Cognism pricing is not published. As of September 2026, Cognism sells two quote-only packages, Standard and Pro, each with 5 seats included, and 1 credit reveals 1 contact. There is no public free plan and no third-party price we could verify, so your real cost is your quote divided by the contacts you actually reveal.
Below: what each package includes, how Cognism credits work, the math that turns a quote into a cost per contact, the questions to ask sales, and the tools that publish their prices.
Cognism pricing at a glance (September 2026)
Cognism lists two packages and two add-ons on its pricing page, all without prices. Each package names 5 included seats and routes you to sales.
| Package | Monthly price | Annual price | Seats and credits | Key inclusions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | not published | not published | 5 seats; credits per seat, amount not published | Core prospecting, firmographic, technographic and signal search, AI account research, CSV export and enrichment |
| Pro | not published | not published | 5 seats; credits per seat, amount not published | Standard plus higher-quality mobile data, on-demand mobile verification, buying intent, enhanced dashboards |
| Add-ons: CRM Enrichment, Data-as-a-Service | not published | not published | Priced by volume, delivery method and fields | CRM enrichment as a standalone or add-on; data by API or bulk delivery |
Cognism plans explained
Cognism’s two packages share the same seat count and credit model; Pro adds the mobile verification and intent features most buyers come to Cognism for.
Standard
Standard is built for teams that need core prospecting. It includes 5 seats, firmographic, technographic and signal search, AI account research, and CSV export and enrichment.
- Who it fits: an outbound team of 5 or more that mainly needs emails and company data.
- Limits that matter: on-demand mobile verification and buying intent are not included.
Pro
Pro includes everything in Standard, plus higher-quality mobile data, on-demand verification, buying intent and enhanced dashboards. Cognism marks it as its most popular package.
- Intent: Cognism uses Bombora’s Company Surge data, and administrators can choose up to 12 intent topics.
- Who it fits: calling teams that want phone-verified mobiles and intent in one contract.
Add-ons: CRM Enrichment and Data-as-a-Service
CRM Enrichment can be bought on its own or added to a package. Data-as-a-Service delivers data by API or in bulk, and Cognism says its price depends on the delivery method, the volume and the data fields you need.
How Cognism credits work
A Cognism credit is used when you reveal a contact: 1 credit = 1 revealed contact. Emails and mobiles are not priced separately.
- Allocation: each seat includes a credit allocation as part of the subscription. The number per seat is not published.
- Extra credits: you can buy more at any point, at a price you get from sales.
- Re-views are free: viewing a contact you already revealed costs nothing.
- One pool: the same credits work across the prospecting platform, Enrich and the API.
- Job changes: a revealed contact uses a credit again only if that person changes jobs.
- Misses: whether a credit is used when a revealed contact has no mobile or email is not published.
What one Cognism contact really costs
Your cost per Cognism contact is your annual contract divided by the contacts you reveal that year. Cognism publishes neither number, so the useful math runs the other way: how many contacts your quote must include to match tools that do publish prices.
A contact with an email and a phone costs about 0.68 USD at Scalelist on the 20,000-credit plan (21 credits x 3.25 cents), about 0.53 USD at Lusha on Premium yearly (6 credits x 8.82 cents) and about 0.18 USD at Apollo.io on Basic annual (9 credits x 1.96 cents).
| Published price to beat | Cost per contact, email + phone | Contacts needed per 10,000 USD of Cognism contract |
|---|---|---|
| Scalelist, 20,000-credit plan | 0.68 USD | about 14,700 |
| Lusha, Premium yearly | 0.53 USD | about 18,900 |
| Apollo.io, Basic annual | 0.18 USD | about 56,700 |
Here is how to use it. If your quote is 30,000 USD a year, multiply by 3: it must reveal about 44,100 contacts to match Scalelist’s price per contact, and about 170,100 to match Apollo’s. Then check how many of those contacts will actually come with a mobile.
Price per contact is not the only difference. Cognism sells phone-verified mobiles and screens numbers against Do Not Call lists in several countries, and those are the main reasons buyers pay its quote.
Hidden costs and contract terms
Cognism publishes its package structure, and the structure itself sets most of the cost. Everything else is in the quote.
- 5 seats included. No single-seat or self-serve plan is published, so a 2-person team still buys a 5-seat package.
- Pro-only features. On-demand mobile verification and intent data need Pro.
- Add-ons. CRM Enrichment and Data-as-a-Service are priced separately.
- Job changes cost again. A contact who moves company uses a new credit when you reveal them again.
- Contract terms. Contract length, billing frequency and renewal terms are not published.
- Extra credits. Available at any time, at a price you only see in the quote.
Is Cognism worth it?
Cognism is worth a quote for teams of 5 or more that call into Europe and other Do Not Call regulated markets and want phone-verified mobiles with compliance screening. It is a poor structural fit for solo sellers and very small teams.
Cognism fits you if:
- You have at least 5 users who will prospect every week.
- You call into the UK and Europe, where Cognism screens against TPS, CTPS and other national Do Not Call lists (it lists the US, Australia, Germany and France among them).
- You want intent data from Bombora in the same contract.
- You need ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certification and GDPR-aligned processing, as listed on Cognism’s compliance page.
Look elsewhere if:
- You are a founder or a team of 1 to 4.
- You want to see a price before a demo, or pay month to month.
- You only need emails, or mobiles for a few hundred contacts a month.
- You want to pay only when a mobile is found.
Cognism claims its phone-verified mobiles bring a 3 times improvement in connect rates compared with the industry average. That is Cognism’s own claim; test it on your own list. For the product side, read our Cognism review, and if you are comparing two quote-only vendors, see Cognism vs ZoomInfo and our ZoomInfo pricing breakdown. Calling Europe? Check the rules in our guide to B2B cold calling laws.
Cheaper or better-fit Cognism alternatives
If you want a price you can see today, three tools publish theirs: Scalelist for mobiles charged only when found, Apollo.io for the lowest list price per phone, and Lusha for self-serve monthly plans.
| Tool | Entry price | Email / mobile cost | Charged on a miss | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scalelist | 29 USD a month (500 credits) | 1 credit / 20 credits | No, only when found | Monthly or yearly, no seats |
| Apollo.io | 49 USD per seat a month, billed annually | 1 credit / 8 credits | No for Apollo’s own data | Monthly or annual; Organization needs 3 seats |
| Lusha | 37.45 USD a month, billed yearly | 1 credit / 5 credits | Partly (API: 1 credit minimum) | Monthly or yearly |
| Cognism | not published (5 seats included) | 1 credit per revealed contact | not published | not published |
Scalelist
- What it is: Scalelist, an AI lead finder. You describe the people you want in one sentence and get them with verified work emails and mobile numbers.
- Pricing: 29 USD a month for 500 credits up to 649 USD for 20,000 credits, no seats, 2 months free on yearly billing. See Scalelist pricing and credits.
- Mobile numbers: 20 credits per mobile found (0.65 to 1.16 USD by plan), 1 credit per email, 0 on a miss. In our 8-provider benchmark, Scalelist found a phone number for 73% of the EMEA founder list and 87% in North America.
- Best for: teams of any size that call Europe and North America and want to pay only for mobiles found.
- Where it falls short: no intent data, and per phone number Apollo and Lusha list lower prices.
Apollo.io
- What it is: a sales platform with a contact database, sequences and a dialer, sold per seat.
- Pricing: Basic is 49 USD per seat a month billed annually (65 USD monthly) with 2,500 credits per seat a month. Full breakdown: Apollo.io pricing.
- Mobile numbers: 8 credits per phone number, about 0.16 USD on Basic annual. In the same benchmark, Apollo found a phone number for 63% of the EMEA list.
- Best for: teams that want data, email sending and a dialer in one per-seat tool.
- Where it falls short: credits are per seat, Organization needs 3 seats, and Apollo does not refund credits for mobile numbers.
Lusha
- What it is: a self-serve contact data tool with a browser extension, an API and an MCP server.
- Pricing: Starter is 37.45 USD a month billed yearly (49.90 USD monthly) for 400 credits a month. Full breakdown: Lusha pricing.
- Mobile numbers: 5 credits per phone number, about 0.47 USD on Starter yearly. Lusha was not part of our benchmark.
- Best for: individual reps and teams of up to 5 users who want monthly billing.
- Where it falls short: API requests cost at least 1 credit even when nothing is returned, and teams above 5 users go through sales.
Whichever tool you pick, check numbers against the Do Not Call lists of every country you call. If you want flat per-seat lookups instead of credits, see RocketReach pricing. For the full shortlist, read our Cognism alternatives guide or the head-to-head Scalelist vs Cognism.
Test 20 contacts from your Cognism trial list in Scalelist and compare the mobiles you get back.
Get 20 credits to test itHow to buy Cognism smart
With a quote-only vendor, you win by making the quote comparable. These steps are common procurement practice, applied to what Cognism publishes.
- Ask for the free data sample. Cognism offers one on its site; send it contacts you already know, not a list it picks.
- Get credits per seat in writing. Without that number, you cannot compute a cost per contact.
- Run the break-even. Divide the quote by 10,000 and multiply by the contacts-needed figure above for each tool you compare.
- Ask the 8 questions. Especially whether a credit is used when no mobile comes back, and whether credits roll over.
- Price Standard and Pro separately. Pay for Pro only if your team will call and use intent.
- Negotiate a renewal cap. Contract terms are not published, so write the cap into the first contract.
- Test coverage side by side. Run 100 known contacts through Cognism and one alternative with our data provider bake-off method.
More vendor pricing breakdowns are on the Scalelist blog.
FAQ
How much does Cognism cost?
Cognism does not publish prices. Its Standard and Pro packages are quote-only and each includes 5 seats, with a credit allocation per seat that is also not published. No third-party price could be verified in September 2026, so the only reliable number is the quote Cognism gives your team.
Does Cognism have a free trial or free plan?
No free plan is published. Cognism offers a free data sample and demos through its website instead. Use the sample on contacts whose emails and mobiles you already know, so you can judge accuracy before you ask for a quote.
How do Cognism credits work?
One credit reveals one contact, including its email and phone data; Cognism does not price emails and mobiles separately. Viewing a contact you already revealed is free, and the same credits work in the platform, Enrich and the API. A contact uses a new credit only if that person changes jobs.
How many seats come with Cognism?
Both Cognism packages, Standard and Pro, list 5 seats included. No single-seat or self-serve plan is published, so small teams pay for a 5-seat package. Each seat includes a credit allocation, and you can buy additional credits at any time through sales.
What is the difference between Cognism Standard and Pro?
Standard covers core prospecting: firmographic, technographic and signal search, AI account research, and CSV export and enrichment. Pro adds higher-quality mobile data, on-demand mobile verification, buying intent from Bombora and enhanced dashboards. Both include 5 seats, and neither price is published.
Is Cognism cheaper than ZoomInfo?
There is no public way to tell. Both sell custom quotes, and neither publishes prices. ZoomInfo has a third-party median of 33,500 USD a year from Vendr, but we could not verify an equivalent figure for Cognism in September 2026. Get both quotes and compare the cost per revealed contact.
What is a cheaper alternative to Cognism pricing?
Tools with published prices cost less to start: Scalelist from 29 USD a month with no seats and 20 credits per mobile found, Lusha from 37.45 USD a month billed yearly, and Apollo.io from 49 USD per seat a month billed annually. Cognism’s phone-verified mobiles and multi-country Do Not Call screening are what its quote pays for.
