Apollo.io vs SalesIntel (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

Apollo.io and SalesIntel both sell B2B contact data, but they sell it in opposite ways. Apollo publishes a price per seat and gives you an API and an MCP server on every plan. SalesIntel sells quote-only platform contracts and hands out API keys through your success team.

Verdict

• Pick Apollo if you want a price you can read, an API key you create yourself and an MCP server on every plan. It suits small teams, individual reps and developers who want to start today.
• Pick SalesIntel if your reps want human-verified contacts, mobile numbers and intent data in one platform, and you accept a quote and an annual contract. It fits sales teams, not code-first buyers.
• Pick neither if you need volume through an API at a price you can read. Apollo at 1M records is hundreds of seats, and SalesIntel has no public 1M price. LeadOcean is one option: Pro is $499 a month, flat.

Side by side

Data and coverage

SalesIntel sells verification, and Apollo sells scale. Apollo claims 240M+ contacts, 30M+ companies and 98% email accuracy (Apollo, October 2026). SalesIntel claims 200M+ verified contacts, 54M+ verified mobiles and 95% accuracy on a 90-day refresh cycle (SalesIntel, October 2026). All of these are vendor claims, and we did not test them.

SalesIntel's own numbers disagree. Its contacts API page describes 120 million machine-verified contacts (SalesIntel API page, October 2026). The homepage says 200M+ verified. The difference probably separates human-verified from machine-verified records, but the pages do not say so.

That split is the real SalesIntel feature. The people API has a verified filter that returns only human-verified records, and an is_ev_contact flag for email-verified ones (SalesIntel people API, October 2026). Apollo has no human-verified tier that we could find.

Phones are priced differently. Apollo charges 8 credits for a mobile number on top of 1 credit for an email (Apollo API pricing, September 2026). SalesIntel lists mobile numbers in its core contact data, with no per-phone fee on the pricing page (SalesIntel pricing, October 2026).

Signals also differ. SalesIntel lists 60,000+ intent topics from Bombora and its own PredictiveIntent, and 42,000+ tracked technologies (SalesIntel, October 2026). On the pricing page, basic intent is included and advanced intent is an add-on. Apollo adds buying signals such as job changes and website visits (Apollo, October 2026).

API and developer experience

Apollo has the simpler path for a developer. Every plan includes API access, you create the key yourself, and it goes in an x-api-key header (Apollo developer FAQ, September 2026). Enrichment is POST /api/v1/people/match.

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://api.apollo.io/api/v1/people/match?first_name=Jane&last_name=Doe&domain=acme.com" \
  --header "x-api-key: $APOLLO_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json"

The call costs 1 to 9 credits: 1 for an email, plus 8 if a mobile comes back. If nothing credit-consuming is found, it costs 0. A phone reveal needs a webhook URL or poll_only (Apollo docs, October 2026).

SalesIntel's API is built for enrichment and small sets. Your key comes from your success team, and the docs say discovery of thousands of contacts in one request may need another route (SalesIntel docs, October 2026). Looking up a contact by email is a GET.

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.salesintel.io/service/people?email=jane.doe@acme.com" \
  --header "X-CB-ApiKey: $SALESINTEL_API_KEY" \
  --header "Accept: application/json"

Credits are charged per record returned, not per request. A 402 means you are out of credits, and a 403 means your account lacks permission for that resource (SalesIntel API docs, October 2026). A /service/people/preview route returns masked contacts and takes no credits.

For agents, Apollo is easier to adopt. Its MCP server is a built-in connector in Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Replit and Cursor, and any plan can use it (Apollo MCP docs, October 2026). SalesIntel's developer docs list no MCP server. Its homepage describes agents that run inside its own platform, not an endpoint you can point your own agent at.

Pricing

Apollo is the one you can price today. SalesIntel is the one you have to ask about. Prices below are monthly list first, billed-yearly figures after.

Apollo plans (Apollo pricing, September 2026): Basic is $65 a seat a month with 2,500 credits, or $49 billed yearly. Professional is $99 with 4,000 credits, or $79 billed yearly. Organization is $149 with 6,000 credits, or $119 billed yearly, with a three-seat minimum. Credits are pooled across the team and expire each cycle.

SalesIntel plans (SalesIntel pricing, October 2026): no dollar figures. The page lists unlimited export and enrichment credits per user per month, a dedicated success manager and add-ons for advanced intent, ads and visitor identification. Price comes only in a quote.

10,000 records a month

Take 10,000 work-email lookups, which is 10,000 Apollo credits at 1 credit each.

• Apollo on monthly billing: 4 Basic seats hold 4 x 2,500 = 10,000 credits, so 4 x $65 = $260. Professional needs 3 seats, 3 x $99 = $297.
• Apollo on yearly billing: 4 Basic seats cost 4 x $49 = $196 a month equivalent. Professional is 3 x $79 = $237.
• SalesIntel: no public 10,000 price. The terms say a user cannot reveal more than 3,000 companies or contacts a month, so 10,000 reveals is at least 4 users (SalesIntel terms, October 2026).

Phones change the Apollo math. Each mobile returned adds 8 credits, so a list that needs phones burns credits nine times faster.

1M records a month

Apollo needs 1,000,000 credits, and the cheapest list-price route is Professional on monthly billing. That is 1,000,000 / 4,000 = 250 seats, and 250 x $99 = $24,750 a month. On yearly billing, Basic gives 2,500 credits a month, so 1,000,000 / 2,500 = 400 seats, and 400 x $49 = $19,600 a month. Apollo prints no per-credit price for add-on credits, and it does not say whether 250 to 400 seats is available self-serve.

SalesIntel has no public 1M price. The one hard number is the reveal cap: 1,000,000 / 3,000 = 334 users, if the cap applies to API use. The terms do not say, so treat that as a floor on seats, not a quote. API credits are priced in your order form, so ask sales before you size a build.

Where Apollo wins

Apollo wins on price clarity and on access. You can read every plan, sign up free with 75 credits a month and call the API the same afternoon. Its rate limits are published, and its MCP server works on every plan.

It also wins on workspace for small teams. Its API reference lists sequences, calls, tasks and deals next to the data (Apollo docs, October 2026). A rep can prospect and send from one tool.

Where SalesIntel wins

SalesIntel wins on verified contacts. It has a human-verified filter and 54M+ verified mobiles. The terms add a 95% accuracy guaranty on human-verified names and company affiliations. That matters when a wrong number costs a rep an afternoon (SalesIntel terms, October 2026). Apollo makes no such guaranty that we found.

It also wins on signals and a bundled contract. Intent, technographics, a Chrome extension and a success manager come in one agreement. For a ten-rep team that wants one vendor, one login and a fixed annual bill, that is simpler than buying Apollo seats.

If you need volume through an API

Both tools get expensive or opaque once you move from a rep's list to a pipeline. LeadOcean is a data API with a hosted MCP server. Free gives you 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with no seats and no credits.

It covers 693M people and 63M companies over REST and MCP, at 100 requests per second per key on every plan. POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request, and the app has an Exports page with a filter builder and a price preview (LeadOcean docs, September 2026). It has no sequencer, dialer or intent feed, and no human-verified tier.

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