Pricing analysis Instantly sells cold-email software and a lead database in USD, in three layers: Outreach plans (Growth $47, Hypergrowth $97 and Light Speed $358 per month, plus a custom Enterprise plan), Instantly credit plans for the lead database and enrichment (Growth $47 for 1,500-2,000 credits, Supersonic $97 for 5,000-7,500, Hyper from $197 for 10K-200K), and bundles of both (Starter $94, Scale $194, Agency $555). Yearly billing lowers each price. One credit buys a verified email found by Instantly, two if it comes from a data partner, and none is used when no verified email is found. The old $37 Light Speed tier is no longer sold.
Plans
Instantly ships 8 tiers. Per-seat pricing combined with a credit system for data lookups - the listed price is rarely the real cost.
Instantly pricing, checked against the vendor's own pricing page (prices in USD). Prices are shown per month, with a lower yearly view.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly (per month) | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | $47 | $37.60 | 1,000 uploaded contacts, 5,000 emails monthly |
| Hypergrowth | $97 | $77.60 | 25,000 uploaded contacts, 125,000 emails monthly (100,000 in the comparison table) |
| Light Speed | $358 | $286.30 | 100,000 uploaded contacts, 500,000 emails monthly |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | 500,000+ emails, 100,000+ uploaded contacts |
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly (per month) | Credits per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | $47 | $37.60 | 1,500-2,000 |
| Supersonic | $97 | $87.30 | 5,000-7,500 |
| Hyper | From $197 | From $177.30 | 10K-200K |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | 200,000+ |
| Bundle | Monthly | Yearly (per month) | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $94 | $85 | 5,000 emails, 1,000 uploaded contacts, 1,500 credits |
| Scale | $194 | $175 | 100,000 emails, 25,000 uploaded contacts, 5,000 credits |
| Agency | $555 | $500 | 500,000 emails, 100,000 uploaded contacts, 10,000 credits |
| VIP | Custom | Custom | Managed service: AI Sales Agent setup, dedicated GTM engineer |
Credits
Instantly bills actions in credits with non-equal costs. A 5,000-credit plan does NOT mean 5,000 lookups.
Instantly has two kinds of limits. Outreach plans cap uploaded contacts and emails per month. Instantly credits pay for the lead database and enrichment. The credit table from the vendor help center:
| Action | Credits |
|---|---|
| Verified email found by Instantly | 1 |
| Verified email sourced from data partners | 2 |
| No verified work email found | 0 (not charged) |
| Lead verification | 0.25 |
| Full enrichment | 0.5 |
| Phone number | Not listed ! |
| Credit expiry | 2 months after purchase (monthly plans), 1 year (yearly plans) ! |
The ! markers are the line items to check before sizing your plan.
Compare
How Instantly stacks against Derrick, Hunter, and the other tools we benchmarked.
| Tool | Plan | Price/month | Credits/month | Cost/credit | Credit expiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instantly | Credits Growth | $47 | 1,500-2,000 | $0.0235-$0.0313 | 2 months after purchase |
| Instantly | Credits Supersonic | $97 | 5,000-7,500 | $0.0129-$0.0194 | 2 months after purchase |
| Instantly | Credits Hyper | From $197 | From 10,000 | From $0.0197 | 2 months after purchase |
| Derrick | STANDARD | €20 | 10,000 | €0.002 | Never on a paid plan |
| Derrick | PLUS | €47.50 | 25,000 | €0.0019 | Never on a paid plan |
Cost per credit for Instantly uses the monthly price over the low and high end of the published credit range. Amounts stay in each vendor's own currency (Instantly in dollars, Derrick in euros), and Derrick's lowest price is €0.0016 per credit on SCALE.
| Action | Instantly credits | Instantly cost (Credits Growth) | Derrick credits | Derrick STANDARD cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verified work email | 1 (2 if from data partners) | $0.0235-$0.0313 ($0.047-$0.063 at 2 credits) | 5 (already verified) | ~€0.01 |
| Phone number | Not listed | n/a | 200 | ~€0.40 |
With Instantly Credits Growth:
With Derrick STANDARD:
Takeaway: for pure data, Derrick costs a fraction of Instantly's credit plans. Instantly's case is the all-in-one: sending and data on one bill.
What's included
What the Instantly pricing page and help center list:
The verdict
Instantly is a good fit when you want cold-email sending and a lead database from one vendor, and you are happy to size three layers: an Outreach plan, a credits plan, or a bundle of both. Credits are charged per result: nothing is used when no verified email is found.
The weak points are the layered pricing, the credit ranges instead of a single number, and the expiry of credits (2 months after purchase on monthly plans, 1 year on yearly plans). Phone numbers are not in the credit table.
If you only need the data layer, Derrick costs €20/month on STANDARD (10,000 credits that never expire while you stay on a paid plan). It works as a web app, a Google Sheets sidebar, an MCP server and a REST API, and you can pair it with the sender you already use.
derrick •
Install the add-on and enrich your lists without leaving your spreadsheet.
Install in Google Sheets →
https://app1.derrick-app.com/mcp Call the same enrichment endpoints straight from your own stack or workflow.
Read the API docs →No credit card · No contract
Switch to Derrick
Derrick is a web app: nothing to install, no credit card, 100 free credits every month.
Sign up on the Derrick web app. Nothing to install, no credit card required: you start with 100 free credits per month.
Upload the CSV you exported from Instantly, paste LinkedIn URLs, or import from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. The same actions also run in Google Sheets, in Claude (MCP) and via the API.
Pick the column to enrich and the data you need: emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn data, company info, tech stack. Derrick fills the columns, and the email and phone finders only charge for what they find.
Instantly has three layers, in USD. Outreach plans: Growth $47, Hypergrowth $97 and Light Speed $358 per month (about 20% less on yearly billing), plus a custom Enterprise plan. Instantly credit plans for the lead database: Growth $47 (1,500-2,000 credits), Supersonic $97 (5,000-7,500) and Hyper from $197 (10K-200K). Bundles of both: Starter $94, Scale $194 and Agency $555 per month.
The Instantly pricing page we checked does not mention a free trial or free credits, so we cannot confirm one either way. Check instantly.ai before you sign up. Derrick has a permanent FREE plan with 100 credits/month (email finding is a paid feature on Derrick).
A verified email found by Instantly costs 1 credit, and one sourced from data partners costs 2. Lead verification costs 0.25 credit and full enrichment 0.5 credit. No credits are used when a verified work email is not found.
Yes. According to the vendor help center, credits expire 2 months after purchase on monthly plans and 1 year after purchase on yearly plans. On Derrick, credits never expire while you stay on a paid plan.
Outreach plans cap uploaded contacts and emails per month, and are the sending side. Instantly credit plans pay for the lead database, email finding and enrichment. Bundles (Starter $94, Scale $194, Agency $555) combine one of each.
The vendor shows 125,000 emails per month on the Hypergrowth plan card and 100,000 in its comparison table, so the page contradicts itself. The plan includes 25,000 uploaded contacts. Confirm the email cap with the vendor.
Yes, Instantly lists Google Sheets, API and MCP access. On Derrick, the REST API and the MCP server (Claude, ChatGPT) are available from the PLUS plan, and Derrick also has a Google Sheets sidebar.
If you already have a sender, you only need data. Derrick costs €20/month on STANDARD (10,000 credits). A work email found costs 5 credits and is already verified, so 10,000 credits cover 2,000 emails. It works as a web app, a Google Sheets sidebar, an MCP server and a REST API.
Keep exploring
Comparing options? These are the other cold email tools we've torn down at the same depth - real per-credit cost, hidden fees, plan calculators.
Reply.io review: 3.6/5. Multichannel sales engagement with AI SDR agents, 14-day free trial then $59/user/month (annual). For teams adopting
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Hunter Campaigns review: 3.4/5. Simple cold email sender bundled with Hunter, free tier then $49/month. For solo SDRs on Hunter, not agencie
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Woodpecker review: 3.7/5. Deliverability-first cold email with a free base plan, then from €23/mo (annual). For SDRs and agencies, email onl
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Saleshandy review: 3.9/5. Cold email with unlimited mailboxes, free warm-up and a lead finder, 7-day free trial then $23/month (annual). Ema
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