Instantly vs lemlist (2026): Cost by Volume and LinkedIn

Ad · Paid links: we earn a commission if you sign up through a link marked “Paid link”. It never decides the verdict. Details

Quick answer

Instantly is cheaper than lemlist for one person sending under 5,000 emails a month; lemlist fits teams and sequences with LinkedIn (both vendors’ pricing pages, October 2026).

Instantly Growth ($47 a month¹) caps stored contacts³ at 1,000. Teammates need Instantly Hypergrowth ($97)¹ or a CRM plan⁵; lemlist’s $69¹⁶ covers everyone.

For LinkedIn and calls, lemlist Multichannel is $109 per user¹⁶.

Instantly or lemlist

Instantly: cheaper of the two for one sender under 5,000 emails a month who keeps under 1,000 stored contacts.

lemlist: best fit for email teams, or LinkedIn and calls in one sequence.

Visit Instantly Visit lemlist

Instantly: 14-day free trial, no card · lemlist: 14-day trial on Multichannel, no card · the Email plan has no trial · checked October 2026

Ad · Paid link: we earn a commission if you sign up through this link. It doesn’t change our recommendation.

On this page 14 sections

Instantly caps the emails and contacts on each plan; lemlist’s Email plan charges by team volume, with unlimited users. Which costs less depends on your volume, headcount and channels.

What do Instantly and lemlist cost at your volume and team size?

For one person sending up to 5,000 emails a month, Instantly is $22 a month cheaper than lemlist, going by Instantly’s¹ and lemlist’s pricing pages¹⁶ on October 25, 2026.

For a team sending up to 100,000, lemlist’s Email plan is $8 to $28 cheaper. With LinkedIn and calls, only lemlist’s price includes both (lemlist’s plan guide¹⁸).

Setup	Instantly (monthly; yearly per month)	lemlist (monthly; yearly per month)
1 person, email only, up to 5,000 emails a month	Growth: $47; $37.60. Stores 1,000 contacts in total	Email plan, 50,000 tier (the smallest): $69; $55. No trial, no LinkedIn steps
3 people, email only, 50,000 a month	Hypergrowth: $97; $77.60. Growth stops at 5,000 emails	Email plan, 50,000 tier: $69; $55, unlimited users
3 people, email only, 100,000 a month	Hypergrowth: $97; $77.60. Stores 25,000 contacts	Email plan, 100,000 tier: $89; $71
3 people, email only, 200,000 a month	Hypergrowth plus one Outreach add-on: $184; yearly add-on price not published	Email plan, 200,000 tier: $159; $127
3 people, email plus LinkedIn and calls	Hypergrowth plus a CRM plan: $194, plus phone numbers and call credit; LinkedIn steps need a separate tool	Multichannel, 3 × $109 = $327; 3 × $87 = $261. LinkedIn steps and 400 calling minutes per user included

List prices in US dollars before tax, checked October 25, 2026 on Instantly’s pricing page¹ and pricing file¹ and lemlist’s pricing page¹⁶ and plan guide¹⁸.

“Yearly” is the monthly equivalent of paying for a year, 20% below monthly on both; lemlist also offers 10% off quarterly (lemlist’s pricing page¹⁶).

Totals are our arithmetic. Mailboxes, domains and lead data are left out.

Instantly’s price cards (pricing page¹) and plan comparison³ give Hypergrowth 125,000 emails a month; the feature table on its pricing page says 100,000.

Instantly’s Outreach add-on adds 125,000 emails and 25,000 contacts for $87 a month on Hypergrowth and up (pricing file¹).

Its CRM plans cost a flat $97 a month in the CRM guide¹⁰, with no yearly price published; the plans overview² also lists a $47 Growth CRM.

These rules decide whether the totals hold for you:

Instantly’s contact caps are totals that “do not reset every month”; to add more, you upgrade or delete old campaigns (Instantly’s plan comparison³).
With three emails per new prospect (our assumption), 5,000 emails a month reach about 1,700 people, over Growth’s 1,000 contacts; 100,000 reach about 33,300, over Hypergrowth’s 25,000.
Instantly charges no overage: its pricing file¹ says users “upgrade tiers rather than pay an overage charge” (whether Instantly’s contact limit resets).
lemlist’s Email plan stores unlimited contacts, but at the team’s monthly tier “Active campaigns pause automatically” until someone upgrades (lemlist’s plan guide¹⁸).
That upgrade takes effect at once, and you pay the new tier minus the unused share of the old one (what happens at lemlist’s Email plan limit).

Between 100,001 and 125,000 emails a month, Instantly Hypergrowth at $97 undercuts lemlist’s 200,000 tier at $159, but only if you keep deleting finished campaigns (Instantly’s pricing page¹).

At 125,000 (about 41,700 new people a month), buying the $87 contact add-on instead brings Instantly to $184, above lemlist’s $159 (Instantly’s pricing file¹).

Which sender costs least at each email volume maps every band for Instantly, lemlist and Smartlead, including those above 200,000.

How do lemlist’s per-user and Instantly’s per-workspace pricing differ?

lemlist charges per user only on its Multichannel and Enterprise plans, according to its plan guide¹⁸, checked October 25, 2026.

The guide says the Email plan’s cost “scales with how many emails your team sends per month, not per seat.”

Email Pro, the older plan that many comparisons still quote, continues only for existing customers at their current pricing, the same guide said on October 25, 2026.

Instantly charges per workspace: its pricing page¹ lists unlimited email accounts and warmup on every Outreach plan, and the plan sets your monthly emails and stored contacts.

Its workspace guide⁵ adds that “Each workspace requires its own subscription.” Its pricing file¹ sells lead credits as a separate subscription, and its plans overview² lists the CRM as an add-on.

Every plan, billing period and credit price is on Instantly’s price list and lemlist’s plans and prices.

Which limits and extras differ between Instantly’s and lemlist’s plans?

Instantly’s Outreach plans come without data credits (pricing file¹), while lemlist’s Multichannel comes with LinkedIn steps, 400 calling minutes and 400 credits per user (plan guide¹⁸, October 25, 2026).

Plan detail	Instantly	lemlist
Built for	Email outreach; lead data and a CRM are separate plans	Email plan: email only. Multichannel: email, LinkedIn and calls
Pricing model	Per workspace; the plan sets monthly emails and stored contacts	Email plan: by the team’s monthly volume, unlimited users. Multichannel: per user
Entry price, monthly	$47 (Growth, 5,000 emails)	$69 (Email plan, 50,000 emails); $109 per user (Multichannel)
Sending mailboxes	Unlimited on every Outreach plan; the mailboxes themselves cost extra	Email plan: unlimited senders. Multichannel: up to 5 per user
Stored contacts	1,000 (Growth), 25,000 (Hypergrowth), 100,000 (Light Speed)	Unlimited on the Email plan
Warmup	Included on every Outreach plan	lemwarm included in all plans, not in the trial
LinkedIn steps	Through HeyReach, Aimfox or Valley, connected in Automations	Built into Multichannel: visits, invites and messages
Calls and SMS	In a CRM plan, after buying a number and call credit	Multichannel: built-in dialer, 400 minutes per user a month. SMS: on the plan card, but an add-on in the FAQ; 6 credits each
WhatsApp	Not listed on Instantly’s pricing page	Multichannel: a paid add-on. Not available on the Email plan
Data credits included	None on Outreach plans; sold separately	400 per user a month on Multichannel; an add-on on the Email plan
Free trial	14 days, no card: 2 email accounts, 250 contacts, 1,000 emails	14 days, no card, on Multichannel only: 200 credits, 50 emails a day

From Instantly’s pricing page¹, lemlist’s pricing page¹⁶ and credits guide²², and both help centers, checked October 25, 2026.

Vendors change plans often, so check the live pricing page before you pay.

Which runs LinkedIn steps and calls in the same sequence, Instantly or lemlist?

lemlist’s Multichannel plan runs LinkedIn visits, invites and messages, calls and email in one sequence for $109 per user a month (lemlist’s plan guide¹⁸, October 25, 2026).

Billed yearly, it’s $87 on lemlist’s pricing page¹⁶. The plan guide gives each user up to 5 sending mailboxes and 400 calling minutes a month; WhatsApp is a paid add-on.

Instantly has no LinkedIn step of its own. Since November 19, 2025, its Automations can push leads into HeyReach, Aimfox or Valley (Instantly’s changelog¹³).

Only leads with a LinkedIn URL go across (Instantly’s Automations guide¹²). Each of the three is a separate product with its own price (HeyReach²⁷, Aimfox²⁸ and Valley²⁹ pricing pages).

Calls and texts run from Instantly’s CRM plans, and its calling guide¹⁰ says “You need to purchase the phone number and credit first.”

lemlist’s catch: its plan guide says one team can’t use the Email plan and Multichannel together (the guide calls the plan Multichannel Expert).

So you can’t put two reps on Multichannel and leave the rest of the team on the volume-priced Email plan.

How do Instantly’s and lemlist’s warmup and daily sending limits differ?

Instantly’s account-limits guide⁶ recommends 30 campaign emails per mailbox a day, while lemlist’s sending-limits guide²⁰ caps a warmed-up mailbox at 25 to 30 (both checked October 25, 2026).

Both include warmup on paid plans. Instantly lists “Unlimited Email Warmup” on each Outreach plan and runs it through a pool of Instantly users’ mailboxes (warmup guide⁷).

lemlist’s pricing page says lemwarm is “included in all plans,” though its free trial¹⁹ leaves it out.

lemlist’s guide sends no cold email from a new mailbox until warm-up is done: a Warmup Score of 90+, then 14 days of stabilization.

After that it starts the mailbox at 10 to 15 a day and adds 5 a week up to the cap, keeping warmup plus campaigns at 50 or fewer a day.

lemlist’s inbox-rotation article²¹, updated the same day (October 8, 2026), still gives 30 to 40 a day for a new mailbox; go by the sending-limits guide.

Both rotate a campaign across the mailboxes you pick (Instantly’s campaign settings⁸), but lemlist’s rotation article warns it “does not multiply how much you can safely send from one provider.”

For how much one domain should send, see daily sending volume per mailbox.

For Google’s and Microsoft’s rules for bulk senders, see what Gmail and Outlook require of senders.

Before warmup starts on a new domain, see how to check your SPF, DKIM and DMARC records.

Neither tool makes cold email legal by itself; the rules depend on where your recipients are.

See whether cold email is legal, country by country, and for prospects in the EU, how GDPR applies to cold email.

How do Instantly’s and lemlist’s lead data and CRM syncs compare?

Instantly and lemlist both sell lead data by credits; only lemlist’s Multichannel and Enterprise plans include some, 400 enrichment credits per user a month (lemlist’s plan guide¹⁸, October 25, 2026).

On lemlist’s Email plan and every Instantly Outreach plan, credits cost extra (Instantly’s credit plans, lemlist’s credit prices).

Instantly gives one database size, and lemlist two.

Instantly says 450M+ B2B leads on its pricing page and in its Lead Finder guide (formerly SuperSearch)⁹. lemlist says 650M+ on its pricing page and 450M+ in its plan guide.

Those are the vendors’ own counts, and we haven’t checked their coverage.

lemlist’s integrations page²⁴ lists two-way sync with HubSpot and Salesforce, plus Pipedrive, Close and Zoho CRM.

Instantly’s help center¹¹ has setup guides for HubSpot and Pipedrive, Salesforce through OutboundSync, and Close through Zapier.

Instantly’s own pages disagree on whether Growth includes CRM integrations, and all of them put webhooks on Hypergrowth and up (where Instantly’s pages disagree).

If you haven’t picked the CRM itself yet, see Close vs Pipedrive for outbound teams.

How do Instantly’s and lemlist’s personalization and AI features compare?

AI-written text costs 1 credit per request on lemlist, charged only when the AI returns a valid result (credits guide²²), and about 0.5 credits a row on Instantly (AI Prompts guide¹⁴), both checked October 25, 2026.

lemlist documents if/else text and per-lead images, both on every plan per its pricing page¹⁶. Its Liquid guide²³ changes a sentence by job title or another lead field.

Its image guide²³ inserts each lead’s logo or website screenshot from a URL column. AI variables can run on your own OpenAI key instead of lemlist credits.

Instantly’s spintax guide¹⁴ rotates word choices, such as {{RANDOM | Hi | Hello}}.

Its AI Prompts¹⁴ write an email or opening line for each lead, and can bill your own key from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others instead of credits.

We haven’t tested the writing quality of either tool’s AI.

Solo sender, email team or LinkedIn steps: which Instantly or lemlist plan fits?

On the cost table’s prices (October 25, 2026), Instantly fits a solo email sender and teams sending 100,001–125,000 a month; lemlist fits other email teams up to 200,000 a month and sequences with LinkedIn.

Choose Instantly over lemlist if you’re one person sending only email, up to 5,000 a month, and will delete finished campaigns to stay under 1,000 stored contacts.
Also Instantly for teams sending 100,001 to 125,000 a month that delete finished campaigns to stay under 25,000 contacts: $97 against lemlist’s $159 (pricing page¹).
Not Instantly if reps need LinkedIn steps in the sequence, or teammates need logins on a tight budget: invites need a CRM plan or Hypergrowth (workspace guide⁵).
Choose lemlist’s Email plan if several people send email only, 5,000 to 100,000 a month: $69 to $89 covers everyone, with no contact cap (lemlist’s plan guide¹⁸).
Not the Email plan if you want a trial first (it has none, per lemlist’s plan guide¹⁸) or send under 5,000 a month alone: Instantly Growth costs $22 less.
Choose lemlist Multichannel if your reps run LinkedIn, calls and email in one sequence.
Not Multichannel if most of your volume is email from people who never use LinkedIn: each costs $109 a month, and the team can’t add Email-plan seats (plan guide¹⁸).
Neither if you send email alone from a small list: Smartlead’s Base plan costs less than both.

Instantly or lemlist

Match your row of the cost table to the plan on each site.

Visit Instantly Visit lemlist

Trials, checked October 2026: Instantly 14 days without a card · lemlist 14 days without a card on Multichannel, none on the Email plan

Ad · Paid link: we earn a commission if you sign up through this link. It doesn’t change our recommendation.

Where does Smartlead fit next to Instantly and lemlist?

Smartlead’s Base plan ($39 a month, October 2026) costs less than Instantly Growth or lemlist’s Email plan for a small email-only list (Smartlead’s pricing page²⁶).

Base includes 6,000 emails a month and 2,000 stored contacts, against Instantly Growth’s $47 for 5,000 emails and 1,000 contacts (Instantly’s pricing page¹).

Our Smartlead pricing guide totals the bill for 1 user, 3 or 10 clients, and our Instantly vs Smartlead comparison prices both tools at 5 to 150 mailboxes.

Base isn’t for a team that needs a CRM sync or webhooks: Smartlead’s pricing page²⁶ marks CRM access and API and webhooks as not included until Pro, at $94 a month.

Above Base’s caps, the bands where each of the three costs least show when Smartlead (Paid link) still comes out ahead.

Our lemlist alternatives page (updated October 2, 2026) suggests HeyReach for LinkedIn-first outreach, Reply.io for email plus LinkedIn, Apollo for contact data, and Close or Pipedrive for CRM follow-up.

How we compared Instantly and lemlist

On October 25, 2026, we read Instantly’s pricing page and plain-text pricing file, lemlist’s and Smartlead’s pricing pages, both vendors’ terms and the help-center articles under Sources.

Most were last updated between September 24 and October 23, 2026. We priced the same five setups on both at US list prices before tax; totals and differences are our arithmetic.

Nobody at Stacked Creator has sent a campaign with either tool. On September 30, 2026, an AI browser assistant working in the owner’s new trial accounts read the billing screens.

Instantly’s screen read “250 Total contacts, 1,250 Emails per month,” where its help center says 1,000 emails (our Instantly trial notes).

lemlist’s screen showed the same Email price as its pricing page, with “paying users: Unlimited” (our lemlist trial notes).

We didn’t send campaign email, measure inbox placement or reply rates, or run LinkedIn steps or calls on either tool, so this page doesn’t rank their deliverability.

We sell no software of our own, sending tools included. Instantly, lemlist and Smartlead pay us a commission if you sign up through our links.

All three panels put Instantly before lemlist, as the title does, with the same “Visit” button for each.

Smartlead’s one button sits in the verdict panel, where the cost table makes it the cheapest small-list option. Each button has a short note under it that explains the link.

An AI assistant read these vendor pages, did the arithmetic and drafted the comparison; our editorial policy explains how pages are checked.

Verdict

Between the two, Instantly is the cheaper start for one person sending only email and storing under 1,000 contacts: Growth is $47 a month¹ (October 2026), against $69¹⁶ for lemlist’s smallest Email tier.

A solo sender with a small list pays less still on Smartlead’s Base plan, $39 a month²⁶ for 6,000 emails.

Once a team shares the work or volume passes 5,000, lemlist’s Email plan costs less up to 100,000 emails a month, for every user and with no contact cap.

If LinkedIn and calls belong in the same sequence, lemlist Multichannel is the plan here that does it, at $109 per user¹⁶.

Instantly, lemlist or Smartlead

Instantly: over lemlist, solo sender, email only, under 5,000 a month.

lemlist: email teams up to 100,000 a month; LinkedIn and calls.

Smartlead: one sender, small email-only list, $39 a month.

Visit Instantly Visit lemlist Visit Smartlead

Instantly and lemlist: 14-day trials without a card, lemlist’s on Multichannel only · Smartlead: a free trial with no card needed · checked October 2026

Ad · Paid link: we earn a commission if you sign up through this link. It doesn’t change our recommendation.

FAQ

Can you start with email only and add LinkedIn steps later?

On Instantly, yes: its pricing file¹ says the Automation Builder comes with every Outreach plan (October 25, 2026), so the LinkedIn tools above can be added any time.

On lemlist, a team can’t switch straight from the Email plan to Multichannel, per its plan guide¹⁸.

The guide’s two routes: create a new team on Multichannel and move contacts, companies and unsubscribed lists by hand, or ask support to switch the subscription.

What happens to your account when the Instantly or lemlist trial ends?

Neither trial charges you when it ends, because neither asks for a card, per Instantly’s⁴ and lemlist’s trial guides¹⁹ (October 25, 2026).

Instantly pauses your campaigns, accounts and warmup, then deletes the account if you don’t upgrade (what Instantly’s free trial includes).

lemlist moves the account to its Freemium plan, with fewer features (lemlist’s trial and Freemium plan).

Its plan guide says the Email plan has no trial, though its pricing page shows “Start free trial” on the Email card.

Is lemlist a French company, and which company is behind Instantly?

Yes: lemlist’s terms of service²⁵, dated September 17, 2025 and read October 25, 2026, name LEMPIRE SAS, “a French corporation,” under French law and the Paris courts.

Instantly’s terms of service¹⁵, last updated October 23, 2026, name Foo Monk, LLC as the company behind Instantly and apply Wyoming law.

lemlist bills in dollars, euros or pounds (pricing page¹⁶; lemlist’s billing periods, currencies and VAT).

How good is Instantly’s AI?

We haven’t tested how well Instantly’s AI writes; its pricing file¹ (October 25, 2026) lists an AI Sequence Writer and an AI Reply Agent at 5 credits per reply.

Are Instantly and lemlist email marketing tools?

They’re cold outreach tools rather than newsletter tools: Instantly’s pricing file¹ (October 25, 2026) sells plans to “scale cold email outreach.”

lemlist’s homepage¹⁷, read the same day, calls lemlist “an AI-powered sales engagement platform.”

Sources

Pricing - Plans for Outreach, Leads, and CRM and the plain-text Instantly Pricing file — Instantly, accessed October 25, 2026
Instantly Plans Overview — Instantly Help Center, updated October 23, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Outbound Plans Comparison — Instantly Help Center, updated October 9, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Instantly Free Trial — Instantly Help Center, updated October 23, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Manage Workspaces and Team Members — Instantly Help Center, updated October 20, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Account and Campaign Limits — Instantly Help Center, updated October 22, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
How Warm-Up Works and Why it’s Important — Instantly Help Center, updated October 9, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Campaign Settings (account rotation) — Instantly Help Center, updated October 22, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Lead Finder (formerly SuperSearch) — Instantly Help Center, updated October 23, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Instantly CRM and CRM: Making calls and sending SMS — Instantly Help Center, updated October 9, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Integrations — Instantly Help Center, accessed October 25, 2026
Automations — Instantly Help Center, updated October 23, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Automations + LinkedIn outreach integrations are live! — Instantly changelog, November 19, 2025, accessed October 25, 2026
How to Use Spintax? and AI Prompts & Enrichment — Instantly Help Center, updated October 9, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Terms of Service — Instantly (Foo Monk, LLC), last updated October 23, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
lemlist pricing — lemlist, accessed October 25, 2026
The only platform you need for outbound (homepage) — lemlist, accessed October 25, 2026
lemlist plans: how to choose the right one — lemlist Help Center, updated September 24, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
lemlist free trial: what’s included and how it works — lemlist Help Center, updated October 2, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Understand sending limits in lemlist — lemlist Help Center, updated October 8, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Use inbox rotation for campaigns — lemlist Help Center, updated October 8, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Credits: how they work — lemlist Help Center, updated October 6, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Use Liquid syntax in emails and Use variables to send custom images — lemlist Help Center, updated October 2, 2026, accessed October 25, 2026
Integrate your tool stack with lemlist — lemlist, accessed October 25, 2026
lemlist General Terms & Conditions of Use — lempire (LEMPIRE SAS), as of September 17, 2025, accessed October 25, 2026
Pricing — Smartlead, accessed October 25, 2026
HeyReach Pricing — HeyReach, accessed October 25, 2026
Aimfox Pricing — Aimfox, accessed October 25, 2026
Valley AI Pricing — Valley, accessed October 25, 2026