Is Apollo.io Free? Free Plan Limits Explained

Yes, Apollo.io Has a Free Plan - But Read the Fine Print

Short answer: yes, Apollo.io is free to sign up for and there's a permanent free tier. You don't need a credit card to access it. But if you're asking whether the free plan is actually useful for running real outbound campaigns, that's a different question - and the answer is more complicated.

I've used Apollo across multiple ventures and helped thousands of agencies build their outbound stacks. Here's what the free plan actually gives you, where you'll hit the wall, and what makes more sense once you're past the testing phase.

What Apollo's Free Plan Includes

Apollo's free tier is genuinely a "forever" plan - it doesn't expire after a trial period. You get access to the core platform features including the contact database, the Chrome extension, and basic email sequencing. Specifically, the free plan gives you:

• Access to Apollo's contact database - you can search and view contacts across a database of 210M+ contacts and 30M+ companies, though actually exporting them eats into your credits fast
• Up to 2 active outreach sequences - enough to test a basic email cadence
• Unlimited email credits (subject to fair use) - with a daily cap of roughly 250 emails for non-corporate domains; corporate domain accounts get higher limits
• 5 mobile credits per month - so five phone numbers, total
• 10 export credits per month - ten contacts you can push out to a CSV or CRM
• Chrome extension for grabbing contact data as you browse LinkedIn or company websites
• Gmail integration only - you can only connect a Gmail account on the free plan; no Outlook, no custom SMTP
• 100 AI power-ups for research tasks
• Basic filters for segmenting leads by name, title, and company
• Basic reporting including email reply tracking and meeting tracking

On paper, that looks like a lot. In practice, the credit limits are what kill it. Five mobile credits and ten export credits per month means you can pull ten contacts into your CRM or a spreadsheet - total. If you're actually trying to build a pipeline, you'll burn through that before lunch on day one.

One thing that trips people up: the "unlimited email credits" language sounds great until you realize there's a fair use policy sitting on top of it. Apollo doesn't publish the exact thresholds, which creates real uncertainty for anyone trying to plan campaigns around the free tier. The cap of roughly 250 emails per day for non-corporate domains is real, but the ceiling for what triggers throttling on higher end usage isn't clearly documented.

Where the Free Plan Breaks Down Fast

The two biggest walls you'll hit on the free plan are the export credits and the sequence cap.

Export credits: Every time you push a verified contact outside of Apollo - to Salesforce, HubSpot, a CSV, via API - it costs an export credit. With only 10 per month, you cannot run any meaningful outbound campaign. You're essentially browsing leads without being able to use them at scale. What makes this worse is that every CRM sync counts against this limit too, so teams using multiple sales tools burn export credits from multiple directions simultaneously.

Two sequences: You're capped at two active outreach sequences. That's enough to run one test campaign and have one backup, but if you're testing multiple ICPs, offers, or personas simultaneously - which you should be - you'll need more.

Mobile numbers are essentially unavailable: Five mobile credits per month means five direct-dial phone numbers. For anyone doing cold calling alongside cold email, this is a non-starter. And revealing a mobile number costs 8 credits each under Apollo's credit system, so even on paid plans you need to watch this carefully. On the free plan, five credits technically means you can unlock less than one full mobile number under that math - the way credits work means you're better off thinking of it as five credits total to allocate across actions, with mobiles being the most expensive.

Gmail only: You can't connect a custom domain email or a Microsoft account on the free plan. That's a real limitation if you're running a properly warmed-up sending inbox through a tool like Instantly or Smartlead with its own domain.

No advanced filters: Technographic data, job postings, VC funding signals, revenue filters - all of those are locked behind paid plans. On the free tier, you're working with basic filters only, which limits how precisely you can target. If you're trying to build a list of SaaS companies that recently raised a Series A, or e-commerce brands on Shopify, you can't do that on the free plan.

No CRM integrations: The free plan doesn't include CRM integrations with Salesforce or HubSpot. You can export contacts manually (10 per month), but the two-way sync that makes Apollo genuinely useful for a sales team is gated behind paid tiers.

No dialer: Apollo's built-in dialer - useful for SDRs who want to call directly from the platform - isn't available on the free plan at all. It doesn't even appear on the Basic plan. You need Professional or higher to access the US dialer, and Organization-level to make international calls.

Apollo's Paid Plans: What They Cost

Once you decide the free plan isn't cutting it, here's the paid tier breakdown. Note that Apollo's pricing has historically shifted - one G2 reviewer noted watching the Basic plan move from $19 to $29 to $39 to $49 to $59 over a span of a few years. Always verify directly on their site before committing.

• Basic: $49/user/month (billed annually) or $59/user/month (monthly). Unlocks unlimited sequences, advanced filters, CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot, and bumps you to 75 mobile credits and 1,000 export credits per month. You also get buying intent data on 6 topics, email open and click rate tracking, and a meeting scheduler. The dialer is NOT included here - you'll need a separate calling tool if cold calling is part of your motion.
• Professional: $79/user/month (billed annually) or $99/user/month (monthly). This is Apollo's most popular tier. It adds the built-in US dialer, call recordings, A/B testing on sequences, AI lead scoring, and more robust reporting. Mobile credits go up to 100/month and export credits to 2,000/month. Intent topics expand to 9. The Professional plan is where Apollo starts to make sense for SDR teams combining email and phone outreach in the US market.
• Organization: $119/user/month (billed annually, minimum 3 users) or $149/user/month (monthly). Adds international dialing, customizable dashboards, advanced security, SSO, and the highest data limits at 200 mobile credits and 4,000 export credits per month. The minimum 3-user requirement means your entry price is $357/month before any overages or add-ons. If your team makes international calls, you're forced to this tier regardless of your credit needs - there's no way to mix plans within a single account.

Annual billing saves you roughly 20% versus monthly. If you're serious about using Apollo as a core tool, the annual commitment usually makes sense - but factor in the cancellation terms before you sign (more on that below).

Apollo's Credit System: Where the Real Costs Hide

Here's what a lot of people miss when they first sign up: Apollo's pricing isn't just a flat monthly fee. It's a hybrid model - you pay per seat, and then you also consume credits every time you access meaningful data. This is the single most important factor in understanding your real costs.

There are four types of credits in Apollo's system:

• Email credits: Technically unlimited on all plans, but governed by a fair use policy. Apollo doesn't publish hard limits for paid plans. The free plan caps at roughly 250 emails per day for non-corporate domains.
• Mobile credits: The high-value ones. Revealing a mobile number costs 8 credits. With 5 mobile credits on the free plan, 75 on Basic, and 100 on Professional, the volume ceiling is real. For teams doing serious phone prospecting, this number gets tight fast.
• Export credits: Consumed whenever you export a contact outside Apollo - to CSV, CRM, or API. Every sync counts. Teams running multiple sales tools (Outreach, Salesloft, HubSpot simultaneously) burn these from multiple directions.
• Data credits: The annual pool used for revealing contact information. These are shared across your team, not per-user, which creates internal competition for credits as the month progresses.

The credits also don't roll over. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle. So if you have a slow month or your team is heads-down on closing rather than prospecting, you're losing value you already paid for. This creates a use-it-or-lose-it dynamic that encourages over-consumption early in the month and rationing at the end - neither of which is ideal for a well-run outbound program.

Once you exhaust your plan's credit allocation, additional credits cost around $0.20 each, with a minimum purchase of 250 credits ($50). For an active outbound team running high volume, the real monthly cost of Apollo can end up significantly higher than the base subscription price suggests. One analysis found that real-world costs typically run $150-$400 per user per month once you factor in credit overages, supplementary verification tools, and tier upgrades for locked features. Factor that in before you commit to an annual contract.

There's also a newer wrinkle worth knowing about: Apollo has been rolling out a new credit system and not all accounts are on the same version. If you're an existing customer, your account may still be on the legacy system, which means two companies on the same plan can experience very different limits and costs depending on when they signed up. Check your plan settings if you're unsure which system you're on.

Apollo's Data Accuracy: The Hidden Cost Nobody Talks About

The credit system isn't the only cost driver. There's also the data quality issue.

According to an analysis of 1,000+ user reviews, Apollo's real-world email accuracy hovers around 65-70%, with bounce rates in the 15-25% range. Industry best practice is under 5%. That gap matters because high bounce rates tank your deliverability - and once your sending domain is flagged, it affects every email you send, not just the ones that bounced.

What this means practically: even after paying for an Apollo export, you should still be running your list through a separate email validation tool before hitting send. That's an additional cost and step that doesn't show up in Apollo's advertised pricing.

If you're exporting Apollo data and want to verify it before sending, running it through an email validation tool before your first campaign is non-negotiable. High bounce rates will tank your deliverability regardless of which sending platform you're using. This applies whether you exported from Apollo's free plan or a paid tier.

The data accuracy issue is also more pronounced outside of the US market. Reviews consistently note that Apollo's coverage of European, Asian, and Latin American contacts is thinner and less current than its US database. If your prospecting is primarily international, this is a meaningful limitation to evaluate before committing.

Is the Free Plan Worth Using?

Yes - for one specific purpose: testing the interface and data quality before you buy. Apollo's database is large, and the free plan gives you enough access to check whether contacts in your target market are in there and whether the data looks current for your niche.

What it's not good for is actually running outbound. Ten export credits is not a pipeline strategy. If you're past the "just checking it out" phase, you need a paid plan or a different tool.

Also worth knowing: Apollo offers a 14-day free trial of its paid plans. That trial comes with 50 credits and near-full feature access (minus the ability to connect non-Gmail/Microsoft email accounts). During the trial, your record selection is also limited to 25 at a time. You can only activate this trial once, so don't burn it before you're ready to actually evaluate the platform properly.

The honest framing: the free plan is a lead magnet for Apollo, not a functional outbound tool. It's built to show you what's possible, not to let you actually do it at scale. Use it the way it's designed - to evaluate whether the data quality in your target market justifies the investment in a paid plan.

Apollo's Cancellation Policy: Read This Before You Sign Anything

This section gets glossed over in most Apollo reviews, but it's cost people real money. Before you sign up for an annual plan, understand how cancellation works.

Annual subscribers need to give notice before their term ends - and that window is not generous. Missing the cancellation deadline auto-renews your subscription for another full year. Multiple Trustpilot reviews flag this specifically as a pain point. If you sign up in January on an annual plan and forget to cancel before the renewal date, you're locked in for another 12 months.

A few other contract terms to know upfront:

• Seat reductions aren't allowed mid-term. If your team shrinks - a rep leaves, you restructure - you continue paying for all seats until the contract renews. Plan your seat count conservatively when starting an annual commitment.
• Upgrades take effect immediately. If you need to move from Basic to Professional mid-cycle, the new pricing kicks in right away.
• Downgrades don't generate refunds. If you downgrade mid-term, you lose the value of what you already paid for. The updated price applies starting with your next billing cycle.
• Add-on credits purchased mid-cycle remain available even if you downgrade before the cycle ends. That's one slightly user-friendly policy in an otherwise rigid contract structure.

If you're a small team or agency evaluating Apollo for the first time, I'd recommend starting monthly rather than locking into an annual contract immediately - even though the annual price is lower. Get a full billing cycle of real usage data first. See how fast your credits actually move. Then make the annual commitment with real numbers, not estimates.

When You Need More Than Apollo's Free Tier

If you're hitting the free plan's limits and you're not sure whether to upgrade Apollo or look elsewhere, here's how I think about it:

Upgrade Apollo if: You want an all-in-one tool - database, sequences, CRM, and dialer in one place. Apollo's database has 275 million+ contacts with solid filtering, and the platform is genuinely well-built for teams that want everything connected. The Basic plan is a reasonable entry point for small teams doing email-only outreach. The Professional plan makes sense once you're doing combined email and phone prospecting in the US market.

Look at alternatives if: Your primary need is phone numbers (Apollo's mobile data quality gets mixed reviews, and the credit cost per number is steep), or if you're doing very high-volume prospecting where the credit system becomes unpredictable and expensive, or if your team is prospecting primarily outside the US where Apollo's database coverage is thinner.

For building prospect lists specifically, you have options that don't rely on Apollo's credit system at all. ScraperCity's B2B email database lets you filter by job title, seniority, industry, location, and company size without burning credits on every export. If you already have Apollo data you want to extract and use elsewhere, there's also a dedicated Apollo scraper worth knowing about. If you need direct phone numbers for cold calling, this mobile finder tool is a clean way to pull those separately without paying 8 Apollo credits per number.

For email sending once you have your list, Instantly and Smartlead are both solid sending platforms I've used and recommend. They give you more control over deliverability than Apollo's native sequences, especially at volume. Check out my full cold email tech stack breakdown for how I'd piece together a complete outbound setup.

Apollo Free vs. Apollo Paid: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Here's a quick reference to see exactly what changes between the free plan and the paid tiers:

The jump from free to Basic is significant. The jump from Basic to Professional is where you unlock the dialer and A/B testing. The jump from Professional to Organization is mostly about international calling, advanced security, and custom reporting - things a smaller team typically doesn't need.

Who Each Apollo Plan Actually Makes Sense For

Rather than just listing features, here's how I'd match the plans to real use cases:

Free plan: You're a solo founder or SDR who just discovered Apollo and wants to see if the database has your target market's contacts. You're not prospecting at scale yet. Use it to validate data quality, then upgrade or move on. Don't try to run outbound campaigns on 10 export credits per month - it won't work.

Basic plan: You're a small team (1-3 people) doing email-only outreach. You don't need a built-in dialer because you're using a separate calling tool or not calling at all. You want the advanced filters, CRM sync, and unlimited sequences without paying for features you don't need yet. This is the most budget-friendly entry point for serious outbound work.

Professional plan: You're an SDR team or agency running combined email and phone outreach targeting US prospects. You need the dialer, call recording, and A/B testing. This is Apollo's flagship tier for a reason - it's where the platform clicks as a complete outbound tool. Just be aware that if any of your reps call internationally, you'll need to jump to Organization.

Organization plan: You're a larger sales team with compliance requirements, global outreach, or RevOps workflows that need advanced API access. The 3-seat minimum means it's not for solo operators or very small teams. If you're building a serious international prospecting operation, this is the tier that unlocks the international dialer.

How to Get the Most Out of Apollo's Free Plan

If you're going to use the free tier, here's how to make those limited credits count:

• Don't waste export credits on contacts you're not immediately using. Curate your shortlist inside Apollo before you export anything. Use filters to get your list down to the highest-probability targets, then export only those. With 10 credits per month, every export has to count.
• Use the Chrome extension for prospect research. The Chrome extension works on the free plan and is genuinely useful for pulling contact info directly from LinkedIn profiles or company websites without burning export credits against a cold list.
• Save mobile credits for decision-makers only. Five mobile credits per month means five phone numbers. Use them on VP-level or C-suite contacts where a direct dial actually changes your conversion rate. Don't burn them on contacts you could reach by email.
• Test your two sequences with different angles. The two-sequence limit is actually enough to A/B test a core message angle. Run two versions targeting slightly different pain points and see which gets replies before you commit to upgrading.
• Validate your email list before sending. Even from a free Apollo export, running your list through an email verification tool before hitting send protects your domain. High bounce rates will tank your deliverability regardless of which platform you're using.
• Use the free plan to audit a specific niche before upgrading. Search for your ICP, look at the data density, check how many contacts in your target industry have verified emails vs. incomplete profiles. This tells you whether Apollo's database actually covers your market well before you pay for it.
• Don't activate your 14-day paid trial until you're ready. You only get one trial. Don't trigger it out of curiosity - save it for when you're seriously evaluating whether to commit to a paid plan. Use the free tier for initial exploration, then activate the trial when you have real campaigns ready to test.

Apollo Alternatives Worth Considering

Apollo is genuinely good, but it's not the only option. Here's how I'd think about the alternatives depending on what you actually need:

If your primary need is phone data: Apollo's mobile credit cost (8 credits per number) and the quality complaints about mobile data outside the US make it expensive for call-heavy outreach. A dedicated mobile finder gives you direct phone numbers without the per-credit overhead. Lusha is also worth looking at if mobile data quality is your primary concern - it's more expensive but has a strong reputation for direct dials.

If your primary need is email prospecting at volume: The combination of a B2B lead database for list building, Findymail for finding specific emails, and Instantly or Smartlead for sending is often cheaper and more flexible than paying for Apollo's all-in-one credit system - especially if you're doing high volume.

If your primary need is data enrichment and custom prospecting: Clay is worth serious consideration. It pulls from multiple data sources, lets you build highly customized enrichment waterfalls, and pairs well with Apollo data as a starting point. It's more technical to set up but gives you far more control over your list quality.

If you want to export existing Apollo data: If you're already on Apollo and want to extract your data for use in other tools without burning export credits every time, the Apollo scraper is built specifically for that use case.

If you need LinkedIn prospecting alongside email: Lemlist and Reply.io both handle multichannel sequences (email + LinkedIn) with cleaner pricing models than Apollo for pure outreach use. Neither gives you the database Apollo has, but they're stronger sending platforms if your database is already sourced elsewhere.

For email finding specifically - when you have a name and company but need the email address - an email lookup tool is often faster and cheaper than burning Apollo credits to look up individual addresses.

My full breakdown of how I'd build a complete outbound stack from scratch - including which tools I'd combine and in what order - is in my guide to cloning Apollo's core functionality with a combination of cheaper tools. If the credit system is what's frustrating you about Apollo, that guide is worth reading before you upgrade.

Frequently Asked Questions About Apollo's Free Plan

Does Apollo's free plan ever expire?

No. The free plan is a permanent "free forever" tier - it doesn't expire after a set number of days. You can stay on it indefinitely. The limitations are on credits and features, not on time.

Can I use a custom domain email account on the free plan?

No. The free plan only supports Gmail accounts for sending. If you want to connect a custom domain (your own SMTP), an Outlook account, or a dedicated sending domain through a tool like Instantly or Smartlead, you need a paid plan. This is a hard limitation, not a workaround.

What happens when I run out of credits?

You can purchase additional credits at around $0.20 each, with a minimum purchase of 250 credits ($50). These add-on credits are available on all plans including the free plan. Credits expire at the end of your billing cycle and don't roll over, so buy them when you need them rather than in bulk at the start of a period.

Is Apollo's free plan good for local business prospecting?

Not really. Apollo's database is strongest for traditional B2B (companies with websites, LinkedIn presence, etc.). If you're prospecting local businesses - restaurants, contractors, home services - Apollo's coverage gets thin. For local business leads, a Google Maps scraper will get you much better coverage than Apollo's free plan for that specific use case.

Can I share credits across a team on the free plan?

The free plan is designed as a single-user account. On paid plans, data credits are shared across the team rather than allocated per-user, which means a busy prospecting day from one rep can eat credits that other team members need. Factor that into your plan sizing if you have multiple SDRs.

Does Apollo integrate with Close CRM?

Apollo integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and other major CRMs on paid plans. If you're running your pipeline through Close, you'd typically export Apollo contacts to a CSV and import them into Close, rather than a native bi-directional sync. Check Apollo's current integrations page for the most up-to-date list.

Can I try Apollo's paid features without paying?

Yes - Apollo offers a 14-day free trial of its paid plans. The trial includes 50 credits and access to almost all features of the plan you selected, with two exceptions: you can't connect non-Gmail/Microsoft email accounts, and your record selection is capped at 25 at a time. You can only activate this trial once per account, so use it intentionally.

The Bottom Line

Apollo.io is free in the technical sense - you can sign up and use the platform indefinitely without paying. But the free plan is built to show you what's possible, not to let you actually do it at scale. The export limits alone (10 contacts per month) make it impossible to run real outbound on the free tier.

The credit system is the main thing to understand before you upgrade. It's not just a seat fee - it's a seat fee plus a per-action data tax that compounds as your team scales and your prospecting volume grows. Credits don't roll over, overages cost extra, and the real-world cost per user is often higher than the headline price once you factor in credit purchases and supplementary tools for email validation and phone data.

If you're evaluating whether to invest in Apollo, use the free plan to check data quality in your target market, then trigger the 14-day paid trial when you're ready to seriously test it. Go in knowing the credit system can inflate your real costs beyond the headline price, especially if your team is active and doing call-heavy prospecting. Read the cancellation terms before you sign anything annual.

And if you want a deeper look at how to build an outbound stack that doesn't leave you dependent on any single tool's credit system, check out my tools and resources page or the guide to cloning Apollo's core functionality with a combination of cheaper tools. I cover building full outbound systems in depth inside Galadon Gold if you want live help putting it together.

The free plan is a starting point. Build a stack that scales.