ContactOut costs $49 per month for the Email plan and $99 for Email + Phone when US and UK data is included; without US/UK data it is $25 and $49. A free plan gives 5 emails, 5 phone numbers and 5 exports a day. Plans for several users are quote-only, because the self-serve plans allow one user per company. "Unlimited" lookups are capped in the terms at 2,000 emails and 1,000 phone numbers per account and month (status October 2026, read from the public pricing page by third parties, since the page renders its prices in the browser).
How much does ContactOut cost per month or per year?
ContactOut sells contact data for professional profiles: a Chrome extension shows work and personal emails and phone numbers next to a LinkedIn profile and charges a credit for each "view". It is not a search tool, so it complements the way you find people rather than replacing it. Three independent reads of the pricing page in September and October 2026 agree on the following table.
| Plan | With US/UK data | Without US/UK data | Emails | Phones | Exports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 5 per day | 5 per day | 5 per day |
| $49 per month (list $99) | $25 per month | "Unlimited", cap 2,000 per month | none | 300 per month | |
| Email + Phone | $99 per month (list $199) | $49 per month | "Unlimited", cap 2,000 per month | "Unlimited", cap 1,000 per month | 600 per month |
| Team / API | Quote only | Quote only | custom | custom | bulk licence |
Two details trip people up. First, the page loads with "Exclude US/UK data" selected, which is the cheaper view; including US/UK profiles doubles the price. If you source only in Germany, Austria, Switzerland or the rest of Europe this may be the plan you need, but confirm with ContactOut which countries the toggle covers. Second, the struck-through list prices ($99 and $199) come with a "limited time only" label, and one comparison reports that paid prices have not changed since August 2024, so treat $49 and $99 as the working price rather than a promotion. One source also lists yearly billing at $39 and $79 per month ($468 and $948 per year); another says paid plans are monthly only. Ask before you assume a discount.
Older numbers still circulate and explain why articles contradict each other: a Recruiter plan at about $199 per month, a free plan of 40 emails per month, and an email cap of 10,000 credits per account (March 2024), later rewritten into the current 2,000 and 1,000.
What is included, and what costs extra?
- Credits are charged only when contact details are found. In the extension, each "View email" or "View phone" click uses one.
- Exports are the tighter limit. Moving profiles into a list or ATS is capped at 300 (Email) or 600 (Email + Phone) per month, well below the 2,000 email reveals.
- "Unlimited" is fair use. The 2,000 and 1,000 caps sit in ContactOut's terms and show only in a tooltip on the pricing page. What happens at the cap is not documented.
- One user per company on self-serve plans. A second recruiter means the Team plan.
- ATS and Recruiter integrations, API and MCP access. Integrations with Salesforce, ATS and LinkedIn Recruiter sit on the Team card. API use needs a sales conversation; the MCP server needs an API key.
- Calls. A third-party review says the built-in dialer is billed with separate call credits. ContactOut does not confirm it on the pricing page.
- No rollover, no public refund policy. Cancel before the next billing date; remaining lookups last until then.
Is there a free plan or trial?
Yes, a free plan exists, but its size depends on which page you read. The pricing page shows 5 emails, 5 phone numbers and 5 exports per day, marked "limited time only" and with one user per company. The recruiter landing page still advertises an older free plan of 40 emails and 3 phone numbers per month. The pricing page also mentions a "trial of premium features" without saying how long it lasts. For comparison, Sprad's free plan is permanent and includes 100 credits per month (200 in the first month); an email lookup costs one credit, so roughly 100 emails a month at no charge.
Cost for 5 and for 15 recruiters
These are illustrations with stated assumptions. ContactOut is not like-for-like with the others: it supplies contact data only, while LinkedIn Recruiter and Sprad also provide the search. For ContactOut we use a published contract sample (12 Vendr contracts, last updated February 2025, median $32,050 per year, range $10,200 to $102,340) because no list price exists for teams. That sample mixes team sizes and bundles, so it is a guide, not a quote.
| Team | ContactOut | LinkedIn Recruiter | Sprad Recruiter Lite | Sprad Atlas Recruiter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 recruiters | Team plan, quote. Sample median about $32,000 per year. Five Email + Phone accounts would be 5 x $99 x 12 = $5,940, but self-serve plans allow one user per company | Lite: 5 x $170 per month = $10,200. Corporate: about $12,000 per licence | 5 x $95 per month = $5,700, plus credits for contact data | 5 x $359 per month = $21,540 |
| 15 recruiters | Team plan, quote. Sample range up to about $102,000 | Corporate: 15 x about $12,000 = about $180,000 (list reference, discounts likely) | 15 x $95 per month = $17,100, plus credits | 15 x $359 per month = $64,620 (from 3 seats: integrations and onboarding workshop) |
LinkedIn Lite is the published $170 per month on an annual plan; Corporate is quote-only and the one official figure is a UK Digital Marketplace filing at $12,000 per licence for one or two licences. Sprad prices are list prices in USD, billed annually, excluding VAT or sales tax (sprad.io/pricing, status October 2026). Recruiter Lite includes quick and normal search; deep search, company search and contact data run on credits.
Per-contact view, one recruiter. Suppose you need 200 verified emails a month. On ContactOut's Email plan that is $49, or about $0.25 each. At Sprad's list price of about €0.10 per credit and one credit per email found, 200 emails cost about €20, and the first 100 are covered by the free plan. The curves cross at roughly 400 to 500 emails a month (assumption: similar currency value): above that, ContactOut's flat price is cheaper per email, if contact data is all you need and one user is enough. Phone numbers differ: ten Sprad credits (about €1) per number against 1,000 phone numbers a month for $99 favours ContactOut for phone-heavy work.
A rule of thumb from practice: licence cost matters less than recruiter time. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a median of $72,910 per year for human resources specialists (May 2024). A contact tool that saves one recruiter two hours a week pays for a $99 plan several times over. The reverse holds too: an unused seat is the most expensive line in the stack.
Is ContactOut worth it?
ContactOut earns its price when one person sources on LinkedIn and needs emails and phone numbers fast, at a fixed monthly price. For that job it is cheap. It gets harder to justify when several recruiters need it, when you also need the search and the shortlist, or when you want the outreach history in one place.
Four mistakes we see when teams compare: they read the cheaper "without US/UK data" price and then source in the US; they count "unlimited" reveals but not the 300 or 600 monthly export cap; they price one account for a team the terms limit to one user per company; and they compare ContactOut's $49 with a search tool without noticing that the profiles still have to be found somewhere else, usually in LinkedIn Recruiter.
Cheaper ways to source: Sprad and fair alternatives
Sprad has built recruiting software for seven years, starting with employee referrals and matching profiles to requirements; its sourcing tool Atlas has been live for about a year. Three reasons it fits teams that want more than contact data:
- Better matches, measured. In the recruiting area of the public PeopleSearchBench, our own re-measurement puts Atlas at 73.5 of 100, converted to the published scale (Juicebox 65.7 as published; see note below). Atlas checks each profile individually against your requirements and explains every result. Instant results usually mean keyword search; the deep check takes a few minutes.
- LinkedIn and email in one inbox. Outreach runs automatically on both channels including follow-ups and InMails, with AI templates you can train. The inbox shows the full history per talent and warns about double contact.
- A price you can read. Start free, Recruiter Lite $95 per seat per month, email lookup for 1 credit and phone for 10 credits (charged only when found), and 30 to 80% lower cost than separate LinkedIn and XING licences, depending on what you hold today.
The search covers LinkedIn, XING, GitHub and your own talent pool across more than 1 billion profiles, and you can upload your own LinkedIn network and search the networks your colleagues share. You keep all data and a free talent network if you cancel. Hosting is in the EU, built for enterprise and public-sector standards. Honest limits: no AI call notetaker, no placement reporting, no SMS (WhatsApp instead), and Atlas Recruiter costs more per seat than some seat tools. See our comparison of active sourcing tools, the LinkedIn Recruiter alternatives and our guide to AI sourcing pricing models. Product details: people search and pricing.
Legal checks before you buy (EU and US)
Contact data does not remove your duties. Under Article 14 GDPR you must inform people whose data you did not collect from them, in general within one month, and you need a lawful basis such as legitimate interest. Unsolicited electronic messages fall under Article 13 of the ePrivacy Directive; in Germany, section 7 UWG sets strict rules for email advertising, so have legal counsel check your recruiting templates. Ask every vendor, ContactOut included, where data is hosted, which entity contracts with you (documents name both ContactOut Limited and ContactOut Pty Ltd) and for a data processing agreement. A third-party review also points to broad rights in uploaded data on free accounts; read section 5 of the terms before you upload candidate lists.
FAQ
How much does ContactOut cost?
$49 per month for Email and $99 for Email + Phone including US/UK data, $25 and $49 without. Teams get a quote.
Is ContactOut free?
There is a free plan with 5 emails, 5 phone numbers and 5 exports per day, one user per company.
Is ContactOut really unlimited?
No. The terms cap "unlimited" at 2,000 emails and 1,000 phone numbers per account and month, and exports at 300 or 600.
Does ContactOut charge per seat?
Self-serve plans are per company with one user. Multiple users need the quote-based Team plan.
Is ContactOut cheaper than LinkedIn Recruiter?
For one person, yes, but they do different jobs: ContactOut reveals contact details, LinkedIn Recruiter finds and messages people. Many teams use both.
What is a cheaper alternative to ContactOut?
For teams that need search and outreach as well, Sprad: free start, Recruiter Lite at $95 per seat per month, email lookup for one credit, charged only when found.
Note on the benchmark: PeopleSearchBench (Recruiting), published by Lessie, October 2026. Other systems' scores as published in the benchmark; Atlas is our own re-measurement with the benchmark's open test procedure, converted to the published scale; not an official entry. Price sources: ContactOut's public pricing page and terms as read by third-party comparisons (September and October 2026), Vendr contract sample as cited there; LinkedIn's published Recruiter Lite price and UK Digital Marketplace filing. Retrieved October 30, 2026.
Jürgen Ulbrich
Jürgen Ulbrich has more than a decade of experience in developing and leading high-performing teams and companies. As an expert in employee referral programs as well as feedback and performance processes, Jürgen has helped over 100 organizations optimize their talent acquisition and development strategies.
