for 1,000 active contacts is $0.80 per contact who receives a first email that month, per the pricing file. One Apollo Professional seat at $99 brings 4,000 credits, so revealing 1,000 verified emails uses 1,000 of them, per the Apollo pricing page; a person still writes and sends.
2. Write the reviewer's checklist from what you already do. Take 20 prospects from your current list, write each first message yourself, and note every check you made: right person, true detail, no promise you cannot keep. Both vendors put a person in front of the agent's output, and that person needs this list.
3. Track the edits. Count how many drafts the reviewer changes before approving, week by week, next to meetings per 100 active contacts. A falling edit count is the only evidence that earns the agent more freedom.

Reply.io is a sales engagement platform for email, LinkedIn, calls and SMS, with Jason sold as a separate AI SDR plan. Apollo.io is a contact database with sequences and a dialer in each seat, and its agents work for the rep rather than instead of one.

The documented differences

Three differences that decide it

How much the agent does on its own

Jason runs the whole loop. Reply's Jason page describes it finding leads, researching them, writing personalised messages, handling replies and booking meetings. Apollo's agents stop short of sending: lead discovery returns prospects with a rationale for each, Sequence creation builds a campaign you review before launch, and Sequence optimization proposes one change at a time, per its agents article. If you have no SDR, Jason is a candidate for the role. If you have reps, Apollo's agents are their assistants.

The channels the agent can reach

Reply runs LinkedIn steps itself, on the Multichannel plan or through a $69 add-on per LinkedIn account on Email Volume, and Jason's tiers include LinkedIn accounts, per the pricing file. Apollo's LinkedIn steps are reminders a rep completes by hand, per its LinkedIn tasks article. Apollo has the dialer on its side; Reply's Jason page describes email and LinkedIn, not calls.

Where the contacts come from

Apollo's agents work from its own database, paid for in seat credits. Reply's plans include 50 live data credits a month for search across more than a billion B2B contacts, with extra credits sold from $39 for 200 a month, per the pricing file, while Jason's tiers bundle their own real-time contacts. A team that already pays Apollo for data and wants Reply's channels can run both; a team without a data source gets one with either.

The approval step, on each side

This comparison is about the human check, so here it is in both tools. In Reply, switch a sequence to Approval mode and choose All steps or First steps only; with First steps only, follow-ups are generated and sent without review. Drafts wait under AI SDR, Pending approvals, where a person edits, regenerates with a prompt, approves or deletes, and deleting a draft also removes that contact from the sequence, per Reply's approval article. In Apollo, set the credit approval figure on each agent, the number of credits it may spend in one run before asking, then read every recommendation in the AI assistant before acting on it, per the agents article. Start Reply on All steps. Widen it only when the edit count says so.

What each plan costs

Monthly billing in USD, checked on 26 October 2026, from Reply's pricing file and Apollo's pricing page.

Apollo may switch an agent on by itself for eligible users based on their activity, per its agents article, and a scheduled agent spends credits up to the cap set on it. Open the Agents tab before the first renewal and switch off the ones nobody reads.

Free before either agent

The checklist from the second step above is the free version, and on its own it improves the outreach you send today. Then test cheaply. Apollo's Free plan includes the AI assistant with a five-chat limit, per its pricing page, enough to see how it drafts against your checklist. Reply's Multichannel plan starts with a 14-day trial on its pricing page; run one sequence there before booking Jason's demo.

Choose Reply.io if

• Your job is filling an SDR seat with an agent that sources, writes, answers and books, under an approval queue.
• LinkedIn automation belongs in the same sequence as email.
• You want per-step control over what the agent sends without review.

Choose Apollo.io if

• Your job is giving reps agents that find prospects and tune sequences while the reps keep the conversations.
• Calls are part of the motion.
• You want the database, the sequences and the agents on one seat price.

Each on its own: the Reply.io entry and the Apollo.io entry. Reply's sequence setup is covered in how to use Reply.io.

If you want the agent built rather than bought

If the real question is which steps an agent should take over, and you would rather have the rules written, tested against a holdout and handed over than learn either vendor's settings, that is the agentic marketing work I sell.

FAQ

Can Jason run without approvals?

Yes. Reply's approval article describes Approval mode as a setting per sequence, with a First steps only option that sends follow-ups automatically. Turning approvals off is a choice, not a requirement.

Which Apollo plans include agents?

Professional and Organization, per Apollo's agents article. Basic and Free include the AI assistant without the scheduled agents.

Does Reply.io charge per user?

On Email Volume up to 5,000 active contacts and on Multichannel, yes; from 10,000 active contacts the Email Volume plan covers unlimited users, per the pricing file.