Instantly costs less below 5,000 emails a month. From 5,000 to 100,000 lemlist Email costs less, and lemlist Multichannel adds LinkedIn and calls.
Key takeaways
- On the official pricing pages read September 23, 2026, Instantly's $47 Growth plan is the most expensive option per email here, $9.40 per thousand, because it includes 5,000 sends.
- From 5,000 to 100,000 emails a month, lemlist Email costs less, $69 for 50,000 or $89 for 100,000, against $97 for Instantly Hypergrowth's 125,000.
- At 500,000 emails a month the two meet, $358 for Instantly Light Speed and $359 for lemlist, about $0.72 per thousand each.
- lemlist Email includes no data credits, so finding about 1,000 emails a month takes it to $118, while Instantly's Starter bundle with 1,500 credits costs $94.
- lemlist raised its Email plan from $39 to $69 a month between June 16 and July 3, 2026, and lifted the allowance from 5,000 to 50,000 emails.
- At ten users, lemlist Email stays at $69 and Instantly Hypergrowth at $97, while lemlist Multichannel reaches $1,090 a month.
Which situation are you in?
lemlist wins two rows outright, Instantly one, and the fourth depends on your volume. The last row covers the case where no list exists yet. lemlist's strong position comes from its Email plan, which changed price and volume in mid-2026.
Situation 1: you send high volume from many domains
Pick Instantly. Its Outreach plans are flat per workspace at $47, $97 and $358 a month on the official pricing page, read September 23, 2026. Every plan includes unlimited email accounts and unlimited warm-up. Gold Penguin's 2026 head-to-head gives it the deliverability-at-scale verdict and describes a much larger warm-up network than lemlist's. Instantly also sells domains at $15 a year and ready-made Google accounts at $5 a month, or $10 pre-warmed, per its help centre.
The case is infrastructure more than price. Here is the cost per thousand emails, computed on the monthly prices both vendors publish.
Instantly's $47 entry plan is the most expensive option per email, about seven times lemlist's 50,000 tier, because it includes 5,000 sends. Above that tier the two stay close. lemlist costs less at 50,000, 100,000 and 200,000 sends a month. Instantly Hypergrowth costs less between 100,000 and 125,000, and both land near $0.72 per thousand at 500,000.
Billing changes the Hypergrowth row. Billed monthly, Hypergrowth at $97 includes 125,000 emails. Billed annually at $77.60 a month, its card and the feature comparison table show 100,000, which also works out to $0.78 per thousand. Our guide to Smartlead pricing plans explains how active leads and add-ons change the monthly bill.
Situation 2: small team, email only, you already have the list
Pick lemlist Email. The plan carries unlimited users and unlimited email senders with 50,000 emails a month. It is listed at $69 monthly or $55 on annual billing on lemlist's pricing page, read September 23, 2026. Higher volumes are tiers of the same plan, from $89 for 100,000 emails to $659 for 1,000,000. For a team of three to ten that only sends email, the invoice does not move when you hire.
Instantly is also flat per workspace, though its pricing grid reserves team invites for Hypergrowth at $97. At $69 for 50,000 sends, lemlist sits between Instantly's $47 for 5,000 and $97 for 125,000. A team sending 20,000 emails a month fits lemlist's first tier. On Instantly, the same team chooses between Growth, which is too small, and Hypergrowth, which it will not fill.
Either way, mailbox count decides real volume. Practitioners cap a warmed mailbox at 20 to 50 messages a day, which is why our cold email deliverability checklist treats mailbox count, rather than plan limit, as the real ceiling.
Situation 3: your sequence needs more than email
Pick lemlist Multichannel. It puts LinkedIn automation, SMS and a built-in dialer in the same sequence as email, with five senders per user, and WhatsApp is a paid add-on. It costs $109 per user per month, or $87 on annual billing, and each extra email sender costs $9 a month, per lemlist's pricing page. Instantly's campaigns send email. Calls, SMS and LinkedIn connections sit in its separate AI CRM, from $47 a month, per its help centre.
The cost of that choice is the per-user model. A team of five on Multichannel annual billing pays $435 a month. The same five on lemlist's Email plan pay $55. At ten users Multichannel reaches $1,090 a month while Instantly Hypergrowth stays at $97, an elevenfold gap for the same headcount. Reply.io bills per user in the same way, and our Reply.io pricing guide prices it for a five-rep team.
The test is whether the extra channels lift your reply rate. lemlist is known for creative personalization, with custom images, variables and liquid-style conditionals, as Artisan's 2026 comparison describes. If those lift replies, the per-user invoice earns itself. If you never sequence a LinkedIn step, the Email plan covers the same sending for less.
Situation 4: you need to find the contacts too
Pick Instantly below 5,000 sends a month, lemlist from 5,000 to 100,000. Both tools sell contact data as credits on top of the sending plan. lemlist's Email plan searches a 650M+ lead database, but lemlist's credits guide lists no included credits on that plan. A found and verified email costs 5 credits, and a credit costs $0.01. Multichannel includes 400 credits per user a month, about 80 found emails.
Instantly searches a 450M+ database through SuperSearch. It bills 1 credit for an email it finds and 2 for one sourced from data partners, per its credit system article. Credit plans run from Nano at $9 for 150 credits to Hyper at $197 for 10,000.
For about 1,000 found emails a month, Instantly's Starter bundle costs $94 with 5,000 sends and 1,500 credits. lemlist Email with a 5,000-credit data plan costs $118 with 50,000 sends. Past 5,000 sends, Instantly needs Hypergrowth plus Growth credits at $144, and lemlist becomes the cheaper pair up to 100,000 sends. Our Instantly pricing breakdown explains why that second subscription exists.
Both record counts are vendor claims, and no source we read tested their coverage. Run twenty companies you want to reach through each free trial before you choose.
What changed in 2026
lemlist's entry point moved. Archived copies of lemlist's pricing page show the Email plan at $39 a month with 5,000 emails on June 16, 2026, and at $69 with 50,000 emails on July 3, 2026. The monthly ticket rose about 77 percent. The cost per thousand emails fell about 82 percent, from $7.80 to $1.38, for anyone who uses the allowance.
That change is why lemlist Email now costs less than Instantly between 5,000 and 100,000 sends a month. Before it, the plan included 5,000 sends for $39, the same volume as Instantly Growth at $47. Today the Email plan also comes in tiers up to 1,000,000 emails. The July 3 copy still listed a unified inbox on the Email plan, while the September 23 comparison table reserves it for Multichannel and Enterprise.
Head to head, at a glance
The table sets lemlist, Instantly and Freelvy side by side on the official prices read September 23, 2026.
| Option | Price |
|---|---|
| lemlist Email, 10 users | $69/month |
| Instantly Hypergrowth, 10 users | $97/month |
| lemlist Multichannel, 10 users | $1,090/month |
| Freelvy Pro, 10 users | €1,990/month |
The verdict
Choose Instantly if volume and sending infrastructure are the brief, or if you send under 5,000 emails a month and also need data. Past that volume, budget for Hypergrowth rather than Growth, because the $47 tier includes only 5,000 sends. Choose lemlist Email if a growing team sends between 5,000 and 100,000 emails a month. Choose lemlist Multichannel if your sequence needs LinkedIn and calls, and accept the per-user invoice for that case only.
If you want the wider field, our Instantly alternatives comparison is organised by complaint, our lemlist alternatives comparison prices each tool per seat and per send, and our roundup of the best cold email tools scores nine senders on published prices. For Instantly's other volume rival, our Smartlead vs Instantly comparison costs both at three contact volumes.
The third option: Freelvy, if you would rather describe the customer than bring a list
Freelvy is our product, an AI sales platform you use the way you use ChatGPT or Claude. lemlist and Instantly both search a stored database, 650M+ and 450M+ records by their own count. Freelvy searches 60+ live data sources at query time, from maps and official company registries to job boards, storefronts and ad libraries, then verifies, writes and sequences in the same thread.
Best for SDR and BDR teams that want finding, verifying and sequencing new contacts in one thread, without bringing a list.
Strengths. You describe the customer in one prompt, and Freelvy searches 60+ live data sources instead of filtering a stored database. Every row is enriched with verified contacts, through 24 email providers in cascade and 15 phone providers. The waterfalls find and verify more than 92% of emails and find more than 90% of phone numbers. A row that fails verification is never delivered, and an email or phone number that is not found costs nothing. Freelvy then writes and sequences the outreach in the same thread. The sequencer is unlimited on every plan and sends from your own Google or Microsoft mailbox, so sending is not billed per email. A verified email costs 3 credits and a phone number found 15, so the 2,200 credits of one Starter seat cover 733 verified emails by our arithmetic. Seats are unlimited from the Pro plan (Starter is limited to 2), and managers get free view-only access.
Price. Starter is €99 per seat a month with 2,200 credits per seat, Pro is €199 with 4,500 and Growth is €399 with 10,000. Starter is limited to 2 seats, and seats are unlimited from Pro. Every plan is monthly, with no lock-in. There is a free 7-day trial, no credit card, at freelvy.com.
Freelvy isn't for teams that would rather pay one tool for the data, another for enrichment and a third for sending.
FAQ
Is lemlist or Instantly cheaper?
It depends on volume. Below 5,000 emails a month, Instantly Growth costs less, $47 against $69. From 5,000 to 100,000, lemlist Email costs less, $69 for 50,000 or $89 for 100,000, against $97 for Instantly Hypergrowth. Instantly wins between 100,000 and 125,000, and at 500,000 both cost about $358, per the official pages on September 23, 2026.
Does lemlist have unlimited users?
Yes, on the Email plan, which includes unlimited users and email senders, from $69 a month for 50,000 emails up to $659 for 1,000,000. Multichannel is billed per user, $109 a month or $87 on annual billing, with five senders per user. Check which plan a quote refers to before comparing lemlist to anything, because the two plans bill very differently.
Does Instantly include a lead database?
Yes. SuperSearch covers 450M+ B2B leads, but it runs on Instantly credits, a separate subscription from $9 a month for 150 credits. Outreach pays for sending and credits pay for finding, verifying and enriching. The Starter bundle combines the Growth sending plan with 1,500 credits for $94 a month.
Do lemlist and Instantly have a free trial?
Yes, both do. lemlist offers 14 days with no credit card, including Multichannel features, enrichment and buying signals. Instantly offers 14 days with no card, with 1,000 emails, 250 uploaded contacts and 100 credits. Both sets of terms come from the vendors' pricing pages and help centre, read September 23, 2026.
Which one is better for deliverability?
Instantly, at scale. Gold Penguin's 2026 head-to-head gives it the verdict, and every Instantly plan includes unlimited email accounts and warm-up, which matters when you add domains regularly. Neither tool can guarantee inbox placement, and the quality of your list still decides your bounce rate.
Can lemlist do LinkedIn automation?
Yes, on the Multichannel plan, alongside SMS and a built-in dialer, with WhatsApp as a paid add-on and five senders per user. Instantly's campaigns send email, and its separate CRM, from $47 a month, handles calls, SMS and LinkedIn connections. If LinkedIn steps inside the sequence are a must, lemlist Multichannel is the answer between these two.
Which is better for an agency?
Instantly fits agency work better. Every Outreach plan includes unlimited email accounts and warm-up, and the Agency bundle at $555 a month includes 500,000 emails and 10,000 credits. lemlist Email also includes unlimited senders, while Multichannel includes five per user and charges $9 a month for each extra sender.
Do I still need a verification tool with either one?
For a list you bring, yes. Emails found inside either tool are verified when they are found. Verifying an imported list costs 0.25 credits per lead at Instantly and 1 credit, or $0.01, per email at lemlist, about $8 and $10 per thousand. Our guide on how to verify a B2B email list explains why 2026 guidance treats bounces above 2 percent as poor list hygiene.
Sources and methodology
Pages below were read on September 23, 2026 unless dated otherwise.
- lemlist.com, pricing (official)
- lemlist.com, blog how much do leads cost in lemlist (official, dated July 15, 2026)
- web.archive.org, lemlist.com pricing (official page, archived June 16, 2026)
- web.archive.org, lemlist.com pricing (official page, archived July 3, 2026)
- instantly.ai, pricing (official)
- instantly.ai, pricing.md (official)
- help.instantly.ai, articles 10273259 instantly plans overview (official, dated July 17, 2026)
- help.instantly.ai, articles 11381241 instantly credit system (official, dated July 17, 2026)
- goldpenguin.org, blog instantly vs lemlist cold email (updated July 28, 2026)
- artisan.co, blog instantly vs lemlist which should you choose in 2026 (dated August 14, 2026)