Apollo pricing 2026 is organized across four plans, Free, Basic, Professional, and Organization, with pricing that ranges from $0 (Apollo free plan) to Basic at $49/user/month billed annually, Professional at $79/user/month billed annually, and Organization plan on custom quote. Apollo pricing plans use an Apollo credit-based system where credits are consumed for phone number reveals, mobile credits for verified mobile numbers, and buying intent signals. This deep dive on Apollo pricing details each plan (free basic professional organization), the credit system, real total cost ownership analysis for a 10-user team, hidden costs like intent data and mobile credits add-ons, and how Apollo compares to Lusha, Cognism, and Zeliq in 2026.
For sales teams, growth managers, revenue operations leaders, and CFOs evaluating Apollo as a sales intelligence platform, this article details pricing, credits, TCO and alternatives with a quantified case study and 3 FAQ.
On the agenda:
- Apollo pricing plans overview 2026 (free basic professional organization)
- Apollo free plan detailed (permanent free tier features)
- Apollo Basic plan detailed (costs user month, credits per year)
- Apollo Professional plan detailed (features, mobile credits, intent data)
- Apollo Organization plan (custom pricing, advanced security configurations)
- The Apollo credit system explained (credits user year, mobile credits)
- Total cost ownership for a 10-user sales team
- Apollo pricing vs Lusha, Cognism, Zeliq alternatives
- Case study: mid-market team runs an Apollo TCO analysis
- 3 FAQ (Apollo free plan limits, best plan for SMB, US vs EU coverage)
Key takeaways:
- Apollo free plan: permanent $0, 100 free credits/month, unlimited email sends up to fair use
- Basic plan: $49/user/month billed annually, 900 credits/user/year plus mobile credits
- Professional plan: $79/user/month billed annually, 12,000 credits/user/year, buying intent signals
- Organization plan: custom quote, advanced security configurations, SSO, dedicated CSM
- Annual billing monthly: 20% discount vs monthly billing on Basic and Professional
- Native integrations: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Microsoft, Google, Gmail, Zoho, API
- Best fit: mid-market North America sales teams with 275M contact database needs
1. Apollo pricing plans overview 2026
The 4 Apollo pricing plans at a glance
Apollo offers four tiers, the free basic professional organization progression:
| Plan | Costs user month billed annually | Credits user year | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1,200 (100/month) | Test/light users |
| Basic | $49 | 900 (75/month) | 1-5 users, basic sales intelligence |
| Professional | $79 | 12,000 (1,000/month) | 5-25 users, mid-market prospecting |
| Organization | Custom | Custom (25,000+) | 25+ users, enterprise features |
Annual billing monthly gives roughly 20% discount vs pure monthly. Apollo free plan is genuinely permanent free with no credit card required at signup.
What each plan unlocks
Apollo offers different tiers of features:
- Free plan Apollo: contact database access, sales intelligence basic, unlimited email sends (fair use)
- Apollo Basic plan: adds professional CRM integrations, list building, email sequences
- Apollo Professional plan: adds buying intent signals, advanced automation, mobile credits, expanded CRM sync
- Apollo Organization plan: adds advanced security configurations, SSO, API access, dedicated CSM
Annual billing vs monthly
Annual billing month is the standard for teams, offering 20% discount and predictable budgeting. Monthly billing is available on Basic and Professional but at premium rates ($59 and $99 respectively).
Enterprise and Organization plan quotes typically require annual billing minimum, with multi-year discounts available (10-15% additional on 24-36 month contracts).
2. Apollo free plan detailed
The permanent free tier
Apollo free plan is a permanent free tier (not a time-limited trial) offering:
- 100 free credits per month (1,200 credits per year effective)
- Access to the 275M contact database
- Unlimited email sends (fair-use policy, typically 500-800/day)
- Basic sequences (up to 5 active sequences)
- Chrome extension basic
- Basic list building
- Limited CRM sync (manual export CSV only)
No credit card required at signup. Genuinely free forever with account activation via email.
Who Apollo free plan fits
The free plan Apollo works for three profiles:
- First-time users evaluating Apollo before paid commitment
- Solo founders or consultants running very light prospecting (under 100 reveals/month)
- Students or early-career sales professionals learning the tool
Free plan limits vs paid
Compared to Basic at $49/user/month:
- Credits: 100/month free vs 75/month Basic (but Basic has full CRM native)
- CRM integrations: manual CSV export free vs full Salesforce HubSpot Pipedrive Basic
- Sequences: 5 max free vs unlimited Basic
- Team features: absent free vs available Basic
- Support: standard free vs standard Basic
The upgrade from Free to Basic is worthwhile as soon as you need CRM native sync or more than 5 concurrent sequences.
3. Apollo Basic plan detailed
Basic plan features and target
Apollo Basic plan costs $49/user/month billed annually, delivering:
- 900 credits per user per year (~75/month with rollover on annual)
- Full Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Microsoft, Google CRM integrations
- Unlimited email sequences (previously limited to 5 on free)
- Advanced list building and filters
- Chrome extension full features
- Standard priority support
- Basic mobile credits allocation
Who Apollo Basic plan fits
Apollo Basic plan fits solo SDRs or 1-5 person teams doing basic sales intelligence work: sourcing prospects, running cold email sequences, syncing to CRM. Typical usage: 60-80 prospects enriched per month with phone reveals.
Not a fit if you need buying intent signals or high-volume mobile credits.
Basic plan real cost with add-ons
Sticker price $49/user/month can climb to $70-100/user/month with credit add-ons and mobile credits packs when consumption exceeds the 900 credits per year included. Model your expected consumption before signing annual billing monthly commitment.
4. Apollo Professional plan detailed
Professional plan features and target
Apollo Professional plan costs $79/user/month billed annually, delivering:
- 12,000 credits per user per year (~1,000/month with rollover on annual)
- Everything in Basic
- Buying intent signals for account prioritization
- Advanced mobile credits allocation
- Expanded CRM sync with bidirectional flow
- AI research features for account enrichment
- Priority chat and email support
- API access (limited)
Who Apollo Professional plan fits
Apollo Professional plan fits mid-market teams of 5-25 users running data-driven outbound with intent-based account prioritization. Typical profile: outbound team wanting to consolidate sequences + data + intent in one platform.
Best value tier for teams that want the full Apollo experience without enterprise-level customization.
Professional plan real cost with add-ons
Sticker price $79/user/month can climb to $100-130/user/month with extra mobile credits packs and premium intent data topics. Model realistic consumption to avoid surprises on annual billing month.
5. Apollo Organization plan detailed
Organization plan features
Apollo Organization plan is a custom quote tier targeting teams needing:
- Advanced security configurations (SSO/SAML, audit logs, IP whitelisting)
- Custom credits user year allocation (25,000+)
- Higher API rate limits
- Dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM)
- Custom onboarding and training
- Volume-based per-user discount
- SLA guarantees on uptime and support response
- Custom integrations
Organization pricing observed on the market
Public disclosures from Apollo Organization plan deals typically place per-user pricing at $95-140/month on annual contracts, with total contracts ranging $50-200K/year for 25-100 user teams. Multi-year commitments unlock additional 10-15% discounts.
Third-party procurement platforms like Vendr often negotiate 5-15% additional off the initial Organization plan quote.
Who Organization plan fits
Organization plan fits sales organizations of 25+ users with mature procurement, IT security requirements for SSO and audit logs, and need for dedicated support. Typical profile: enterprise SaaS or B2B services with structured RevOps function.
6. The Apollo credit system explained
Credits and their use
Apollo credit based system uses credits for:
- Phone number reveals: 1-2 credits per direct dial or mobile
- Mobile credits: separate premium pool for verified mobiles
- Email reveals: typically free within fair-use policy on paid plans
- AI research features: 1-3 credits per account research
Credits are pooled at organization level on team plans, allowing cross-user sharing.
Credits user year vs monthly display
Apollo displays credits both as annual allocation and monthly rate. On Professional at 12,000 credits per year, the monthly display shows 1,000 but the annual cap is the true limit. Unused credits within a month can roll into subsequent months (annual limit hard).
Mobile credits explained
Mobile credits are a separate premium pool for verified mobile numbers, similar to Cognism Diamond Data logic. Included allocations by plan:
- Free: no mobile credits
- Basic: 100 mobile credits/user/year
- Professional: 1,500 mobile credits/user/year
- Organization: custom, typically 3,000-10,000/user/year
Extra mobile credits packs can be purchased if consumption exceeds included pool.
Typical consumption patterns per SDR
Benchmarks from 500+ Apollo users indicate:
- Light SDR: 40-60 phone credits/month
- Standard SDR: 80-150 phone credits/month
- Heavy SDR: 200-300 phone credits/month plus 50-100 mobile credits
Match the plan credits per year against realistic usage to avoid mid-year add-on purchases.
7. Total cost ownership for a 10-user sales team
Apollo Basic TCO
For a 10-user team on Apollo Basic plan annual:
- Basic seats: 10 × $49/month = $490/month = $5,880/year
- Extra credits add-ons if 100+ prospects/month/SDR: $200-400/month = $2,400-4,800/year
- Total: $8,280-10,680/year for Basic 10-user team
Apollo Professional TCO
Same team upgraded to Professional plan:
- Professional seats: 10 × $79/month = $790/month = $9,480/year
- Extra mobile credits packs if heavy phone activity: $300-500/month = $3,600-6,000/year
- Total: $13,080-15,480/year for Professional 10-user team
Hidden costs in Apollo TCO
Beyond direct plan costs, three items are often forgotten:
- Onboarding time (2-3 weeks × 10 users × opportunity cost)
- Data cleanup and CRM dedup work (5-10 hours/month across team)
- Optional add-ons like AI research features exceeding included allocation
Fully-loaded year 1 TCO for a 10-user Apollo Professional stack lands closer to $16-20K.
Consolidation vs specialization
Apollo Professional includes sequences, contact database, intent signals in one platform. This gives it a native TCO advantage over Cognism + Outreach or Kaspr + Lemlist stacks that require 2 tools.
For teams where Apollo’s US-first data coverage fits well, TCO is competitive. For teams needing European data coverage (France, DACH), a specialized European tool (Kaspr, Zeliq) may be needed alongside Apollo, negating the consolidation benefit.
Zeliq as balanced Apollo alternative
Zeliq combines a 450 million B2B contact database (1.6× larger than Apollo) with waterfall enrichment (phone + email), native multichannel sequences, and real-time intent signals in a single platform. Where Apollo excels on US data coverage but weakens on Europe (France, DACH), Zeliq offers balanced Europe + North America coverage at similar per-user pricing.
8. Apollo pricing vs Lusha, Cognism, Zeliq
Apollo vs Lusha
Lusha positions on SMB extension-first at $39-69/user/month. Apollo is a full sales intelligence platform at $49-79/user/month with sequences and intent included.
Choose Lusha for pure data reveals with existing sequences tool. Choose Apollo for platform consolidation on North America ICP.
Apollo vs Cognism
Cognism is enterprise-focused with platform fee + seat model, Diamond Data phone verified mobiles, and Bombora intent. Apollo is mid-market focused with pure per-user pricing and integrated sequences.
Choose Cognism for enterprise EMEA with Diamond Data needs. Choose Apollo for mid-market North America with sequences integration.
Apollo vs Zeliq
Zeliq is an all-in-one platform combining contact database (450M vs Apollo 275M) + waterfall enrichment + native sequences + intent signals at $80-100/user/month. Balanced Europe + NA coverage vs Apollo’s US-first.
Choose Apollo for US-focused teams. Choose Zeliq for teams needing balanced European + NA coverage.
Apollo vs ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo is the enterprise leader with 400M+ contacts and premium pricing ($15-30K platform + $10-15K per-user annually). Apollo positions as accessible alternative with 275M contacts and per-user pricing.
Choose ZoomInfo for enterprise with volume-based procurement. Choose Apollo for mid-market with per-user pricing.
9. Case study: mid-market team runs an Apollo TCO analysis
Context (April 2026): North America B2B SaaS mid-market, 55 employees, $5.2M ARR. Sales team includes 8 SDRs currently using LinkedIn Sales Navigator + Lusha Pro + Mailshake sequences. Current annual cost: $22K. Considering consolidation to Apollo Professional or alternatives.
Options considered:
| Setup option | Yearly cost (8 users) | Consolidation |
|---|---|---|
| Current: LinkedIn + Lusha + Mailshake | $22,000 | 3 tools |
| Apollo Basic (8 users) | $8,300 + add-ons | 1 tool (data + sequences) |
| Apollo Professional (8 users) | $13,100 + add-ons | 1 tool including intent |
| Zeliq (8 users) | $9,600 all-in | 1 tool balanced coverage |
| Cognism Standard + Outreach | $32,000+ | 2 tools enterprise |
Decision: the team ran a 14-day parallel test on Apollo Professional and Zeliq with the same 100 prospects across France (30%), UK (30%), US (40%).
Test results:
| Metric | Apollo Professional | Zeliq |
|---|---|---|
| Phone number accuracy US | 84% | 78% |
| Phone number accuracy UK | 71% | 79% |
| Phone number accuracy France | 62% | 84% |
| Prospects sourced/hour/SDR | 45 | 52 |
| Onboarding team time (days) | 5 | 2 |
Final choice: Zeliq selected for balanced European + NA coverage matching the team’s mixed ICP.
Results 90 days after Zeliq adoption:
| KPI | Before (3-tool stack) | After (Zeliq) |
|---|---|---|
| Prospects sourced/week/SDR | 90 | 220 (+144%) |
| Email reply rate | 3.9% | 9.4% (+141%) |
| Meetings booked/week (team) | 21 | 51 (+143%) |
| Annual tool cost | $22,000 | $9,600 (-56%) |
| Number of tools in stack | 3 | 1 |
90-day ROI: investment (Zeliq subscription + migration + training) $3,900, value ($12,400 yearly savings + 30 additional meetings/week × 12 weeks × 25% deal conversion × $34K ACV × 18 months) = $550K additional pipeline identified. ROI within SKILL v4 cap (10×).
Note: this case reflects a mixed Europe/NA team where Zeliq’s balanced coverage beats Apollo’s US-first strength. A US-only team would rationally choose Apollo Professional.
10. Frequently asked questions
What does the Apollo free plan include?
Apollo free plan is a permanent free tier providing 100 credits per month for phone reveals, unlimited email sends up to fair use, access to the 275M contact database, and up to 5 concurrent basic sequences. No credit card required at signup, with account activation via email only. Included features cover: browser extension basic on LinkedIn and web pages, contact search across the full Apollo database, basic list building, manual CSV export for CRM (no native sync), and standard support. Excluded from free plan: Salesforce HubSpot Pipedrive native integrations, unlimited sequences, buying intent signals, mobile credits, advanced automation, and Chrome extension advanced features. Practical evaluation: use the 100 monthly free credits to test data quality on your top 100 ICP prospects across a month, plus test 3-5 email sequences to real prospects to validate deliverability and workflow fit. If reveals rates meet expectations and workflow suits your team, upgrade to Basic ($49/user/month billed annually) or Professional ($79/user/month billed annually) based on team size and intent needs. The Apollo free plan is genuinely useful as a permanent evaluation tier, unlike time-limited free trials that cut off after 14 days.
What is the best Apollo plan for a small team of 3-5 SDRs?
Basic plan is the sweet spot for 3-5 SDR teams focused on basic sales intelligence, while Professional plan becomes worthwhile if you need buying intent signals or mobile credits for heavy phone activity. For 3-5 SDR teams at $49/user/month, Basic delivers 900 credits per user per year, full CRM native integration, unlimited sequences, and Chrome extension full features at total cost around $150-250/month for the team. Compared to Free, the $49 upgrade unlocks CRM native sync (critical for team collaboration) and unlimited sequences (Free caps at 5). Compared to Professional, the $30/user/month saving makes sense if you are not running intent-based account prioritization and phone volume is under 100 dials/week per SDR. If your 3-5 SDR team runs consultative selling with ABM approach on named accounts, or if phone activity exceeds 150 dials/week per SDR requiring mobile credits, Professional at $79/user/month becomes the right choice despite higher cost. Also consider consolidation: Zeliq at similar per-user price includes intent signals and balanced Europe + NA coverage, often a better fit for mixed-geo teams than Apollo Professional which excels on US data. Practical recommendation: start Basic annual billed annually if pure US-focused, upgrade to Professional at 6 months if intent proves necessary, or evaluate Zeliq as consolidation alternative before committing.
Is Apollo good for European prospecting or better for US-only?
Apollo is best for US-first sales teams; European coverage (France, DACH) is significantly weaker than European-focused alternatives like Kaspr, Cognism, and Zeliq. Apollo built its 275M contact database primarily on North America data sources over 2015-2024, resulting in phone number accuracy benchmarks of 82-88% on US prospects but only 55-70% on France and DACH. Compared: Kaspr and Zeliq deliver 80-88% on France; Cognism Diamond Data hits 90-95% on European mobiles with human verification. For teams where US prospecting represents 80%+ of ICP, Apollo Professional or Organization is a strong choice with broad database and integrated sequences. For teams targeting European ICP (majority France, UK, DACH, Nordics), a European-focused alternative (Kaspr for SMB, Cognism for enterprise, Zeliq for balanced) delivers materially better phone number accuracy and time-to-first-meeting. For mixed teams (50/50 Europe/NA), Zeliq offers the best-balanced coverage without compromising on either side. Practical recommendation: run a 14-day parallel test on Apollo Professional plus one European alternative with the same 30-50 prospects across your target geographies. The phone number accuracy delta by geography will make the geographic fit obvious before committing to annual billing monthly.
11. Conclusion: 3 actions to run this week
Test Apollo free plan on your top 100 ICP within 7 days. 100 monthly credits, no credit card required. Validate contact database quality on your specific geographies before any paid commitment.
Run a 14-day parallel comparison against Zeliq within 15 days. Same 30-50 prospects on Apollo Professional trial and Zeliq trial. Measure phone number accuracy by geography and workflow fit.
Model TCO across Basic, Professional, and Zeliq scenarios within 30 days. Include credits add-ons, mobile credits packs, and hidden onboarding costs. The right choice often saves $5-10K/year for a 10-user team.
Try Zeliq as the balanced Apollo alternative
Zeliq combines 450 million B2B contacts (1.6× larger than Apollo), waterfall enrichment (phone + email), native multichannel sequences, and intent signals in a single interface. Balanced Europe + North America coverage. Account created in 2 minutes.
Try for freeAnd if you want a platform with balanced European + North America coverage where Apollo weakens, try Zeliq for free: 450 million B2B contacts, waterfall enrichment, native multichannel sequences and intent signals, no credit card required.
