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

Apollo.io and ZoomInfo both sell B2B contact data, but they price it differently. Apollo charges per seat with a monthly credit grant. ZoomInfo sells annual platform contracts, and since 2026 a pay-as-you-go API called GTM AI.

Verdict

• Pick Apollo if reps need sequences and a dialer next to the data, or if you want a price you can read. Its email credit works out to about $0.02 to $0.03, and 1M records has a list price.
• Pick ZoomInfo if you want the larger claimed database, intent signals, org charts and news, or a pay-as-you-go API with no seats. You pay per credit, and search is free.
• Pick neither if you need volume through an API at a price you can read. Apollo at 1M records is hundreds of seats, and ZoomInfo has no public 1M price. LeadOcean is one option: Pro is $499 a month, flat.

Side by side

Data and coverage

Apollo lists 240M contacts and 30M companies. ZoomInfo claims 500M+ contacts and 100M+ companies. Both are the vendors' own numbers.

Neither vendor publishes how many contacts carry an email or a phone number. So you cannot compare coverage on paper. ZoomInfo's product pages list emails, direct dials and mobile numbers as data types and give no count for any of them (GTM AI, October 2026). Ask a ZoomInfo rep for coverage on your own list.

The two sell different things beyond contacts. ZoomInfo's API has endpoints for intent signals, scoops, news, org charts, technologies and corporate hierarchy. Intent needs a package that includes the Intent SKU (ZoomInfo API docs, September 2026). Apollo's data is contacts, companies and job postings.

Phones cost more at Apollo. A phone number is 8 credits against 1 for an email, and it arrives by webhook or poll (Apollo docs, September 2026). ZoomInfo charges one data credit per enriched contact, and which fields you can return depends on your package (ZoomInfo docs, September 2026).

Test on your own list before you buy. Run the same 500 people through each free plan and compare the match rate. Both free plans are small: Apollo gives 75 credits, and ZoomInfo gives 1,000 data credits (GTM AI pricing, September 2026).

API and developer experience

Both are REST APIs, and both have an official MCP server. The difference is setup. Apollo uses one header. ZoomInfo uses OAuth 2.0.

Apollo authenticates with an x-api-key header (Apollo docs, September 2026). The enrichment call is POST /api/v1/people/match:

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://api.apollo.io/api/v1/people/match?linkedin_url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-blake-4a7c21" \
  --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. Phones are off by default. You set reveal_phone_number and give a webhook URL, or set poll_only. Bulk enrichment takes up to 10 people per request (Apollo docs, September 2026).

ZoomInfo needs an app with a client ID and secret. For server-to-server work you swap them for a token, then call the Data API with the application/vnd.api+json content type (ZoomInfo docs, September 2026).

curl -X POST "https://api.zoominfo.com/gtm/oauth/v1/token" \
  -u "$ZI_CLIENT_ID:$ZI_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -d "grant_type=client_credentials"

curl -X POST "https://api.zoominfo.com/gtm/data/v1/contacts/enrich" \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $ZI_TOKEN" \
  -H "content-type: application/vnd.api+json" \
  -d '{"data":{"type":"ContactEnrich","attributes":{"matchPersonInput":[{"personId":4191419698}],"outputFields":["id","email","companyName"],"requiredFields":["id","companyName"]}}}'

One enrich call takes up to 25 contacts. A record that returns no match, or an error, is not charged (ZoomInfo docs, September 2026).

Rate limits scale differently. Apollo's are per team and per endpoint, across three windows at once, with 1,000 enrichment requests a minute on paid plans (Apollo rate limits, September 2026). ZoomInfo's are per second by package: Builder 5, Standard 25, Scaling 35. Standard also caps at 54,000 an hour (ZoomInfo rate limits, September 2026).

On MCP, both have official servers. Apollo's works with OAuth or an API key on any plan, and enrichment spends the same credits. ZoomInfo's needs a free GTM AI account or a subscription with data credits. Accounts that hold only recurring monthly credits cannot use it (Apollo docs; ZoomInfo MCP docs, September 2026).

Pricing

Apollo charges per seat, and each seat comes with a fixed monthly credit grant. ZoomInfo's API charges per credit, and one credit is one new record. Convert both to cost per record to compare them.

At 10,000 records a month

Take 10,000 work emails from Apollo. That is 10,000 credits at 1 credit each. On monthly billing, Basic gives 2,500 credits per seat at $65, so 4 seats x $65 = $260 a month. Professional needs 3 seats for 12,000 credits: 3 x $99 = $297 (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

On yearly billing, Basic is $49 a seat. So 4 seats x $49 = $196 a month, or $2,352 a year. Apollo credits expire at the end of each billing cycle.

For ZoomInfo's API, 10,000 records is 10,000 data credits. The list rate is $0.38 a credit for purchases of 2,500 to 10,000 credits. So 10,000 x $0.38 = $3,800 (GTM AI pricing, September 2026).

That is roughly 13 to 19 times Apollo's price, but the units differ. A ZoomInfo credit covers one contact record, charged once per 12 months, and credits do not expire while the account is active (ZoomInfo docs, September 2026). Search and lookup are free.

ZoomInfo's platform plans are a separate route. Their prices, credits and seats are not published: ZoomInfo's pricing page blocks automated reading. Vendr reports a median contract of $33,500 a year (Vendr, updated February 2026).

At 1M records a month

For Apollo, 1,000,000 work emails is 1,000,000 credits. On monthly billing, Professional gives 4,000 credits per seat, so 1,000,000 / 4,000 = 250 seats x $99 = $24,750 a month. On yearly billing, Basic gives 2,500 a month, so 400 seats x $49 = $19,600 a month ($235,200 a year) (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

Two caveats apply. Apollo prints no price for add-on credits, so a cheaper seats-plus-add-ons path cannot be priced. Whether Apollo allows 250 to 400 self-serve seats is also not stated.

For ZoomInfo: no public 1M price. The GTM AI slider stops at 100,000 credits for $25,000, which is $0.25 a credit and the lowest published rate. Above that, ZoomInfo sends you to Enterprise (GTM AI pricing, September 2026). We do not multiply that rate out to 1M and call it a quote.

Where Apollo.io wins

• A workspace. Sequences, a dialer and lists sit in the same product as the data. ZoomInfo's API is for code, not for reps.
• A price you can read at 1M. It is a large number, but it is published. ZoomInfo's is not.
• Low cost per email at small scale. About $0.02 to $0.03 per email credit, before phones.
• Simple auth and any-plan MCP. One header, and the MCP server works on Free.

Where ZoomInfo wins

• A larger claimed dataset. 500M+ contacts and 100M+ companies, by ZoomInfo's own count.
• Signals and structure. Intent, scoops, news, org charts and corporate hierarchy are API endpoints (ZoomInfo API docs, September 2026).
• No seats. GTM AI is pay as you go from $20, with no contract. Search is free, and a re-enrichment inside 12 months costs nothing.
• Bigger batches and faster limits. 25 records per enrich call against Apollo's 10, and up to 35 requests a second.

If you need volume through an API

We build LeadOcean, so weigh this section accordingly. LeadOcean holds 693M people and 63M companies, and you reach them over REST and MCP. Free is 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with no credits and a limit of 100 requests per second per key (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

For bulk work, POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request. The app also has an Exports page with a filter builder and CSV download (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). There is no sequencer or dialer. If your reps live in Apollo, keep it for that and compare the data source. See the Apollo alternative page for a line-by-line version.

FAQ