# What cold email costs in 2026

Every way to run cold email costs money and someone's time; they differ in how the bill is split between the two. Here are the published prices, line by line, as of 12 October 2026.

Canonical: https://slsbmb.com/guides/cold-email-cost/ · Updated 2026-10-12 · SLSBMB AI

## The short answer

| Way to run cold email | What it costs | Who does the work |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself with tools | Roughly $100–$400 a month in software, domains, inboxes and data for a small program | You: lists, copy, setup, warmup, sending and replies |
| Done-for-you agency | Published entry prices from $1,499 to $2,400 a month for 10,000–15,000 emails; retainers commonly quoted up to $10,000+ | The agency's team |
| AI SDR software | From $250 a month for 200 new contacts (AiSDR) to $2,500 for 2,500; some vendors quote only after a call | Software, with you reviewing |
| In-house SDR (US) | About $95,000–$135,000 a year fully loaded | One person, plus a manager |
| SLSBMB AI | $500 one-time playbook (launch price), then a Sending Engine budget from $800 a month with contacts included; or contacts alone at $0.10 per verified email found | SLSBMB researches, writes, finds contacts, sends and reads replies; you take the calls |

The rest of this page shows where those numbers come from. Prices were checked on 12 October 2026 on the vendors' own pricing pages unless a published guide is named; they change often, so check the vendor before you buy.

## Doing it yourself: the line items

| Line item | Published prices (12 October 2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sending domains | About $13–$19 a year each through Smartlead's mailbox add-ons | Never send cold email from your main domain; most setups use 2–10 domains |
| Inboxes | Puzzle Inbox lists Outlook 365 at $0.35 and Google Workspace at $3.00 per inbox; Smartlead's add-ons are $4.50 per Google or Outlook mailbox a month, $9 pre-warmed | Each inbox sends a small daily number of cold emails, so volume means more inboxes |
| Sending platform | Smartlead Base $39 a month (6,000 emails, 2,000 contacts); Instantly Growth $47 a month (5,000 emails) — both with unlimited mailboxes and warmup | Higher plans: Smartlead Pro $94 (90,000 emails), Instantly Hypergrowth $97 (125,000 emails) |
| Contact data | Apollo Basic about $49 per user a month on annual billing (published 2026 summaries); Anymail Finder from £22 a month for 400 credits, charged only when a verified email is found; Instantly lead credits from $47 a month | Verify every address before sending; bounces hurt deliverability |
| Enrichment and research workflows | Clay Launch from roughly $167–$185 a month (its pricing page shows both figures) | Optional; needs someone who builds workflows |
| Copy, research and replies | Your time, or a freelancer | The part the subscriptions don't cover |

A small do-it-yourself program — two domains, eight Google inboxes, a basic sending plan and data for several hundred new people a month — comes to roughly $130–$200 a month in subscriptions. The real cost is the hours: choosing audiences, writing sequences, configuring DNS, waiting out warmup, pacing sends and reading every reply.

Sources: [Smartlead pricing](https://www.smartlead.ai/pricing), [Instantly pricing](https://instantly.ai/pricing), [Puzzle Inbox](https://puzzleinbox.com/), [Clay pricing](https://www.clay.com/pricing), [Anymail Finder pricing](https://anymailfinder.com/pricing), Apollo from [Docket's 2026 pricing research](https://docket.io/resources/research/apollo-pricing).

## Done-for-you agencies: published prices

Most agencies quote after a call. These three publish a price:

| Agency | Published price | Emails a month | Cost per email at the full volume | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Outbound System](https://outboundsystem.com/) | $1,499 / $2,499 / $3,999 a month | Up to 15,000 / 30,000 / 60,000 | $0.10 / $0.083 / $0.067 | Month to month, 10 business days' notice |
| [Sales.co](https://sales.co/pricing) | $2,000 / $2,500 / $3,000 a month | Up to 10,000 / 15,000 / 20,000 | $0.20 / $0.17 / $0.15 | Month to month, no setup fee; LinkedIn +$1,000, calls +$1,500 a month |
| [OutreachBloom](https://outreachbloom.com/pricing/) | From $2,400 a month | 10,000–100,000 contacts | Depends on volume | Not published |

All three say they build the lists, write the copy and run the sending infrastructure. Sales.co says it personally follows up every positive reply. Published guides put typical agency retainers between about $2,500 and $10,000 a month, sometimes with a setup fee (see our [agency comparison](https://slsbmb.com/compare/outbound-agency/) for the sources).

## AI SDR software

[AiSDR](https://aisdr.com/pricing/) publishes three plans: Solo at $250 a month for 200 new contacts a month (month to month), Explore at $900 for 800 (quarterly contract) and Scale at $2,500 for 2,500 (quarterly), with managed service as an extra. Several other AI SDR products, such as Artisan and 11x, quote prices after a call. See [SLSBMB AI vs AI SDR software](https://slsbmb.com/compare/ai-sdr-software/) for how the approaches differ.

## An in-house SDR

Published 2026 benchmarks put a US SDR at about $95,000–$135,000 a year fully loaded, with a ramp of three to four months before full output. The sources are on our [SDR comparison](https://slsbmb.com/compare/hiring-an-sdr/).

## SLSBMB AI

SLSBMB AI is priced in public for every step:

- **Free AI interview** — about ten minutes; PROXY writes your business brief.
- **AI Outreach Playbook** — $500 one-time at the launch price through 31 December 2026, then $1,000: every audience worth reaching, with evidence and a size estimate, and an opener plus four follow-ups for each.
- **AI Contacts** — $0.10 per verified business email found, with search and a sample free.
- **Sending Engine** — one monthly budget that includes the domains, inboxes, warmup, verified contacts, sending and reply reading:

| Monthly budget | Sending domains | Inboxes | Campaign emails a day | Campaign emails a month | New people a month | Cost per email |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $800 | 2 | 8 | 120 | 3,600 | 720 | $0.222 |
| $1,150 | 3 | 12 | 180 | 5,400 | 1,080 | $0.213 |
| $1,500 | 4 | 16 | 240 | 7,200 | 1,440 | $0.208 |
| $1,800 | 5 | 20 | 300 | 9,000 | 1,800 | $0.200 |
| $2,100 | 6 | 24 | 360 | 10,800 | 2,160 | $0.194 |
| $2,350 | 7 | 28 | 420 | 12,600 | 2,520 | $0.187 |
| $2,600 | 8 | 32 | 480 | 14,400 | 2,880 | $0.181 |
| $2,800 | 9 | 36 | 540 | 16,200 | 3,240 | $0.173 |
| $3,000 | 10 | 40 | 600 | 18,000 | 3,600 | $0.167 |
| $4,000 | 16 | 64 | 960 | 28,800 | 5,760 | $0.139 |
| $5,000 | 28 | 112 | 1,680 | 50,400 | 10,080 | $0.099 |
| $6,000 | 37 | 148 | 2,220 | 66,600 | 13,320 | $0.090 |
| $7,000 | 48 | 192 | 2,880 | 86,400 | 17,280 | $0.081 |
| $8,000 | 61 | 244 | 3,660 | 109,800 | 21,960 | $0.073 |
| $9,000 | 78 | 312 | 4,680 | 140,400 | 28,080 | $0.064 |
| $10,000 | 100 | 400 | 6,000 | 180,000 | 36,000 | $0.056 |
| $15,000 | 166 | 664 | 9,960 | 298,800 | 59,760 | $0.050 |
| $20,000 | 240 | 960 | 14,400 | 432,000 | 86,400 | $0.046 |
| $30,000 | 360 | 1,440 | 21,600 | 648,000 | 129,600 | $0.046 |
| $50,000 | 600 | 2,400 | 36,000 | 1,080,000 | 216,000 | $0.046 |
| $75,000 | 900 | 3,600 | 54,000 | 1,620,000 | 324,000 | $0.046 |
| $100,000 | 1,200 | 4,800 | 72,000 | 2,160,000 | 432,000 | $0.046 |

Full capacity follows a 21-day warmup; the first campaign emails go out on day 22. There is no setup fee and no long-term contract.

## The same volume, side by side

| About this many emails a month | Outbound System | Sales.co | SLSBMB AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $1,499 (up to 15,000) | $2,000 | $2,100 (10,800 emails, $0.194 each) |
| 18,000–20,000 | $2,499 (up to 30,000) | $3,000 (20,000) | $3,000 (18,000 emails, $0.167 each) |
| 50,000–60,000 | $3,999 (up to 60,000) | — | $5,000 (50,400 emails, $0.099 each) |
| 180,000 | — | — | $10,000 ($0.056 each) |

At small volumes, published agency prices per email are similar to SLSBMB's or lower; SLSBMB gets cheaper per email as the budget grows. Cost per email is not the whole comparison: check what each price includes — the research behind the audiences, whether contacts are verified and included, whose domains are used, who reads the replies, and what you keep when you stop.

## What quotes often leave out

- **Setup or onboarding fees**, which some agencies charge before the first month.
- **Domains and inboxes**, which tools and some agencies bill separately.
- **Contact data overages** once the plan's credits run out.
- **The warmup weeks**: new inboxes need two to three weeks before full volume, so the first month sends little whatever you pay.
- **Who answers replies**: "reply handling" can mean anything from forwarding replies to booking meetings.
- **Minimum terms** of three to six months, which some agencies require.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does a cold email agency cost per month?

Published entry prices start at about $1,500–$2,400 a month for 10,000–15,000 emails (Outbound System, Sales.co, OutreachBloom), and guides put typical retainers between about $2,500 and $10,000 a month. Many agencies quote only after a call.

### What is the cheapest way to run cold email?

Doing it yourself with a sending platform, a few inboxes and pay-per-result contact data, for roughly $130–$200 a month in subscriptions — if you have the time and skill to research, write, set up and run it. If you don't, the cheapest managed option depends on volume: compare what each price includes, not only the headline.

### How much does SLSBMB AI cost?

The interview is free, the AI Outreach Playbook is $500 one-time at the launch price, verified contacts are $0.10 each, and the Sending Engine starts at $800 a month for 2 domains, 8 inboxes and 120 campaign emails a day, with contacts included. Every price is on the [pricing page](https://slsbmb.com/pricing/).

### Why does the first month send so little?

New domains and inboxes must be warmed for two to three weeks before they can carry cold email without landing in spam. SLSBMB warms them for 21 days and sends the first campaign emails on day 22; agencies and do-it-yourself setups face the same wait.

---

Start with a free interview: https://slsbmb.com/#start · Pricing: https://slsbmb.com/pricing/ · Contact: a@slsbmb.com