What it is
Apollo.io combines a large B2B contact database with tools to reach those contacts. You search 240 million contacts and 30 million companies by job title, industry, size and buying intent, then add them to email sequences, call them from the built-in dialer, and track replies. It plugs into Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce and HubSpot, though the Free plan connects to Gmail only.
AI features include an AI Assistant for building lists and sequences from a chat request, AI research fields (one credit per record and column), call recording with AI insights, and background agents for tasks such as prospect research. OpenAI is listed among Apollo's subprocessors.
Usage runs on credits shared across the team and issued at the start of each billing cycle. Credits pay for revealed emails and phone numbers, enrichment and AI research, and they do not roll over, including purchased add-on credits. The pricing page now names four plans, Free, Basic, Professional and Custom; Apollo's own September 2026 plan guide still describes an Organization tier at $119 per user per month with a three-user minimum.
Our review
Apollo's appeal is breadth for the price. At $49 per user per month on annual Basic, or $79 on Professional, a team gets a contact database, unlimited sequences, CRM sync, a dialer and AI research that would otherwise take several subscriptions. Every seat on an account must be on the same plan, so a team cannot put its SDRs on Professional and its account executives on Basic.
Data quality is the argument against it. Apollo claims 98% accuracy across 240 million contacts; users on G2 and Reddit regularly report bounced emails and stale job titles, particularly outside the US and at small companies, and most outbound teams run a separate verifier before sending. The history matters too. In 2018 an unsecured Apollo database exposed about 126 million email addresses, according to Have I Been Pwned. The company's trust centre now lists a SOC 2 Type 2 report and ISO 27001 certification, but the people in the database never opted in, which is a GDPR conversation for any European buyer.
Credits need active management. They are pooled across the team, expire each cycle, and add-on packs renew automatically until someone moves the slider back to zero. AI research costs one credit per record and column, so enriching 100 prospects with three researched fields uses about 300 credits, and a mobile number reveal costs several. Admins can set per-user caps, and the teams that do not usually find out mid-quarter.
The API is more open than the pricing page suggests. Apollo's developer docs publish rate limits for every plan, 200 requests a minute and 2,000 a day on Basic and Professional by default, with enrichment endpoints at 1,000 a minute and no daily cap on paid plans. That is enough to feed Clay or a warehouse sync without moving to Custom, though every enrichment call still spends credits.
Where it earns its place
A seed-stage founder doing outbound without an SDR
Find 500 heads of finance at UK fintechs and email them
The free plan covers searching and a first Gmail sequence; moving to Basic at $49 a month on annual billing adds unlimited sequences and Outlook. Running revealed emails through a verifier first keeps bounce rates from damaging the sending domain.
A six-person SDR team selling to US mid-market
Run calling and email cadences from one tool
Professional at $79 per seat, about $5,690 a year for six, adds the dialer, call recording and AI research. The manager sets per-user credit caps, because phone reveals cost several credits each and the pool resets every cycle.
A RevOps engineer keeping Salesforce accounts enriched
Fill missing titles and firmographics nightly
A scheduled job calls Apollo's enrichment endpoints, which allow 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans, and writes back to Salesforce. Each call spends credits, so the job only enriches records changed since the last run.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Sign up, connect a Gmail or Outlook mailbox and a CRM, and a first sequence can send the same day; paid plans are needed for anything beyond Gmail.
- Integrations
- Gmail, Outlook (paid plans only), Salesforce and HubSpot; a REST API with published per-plan rate limits on every plan.
- Data and privacy
- Trust centre lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR and CCPA; subprocessors include OpenAI, AWS, Google Cloud, Snowflake and Databricks; contacts are compiled without their opt-in.
- Cost at scale
- Ten Professional seats cost $9,480 a year on annual billing before add-on credits, which renew every cycle until switched off; heavy phone-number or AI-research use is where bills grow.
- Limits
- API defaults of 200 requests a minute and 2,000 a day per endpoint on Basic and Professional, 6,000 a day on Organization; 429 errors with a retry-after header past that.
What's good
- Database, sequences, dialer and AI research in one subscription
- $49 to $79 per user per month on annual billing
- Published API rate limits on every plan, with uncapped daily enrichment on paid plans
- SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 listed in the trust centre
What's not
- Contact accuracy varies, especially outside the US
- Pooled credits expire each cycle and add-on packs auto-renew
- All seats must be on the same plan
- 2018 breach exposed about 126 million email addresses
- SSO only on Custom
Best for
Startups and small to mid-size sales teams that want lead data and outreach in one affordable tool.
Alternatives
Apollo.io: common questions
- Is Apollo.io worth it?
- At $49 to $79 a seat, Apollo replaces three or four outbound tools, provided you verify its data before you trust it. We rate it 4.3 out of 5.
- How much does Apollo.io cost?
- Free plan; Basic $49/user/month billed annually; Professional $79/user/month; Custom by quote (SSO, API for advanced integrations). Annual billing is discounted; monthly prices not published on the page we could read. Older Organization tier $119/user/month, 3-user minimum.
- What are the downsides of Apollo.io?
- Contact accuracy varies, especially outside the US; pooled credits expire each cycle and add-on packs auto-renew; all seats must be on the same plan; 2018 breach exposed about 126 million email addresses; sSO only on Custom.
- Who is Apollo.io best for?
- Startups and small to mid-size sales teams that want lead data and outreach in one affordable tool.
- How much does Apollo.io cost for a team or in production?
- Ten Professional seats cost $9,480 a year on annual billing before add-on credits, which renew every cycle until switched off; heavy phone-number or AI-research use is where bills grow.
- Is Apollo.io safe for company data?
- Trust centre lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR and CCPA; subprocessors include OpenAI, AWS, Google Cloud, Snowflake and Databricks; contacts are compiled without their opt-in.
- What are the best Apollo.io alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Clay, HubSpot Breeze and Agent Hub and Gong.
Answers checked Oct 23, 2026.
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