What outbound really costs
Doing it yourself, a cold email tool, an AI SDR, a lead generation agency or a hire: what each costs for 500 emails a month.
"How much does cold email cost?" has five very different answers, depending on how much of the work you do yourself. Here is each one, worked out for the same small firm: 500 cold emails a month, to people you have never written to, each with a real address and a decent first line.
Prices are from each company's own pricing page, in US dollars, monthly billing.
The short version
| Option | About a month | What you still do yourself |
|---|---|---|
| Do it all by hand | Your time: about 40 hours | Everything |
| Smartlead | US$55 and up | Find firms, find people, find addresses, write every email |
| Instantly | US$94 (Starter bundle) | Pick the lists, write or check the copy, set up and warm mailboxes |
| lemlist | US$89 to US$109 | Pick the lists, write or check the copy, connect mailboxes |
| Gako | US$20 | Read the replies and take the calls |
| AI SDR tools | US$500 to US$750 and up | Varies; some ask for a contract |
| Lead generation agency | US$1,000 to US$10,000 | Take the calls |
| Hiring an SDR | US$5,000 and up | Manage them |
Doing it by hand
Free in money, expensive in time. For each email you find a firm, read its site, find the person who decides, find an address that works and write an opening line that is about them. I timed myself at about five minutes an email. 500 a month is about 40 hours. You also need a separate mailbox or two, so your main address stays out of spam, which runs a few dollars a month each.
A sending tool: Smartlead
Smartlead's Base plan is US$39 a month for 6,000 emails and 2,000 contacts. You connect your own mailboxes; it sells new ones from US$4.50 a month plus US$13 a year for a domain. With three mailboxes that is about US$55 a month. Finding firms, people and addresses, and writing the emails, is still yours to do or to buy elsewhere.
A sending tool with data and AI: Instantly or lemlist
Instantly's Starter bundle is US$94 a month: 5,000 emails, 1,500 data credits, its lead database and an AI agent that drafts emails. Its outreach-only plan is US$47, with the data bought separately.
lemlist's Email plan is US$69 a month, with its lead database and AI included. Finding 500 emails takes more credits than the plan gives, and extra data is US$20 for 2,000 credits, which lemlist says is about 400 emails. So about US$89 to US$109.
With either, you still choose who to target, check what the AI wrote, and set up and warm your mailboxes. Gako, Instantly, lemlist and Smartlead side by side.
An outbound agent: Gako
Gako charges 4 cents for each email sent. 500 emails is US$20, and that includes finding the firms, finding the person who decides and their address, writing each email and sending it. Replies cost nothing. If you send more, monthly plans cost less: 1,000 emails for US$38, 2,500 emails for US$90, 5,000 emails for US$170, 10,000 emails for US$300.
You don't need to buy mailboxes. Your own mailbox sends up to 10 a day and the rest go from warmed mailboxes Gako looks after.
An AI SDR
"AI SDR" tools also run the whole thing, usually with LinkedIn as well as email, and price for sales teams. In late October AiSDR listed US$1.50 for each person reached, which is about US$750 for 500 people. Others sell yearly contracts that start in the thousands a month.
A lead generation agency
An agency runs your campaigns for you, usually on a monthly retainer. Retainers for small firms are commonly quoted between US$1,000 and US$10,000 a month, often with a minimum term. Good ones are worth it if you have the budget. Most one- and five-person studios don't.
Hiring someone
A junior SDR in the US costs around US$5,000 a month once you add the tools and data they need, before they have sent a single email. It makes sense once outbound is already working and you need more of it.
What I would do
If you have more time than money and like writing, do it by hand with a cheap sending tool. If you want it done without hiring anyone, an agent like Gako costs about the same as the tools and does the work the tools leave to you. The trial is US$15 of sending for US$1, and you can start from your website.