Free
$0
Free
$0. 75 credits a seat a month on monthly billing, or 900 a seat a year on annual billing. The plan card lists API Access, but people search through the API is not included on Free.
API included
Comparison
Apollo vs Cognism
Apollo publishes its prices: a Free plan, then Basic at $49 a seat a month billed annually, with API access on paid plans. Cognism publishes no prices: Standard and Pro are sold through sales with 5 seats included, and its API and MCP come only on those packages. Cognism screens phones against 15 Do Not Call and TPS lists; Apollo adds sequencing and a CRM.
Pick Apollo if
- You want to start free and see every price up front: Free, then Basic at $49 a seat a month billed annually
- You want monthly billing: Basic is $65 and Professional $99 a seat a month
Pick Cognism if
- You call prospects in the UK and Europe and need phones screened against Do Not Call and TPS lists
- You want phone-verified mobiles and on-demand mobile verification (Pro)
Apollo
Sourcing, Enrichment
Cognism
Sourcing, Enrichment
At a glance
Apollo
- From
- $0Free ; Basic $49/seat/mo annual
- Free plan
- Yes75 credits/seat/mo, no card
- Cost per unit
- 1 credit/email, 8 per mobile
- MCP server
- Official
Cognism
- From
- Not published; quoted by sales
- Free plan
- NoNo free plan or trial
- Cost per unit
- 1 credit per revealed contact
- MCP server
- Official
Where they differ
15 points side by side. Open a value for the full detail.
| What | Apollo | Cognism |
|---|---|---|
| Sales platform with database, CRM, sequencesA sales platform with a database of over 240 million contacts and 30 million companies, plus its own CRM and sequencing, all reachable through one API. | B2B database with phone-verified mobilesA B2B sales-intelligence database with phone-verified mobiles, Do Not Call screening, intent data and job-change, funding and hiring events, reached through a REST API and an MCP server. | |
| Free $0; Basic $49/seat/mo annualFree at $0. Basic is $49 a seat a month billed annually, or $65 billed monthly. Prices in USD, read 25 Oct 2026. | Not published; quoted by salesNo price published. Standard and Pro are quoted by sales, each with 5 seats included. | |
| 75 credits/seat/mo, no cardFree plan: 75 credits a seat a month on monthly billing (900 a seat a year on annual). No card asked at signup. | No free plan or trialNo free plan, no self-serve trial. The free-trial URL returns a 404 page; the only free offer is a sales-led data sample form. | |
| Credits per seat, no rolloverPer seat, each seat carrying a credit pool. Credits do not roll over. Add-on credits are bought on a slider and recur each billing cycle until removed. | Per package, 5 seats includedPer package with 5 seats included. Each seat carries a credit allocation (amount not published), and more credits can be bought at any point. The API also meters search tokens. | |
| 1 credit/email, 8 per mobile1 credit for email and person data on a match (0 if nothing billable is found), plus 8 credits when a mobile phone is returned. Company enrichment is 1 credit. | 1 credit per revealed contact1 credit per revealed contact. Re-viewing a contact you already revealed is free. Through the API, each row returned by a search also costs 1 search token. | |
| Paid plans; advanced API on CustomOn Free, the API answers people search with 'not included in your Free plan'; company enrichment works. Apollo's own API error on Free says all paid plans include full API access; its pricing FAQ says API access for advanced or custom integrations is available on Custom plans. | Standard and Pro packages onlyAPI and MCP only on the new Standard and Pro packages. Customers on older packages upgrade through their account team. | |
| x-api-key header, OAuth 2.0 for partnersAPI key in the x-api-key header. Keys are scoped to chosen endpoints or set as a master key. Partners use OAuth 2.0. | OAuth 2.0 client credentialsOAuth 2.0 client credentials from Settings > M2M Connect. Access tokens last 20 minutes (1,200 seconds). | |
| Enrichment 1,000/min, search 200/minPer team, shared by every key. Paid plans: enrichment 1,000 a minute with no hourly or daily cap; search 200 a minute, 6,000 an hour, 50,000 a day. Free: 50 a minute, 200 an hour, 600 a day. | 500 requests/min per call typePer account, 500 requests a minute each for search, count and dictionary calls. Higher limits go through the account team. | |
| Up to 10 records per callBulk people and bulk company enrichment, up to 10 records per call. No async bulk job. | No bulk endpoint; 100 per pageNo bulk or async endpoint. Up to 100 records per page and 100,000 per cursor journey. CRM Enrichment is a separate add-on or standalone product. | |
| Per-request only, no event subscriptionsPer-request only: phone reveals and waterfall results are sent to a webhook URL you pass, or you poll for them. No event subscriptions. | Beta event webhooks, IDs onlyBeta event webhooks: job and contact-detail changes for people revealed in the last 12 months, and funding, acquisition, IPO and hiring events for up to 1,000 tracked companies. Payloads carry IDs, not the new values. | |
YesOfficial, at https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp over Streamable HTTP with OAuth, or an API key for clients that cannot open a browser. It covers search, enrichment, CRM records and sequences. Apollo prohibits AI model training through it. | YesOfficial, at https://mcp.cognism.com/mcp over Streamable HTTP with OAuth. 15 tools for company and people search, counts and lookups. Data from it may not be used to train AI models. | |
| Email, mobile, firmographics, job postings, newsPerson: title, seniority, history, LinkedIn URL, work email with status, mobile on request. Company: industry, revenue, headcount and growth, funding, technologies, parent and subsidiary links, job postings, news. | Ranked mobiles with DNC flags, intentPerson: title, skills, education, career history, email, direct dial and ranked mobiles with DNC flags and verified dates. Company: headcount, revenue, codes, technologies, funding, acquisition, IPO and hiring events, intent topics. | |
| Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Salesloft, MarketoSalesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Salesloft, Marketo and SendGrid, plus AI clients such as ChatGPT and Claude. | Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Bullhorn, DynamicsSalesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Bullhorn, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesloft, Outreach and Zapier. | |
| ISO 27001 and SOC 2ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified, per its privacy policy. | ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2 Type IIISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certified, SOC 2 Type II attested, registered as a data broker in California under the CCPA, and phone data screened against 15 Do Not Call and TPS lists. | |
| Start free, prices up frontTeams that want to start free, see prices up front and run search, enrichment and sequences in one tool. | UK and Europe phone prospectingTeams prospecting in the UK and Europe by phone, where verified mobiles and DNC masking matter and a sales-led contract is fine. |
No row matches in this view.
Pricing, plan by plan
US dollars as each vendor's page showed them on 25 Oct 2026. One panel per tool; switch each between monthly and annual billing (an annual price is the monthly rate when you pay for the year up front).
Apollo
4 plans · API reviewBasic
$65/mo
billed monthly
$49/mo
billed annually
Per seat: $65 a month billed monthly with 2,500 credits a seat a month, or $49 a month billed annually with 30,000 credits a seat a year.
API included
Plan details
API enrichment.
Professional
$99/mo
billed monthly
$79/mo
billed annually
Per seat: $99 a month billed monthly with 4,000 credits a seat a month, or $79 a month billed annually with 48,000 credits a seat a year.
API included
Organization
$119/mo
annual billing only
$119/mo
billed annually
Per seat, minimum 3 seats, annual billing only: $119 a month billed annually with 72,000 credits a seat a year.
API included
Plan details
Apollo's plan page in the app shows $149 a seat a month under Monthly billing, marked Annual Billing Only.
Cognism
3 plans · API reviewStandard (Sales prospecting)
Price on request through sales.
API included
Plan details
5 seats included, each with a credit allocation (not published). MCP and API access, list building with firmographic, technographic and signal filters, AI account research, CSV export and enrichment.
Pro (Sales prospecting)
Price on request through sales.
API included
Plan details
5 seats included. Everything in Standard plus premium mobile data, on-demand mobile verification and intent data.
CRM Enrichment
Price on request.
Plan details
An add-on to Standard or Pro, or sold on its own, to enrich and maintain CRM records.
Which one to pick
Choose Apollo if
- You want to start free and see every price up front: Free, then Basic at $49 a seat a month billed annually.
- You want monthly billing: Basic is $65 and Professional $99 a seat a month.
- You want people search, enrichment and sequences in the same tool and API.
- You enrich in high volume through the API: paid plans allow 1,000 enrichment calls a minute.
Choose Cognism if
- You call prospects in the UK and Europe and need phones screened against Do Not Call and TPS lists.
- You want phone-verified mobiles and on-demand mobile verification (Pro).
- You want event webhooks for job changes and company funding, hiring or IPO events.
- You are happy to buy through sales with 5 seats included per package.
If neither fits: If all you need is a work email for a known list of people, a pay-per-result email finder is usually cheaper than a seat-based database.
How to find a person's work email addressWant us to build it for you?
Choosing between Apollo and Cognism, or moving from one to the other? Tell us your setup. We will show you how we would run it, and what we would check first.
Questions people ask
Does Cognism publish its prices?
No. On 25 Oct 2026 Cognism's pricing page showed Standard and Pro, each with 5 seats included, and buttons to talk to sales, with no price. Apollo publishes its prices: Free, Basic $49, Professional $79 and Organization $119 a seat a month billed annually.
Can I try Cognism for free?
There is no self-serve trial. The free-trial URL returns a 404 page and app sign-in is for existing customers. The free offer is a data sample requested through a form. Apollo has a Free plan with 75 credits a seat a month and no card at signup.
How much does one contact cost on Apollo and on Cognism?
Apollo charges 1 credit for email and person data on a match and 8 more credits if a mobile phone is returned. Cognism charges 1 credit per revealed contact, and re-viewing it later is free. Cognism's API also spends 1 search token for each row a search returns.
Do Apollo and Cognism have MCP servers?
Yes, both. Apollo's is at https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp and Cognism's at https://mcp.cognism.com/mcp, both over Streamable HTTP with OAuth sign-in. Both say data pulled through MCP may not be used to train AI models.
Can I bulk-enrich a CRM export through either API?
Apollo's bulk enrichment takes up to 10 people or companies per call. Cognism's API has no bulk endpoint and returns up to 100 records per page; enriching CRM records in bulk is its separate CRM Enrichment product.
Does Cognism check phone numbers against Do Not Call lists?
Yes. Cognism says it screens its phone data against 15 major Do Not Call and TPS lists, including the UK, US, Germany and France, and masks numbers in the DNC countries an account sets.
Related
Read from apollo.io/pricing, cognism.com/pricing and each tool's API docs. Verified 25 Oct 2026.
