How much does Instantly cost?

Published in three lines. Outreach: Growth $47, Hypergrowth $97 and Light Speed $358 a month. Credits for the 450M+ lead database: Growth Credits $47 (1,500 credits) and Supersonic $197 (5,000) a month. Bundles: Starter $94 ($85 billed yearly) with the AI Sales Agent, Scale $194 ($175) with the AI Reply Agent, Agency $555 ($500) with SISR. The agents also spend credits, 5 a lead and 5 a reply. Enterprise custom.

What are the best alternatives to Instantly?

Based on documented capability coverage across the Agentic Index 14 point taxonomy, the closest alternatives to Instantly among GTM and revenue agents are Default, Lawmatics, Warmly, 11x. Each is graded on the same public evidence, and no vendor pays for placement.

Does Instantly support MCP and tool calling?

Full under the Agentic Index verification standard. Instantly publishes public evidence of Model Context Protocol (MCP) support, tool calling, and API or SDK extensibility for connecting agents to external tools. Evidence basis: A documented API for the vendor's own platform. developer.instantly.ai publishes API v2 with endpoints and schemas on all Email Outreach plans, an official TypeScript SDK, a CLI, webhooks for campaign, email, lead and meeting events, an adm. Graded from public evidence only against the Agentic Index 14 point capability taxonomy. No vendor pays for placement.

Does Instantly give you tracing and observability into agent runs?

Full under the Agentic Index verification standard. Instantly publishes public evidence of tracing, observability and audit logging into agent runs, so a team can see what an agent did and why. Evidence basis: A per conversation record of what the agent did. The AI Reply Agent's Activity Feed is a real time view of every conversation, time stamped and color coded by action, showing when an email was sent, when a reply needs review and when the AI. Graded from public evidence only against the Agentic Index 14 point capability taxonomy. No vendor pays for placement.

Does Instantly require human approval before an agent acts?

Full under the Agentic Index verification standard. Instantly publishes public evidence of human approval steps and guardrails, so an agent action can be held for review before it executes. Evidence basis: A shipped approval step the customer keeps on or off. Without Autopilot the AI Sales Agent requires manual approval in the Live Feed before finding more leads or sending any email, and enrichment asks for approval before credits are spent;. Graded from public evidence only against the Agentic Index 14 point capability taxonomy. No vendor pays for placement.

Back to vendors

Instantly

Q: Who is Instantly for?

agencies running outbound for multiple clients, SMB and mid-market sales teams, founders running their own outbound, high volume email senders

Also known as: instantly.ai

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GTM / revenue agentindependentVerified 2026-10-01

Entry priceFrom $47 a month (Outreach Growth); bundles with the AI Sales Agent from $94 a month, $85 billed yearlyFull pricing detail

Cold email platform with named agents: the AI Sales Agent finds leads in a 450M+ database, writes and sends sequences with manual approval or on autopilot, and the AI Reply Agent answers replies.

Instantly is a cold email platform that has added named agents to its sending infrastructure.

The AI Sales Agent learns the business from the customer's website or from its Memory of offers, customer profiles and guidance rules, proposes leads from the 450M+ SuperSearch database, enriches them, writes the sequence and sends on a configured schedule, either asking for approval in its Live Feed before it finds more leads or sends, or acting on its own in Autopilot.

The AI Reply Agent answers replies on the campaigns assigned to it, in a mode where the user approves each reply or, on Hypergrowth and above, on Autopilot, and records every conversation in an Activity Feed. A Lead Finder Agent and an AI Copilot sit beside them.

Automations route and tag leads and start campaigns when a lead visits the site, replies or books a meeting, and write to HubSpot, with Salesforce, Pipedrive and webhook steps in the same builder. The developer platform publishes API v2, a TypeScript SDK, a CLI, webhooks and an admin API, and AI enrichment lets the customer pick models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek and Perplexity.

Underneath sits the sending infrastructure: unlimited email accounts and warmup, inbox placement testing and, on the Agency bundle, SISR dedicated server and IP blocks. Processing is in the United States and no attestation is named on the pages read. Pricing is published for outreach, lead credits and bundles, and the agents spend credits per lead and per reply.

Vendor details

Canonical URL

https://instantly.ai

Subcategory

Outbound sales agent on cold email infrastructure

Funding status

Private, founded 2021 and reported as bootstrapped to profitability.

Company status

independent

Use cases & customers

Primary use cases

autonomous outbound prospecting and meeting bookinghigh volume cold email at scale with deliverability protectionautomated reply classification and routine reply handlinglead sourcing and verification from a native databasewebsite visitor identification for outbound targeting

Target customers

agencies running outbound for multiple clientsSMB and mid-market sales teamsfounders running their own outboundhigh volume email senders

Deployment options

SaaS cloud

Integrations

Automations write to HubSpot (create or update contacts and records, create tasks, notes and messages) and offer Salesforce, Pipedrive and webhook steps. OAuth connects Google and Microsoft sending accounts. developer.instantly.ai carries API v2 with endpoints and schemas, a TypeScript SDK, a CLI, webhooks for campaign, email, lead and meeting events and an admin API for sub-workspaces, with API access on all Email Outreach plans and scoped keys. Zapier and Make apps and a ChatGPT plugin are also offered.

In practice

A founder points the AI Sales Agent at their website, and it builds the ICP, sources matching buyers, writes the sequence and books meetings without a sequence being hand built.

Replies land and are classified as interested, not interested or out of office automatically, with routine ones handled so only real conversations reach a human.

An agency runs dozens of client campaigns across unlimited sending accounts with warmup and IP rotation protecting every sender domain.

Sources & related URLs

Research sources

https://instantly.ai/ https://developer.instantly.ai/ https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/10432807-api-v2 https://instantly.ai/dpa https://instantly.ai/blog/email-api-security-compliance-gdpr-ccpa-privacy-requirements/

Agentic Index coverage score

9.5 / 14 capabilities · 68%

Integrations & Tool Calling	Full
Instantly writes into outside systems. The HubSpot step in Automations creates or updates contacts and records and creates tasks, notes and messages, fired by HubSpot contact, deal and task events, with Salesforce, Pipedrive and a webhook step in the same builder; API v2, outbound webhooks and the vendor's Zapier and Make apps are its own routes for anything else. Sourcehelp.instantly.ai HubSpot Integration in Automations and developer.instantly.airead 2026-10-01
Workflow Orchestration	Full
Multi step execution the agent runs itself. The AI Sales Agent learns the business from the website or its Memory, proposes leads, enriches them, writes the sequence, sends on the configured schedule and refines messaging from replies; Automations route and tag leads and start next step campaigns when a lead visits the site, replies or books a meeting. Sourcehelp.instantly.ai AI Sales Agent (updated 13 July 2026) and instantly.airead 2026-10-01
Knowledge Grounding & RAG	Partial
Context is assembled per run rather than drawn from a maintained retrieval structure over the customer's knowledge. The AI Sales Agent reads the customer's website and its Memory entries, and the AI Reply Agent works from guidance documents the user writes at setup; no index, retrieval at scale or citation of the customer's documents is described. The 450M+ lead database is the vendor's own corpus, and the Memory entries serve as the agent's memory rather than a knowledge base. Sourcehelp.instantly.ai AI Sales Agent and AI Reply Agentread 2026-10-01
Human Oversight & Guardrails	Full
A shipped approval step the customer keeps on or off. Without Autopilot the AI Sales Agent requires manual approval in the Live Feed before finding more leads or sending any email, and enrichment asks for approval before credits are spent; the AI Reply Agent's Human-In-The-Loop mode has the user approve replies before they are sent, with Autopilot only on Hypergrowth or above. Sourcehelp.instantly.ai AI Sales Agent and AI Reply Agentread 2026-10-01
Security, Identity & Governance	Partial
A thin access model is documented: API keys scoped to what an integration needs, sub-workspaces administered from an admin workspace, and two factor authentication. SSO, SAML, SCIM and a user role model are not described. No attestation is named: trust.instantly.ai is a Vanta page that says it reflects the latest audit results but names no report publicly, and the DPA (GDPR, CCPA, sub-processor list) supplies a report only if one exists. Sourceinstantly.ai/dpa, trust.instantly.ai and instantly.ai/blog/ai-sales-agent-security-complianceread 2026-10-01
Observability & Auditability	Full
A per conversation record of what the agent did. The AI Reply Agent's Activity Feed is a real time view of every conversation, time stamped and color coded by action, showing when an email was sent, when a reply needs review and when the AI asked for more information; the AI Sales Agent's approvals run through its Live Feed, and webhooks export campaign, email, lead and meeting events. The record shows the actions taken, though no retention period or reasoning trace is stated. Sourcehelp.instantly.ai AI Reply Agent and AI Sales Agentread 2026-10-01
Memory & State Persistence	Partial
The user maintains a named store that the agent consults across runs. The AI Sales Agent's Memory holds Business Offers (each toggled active or inactive), Customer Profiles and up to ten Guidance Rules, and the agent reads it when it wakes. No lifetime or delete path is stated, and the Guidance Rules are instructions the product applies rather than retained state. Sourcehelp.instantly.ai AI Sales Agent (updated 13 July 2026)read 2026-10-01
Deployment & Data Residency	Unable to verify
Multi tenant cloud with no location choice. The DPA and its sub-processor list describe United States processing and offer no EU or other region, VPC, single tenant or on-premises option; SISR dedicated IP blocks govern sending reputation, not where data lives. Sourceinstantly.ai/dpa and instantly.ai/pricingread 2026-10-01
Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs	Full
A named set of prebuilt agents the buyer creates one by one. The home page offers Create Sales Agent, Create Reply Agent and a Lead Finder Agent, and the help center documents the AI Sales Agent (outbound from lead discovery to sending) and the AI Reply Agent (answers replies on any assigned campaign) as separate agents with their own settings and credit costs. Each stands without the others. Sourceinstantly.ai and help.instantly.airead 2026-10-01
Triggers & Channel Coverage	Full
Several kinds of event start work with no one launching it. The AI Reply Agent acts on incoming replies in the campaigns assigned to it, Automations fire on a site visit, a reply, a booked meeting or HubSpot contact, deal and task events, and the AI Sales Agent sends inside a configured daily window; webhooks carry campaign, email, lead and meeting events out. Sourcehelp.instantly.ai AI Reply Agent (updated 21 August 2026) and HubSpot Integration in Automationsread 2026-10-01
Model Flexibility & Routing	Partial
Customer choice across makers on one surface. AI enrichment takes a model_version the customer sets, across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek and Perplexity models as well as Instantly's own LightSpeed agents, and the pricing page lists access to five major LLMs on the credits plans. The AI Sales Agent and AI Reply Agent articles name no model and no choice, so the documented choice covers enrichment rather than the agents. Sourcedeveloper.instantly.ai Create AI enrichment and instantly.ai/pricingread 2026-10-01
APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility	Full
A documented API for the vendor's own platform. developer.instantly.ai publishes API v2 with endpoints and schemas on all Email Outreach plans, an official TypeScript SDK, a CLI, webhooks for campaign, email, lead and meeting events, an admin API for sub-workspaces and scoped keys, with endpoints down to Create AI enrichment. Sourcedeveloper.instantly.airead 2026-10-01
Testing, Debugging & Optimization	Partial
Campaign testing and an asserted loop, not an evaluation of the agent. A/Z tests compare campaign variants, the AI Sales Agent is said to refine messaging from replies with no mechanism documented, and the AI Reply Agent's Optimize feature suggests changes to its guidance; no scored test set, dry run or quality gate on agent output is documented. Sourcehelp.instantly.ai AI Sales Agent and AI Reply Agentread 2026-10-01
Browser & Computer Use	Unable to verify
The agents act through email protocols, the platform's own interfaces, Automations, API v2 and webhooks, with no browser, desktop or computer control; the LightSpeed web research option in AI enrichment is documented only as a model choice, with no page navigation or form filling. Sourcedeveloper.instantly.ai and help.instantly.airead 2026-10-01

The Agentic Index coverage score grades every vendor Full, Partial or Unable to verify against the same 14 buyer facing capabilities, from public evidence only. Each capability links to how all vendors in the index score on it. How this evidence is graded

Pricing

From $47 a month (Outreach Growth); bundles with the AI Sales Agent from $94 a month, $85 billed yearly

plan subscription (outreach, credits or bundle) plus per action credits for the agents

Trial available

Included quota

Outreach plans: unlimited email accounts and warmup. Bundles: Starter 5,000 emails and 1,000 uploaded contacts a month with 1,500 credits; Scale 100,000 and 25,000 with 5,000 credits; Agency 500,000 and 100,000 with 10,000 credits.

What is public

instantly.ai/pricing publishes every Outreach, Credits and bundle price, monthly and yearly; Enterprise and VIP managed services are quoted.

Billing mechanics

Monthly or yearly subscriptions (yearly saves 10 percent on bundles) across outreach, lead credits and bundles, with agent actions billed in credits.

Cost watchouts

Outreach, lead credits and the agents are sold as separate plans or as bundles. The AI Reply Agent charges 5 credits for every reply it generates, sent or not, and its Autopilot mode needs Hypergrowth or above; the AI Sales Agent charges 5 credits a lead. SISR dedicated server and IP blocks come with the Agency bundle.

Variable cost rationale

Medium: plan prices are fixed and published, but the agents spend credits per lead and per reply, so agent volume moves the bill.

Additional watchouts

Price the plan and the credits together: each agent action spends credits, including generated replies that are never sent.

Overage / add-ons

The agents bill in Instantly credits: 5 a lead for the AI Sales Agent and 5 a reply for the AI Reply Agent, charged once a reply is generated whether or not it is sent.

Sales call required

No, self serve available

Free / trial

Free trial credits; sign up without a credit card

Lowest paid plan

Outreach Growth, $47 a month

Commercial notes

Self serve checkout on every published plan. VIP Managed Services, quoted, include AI Sales Agent and inbox manager setup, domain and account setup and a dedicated GTM engineer.

Key ambiguities

Which plan a given agent needs: the AI Sales Agent is listed in the Starter bundle and the AI Reply Agent from the Scale bundle, while Reply Agent Autopilot is tied to the Hypergrowth Outreach plan or above.

Missing data

Enterprise and VIP managed services pricing.

Agentic Index verified 2026-10-01

Official pricing page

Related vendors

Alternatives to Instantly

The closest documented capability profiles to Instantly among GTM and revenue agents tracked by Agentic Index, ordered by similarity on the same 14 point evidence the rankings use. No vendor pays for placement.

Default9.0 / 14Fuller documented coverage on Integrations & Tool Calling and Observability & Auditability
Lawmatics7.0 / 14A lighter documented profile than Instantly
Warmly8.0 / 14Fuller documented coverage on Integrations & Tool Calling
11x8.5 / 14Fuller documented coverage on Integrations & Tool Calling and Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs
Actively AI7.5 / 14Fuller documented coverage on Integrations & Tool Calling
Unify8.5 / 14Adds documented Model Flexibility & Routing

Similarity is computed from each vendor's Agentic Index coverage score evidence, axis by axis, not from the totals. How this evidence is graded

Compare Instantly with other vendors →Compare all GTM and revenue agents →See where Instantly ranks →

Data confidence: high