Hunter io plans, side by side
These are the US dollar prices on Hunter's pricing page and in current third party breakdowns as checked on hunter.io on 14 October 2026. Hunter changes its plans every year or two, so confirm on hunter.io before you buy. The cost per credit column is our arithmetic, monthly price divided by monthly credits.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Yearly billing | Credits a month | Cost per credit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 50 | n/a |
| Starter | $49 | $34 a month ($408 a year) | 2,000 | about 2.5 cents |
| Growth | $149 | $104 a month ($1,248 a year) | 10,000 | about 1.5 cents |
| Scale | $299 | $209 a month ($2,508 a year) | 25,000 | about 1.2 cents |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Every paid plan includes unlimited team members at no extra charge, API access, the browser extension, the Google Sheets add-on and CRM integrations. Plans also differ in connected email accounts (1 on Free, 3 on Starter, 10 on Growth, 20 on Scale). That limit matters only if you send Hunter's own sequences; it caps how many inboxes can send from Hunter, not how many people can search.
What a Hunter credit actually buys
The plan price is only half of the Hunter io cost. The other half is how fast each action drains credits. From Hunter's pricing page and API documentation:
| Action | Credits used | Starter covers per month |
|---|---|---|
| Email Finder, one email found | 1 | 2,000 finds |
| Email Finder, no email found | 0 | Not counted |
| Domain Search, per email returned | 1 | 2,000 addresses |
| Bulk Domain Search, up to 10 emails | 1 | Up to 20,000 addresses |
| Email Verifier, one address | 0.5 | 4,000 verifications |
Two rules work in your favor: the same search or verification is counted once per billing period, and a Finder call that returns nothing costs nothing. One rule is easy to miss. Hunter's documentation says a Finder call is charged when an email is found, and it does not carve out results that come back risky or "accept all". So a found address on a catch-all domain, where no tool can confirm the mailbox, has already used its credit.
Hunter io API pricing
There is no separate API plan. Every Hunter plan, including Free, includes API access, and each API call draws on the same monthly credit balance as the web app at the same rates: 1 credit per email found, 0.5 per verification. Budgeting the API is therefore just a question of volume. A CRM enrichment job that looks up 3,000 new leads a month and verifies each result would need about 4,500 credits, which puts you on Growth rather than Starter.
If you are building finding or verification into your own product, also look at rate limits and webhooks, not only price. Our email verifier API page lays out how ours handles both, so you can compare like for like.
The real cost per email you can send to
Cost per credit is the number vendors publish. Cost per usable address is the number your budget feels. The gap between them is every result you paid for and then could not send to with confidence.
A worked example, with the assumption stated plainly: you run 1,000 finds a month on Starter, and suppose 20 percent of your target companies use catch-all mail servers, which is not unusual for B2B lists heavy on smaller firms. Hunter returns an address for most of those names and each one uses a credit. You then verify the whole batch at half a credit each, another 500 credits. You have used about 1,500 of your 2,000 credits, and roughly 200 of the addresses are still unconfirmed. Pro rated to the 1,500 credits used, that is about 4.6 cents per address you can send to without a separate test batch, against the 2.5 cents the plan table suggests. Your own share of catch-all domains decides the real figure, so measure it on your first month.
None of that makes Hunter a bad deal. It means the fair comparison between email finders is price per verified, usable address, which is also the only number worth putting in a business case.
Hunter io pricing compared with a verified-only finder
We built EmailExtractor around the opposite billing rule, so here is the honest comparison, including where Hunter comes out ahead.
| Hunter.io | EmailExtractor | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | $49 a month, 2,000 credits ($34 yearly) | $49 a month, 1,000 verified finds, 2 seats |
| Mid plan | $149 a month, 10,000 credits | $149 a month, 5,000 verified finds, 10 seats |
| Top self serve plan | $299 a month, 25,000 credits | $399 a month, 20,000 verified finds, unlimited seats |
| What is billed | Every email found, plus 0.5 per verification | Only finds that come back verified; verification is included |
| Catch-all results | Use a credit when returned | Not billed unless the company published the address |
| API | All plans, same credits | Scale plan, with webhooks |
| Free tier | 50 credits a month | Live demo on every tool page |
| Sending | Built-in sequences | Finding and verification only; export to your CRM or sender |
Hunter is cheaper per credit on every tier and includes simple sequences, a free tier, unlimited team members and API access from the first plan. EmailExtractor costs more per unit but counts only addresses the company published itself, so misses and pattern guesses never touch your limit. Hunter also runs a mailbox check at the mail server, which we do not. If your list is mostly companies that publish staff addresses, billing only confirmed finds usually wins; if you need mailbox level checks, Hunter is the better fit.
Which option fits your team
Pick Hunter if
You are a small team that wants finding, verification and basic sequences in one place, you can commit to yearly billing, and your targets are mostly companies whose mail servers confirm mailboxes. The $34 Starter on yearly billing is hard to beat for that.
Pick a verified-only finder if
You build lists from names and company domains, a lot of your targets are smaller firms, and you would rather pay only for addresses you can send to. That is how our email finder bills, with the email verifier included in every find. Our Hunter.io alternative page puts the two side by side with Snov.io, Apollo.io and Anymail Finder.
Whichever finder you choose, the addresses end up in a sending tool. If you are still choosing one, look at cold email software that researches every prospect before it writes, because a verified address only pays off when the email that lands there is worth reading. And if you only need to clean a file you already have, a pay as you go verifier is cheaper than either plan; our best email verifier for cold email comparison lists seven with current prices.
Hunter io pricing questions
How much does Hunter.io cost?
Hunter.io costs $49 a month for Starter, $149 for Growth and $299 for Scale on monthly billing, or $34, $104 and $209 a month when billed yearly. Starter includes 2,000 credits a month, Growth 10,000 and Scale 25,000. There is also a free plan with 50 credits a month and a custom priced Enterprise plan.
Is Hunter.io free?
Hunter.io has a free plan with 50 credits a month and no card required. That covers about 50 found emails or 100 verifications, one connected email account and API access. It is enough to test accuracy on a few target companies, but any real campaign needs a paid plan, which starts at $49 a month or $34 billed yearly.
What is a Hunter.io credit?
A credit is Hunter's unit of usage. One email found through the Email Finder or Domain Search uses 1 credit, one verification uses half a credit, and a Domain Search returning up to 10 addresses in bulk uses 1 credit. Hunter says it does not charge a credit when the Finder returns no email, and repeat searches within a billing period count once.
Is Hunter.io API access included in every plan?
Yes. Hunter lists API access on all plans, including the free one, and API calls draw on the same credit balance as the web app. There is no separate Hunter io API pricing: an API Finder call costs 1 credit when an email is found and a Verifier call costs 0.5 credits, so budget the API from your monthly credits.
Do Hunter.io credits roll over?
No. Hunter's pricing page (checked 12 October 2026) says credits reset monthly and do not roll over on monthly plans. On yearly billing the whole year of credits, for example 24,000 on Starter, is available up front, so a team with uneven months can spend them when it needs to, at about 30 percent off the monthly price.
Is Hunter.io worth it?
For a small team that wants to find, verify and send simple sequences from one tool, Hunter is fair value, especially on yearly billing with unlimited team members. It is less of a fit if most of your targets sit on catch-all domains, because found addresses cost a credit whether or not the mailbox can be confirmed.
Are there cheaper Hunter.io alternatives?
For verification only, pay as you go verifiers such as MillionVerifier are cheaper per check. For finding, the real comparison is cost per address you can actually send to, not cost per credit. A tool that bills only verified finds can cost more per credit and still less per usable address on lists with many catch-all domains.
For whole lists, see bulk email verification, and for account based outreach, the company email address finder.