Updated
Pricing analysis

PhantomBuster Pricing 2026: Real Cost vs $69-$439 Plans

PhantomBuster pricing in a nutshell: Trial (14 days) · Starter $69/mo · Pro $159/mo · Team $439/mo. Full tier breakdown, credit costs and hidden fees analysed below. Annual billing saves ~20%.

Pick PhantomBuster if
  • Your motion needs the breadth of 100+ specialized scrapers (LinkedIn + Twitter + Instagram + Google Maps + Sales Nav + ...)
  • You want AI personalization bundled with scraping in one tool (Pro tier)
Skip if
  • You want a single credit pool — Captain Data + TexAU use single credits (less tracking overhead)
  • You need phone finder — PhantomBuster doesn't offer it ; pair with Lusha or use a unified tool
Price transparency 10/10
Value at small team 6/10
Hidden costs Medium
PhantomBuster vs Derrick · price for the same credit volume
Heads up - Derrick is a data layer, not a sequencer. It enriches contacts (email, mobile, company, signals) directly inside Google Sheets. If you also need cold-email sequencing, dialer or CRM workflow, you'll keep your existing stack (La Growth Machine, Lemlist…) - Derrick replaces only the data-enrichment line of your PhantomBuster bill.

Slide to pick a monthly credit need. We pick the cheapest plan on each side that covers it.

Credits needed per month 5,000 credits
500 10k 20k 30k 40k 50k+
PhantomBuster
— plan $—/mo — /year
— plan $—/mo — /year
Switching to Derrick saves you $— per year
Try Derrick free → ★ 4.5/5 on G2 · 254 upvotes on Product Hunt · 31,000+ B2B sales teams

PhantomBuster's pricing plans

PhantomBuster ships 4 tiers. Per-seat pricing combined with a credit system for data lookups - the listed price is rarely the real cost.

Trial (14 days)

$0 $0 monthly
  • Credits14 days only/yr
  • Min seats1
  • 5 active Phantom slots
  • 2 hours execution/day (~60h over trial)
  • No credit card required
  • All Phantoms accessible
14 days only — no permanent free tier. Email + AI credits not included. Most evaluators churn after trial unless they're already convinced on the slot/execution model.

Starter

$55.20/mo annual (-20%) $69/mo monthly
  • Credits240h + 6,000 emails/yr
  • Min seats1
  • 5 active Phantom slots
  • 20 hours execution/month
  • 500 email credits/mo, 10,000 AI credits included
  • AI credits included (low volume)
20h/mo = ~40 minutes/day. Most LinkedIn workflows (50-100 profiles/run) take 30-60 min — you can run 1 daily max. 500 emails = ~16/day. If you outgrow ANY of the 3 caps (slots OR hours OR emails) you upgrade — most teams hit hours first.

Pro

$127.20/mo annual (-20%) $159/mo monthly
  • Credits960h + 30,000 emails/yr
  • Min seats1
  • 15 active Phantom slots (3× Starter)
  • 80 hours execution/month
  • 2,500 email credits + 30K AI credits
  • AI personalization unlocked
Most popular tier. 80h/mo = ~2.5h/day — enough for parallel campaigns. AI credits (30K) only unlock here. Per-action cost drops materially but still 3 separate caps to balance.

Team

$351.20/mo annual (-20%) $439/mo monthly
  • Credits3,600h/yr
  • Min seats1
  • 50 active slots (10× Starter)
  • 300 hours execution/month
  • 10,000 emails/mo + 90,000 AI credits/mo
  • Multi-user / agency-ready
Email + AI credits are 'variable' — not publicly fixed. Forces sales conversation on credit volumes. 300h/mo is overkill for solo users — Team tier targets agencies managing multiple client phantoms.
Why these tiers exist - full plan breakdown

phantombuster pricing tiers — verified May 2026 against the vendor and cross-checked with our review data:

PlanPriceBest forLimits / Inclusions
Trial (14 days) $0 Evaluation / testing 5 slots + 2h/day · 5 active Phantom slots · 2 hours execution/day (~60h over trial)
Starter $69/mo ($55.20/mo annual (-20%)) 5 active Phantom slots 5 slots + 20h + 500 emails + 10K AI · 5 active Phantom slots · 20 hours execution/month
Pro $159/mo ($127.20/mo annual (-20%)) 15 active Phantom slots (3× Starter) 15 slots + 80h + 2,500 emails + 30K AI · 15 active Phantom slots (3× Starter) · 80 hours execution/month
Team $439/mo ($351.20/mo annual (-20%)) 50 active slots (10× Starter) 300h + 10,000 emails + 90,000 AI credits · 50 active slots (10× Starter) · 300 hours execution/month

How PhantomBuster credits work

PhantomBuster bills actions in credits with non-equal costs. A 5,000-credit plan does NOT mean 5,000 lookups.

Phantom slot (concurrent automation) 5 / 15 / 50 by tier
Execution time 20h / 80h / 300h by tier
Email finder 500 / 2,500 / 10,000 by tier
AI credits 10K / 30K / 90K by tier
Phone reveal Not available
Unused credits No rollover
Read the full credit-system breakdown

How PhantomBuster charges per action - the credit table buyers should memorise before signing :

ActionCredits / cost
Phantom slot (concurrent automation)5 / 15 / 50 by tier
Execution time20h / 80h / 300h by tier
Email finder500 / 2,500 / 10,000 by tier
AI credits10K / 30K / 90K by tier ✅
Phone revealNot available ⚠️
Unused creditsNo rollover ⚠️

The ✅ markers are bundled / free. The ⚠️ markers are the line items that compound the bill - watch these closely when sizing your plan.

Hidden costs to know before buying PhantomBuster

Things PhantomBuster's pricing page doesn't put in big type.

Three separate caps — you can run out of any one

Slots + execution hours + email credits = 3 independent quotas. Run out of hours but have email credits = locked. Have hours but no emails = locked. Most other tools (Apollo, Hunter) use single credit pool — PhantomBuster's model adds tracking + planning overhead.

Execution hours are the typical bottleneck

Starter's 20h/mo = ~40 min/day. A typical LinkedIn scraping workflow (200 profiles) takes 30-60 min. You can run 1 phantom/day max. Most teams discover this in week 2 and upgrade to Pro (80h).

NO phone finder — emails only

PhantomBuster scrapes profiles + finds emails but does NOT reveal phone numbers. For phone-needed outbound, pair with Lusha/Scalelist. The platform is workflow + email-finder + AI personalization — not a full B2B data tool.

Phantoms are individual scripts — not a unified workflow builder

PhantomBuster's value is the library of 100+ Phantoms (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google Maps, etc.). But chaining them into multi-step workflows requires manual wiring (CSV passes, Zapier glue, custom code). Captain Data + TexAU offer native multi-step orchestration.

Credits don't roll over (any of the 3 pools)

Unused execution hours, email credits, and AI credits all expire monthly. For seasonal outbound (heavy Q1/Q3), you lose 25-40% of paid capacity. Combined with the 3-pool model, planning month-to-month gets complex.

Read the full hidden-costs analysis

Every PhantomBuster buyer eventually trips over the same line items. We've mapped the 5 we see most often :

Three separate caps — you can run out of any one

Slots + execution hours + email credits = 3 independent quotas. Run out of hours but have email credits = locked. Have hours but no emails = locked. Most other tools (Apollo, Hunter) use single credit pool — PhantomBuster's model adds tracking + planning overhead.

Execution hours are the typical bottleneck

Starter's 20h/mo = ~40 min/day. A typical LinkedIn scraping workflow (200 profiles) takes 30-60 min. You can run 1 phantom/day max. Most teams discover this in week 2 and upgrade to Pro (80h).

NO phone finder — emails only

PhantomBuster scrapes profiles + finds emails but does NOT reveal phone numbers. For phone-needed outbound, pair with Lusha/Scalelist. The platform is workflow + email-finder + AI personalization — not a full B2B data tool.

Phantoms are individual scripts — not a unified workflow builder

PhantomBuster's value is the library of 100+ Phantoms (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google Maps, etc.). But chaining them into multi-step workflows requires manual wiring (CSV passes, Zapier glue, custom code). Captain Data + TexAU offer native multi-step orchestration.

Credits don't roll over (any of the 3 pools)

Unused execution hours, email credits, and AI credits all expire monthly. For seasonal outbound (heavy Q1/Q3), you lose 25-40% of paid capacity. Combined with the 3-pool model, planning month-to-month gets complex.

PhantomBuster vs alternatives

How PhantomBuster stacks against Derrick, Hunter, and the other tools we benchmarked.

See all PhantomBuster alternatives, ranked →
Detailed comparison + cost-per-action breakdown

To truly understand PhantomBuster’s real cost, you need to calculate the effective cost per action, not just the monthly price. Here’s a comparative analysis with market alternatives.

Cost per Action Comparison Table

Action PhantomBuster Starter PhantomBuster Pro Derrick Starter Derrick Growth
LinkedIn profile scraping ~$0.23/hour* ~$0.13/hour* €0.00225 (~$0.0024) €0.002 (~$0.0021)
Email finder $0.138 (1 credit = $69/500) $0.064 (1 credit = $159/2,500) €0.01125 (~$0.012) €0.01 (~$0.011)
Phone finder Not available Not available €0.3375 (~$0.36) €0.30 (~$0.32)

*Hourly cost depends on how many actions you perform during that hour. A fast Phantom can enrich 200-300 profiles/hour, approximately $0.23-0.34 for 100 profiles with the Starter plan.

Real Calculation: 1,000 leads/month Workflow

Objective: Scrape 1,000 LinkedIn profiles + find their emails

PhantomBuster Pro:

  • Estimated execution time: ~5-8 hours (depending on Phantom speed)
  • Email finding: 1,000 credits out of 2,500 available
  • Monthly cost: $159 (Pro plan required for volume)
  • Cost per complete lead: $0.159/lead

Derrick Growth:

  • LinkedIn scraping: 1,000 × 1 credit = 1,000 credits
  • Email finding: 1,000 × 5 credits = 5,000 credits
  • Total: 6,000 credits (SMALL+ plan = 10K credits at $21/month is sufficient)
  • Monthly cost: €20 (~$21)
  • Cost per complete lead: $0.021/lead

Derrick is 7.5x cheaper for this workflow, with the bonus of rollover for the remaining 4,000 credits for the next month.

Major Differentiating Points

PhantomBuster requires juggling between slots, hours, and credits. If you run out of hours but still have email credits, you can’t use them. Conversely, if you have hours but no more email credits, you must wait for the next cycle.

Derrick works with a single, flexible credit pool, directly in Google Sheets for data enrichment without needing to configure cloud automations. Unused credits are preserved indefinitely (unlimited rollover on paid plans).


What's included in every PhantomBuster plan

Features Common to All Paid Plans

  • ✅ Access to 100+ Phantoms (automations)
  • ✅ Unlimited CSV and JSON exports
  • ✅ Zapier, Make, n8n integrations
  • ✅ API connections
  • ✅ Priority support
  • ✅ Cloud storage for results (varies by plan)

Differences by Plan

Trial:

  • Limited to 14 days
  • 5 slots, 2h/day
  • All features available for testing
  • No credit card required

Starter:

  • 5 active slots
  • 20h execution/month
  • 500 email credits
  • URL finder credits: daily + monthly
  • Basic CAPTCHA-solving credits
  • Storage: Limited

Pro (most popular):

  • 15 active slots
  • 80h execution/month
  • 2,500 email credits
  • 30,000 AI credits (AI personalization)
  • URL finder credits: increased
  • High CAPTCHA-solving credits
  • Storage: Extended
  • Enhanced priority support

Team:

  • 50 active slots
  • 300h execution/month
  • Email credits: High volume (variable)
  • AI credits: High volume (variable)
  • URL finder credits: Maximum
  • CAPTCHA-solving credits: Maximum
  • Storage: Large
  • Dedicated support
  • Ideal for multi-client agencies

Known Limitations

No plan offers:

  • ❌ Rollover of unused hours (Derrick: unlimited rollover)
  • ❌ Native integration in Google Sheets (Derrick: 100% native)
  • ❌ Phone finding (Derrick: available)
  • ❌ Permanent free plan (only 14-day trial)

Rate limits: PhantomBuster applies delays between actions to avoid bans (e.g., 1 LinkedIn connection every 30 seconds). These delays are automatic but can extend your execution times.


Should you buy PhantomBuster? Our verdict

Pick PhantomBuster if…

  • Your motion needs the breadth of 100+ specialized scrapers (LinkedIn + Twitter + Instagram + Google Maps + Sales Nav + ...)
  • You want AI personalization bundled with scraping in one tool (Pro tier)
  • You're comfortable juggling slots + hours + email credits separately and planning month-to-month

Skip PhantomBuster if…

  • You want a single credit pool — Captain Data + TexAU use single credits (less tracking overhead)
  • You need phone finder — PhantomBuster doesn't offer it ; pair with Lusha or use a unified tool
  • Your motion is multi-step workflows (scrape → enrich → push to CRM) — Captain Data is purpose-built for this

Pick Derrick instead if…

  • You live in Google Sheets and want enrichment to land in the spreadsheet — $10/mo flat, no slot/hour management
  • You want unified credit pool with unlimited rollover (vs PhantomBuster's 3 separate expiring pools)
  • You want phone + email + tech in one tool (PhantomBuster is emails-only)
Try Derrick free →

PhantomBuster is a powerful and versatile platform for multi-platform automation (LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) with 150+ ready-to-use Phantoms. Its no-code interface and cloud operation are major assets for teams wanting to automate quickly without technical skills.

Strengths: Wide range of automations, quick setup, unlimited exports, cloud-based.

Weaknesses: Complex pricing system (slots + hours + credits), no rollover, high price for volumes, manual exports required, no phone finding.

For whom? PhantomBuster suits teams that need to automate actions across multiple social platforms and are willing to pay a premium for this versatility.

Alternatives to consider: If your need focuses on LinkedIn data enrichment and email finding with a limited budget, check out PhantomBuster alternatives like Derrick (starting at $10/month with unlimited rollover), or specialized tools like Evaboot, Captain Data, or TexAu depending on your use cases.


💡 Need a simpler and more affordable solution? Derrick offers native data enrichment in Google Sheets starting at $10/month, without slot or execution hour management, with unlimited credit rollover. Test free with the FREE plan (200 credits/month).


Last updated: May 2026. PhantomBuster pricing and features may evolve. Check their official website for the most current information.

FAQ - Common questions about PhantomBuster pricing

How much does PhantomBuster cost for a small team?

For a small team (2-5 people), the Starter plan at $69/month may suffice to start, but you’ll quickly be limited by the 5 slots and 20h of execution. The Pro plan at $159/month (~€150) is better suited for regular use with 15 slots and 80h/month. In comparison, Derrick’s SMALL+ plan at €20/month offers 10,000 shared credits for the entire team with unlimited rollover.

Does PhantomBuster have a free plan?

No, PhantomBuster doesn’t offer a permanent free plan. You get access to a 14-day free trial with 5 slots and 2h of execution per day, with no credit card required. After 14 days, you must subscribe to a paid plan or lose access.

Do PhantomBuster credits and hours expire?

Yes, execution hours reset each month. Unused hours are lost and don’t carry over to the next month. Email credits and AI credits follow the same monthly principle. In contrast, Derrick offers unlimited credit rollover on all paid plans, allowing you to accumulate credits from month to month.

Can you pay PhantomBuster in euros or only dollars?

PhantomBuster bills in euros (€) for European users and dollars ($) for other regions. Your billing currency is set during your first payment and cannot be changed afterward. If you signed up with USD from Europe, you’ll remain in USD.

What happens if I exceed my limits (slots or hours)?

If you exceed your slots, you must delete an existing Phantom to add a new one, or upgrade your plan. If you exhaust your execution hours, your automations automatically pause until the next monthly billing cycle. There’s no option to purchase additional hours on a one-time basis.

Is PhantomBuster worth it compared to other enrichment tools?

PhantomBuster excels in versatility (150+ platforms) and action automation (auto-follow, auto-message), but its pricing can become high for pure data enrichment. If your primary need is LinkedIn scraping and email finding, alternatives like Derrick offer better value with a simpler credit system and unlimited rollover. PhantomBuster remains relevant if you need to automate actions across multiple social platforms simultaneously.