Locus product guide · Updated November 10, 2026

Apollo vs ZoomInfo: plans, data access and contracts

Apollo sells self-serve seat plans with monthly billing and a free plan, while ZoomInfo quotes every sales plan and bills yearly. Vendr reports a median ZoomInfo contract of $33,500 a year. Pick ZoomInfo for intent data and enterprise depth under a negotiated contract. Pick Apollo for a small team that wants published prices and monthly billing. Prices checked November 10, 2026.

How do Apollo and ZoomInfo compare on plans and terms?

Apollo sells its plans on its own website. ZoomInfo does not publish prices for its sales platform, so the ZoomInfo spend figures below are reported by Vendr, a software buying service. Everything was checked on November 10, 2026.

How do Apollo and ZoomInfo compare on plans and terms?
Factor	Apollo	ZoomInfo
List prices	Published per seat for Free, Basic, Professional and Organization	Not published. Every sales plan is quoted.
Monthly billing	Available on Basic and Professional	Paid plans are billed yearly
Free tier	900 credits per seat a year	ZoomInfo Lite: 10 credits a month, or 25 with Community Edition
Typical spend	Published seat price times seats, no quote needed	Median contract $33,500 a year, range $7,247 to $156,032 (Vendr)
Seat minimum	3 seats on Organization only	Multi-seat yearly commitments are common (Vendr)
What a credit buys	1 credit per email, 8 per phone number	1 data credit per record enriched or exported
Credit expiry	End of each billing cycle	12 months after the grant on GTM AI
Renewal	Annual plans cannot drop to monthly mid-term	Auto-renewal with 5% to 10% yearly increases is common (Vendr)

How do their APIs and agent access differ?

Apollo includes API access on every plan, Free included. Limits apply per team and per endpoint. Enrichment allows 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans and 50 a minute on Free. Apollo MCP calls count toward the same limits.

ZoomInfo sells API, MCP and CLI access through GTM AI with no seats. New accounts get 1,000 data credits and 1,000 AI credits once, then top up from $20. Searches are free, enrichment costs 1 data credit per new record, about $0.38 a record on pay as you go, and the limit is 5 requests a second across 5 apps. Mobile phone data is listed under Enterprise plans. ZoomInfo shows no cost preview before a call. Prices checked November 10, 2026.

Existing ZoomInfo customers can use MCP only with pooled data credits. Recurring monthly credits on some older subscriptions do not work with it.

What contract risks does each carry?

Both vendors sell credits that expire. The risks differ after that.

Apollo: unused credits expire each cycle, including add-on credits, which renew until you remove them.
Apollo: every seat on an account must be on the same plan.
Apollo: standard plans are for internal use. Using the data in a product for your customers needs a separate agreement.
ZoomInfo: Vendr reports contracts of 1 to 3 years with yearly prepayment as standard.
ZoomInfo: Vendr reports notice periods of 30 to 90 days before auto-renewal.
ZoomInfo: free re-enrichment of a record for 12 months is an Enterprise benefit on GTM AI.

Can an agent use Apollo or ZoomInfo data without a contract?

Apollo, yes, through Locus Pro. An agent calls Apollo’s endpoints per use from one prepaid balance, with no seat. ZoomInfo is not in the Locus catalog. Its own no-contract route is GTM AI pay as you go.

Searching the Locus catalog and reading a price are free, so the agent sees each price before it calls, and a call can carry a max_credits ceiling. The table lists the Apollo endpoints in the Locus catalog on November 10, 2026.

Can an agent use Apollo or ZoomInfo data without a contract?
Locus endpoint	What it returns	How it is priced
apollo/people-search	People that match your search filters	Fixed price per call
apollo/people-enrichment	One person’s profile, with an optional phone reveal	Fixed price, higher with a phone reveal
apollo/org-enrichment	Industry, size, funding, revenue and tech stack for a company	Fixed price per company
apollo/job-postings	Open job postings for a company	Fixed price per call

Should you choose Apollo or ZoomInfo?

Start from team size and how the data gets used.

A founder or a small sales team: Apollo. Published prices, monthly billing and a free plan to test.
A large sales org that needs intent data, scoops and admin controls, and can negotiate: ZoomInfo. Cap renewal increases in the contract.
An agent that needs ZoomInfo records in particular: GTM AI pay as you go.
An agent that needs contact data from any good source, a few hundred records at a time: per-call providers through Locus Pro.
Unsure about data quality: run the same sample of accounts through Apollo’s free plan and GTM AI’s free signup credits before you buy.

Frequently asked questions

Is Apollo cheaper than ZoomInfo?

For most small teams, yes. Apollo sells self-serve seats at published list prices, billed monthly or yearly. ZoomInfo quotes every plan, and Vendr reports a median contract of $33,500 a year, with a range of $7,247 to $156,032.

Does ZoomInfo have a free plan like Apollo?

Yes. ZoomInfo Lite gives 10 credits a month, or 25 with Community Edition. A new GTM AI account also gets 1,000 data credits and 1,000 AI credits once. Apollo Free gives 900 credits per seat a year.

Can I pay for ZoomInfo monthly?

ZoomInfo says its paid plans are billed yearly, with no standard monthly option. GTM AI credits for API and MCP use are bought as top-ups from $20 with no contract.

Which has better data, Apollo or ZoomInfo?

It depends on your market. Test both on the same sample of your own target accounts and compare match rates, email validity and phone coverage before you sign.

Implementation references

Use these first-party references for current request contracts and account requirements. Tool availability, prices, and negotiated terms can change.

Sources

Third-party details were checked on November 10, 2026. Vendors change pricing and features often, so confirm on their site before you decide.