What Is Apollo.io? Contact Data, Sequences and AI Agents
By Joris van Huët · Apollo.io's own site
The short answer: Apollo.io suits a team that wants the contact database and the sending in one seat. Basic is $49 per seat a month billed annually, with 30,000 credits per seat a year, and the free plan is enough to test your filters, per its pricing page, checked on 24 October 2026. Read its data-sharing terms before you connect a mailbox or a CRM.
Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.
Rule of thumb for sizing it:
- Phones are the expensive part. An email costs 1 credit and a phone 8 on the pricing page. For example, three Basic seats billed monthly cost 3 x $65 = $195 and bring 7,500 credits; emails and phones for 500 contacts use 500 x 9 = 4,500 of them.
- Search before you pay. The credit table has no charge for a search, and the data overview suggests running your ideal-customer filters and reading the count.
- Watch the first bounce rate. The same overview treats 8% or higher as a reason for immediate action.
What Apollo.io is now
Apollo calls itself an AI GTM system in three layers on its homepage: data, with 240M+ contacts, 30M+ accounts and waterfall enrichment; intelligence, with an AI assistant, research, buying signals and agents that build lists and draft outreach; and execution, with sequences, a dialer, meetings, deals and workflows. Apollo MCP brings the same actions into Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Cursor on every plan, per the MCP article.
Who it suits, and who it does not
It suits small sales teams that would otherwise buy a database, a sequencer and a dialer separately, and marketing leads who hand account lists to reps in the same system. It suits less well a team whose seats need different plans: the pricing FAQ puts every seat on one plan.
Two things to read first. Under the contributor network terms, connecting a mailbox, calendar or CRM, or uploading a CSV, can feed verified business contact data into Apollo's database; on Free, Basic and Professional that comes with the service. And the email credit article shows personal emails delivered by default, which an EU team may want off.
What it costs, checked on 24 October 2026
Per seat per month in USD, from the Apollo pricing page:
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Credits per seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 900 a year, granted monthly |
| Basic | $49 | $65 | 30,000 a year, or 2,500 a month |
| Professional | $79 | $99 | 48,000 a year, or 4,000 a month |
| Organization | $119, 3 seats minimum | Annual only | 72,000 a year |
Credits are pooled, granted upfront and do not roll over. The same page caps the records one action can select, from 25 on Free to 10,000 on Organization.
How it compares
Anymail Finder has no database to browse: it works from names or domains you supply and charges only for verified emails, per its pricing page. If your targets are chosen, it is the narrower buy.
ZoomInfo prices packages through its sales team on licences, credits and features, per its pricing page. Apollo's numbers are public, which helps when a budget needs one.
Clay orchestrates many data providers in one workflow, per its homepage; Apollo is one database with the sending attached. Clay fits when the enrichment logic is what you are building.
The pricing FAQ is open about one default: add-on credits renew every cycle until you drag the slider back to zero. A top-up that recurs by default serves the vendor's renewal, so remove it once its job is done.
Getting started
How to use Apollo.io builds an account-based target list: companies first, then people, then export.
FAQ
Is there a free plan?
Yes, with no time limit: the pricing page lists 2 sequences and Gmail as the only mailbox type.
Do unused credits roll over?
No. Plan and add-on credits expire at the end of each billing cycle, per the pricing FAQ.
Can it keep EU residents out of my outreach?
Admins can switch on three GDPR settings that block prospecting, emailing and tracking for EU residents, where Apollo can resolve their location.