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Hunter.io Pricing in 2026: Plans, Credits & Is It Worth It?

Updated 15 October 2026 · Tools · By Matt

Quick answer

Hunter.io is free for 50 credits a month. Paid plans are Starter $34, Growth $104 and Scale $209 a month billed yearly, or $49, $149 and $299 billed monthly.

Credits: 1 per email found, 0.5 per verification, nothing when no email is found.

Discounts: about 30% for yearly billing, and 30% off monthly plans for registered nonprofits.

Prices checked on hunter.io/pricing on 15 October 2026.

Verdict

Good value if you mostly need emails found and verified. A found-and-verified lead costs about 2.6 cents on Starter and 1.3 cents on Scale, billed yearly.

Watch for: extra inboxes, done-for-you domains and Inbox Protection are paid add-ons on every paid plan.

Hunter.io pricing plans

PlanMonthly BillingAnnual BillingCredits/moEmail AccountsRecipients/Sequence
Free$0$0501500
Starter$49/mo$34/mo2,00032,500
Growth$149/mo$104/mo10,000105,000
Scale$299/mo$209/mo25,0002015,000
EnterpriseCustom pricing

Yearly billing is charged upfront: $408 for Starter, $1,248 for Growth and $2,508 for Scale. You get the whole year's credits on day one (24,000 on Starter) instead of a monthly allowance that resets.

How credits work

Hunter charges credits only when it returns something. A search that finds no email is free.

ActionCredit Cost
Email Finder1 credit per email found
Domain Search1 credit per email found
Bulk Domain Search1 credit per up to 10 emails found
Email Verifier0.5 credits per email
Find + verify one lead1.5 credits total

On the Starter plan (2,000 credits), you can find and verify roughly 1,333 leads per month. On the free plan (50 credits), that's about 33 verified leads. Monthly credits don't roll over, and paid plans can buy extra credit packs.

Add-ons and the Data Platform

The plan price covers credits and a fixed number of connected inboxes. These cost extra on Starter and above, priced per inbox. Hunter's pricing page showed us these prices in euros:

  • Additional email accounts: from €10/mo each, once you pass your plan's 3, 10 or 20 inboxes.
  • Custom domains and email accounts bought through Hunter: from €5.34/mo per account.
  • Inbox Protection: from €5.34/mo per account.

The Data Platform is a separate, API-only product. You buy search and verification credits in bulk without an outreach plan, and they stay usable for up to 12 months. It fits teams that only want Hunter's data inside their own tools.

What each plan includes

Every plan, including Free, gets:

  • Email Finder, Domain Search and Email Verifier, with results you can export to CSV
  • Sequences for cold email campaigns, with open tracking
  • Browser extensions, the Google Sheets add-on and CRM integrations
  • API and MCP access, so you can call Hunter from your own tools or an AI assistant
  • Unlimited users sharing the plan's credits

Paid plans add auto-verification, the AI Writing Assistant, SMTP/IMAP inboxes, email account rotation, A/B testing, link tracking, attachments and reporting. Growth and above add a custom tracking domain. Scale adds an account manager.

Test yourself

You need to find and verify 2,000 leads per month. How many Hunter.io credits does that require?

🎉

Right! Finding costs 1 credit + verifying costs 0.5 = 1.5 credits per lead. So 2,000 leads × 1.5 = 3,000 credits. You'd need the Growth plan (10,000 credits).

💡

Each find-and-verify costs 1.5 credits total (1 for finding + 0.5 for verifying). So 2,000 leads needs 3,000 credits, which means the Growth plan ($104/mo annual).

Hidden costs to watch for

  1. Credits burn faster than expected. If you verify every email you find (recommended), each lead costs 1.5 credits. Your effective lead count is 33% lower than the credit number suggests.
  2. Inboxes are capped per plan. Starter connects 3 sending accounts. Sending from more means a paid add-on per inbox or a jump to Growth.
  3. Sequences are capped too. Starter allows 2,500 recipients per sequence, Growth 5,000, Scale 15,000.
  4. No phone numbers. Hunter only provides email addresses. If you need phone data, you'll pay for a separate tool like Lusha.
  5. Monthly billing costs about 43% more. Starter is $49 a month on monthly billing vs $34 on yearly.

Is Hunter.io worth the price?

Hunter is worth it if you:

  • Primarily need email finding with verification built in
  • Need domain-based email search for prospecting
  • Want finding and simple cold email outreach in one tool, with unlimited users

Hunter is probably not worth it if you:

  • Need high-volume email finding (credits are the cost driver at scale)
  • Need phone numbers alongside emails
  • Want link building outreach run for you, from finding the sites to writing each pitch

Cheaper alternatives

ToolStarting PriceBest For
Snov.io$39/mo (25% off yearly)Email finding + drip campaigns
Skrapp.ioFree / $29/mo yearlyLinkedIn email extraction
MentionAgent$99/moAutomated link building (contact lookup is free)

For more options, see our roundup of email finders. For a deeper look at the platform itself, read our Hunter.io review.

Test yourself

Hunter.io Starter costs $49/mo monthly or $34/mo annually. What percentage do you save with annual billing?

🎉

Right! Annual billing saves roughly 30% on Hunter.io, dropping the Starter plan from $49/mo to $34/mo.

💡

The savings are about 30%. $49/mo drops to $34/mo with annual billing, saving you $15/mo or $180/year.

Test yourself

You need to find and verify 5,000 emails per month. Which Hunter.io plan do you need?

🎉

Correct! With 1.5 credits per find-and-verify lookup, you need at least 7,500 credits for 5,000 leads. The Growth plan (10,000 credits at $104/mo annual) is the right fit.

💡

At 1.5 credits per verified lead, 5,000 leads requires 7,500 credits. The Starter plan (2,000) isn't enough. The Growth plan (10,000 credits at $104/mo annual) covers this comfortably.

Skip the per-contact charges

MentionAgent finds the blogs, looks up each contact for free, and writes a pitch for every post, from $99/mo. Credits pay only for AI drafts, never for contacts.

Start Getting Mentioned On Autopilot

Frequently asked questions

How much does Hunter.io cost?

Hunter.io has a free plan (50 credits/month). Paid plans: Starter $34/mo (annual) or $49/mo (monthly), Growth $104/mo (annual) or $149/mo (monthly), Scale $209/mo (annual) or $299/mo (monthly). Enterprise is custom.

Is Hunter.io free?

Yes, Hunter offers a free plan with 50 credits/month, 1 email account, and up to 500 recipients per sequence. No credit card required.

How many credits does Hunter.io use per search?

1 credit for each email found by the Email Finder or Domain Search, and 0.5 credits per verification. Searches that find nothing are free. Finding and verifying one lead costs 1.5 credits.

Does Hunter.io have a nonprofit discount?

Yes. Registered nonprofits (501(c) status in the US) get 30% off monthly plans. You sign up, then email Hunter your documentation. It can't be combined with other offers.

Is Hunter.io worth the price?

For email finding with built-in verification and a simple UI, yes. If you need phone numbers or very high lookup volumes, the credit model gets expensive and a different tool fits better.