Free
$0
Free
900 credits per seat a year on annual billing, or 75 per seat a month on monthly billing.
API included
Plan details
Work email required for search and enrichment. People search by API returned 403 on a Free account on 25 Oct 2026.
Comparison
Apollo vs Hunter
Apollo is a sales platform with a 240M-contact database, people search by title, mobile phones and its own sequencer, priced per seat from $49 a month billed annually. Hunter finds and verifies emails published on the open web, prices by credit pool rather than seat from $34 a month billed annually, and verifies an email for 0.5 credit. Both have an official MCP server.
Pick Apollo if
- You want to search people by title, seniority and company filters, at 0 credits per search on paid plans
- You need mobile phone numbers as well as emails (8 credits per phone)
Pick Hunter if
- You already know the company domain and want every published email there, with sources and a confidence score
- You want to verify emails cheaply: 0.5 credit per verified email, unknown results free
Apollo
Sourcing, Enrichment
Hunter
Enrichment, Verification
At a glance
Apollo
- From
- $49/seat/moBasic annual, $65 monthly
- Free plan
- Yes$0, 75 credits/mo monthly
- Cost per unit
- 1 credit per matched person
- MCP server
- Official
Hunter
- From
- $34/moStarter annual, $49 monthly
- Free plan
- Yes$0, 50 credits/mo, unlimited users
- Cost per unit
- 1 credit per email found
- MCP server
- Official
Where they differ
16 points side by side. Open a value for the full detail.
| What | Apollo | Hunter |
|---|---|---|
| All-in-one sales platform with databaseAn all-in-one sales platform. Its API covers a contact and company database (search, person and company enrichment, job postings, news) plus Apollo's CRM and sequencing engine. | Open-web email finder and verifierAn open-web email finder, domain search and email verifier, with free company Discover, person and company enrichment and built-in cold-email sequences. | |
| Basic $49/seat/mo annual, $65 monthlyBasic, $49 per seat a month billed annually or $65 per seat billed monthly. Verified 2026-10-25. | Starter $34/mo annual, $49 monthlyStarter, $34 a month billed annually or $49 billed monthly. Verified 2026-10-25. | |
| Credits per seat, no rolloverPer seat, with credits per seat: Basic 30,000 a year (annual) or 2,500 a month (monthly). Credits do not roll over. Add-on credits recur every cycle until removed. | One credit pool per accountOne credit pool per account, not per seat: Starter 2,000 credits a month, Growth 10,000, Scale 25,000. Monthly credits reset and do not roll over. An API-only Data Platform sells prepaid search and verification credits usable for 12 months. | |
| $0, 75 credits/mo monthlyFree, $0: 900 credits per seat a year on annual billing, or 75 a month on monthly billing. Free accounts need a work email for search and enrichment. | $0, 50 credits/mo, unlimited usersFree, $0: 50 credits a month, unlimited users. The credits arrive after you confirm your email. | |
| Docs say every plan; Free search 403Docs say every plan includes the API. On a Free account on 25 Oct 2026, people search returned 403 API_INACCESSIBLE even with a master key, while organization enrichment worked. | Every plan, including FreeEvery plan, including Free. A fixed test key (test-api-key) returns dummy data for testing plumbing at no cost. | |
| 1 credit per matched person1 credit per matched person on enrichment, 0 if nothing credit-consuming is found. People search is 0 credits on paid plans but returns no emails or phones. | 1 credit per email found1 credit per email found by Domain Search or Email Finder. Bulk Domain Search costs 1 credit per up to 10 emails. Not-found results are free. | |
| 8 credits per mobile returnedMobile phone on person enrichment costs 8 credits per phone returned. Phones arrive asynchronously through a webhook or polling. | No dedicated phone finderNo dedicated phone finder. A phone field is returned only where one is published. | |
| Status returned, no separate verifierEnrichment returns an email_status of verified, extrapolated or unavailable. No separate verifier price is listed. | 0.5 credit per verified emailEmail Verifier at 0.5 credit per verified email. Unknown results are free. | |
| 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. | X-API-KEY header, Bearer or queryAPI key in the X-API-KEY header (preferred), a Bearer header or the api_key query parameter. | |
| Enrichment 1,000/min, search 200/minPer team, shared by all keys. Paid plans: enrichment 1,000 a minute; search 200 a minute, 6,000 an hour, 50,000 a day. Free: 50 a minute, 200 an hour, 600 a day. | 500/min for finder and enrichmentPer key. Domain Search, Email Finder and enrichment 15 a second and 500 a minute; Email Verifier 10 a second and 300 a minute; Discover 5 a second and 50 a minute. A rate-limit hit returns 403, and 429 means credits ran out. | |
| 10 records per bulk requestBulk people and bulk organization enrichment, up to 10 records per request. People search shows up to 50,000 records per query (100 per page, 500 pages). | Bulk in web app; multi-domain endpointsBulk Domain Search, Email Finder and Verifier in the web app. The API has multi-domain search and leads bulk endpoints, but no general async bulk-enrichment job. | |
YesOfficial, at https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp. Streamable HTTP with OAuth 2.0, or a master key for headless use. Covers search, enrichment, CRM, sequences and analytics. | YesOfficial, at https://mcp.hunter.io/mcp, included in all plans at no extra cost. OAuth for Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini apps, or an X-API-Key header for other clients. 102 tools listed. | |
| 240M+ contacts, 30M companiesOver 240 million contacts and 30 million companies, with 1,500+ technologies for technographic filters. Company data includes revenue, headcount, funding, technologies and parent and subsidiary links. | 150M emails, 100M+ companies150M professional email addresses indexed from 650M public sources, with sources and a confidence score per email, and data on 100M+ companies. | |
| Per-request only, no event subscriptionsPer-request only: phone reveal and waterfall results go to the webhook_url you pass, or you poll for them (kept 30 days). No event-subscription webhooks are documented. | Outreach message events onlyMessage events (sent, read, clicked, replied), plus lead.created through the Zapier integration. Unsigned, 30-second timeouts. Failed deliveries with 408, 429 and most other 4xx and 5xx codes are retried up to 14 times; 400, 401, 403, 404, 405, 500 and no response are not retried. | |
| ISO 27001 and SOC 2ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified, per its privacy policy, with GDPR, UK GDPR and US state privacy sections. | GDPR and CCPA, no SOC 2States GDPR and CCPA compliance for its database. No SOC 2 statement on its security page. Hosted on Google Cloud in Belgium. Returns 451 for people who opted out. | |
| Internal use, no resaleStandard plans are for internal use. Terms ban reselling the data, using the API with LinkedIn automation tools, and training AI models except your own internal ones. The MCP bans model training outright. | Opted-out (451) addresses not processedTerms allow Hunter to suspend API access for abusive or excessively frequent use. Addresses marked 451 must not be processed. |
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. 30,000 credits per seat a year on annual billing, or 2,500 a month on monthly billing.
API included
Professional
$99/mo
billed monthly
$79/mo
billed annually
Per seat. 48,000 credits per seat a year on annual billing, or 4,000 a month on monthly billing.
API included
Organization
$119/mo
annual billing only
$119/mo
billed annually
Per seat, minimum 3 seats, annual billing only (Apollo's plan page in the app shows $149 a seat a month under Monthly billing, marked Annual Billing Only).
API included
Plan details
72,000 credits per seat a year.
Hunter
6 plans · API reviewFree
$0
Free
50 credits a month, unlimited users.
API included
Starter
$49/mo
billed monthly
$34/mo
billed annually
2,000 credits a month (24,000 a year upfront on annual), 3 email accounts.
API included
Growth
$149/mo
billed monthly
$104/mo
billed annually
10,000 credits a month (120,000 a year on annual), 10 email accounts.
API included
Scale
$299/mo
billed monthly
$209/mo
billed annually
25,000 credits a month (300,000 a year on annual), 20 email accounts, account manager.
API included
Show all 6 plansShow fewer plans
Enterprise
Custom quote
Custom credits.
API included
Plan details
Talk to sales.
Data Platform (API only, prepaid)
Usage-based
Search and verification credits bought separately on a volume slider, usable for 12 months.
API included
Plan details
Search from $0.05 down to $0.0056 per credit, verification from $0.011 down to $0.0022, by volume.
Which one to pick
Choose Apollo if
- You want to search people by title, seniority and company filters, at 0 credits per search on paid plans.
- You need mobile phone numbers as well as emails (8 credits per phone).
- You want company data such as funding, headcount growth, technologies and job postings in the same API.
- Your team will also run sequences and CRM work inside Apollo.
Choose Hunter if
- You already know the company domain and want every published email there, with sources and a confidence score.
- You want to verify emails cheaply: 0.5 credit per verified email, unknown results free.
- You prefer one shared credit pool with no per-seat price, from $34 a month billed annually.
- You want free company discovery calls (Discover, Email Count, Domain Finder) while building lists.
- You need a free test key to build an integration before spending credits.
If neither fits: If the real job is finding one person's work email at the lowest cost per hit, compare dedicated email finders that charge only on a found email, and verify the result before you send.
How to find a person's work email addressWant us to build it for you?
Choosing between Apollo and Hunter, 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
Is Apollo software free?
Apollo has a Free plan at $0 with 900 credits per seat a year on annual billing, or 75 a month on monthly billing, and it needs a work email for search and enrichment. On a Free account on 25 Oct 2026, people search through the API returned 403. Hunter's Free plan gives 50 credits a month.
Which is cheaper for finding work emails, Apollo or Hunter?
Both charge 1 credit per email found. Apollo Basic is $49 per seat a month billed annually for 30,000 credits a year, about $0.02 a credit. Hunter Starter is $34 a month billed annually for 24,000 credits a year, about $0.017 a credit, and the pool is shared rather than per seat. Prices verified 2026-10-25.
Does Hunter find phone numbers like Apollo?
No. Hunter has no dedicated phone finder and returns a phone only where one is published. Apollo returns mobile phones on person enrichment for 8 credits per phone, delivered to a webhook or by polling.
Can I use Apollo or Hunter from Claude or another AI agent?
Yes. Apollo's official MCP server is at https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp and covers search, enrichment, CRM and sequences. Hunter's is at https://mcp.hunter.io/mcp, included in all plans at no extra cost, with OAuth for Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini apps or an API key header for other clients.
Can I verify emails with Apollo or Hunter?
Hunter has a dedicated Email Verifier at 0.5 credit per verified email, with unknown results free. Apollo marks each enriched email as verified, extrapolated or unavailable, but lists no separate verification product.
Related
Read from apollo.io/pricing, hunter.io/pricing and each tool's API docs. Verified 25 Oct 2026.
