# Cognism vs Apollo: what an AI agent can replace Cognism vs Apollo, checked 2026-11-03: list prices against quotes, what a credit is, free plans, mobile numbers and API access, with sources. When a self-serve plan is enough and when a contract pays off. ## Cognism vs Apollo, the short answer Pick Cognism if you call European buyers and want verified mobile numbers under an annual contract with 5 seats. Pick Apollo if you want a self-serve plan with a published price, a free tier and email sequencing built in. ## Cognism vs Apollo: plans, free tier and API - Published price: Cognism None; a quote based on the product, team setup and usage (https://www.cognism.com/pricing); Apollo Basic $49 a month and Professional $99 a month in the plan data on the pricing page; Custom on request (https://www.apollo.io/pricing). Checked 2026-11-03. - Seats: Cognism 5 seats included in Standard and in Pro (https://www.cognism.com/pricing); Apollo Credits are pooled across the team; seats are not stated per plan (https://www.apollo.io/pricing). Checked 2026-11-03. - What a credit is: Cognism 1 credit reveals 1 contact; viewing it again is free, and it costs a credit again only after a job change (https://www.cognism.com/pricing); Apollo Separate email, mobile and export credits, granted each billing cycle, no rollover (https://www.apollo.io/pricing). Checked 2026-11-03. - Free tier or trial: Cognism No free plan or trial on the pricing page; a free data sample and a demo (https://www.cognism.com/pricing); Apollo Free plan for light use; a 14-day trial of paid plans (https://www.apollo.io/pricing). Checked 2026-11-03. - API access: Cognism MCP and API access listed as a feature; credits work across the platform, Enrich and the API (https://www.cognism.com/pricing); Apollo API access on Custom plans (https://www.apollo.io/pricing). Checked 2026-11-03. - Outreach built in: Cognism Not on the pricing page; Cognism sells data and enrichment (https://www.cognism.com/pricing); Apollo Email sequencing on Basic; call recording and advanced CRM integrations on Professional (https://www.apollo.io/pricing). Checked 2026-11-03. ## Which one to pick Pick Cognism if the phone is your main channel and your market is Europe. You sign an annual contract with 5 seats, Pro verifies mobile numbers on demand, and a contact you revealed can be reused for the whole contract. Pick Apollo if you want to start today without a sales call. The plans have list prices, the free plan lets you try the data, and sequencing is part of the plan, so one tool finds the people and emails them. If you are a team of one or two, Apollo's self-serve plans are the lower commitment. If you are a team of five or more calling Europe, get a Cognism quote and compare it per seat. ## Where looot fits An agent with one looot key does the lookups both tools sell: people search by filters, work emails, mobile numbers, company enrichment and email verification, each paid per call. The live price of each is listed below. It sends no sequences and holds no contacts between runs, so Apollo's outreach and Cognism's reveal-once reuse have no match here. The agent writes results to your sheet or CRM through its own tools. ## Endpoints priced live on the page - Search people by filters (Prospeo): prospeo-search-person - Find the person in a role at a company (LeadMagic): leadmagic-people-role-finder - Find a work email from a name and company (Findymail): findymail-api-search-name - Find a mobile number from a profile URL or email (LeadMagic): leadmagic-people-mobile-finder - Enrich a company from its domain (CompanyEnrich): companyenrich-companies-enrich-post - Verify an email address (MillionVerifier): millionverifier-verify - Live prices: https://looot.ai/compare/cognism-vs-apollo ## The honest note looot is not Cognism and not Apollo. Each product does things looot does not, and the lists below name them. Use this page to decide which jobs an agent can take over, not which tool to choose. ## Verdicts - Cognism (/can-i-replace/cognism): kinda. - Apollo (/can-i-replace/apollo): kinda. ## Job by job - Search and enrich people: Cognism Search people by title (covered); Apollo Search people by title (covered). - Find work emails: Cognism Find work emails (covered); Apollo Find work emails (covered). - Find mobile numbers: Cognism Find mobile numbers (partly covered); Apollo no matching job. - Do-not-call list checks: Cognism Do-not-call list checks (not covered); Apollo no matching job. - Sales intent signals: Cognism Sales intent signals (not covered); Apollo no matching job. - Find phone numbers: Cognism no matching job; Apollo Find phone numbers (covered). - Company data: Cognism no matching job; Apollo Enrich company data (covered). - Send and track outreach: Cognism no matching job; Apollo Email sequences (not covered), Built-in dialer (not covered). ## Jobs both do that an agent can take over - Search and enrich people. Providers: people-data-labs, coresignal, ai-ark. - Find work emails. Providers: hunter, findymail, tomba, icypeas. ## What you keep Cognism for - Find mobile numbers: partly covered. Phone coverage varies by provider and country, so check each result. - Do-not-call list checks: not covered. looot does not screen numbers against do-not-call lists. - Sales intent signals: not covered. looot has no ready-made intent feed. ## What you keep Apollo for - Email sequences: not covered. looot does not send campaigns or track replies. - Built-in dialer: not covered. looot has no calling or call recording. ## Agent prompt for Cognism jobs Use looot to find people with a given title at the companies I list, then find work emails and mobile numbers and flag the numbers each provider could not return. If you have not yet, set up https://looot.ai/skill.md first. Then search the looot catalog for each step, check the price of each endpoint before you call it, run the cheapest one that fits, and show me the results as a table. ## Agent prompt for Apollo jobs Use looot to find 50 people with a given job title at companies in a given industry, then find their work emails and phone numbers. If you have not yet, set up https://looot.ai/skill.md first. Then search the looot catalog for each step, check the price of each endpoint before you call it, run the cheapest one that fits, and show me the results as a table. ## Cognism vs Apollo: which one should I pick? Cognism, if your team calls European buyers and wants verified mobile numbers under a contract. Apollo, if you want a self-serve plan with a free tier, list prices and email sequencing in one tool. ## How much do Cognism and Apollo cost? Checked 2026-11-03: Cognism publishes no price and quotes by product, team setup and usage, with 5 seats per package. Apollo's plan data lists Basic at $49 a month and Professional at $99 a month, with Custom on request. ## Is Cognism or Apollo stronger on mobile numbers? Cognism puts mobile verification on demand and a premium mobile filter in its Pro package. Apollo grants mobile credits as their own allowance on each plan. Neither publishes a hit rate on its pricing page, so test both on the same list of your contacts. ## Do Cognism and Apollo have an API? Cognism lists MCP and API access as a feature, with credits that work across its platform, Enrich and the API. Apollo puts API access on its Custom plans. Through looot an agent calls other providers for the same lookups without either plan. ## Is there a free plan for Cognism or Apollo? Apollo has a free plan for light use and a 14-day trial of paid plans. Cognism has no free plan or trial on its pricing page; it offers a free data sample and a demo instead. ## Can an AI agent replace Cognism or Apollo? For finding people, emails and phone numbers, mostly. With one looot key an agent searches people, finds work emails and mobile numbers, enriches companies and verifies emails, paid per call. Sequences, do-not-call checks and intent topics stay with the tools. ## More - /can-i-replace/cognism - /can-i-replace/apollo - /alternatives/cognism - /alternatives/apollo - /best/b2b-data-api - /best/lead-finder - /use-cases/find-phone-numbers - /use-cases/find-professional-emails - /compare ## Agent skill for this page https://looot.ai/compare/cognism-vs-apollo/skill.md sets an agent up for exactly the jobs on this page, with the live price of each, and offers the page's starter task once the user has picked a job and seen the price. The line to give an agent is under "Give this to your agent" below. ## For agents ### Give this to your agent ```text set up looot for Cognism vs Apollo jobs - https://looot.ai/compare/cognism-vs-apollo/skill.md ```