ContactOut Pricing in 2026: Plans, Real Limits & Is It Worth It?
ContactOut has a free plan (5 emails/day) and paid plans starting at $99/month. The marketing says "unlimited emails," but real limits are buried in the terms of service. Here's what you actually get at each tier.
ContactOut pricing plans
| Plan | Price | Emails | Phones | Exports |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 5/day | 5/day | 5/day |
| $99/mo | "Unlimited" (~2,000/mo per ToS) | — | 300/mo | |
| Email + Phone | $199/mo | "Unlimited" (~2,000/mo per ToS) | "Unlimited" (~1,000/mo per ToS) | 600/mo |
| Team/API | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
The "unlimited" problem
ContactOut markets both the Email and Email+Phone plans as offering "unlimited" lookups. But their terms of service tell a different story:
- Email lookups: Capped at approximately 2,000/month
- Phone lookups: Capped at approximately 1,000/month
- Exports: 300/month (Email plan) or 600/month (Email+Phone plan)
The export limit is typically the constraint you'll hit first. You can look up more contacts than you can export, which means you might find an email but not be able to save it to your list without burning an export credit.
What's included
All paid plans include:
- LinkedIn Chrome extension: overlay contact data on LinkedIn profiles
- Search portal: search 300M+ professionals by 20+ filters
- Triple-layer email verification: three-step process to reduce bounces
- Email campaigns: basic multi-stage automated sequences
- CRM sync: integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and others
- AI icebreakers: AI-generated personalized openers
The Email+Phone plan adds phone number data and doubles the export limit.
Hidden costs to watch for
- Export limits are the real bottleneck. Even with "unlimited" lookups, you can only export 300-600 contacts per month. If you need more, you're on a custom plan.
- Per-user pricing. Each team member needs their own seat. At $99-199/user/month, a 5-person team is $495-995/month.
- Accuracy isn't guaranteed. Not every lookup returns a valid email. Third-party tests show hit rates around 42%, meaning you may use many of your lookups without finding usable data.
You're on ContactOut's Email plan ($99/mo) with 300 exports. If ~42% of lookups return a valid email, roughly how many usable contacts will you get?
Correct! With a ~42% valid email rate and 300 exports, you'd get roughly 126 actually usable contacts. The export limit is binding, and not every exported email will be valid.
The export limit (300) is the binding constraint. If ~42% of those return valid emails, you're looking at about 126 usable contacts per month for $99.
Is ContactOut worth the price?
ContactOut is worth it if you:
- Prospect primarily on LinkedIn and need the Chrome extension workflow
- Need both personal and work email addresses
- Recruit developers and need GitHub data enrichment
- 300-600 exports per month covers your volume needs
ContactOut is probably not worth it if you:
- Need high-volume email finding (limits are tight for the price)
- Don't prospect on LinkedIn (the core value is the Chrome extension)
- Want outreach automation beyond basic sequences
- Do link building outreach (ContactOut isn't designed for this use case)
ContactOut's Email+Phone plan costs $199/month. How many phone numbers can you actually look up per month according to the ToS?
Correct! Despite "unlimited" marketing, the terms of service cap phone lookups at roughly 1,000/month. The 600 export limit is a separate constraint on top of that.
The ToS caps phone lookups at ~1,000/month, not unlimited. And the 600 export limit means you can only save 600 contacts per month to your lists, regardless of how many you look up.
Cheaper alternatives
| Tool | Starting Price | Lookups | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter.io | Free / $34/mo | 25 free / 500 at $34 | Simple email finding + verification |
| Lusha | Free / $36/mo | 50 free / varies | B2B contact data with phones |
| Snov.io | $30/mo | 1,000 credits | Email finding + drip campaigns |
| MentionAgent | $99/mo | No limits | Automated outreach with built-in contacts |
For a full comparison, see our ContactOut alternatives.
You need 500 email lookups per month and have $50 to spend. Which tool fits?
Right! Hunter.io's Starter plan at $34/mo includes 500 searches, fits your budget, and meets your volume needs. ContactOut's Email plan costs almost 3x as much for a similar number of exports.
Hunter.io at $34/mo gives you 500 searches within your $50 budget. It's simpler and cheaper than ContactOut for pure email finding.
Outreach that includes contact finding
MentionAgent finds relevant blogs, looks up the right contacts, writes personalized emails, and follows up. No separate email finder needed, no export limits. $99/mo flat.
Start Getting Mentioned For $99/moFrequently asked questions
How much does ContactOut cost?
Free plan: 5 emails/day. Email plan: $99/month (300 exports). Email+Phone: $199/month (600 exports). Team/API: custom pricing.
Is ContactOut really unlimited?
No. Despite "unlimited" marketing, the ToS caps email lookups at ~2,000/month and phone lookups at ~1,000/month. The export limit (300 or 600/month) is the real binding constraint.
Does ContactOut have a free plan?
Yes. 5 emails, 5 phone numbers, and 5 exports per day. Enough to evaluate the tool, not enough for regular use.