What a GTM credit actually costs
A credit for an email isn't a credit for a mobile. We ranked 66 GTM tools by their real cost per result — at the volume you actually need.
Prices verified Jun 2026 · we re-check monthly
Email yourself the pricing comparison
We price two billing models honestly. Subscription tools charge a recurring monthly minimum — you pay that floor every month even at low volume. Pay-as-you-go tools sell credits once (often never expiring), so the cost is the per-credit rate amortized over the months a pack lasts. That's why a $49/mo subscription can cost more than a one-time pack at small volume. Tools marked ≈ use a single-tier estimate pending their full plan ladder.
Why “cost per credit” lies
Tools advertise a price per credit, then quietly charge different credit amounts per action. On Apollo a work email is 1 credit but a mobile is 8. On Lusha a mobile is 10× an email. So two tools at “$0.02 a credit” can be 10× apart on the data you actually need. The only honest comparison is cost per result — per email, per mobile, per verification — which is what the tool above computes.
The hidden line: do you pay on a miss?
Some tools charge a credit on every attempt; others only when they return valid data. A 3-provider waterfall that finds nothing can still bill you three times. We flag each tool as pays per hit (charged on success) or pays per attempt — because at a 60% hit rate, “pays per attempt” quietly inflates your real cost by ~40%.
How we built this
For each tool we took the entry paid tier, the credits it includes, and how many credits each action costs, then derived the effective dollar cost per result. Figures were captured from official pricing pages and recent breakdowns on 2026-07-21. Credit pricing changes often — treat these as a sharp directional read, not a contract. New tools without a full review yet show their collected per-result cost and link out once their review ships.
Want the catalog behind the numbers? Browse every tool we've reviewed →
Frequently asked questions
- Is one credit the same across GTM tools?
- No. On Apollo a work email is 1 credit but a mobile is 8; on Lusha a mobile costs about 10× an email. Two tools advertising “$0.02 a credit” can be 10× apart on the data you actually need, so this comparator ranks cost per result — per email, per mobile, per verification — not per credit.
- How is the real cost for a given volume calculated?
- From each tool's actual pricing ladder: the cost is the cheapest plan that covers your monthly volume for subscriptions, the amortized per-credit rate for pay-as-you-go packs (credits that never expire), or a custom-pricing flag where pricing is quote-only — never a single per-credit rate multiplied by volume.
- Do I pay if a tool can't find the email or phone number?
- It depends on the tool. Some charge per attempt, so you pay even on a miss; others only charge on success. At a 60% hit rate, “charged on attempt” inflates your real cost by roughly 40%, so each tool's billing is flagged.
- Which GTM tool is the cheapest for finding emails?
- It depends on your monthly volume — the ranking reshuffles as you change it. At low volume, pay-as-you-go verifiers and tools with free tiers win; at higher volume a flat subscription is often cheaper per result. Slide the volume to see the cheapest tool at your exact need.
- How current are these prices?
- Each tool's pricing is verified against its live pricing page and re-checked monthly. Every tool shows its own verification date; the latest sweep was June 2026. Credit pricing changes often, so treat the figures as a sharp directional read, not a contract.