ContactOut Pricing Plans and Cost for Recruiters

ContactOut pricing plans, with US data included

The pricing page has a toggle at the top with two positions: Include US/UK Data and Exclude US/UK Data, the second one badged "50% off". If you recruit in the United States, only the first card applies to you. The table below is that card, per user, per month.

The Email plan adds email campaigns and a list builder to the free extension and search portal. Email + Phone adds mobile numbers, data enrichment and an AI email writer. The Team and API plan is the one built for recruiting teams: ContactOut lists 20% more data coverage, a bulk license over 700 million+ profiles, compatibility with LinkedIn Recruiter, Salesforce and ATS integrations, team management and reports, and a dedicated account manager. Its recruiter page names Lever, Greenhouse and Bullhorn as the ATS connections.

How much does ContactOut cost?

ContactOut costs $468 a year for the Email plan and $948 a year for Email + Phone on annual billing with US data, or $588 and $1,188 a year if you pay monthly. That covers one user. A recruiting team with two or more people who each need contact data has to buy the quoted Team plan, so the published prices are really solo prices.

The annual discount is also worth reading closely. Monthly billing costs $10 more a month on Email and $20 more on Email + Phone, so the annual plan saves about 20% on both. That is a real saving, unlike several vendors in this category whose "save 20%" toggle works out to 12 or 15%.

Why reviews quote different ContactOut prices

Search for ContactOut pricing and you will see at least four sets of numbers: $49 and $99, $99 and $199, $79 and $159, and $19 to $49. They all come from the same page, which is why buyers get confused.

• $49 and $99 are the current monthly prices with US data. Several roundups label them annual, which overstates the annual cost by about 25%.
• $99 and $199 are the struck-through "original" monthly prices shown next to the monthly figures. Nobody is charged them today.
• $79 and $159 are the struck-through "original" figures next to the annual prices.
• $19, $25, $39 and $49 are the regional card: the Email plan at $19 annual or $25 monthly and Email + Phone at $39 or $49, for data that excludes the US, Canada and the UK. A US recruiter cannot use it for US candidates.

The free plan has the same problem. The pricing page data gives 5 emails, 5 phones and 5 exports a day, labeled limited time only. ContactOut's recruiter page describes the free plan as 40 email reveals and 3 phone reveals a month, working on LinkedIn Standard only. Treat the free tier as a trial rather than something a desk can run on.

What "unlimited" means on ContactOut

The plan cards say unlimited emails and, on Email + Phone, unlimited phones, "subject to our fair use policy". The policy is in section 10 of ContactOut's terms of use: the credit limit is 2,000 email credits and 1,000 phone credits per account per month, unless a separate order form sets a different limit.

For a single recruiter that cap is generous. Few people reveal 2,000 emails in a month by hand. It does let you work out a real unit cost, which the word unlimited hides:

• Email + Phone at $79 a month, used to the cap, is about 7.9 cents per phone number, with emails effectively included.
• The Email plan at $39 a month, used to the cap, is under 2 cents per email.
• Exports are counted separately. On the monthly Email plan you can export 300 contacts a month, so a recruiter who wants to move contacts into an ATS or a sequencing tool in bulk will hit the export limit long before the reveal limit.

The account wording matters too. The cap is per account, and the self-serve plans allow one user per company, so there is no way to pool several self-serve seats to raise it.

Which tools are best for sourcing candidates and getting their email and phone number?

The tools most US recruiters shortlist for finding candidates and their contact details are ContactOut, Lusha and Apollo for contact data alone, and Juicebox, SeekOut, Gem and Loxo for sourcing with contact data built in. The right pick depends on whether you already have a way to find people and only need the phone number, or need both.

Here is how the published contact-data prices compare, per recruiter, as read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.

On raw contact volume per dollar, ContactOut wins this table for a single recruiter by a wide margin: 1,000 phone numbers for $79 a month against 120 on Lusha Professional at $69.90. What it does not do is find the right people for you. You still search LinkedIn or its portal yourself, decide who fits the role and reveal their details one by one. The vendors further down the table cost more because they also do the search. If you are pricing those, our guides to Juicebox pricing, Gem pricing and SeekOut pricing cover each one plan by plan.

Is ContactOut worth it for recruiters?

For a solo recruiter who sources on LinkedIn and wants to reach candidates by phone or personal email instead of InMail, yes. Email + Phone at $948 a year is a small fraction of a LinkedIn Recruiter seat, which LinkedIn prices by private quote and buyers report in five figures a year, and reaching a candidate on a personal email or phone does not spend an InMail credit. We cover the reply-rate side in our InMail response rate benchmarks.

It is a weaker fit in three cases. First, any team larger than one person, because the self-serve plans stop at one user per company and the Team plan is quoted. Second, a desk that needs contacts to land in the ATS automatically, since ATS integrations sit on the Team plan and exports are capped on the others. Third, a recruiter whose real bottleneck is finding and qualifying candidates rather than reaching them. Contact data only helps once you know who to call.

What to ask ContactOut sales about the Team plan

If you have more than one recruiter, you will end up on a call. Go in with these questions so the quote is comparable with everything else on your list:

1. The price per seat with US data included, on annual and monthly terms.
2. The email and phone credit limit per seat or per account, since the terms set 2,000 and 1,000 per account unless an order form says otherwise.
3. Whether exports to your ATS count against an export quota, and which ATS connectors are included for your system.
4. Whether the LinkedIn Recruiter compatibility applies to every seat or only to specific licenses.
5. What happens to unused credits at the end of a month.

If your outreach runs from several recruiter mailboxes once the numbers are in, keep the sending side consistent too; company-wide email signatures with the same name, title and booking link on every recruiter's mail make a first message from an unknown address look like it comes from a real firm.

Contact data is one step in the search

Every tool above sells access to a name, an email or a phone number. None of them decides which of the 300 people who match a Boolean string are worth calling, or writes the message that gets a reply. On a desk with ten open roles, that judgment and writing is where most of the week goes.

HireAgent does that work. For each open role it sources candidates, screens and ranks them against the brief with the evidence behind every score, drafts personalized outreach and books interviews, then hands your recruiters a shortlist ready to call. It connects to the ATS you already use. Plans start at $299 a month and scale with seats, open roles and sourcing volume; see how it fits a recruiting desk on the candidate sourcing tool page, or compare it with the rest of the category in our prospecting tools for recruitment agencies guide.

Common questions

How much is ContactOut per month?

With US data included, ContactOut is $49 a month for the Email plan and $99 a month for Email + Phone on monthly billing. On annual billing the monthly equivalent is $39 and $79. The cheaper $19 to $49 figures on the same page are for data that excludes the US, Canada and the UK.

Is ContactOut really unlimited?

No. The plan cards say unlimited, subject to fair use, and ContactOut's terms of use set the fair use limit at 2,000 email credits and 1,000 phone credits per account per month unless a separate agreement says otherwise. Exports have their own limit, 300 a month on the monthly Email plan and 600 on Email + Phone.

Does ContactOut have a team plan?

Yes. The Team and API plan is quoted by sales and adds multiple seats, a bulk license, LinkedIn Recruiter compatibility, Salesforce and ATS integrations, team reports and a dedicated account manager. The Free, Email and Email + Phone plans are each limited to one user per company.

Does ContactOut work with LinkedIn Recruiter?

ContactOut's Chrome extension works on LinkedIn Standard, Recruiter Lite and Recruiter Pro according to its recruiter page, while the pricing page lists "works with recruiter Pro" under the Team plan. The free plan works on LinkedIn Standard only. Confirm which LinkedIn product your plan supports before you buy.

Is ContactOut legal to use for recruiting?

Recruiters use ContactOut widely, but the obligations sit with the sender. In the US, follow CAN-SPAM rules on commercial email by identifying yourself and honoring opt-outs, and be careful with texts or automated calls to mobile numbers, which the TCPA restricts without consent. If you recruit candidates in Europe or California, check GDPR and CCPA duties with your counsel.