Best AI SDR tools in 2026: pricing and approval controls compared

How we chose and how the list is ordered

Tibexa publishes this list and is a vendor. We sell outbound services and no AI SDR product, so we are not an entry. In practice we build with Clay and Smartlead, and Clay appears below. We read each vendor's own pages and checked them on 18 October 2026.

Four criteria set the order. A price is published on a page we could read. The vendor documents whether a person approves messages before they go out. Channels and integrations are stated. The sending infrastructure or deliverability setup is described. The order reflects how much a buyer can verify before a demo and says nothing about reply rates or meetings, which no vendor page lets us confirm. Reply.io was left out because its pages returned an access error to our fetch.

Why approval controls and sending limits matter

An agent that sends on its own decides what goes out under your domain. Google tells senders to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.3 percent, advises staying under 0.10 percent and says to avoid reaching 0.30 percent or higher (Google). The extra bulk-sender rules apply above 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts, but a small list with a bad message can still draw complaints.

So ask each vendor three things. Can a person approve messages, at least for the first campaigns? Which mailboxes and domains does it send from, and who pays for them? What happens when the credits run out? One of our engagements, an AI feedback SaaS, reached 40+ meetings a month from 1,000+ emails a day on multi-inbox infrastructure with AI qualification (case). If you want that layer designed for you, see our automation service. If you are still choosing the sender, the cold email software list covers that side.

Salesforge Agent Frank

Best for teams that want an AI SDR and a choice between sending unreviewed and approving each message. Salesforge describes Agent Frank as "an AI-powered member of your team" that researches prospects, then handles the first email, follow-ups and meeting booking across email and LinkedIn. In Auto-Pilot Frank sends without review. In Co-Pilot it asks you to review before sending. The page says Frank uses only the first-party data you provide, such as your website and documentation, and that a demo is required before access, with no free trial.

On deliverability the page says to warm the infrastructure for about two weeks through Warmforge at no extra cost, and describes Megaforge spreading sending across several email providers. The base Megaforge plan is 20 mailboxes sending about 15 emails a day each, or 300 a day. On price, the Agent Frank page shows $499 a month billed quarterly in its table and "starts at $599 per month" in its FAQ. Salesforge's pricing page shows $499 a month billed quarterly or annually, and describes the allowance as 2,000+ contacts a month at $0.25 per contact, where the product page says 1,000 active contacts. Email infrastructure costs extra: Infraforge starts at $33 a month for 10 mailboxes on annual billing, and Megaforge at $69 a month for 20. Limit to know: with two prices and two allowances on the vendor's own pages, get the quote in writing. Sources: Agent Frank and pricing. Checked 18 October 2026.

Regie.ai

Best for individual sellers and small teams that want to try an agentic workspace on a free plan. Regie calls RegieGO "an agentic sales workspace with built-in enrichment, emailing, dialing and workflows". Its homepage says "Prompt Regie once and it handles your sourcing, ranking, call prep, and follow-ups" and its mockups show email, LinkedIn and phone sequences. The homepage does not describe an approval step.

Pricing is credit-based and published. Free is $0 with 250 one-time credits per person for up to 10 people. Pro is listed at $41 a month alongside $49, with 5,000 credits a month, or 60,000 up front on annual billing. Team is $125 per seat alongside $150, with 15,000 credits per seat a month and a two-seat minimum. Enterprise is custom. The page ties a 17 percent saving to annual billing but does not label which figure is which. Paid-plan credits do not roll over, extra credits cannot be bought on their own (overage is optional and capped by the workspace owner), and Pro and Team are "self-serve with no contract". One limit: credits cap what the agents can do each month, and the page does not say how many credits a typical task uses. Sources: homepage and pricing. Checked 18 October 2026.

AiSDR

Best for teams that want to pay per prospect with no monthly fee. AiSDR's pricing page lists pay as you go at $1.50 per person prospected, billed daily, with no extra charge for research, lists or writing. Team plans are for teams contacting 1,000+ people a month. They are priced by volume, with terms set by sales, and the page says the cost per contact can drop by up to 40 percent as volume rises. Annual plans carry a 20 percent discount against quarterly.

Add-ons are priced separately: a warmed-up mailbox at $33 (the billing period is not stated), a managed service at $149 per campaign and a fully managed service at $2,500 a month. The page contradicts itself on the minimum pay-as-you-go campaign: $7.50 in one FAQ and "as little as $3" in another. Near a volume cap the app shows a notice, and you can pause campaigns or pay for overage. The catch: Team-plan prices and contact allowances are not on the page, and we read only the pricing page, so we cannot say what approval controls AiSDR has. Source: aisdr.com/pricing. Checked 18 October 2026.

Amplemarket Duo

Best for reps who want AI to find and draft, with the send decision left to a person. Amplemarket's Duo Copilot uses AI agents to "scan your market daily for buying signals", gathers context behind each signal and drafts sequences that the rep reviews. The page says "Reps stay in control at every step" and that Duo never sends or changes things without visibility. Sequences can span email, social, calls and WhatsApp. The page does not use the term AI SDR.

The published plan is Startup at $600 a month on an annual term, with 2 users, 27,000 contacts, 13,500 email credits per user per year and mailboxes starting from 2 per user. Growth and Elite are custom. Extra users can be bought, but no price is listed, and Duo Inbox is an add-on on the Elite plan. Limit to know: the page does not say what happens when contacts or credits run out. Sources: Duo and pricing. Checked 18 October 2026.

Apollo

Best for teams already using Apollo's data and sequences that want AI research in the same tool. In an article dated 17 September 2026, Apollo lists Basic at $49 per user per month billed annually, Professional at $79 and Organization at $119 with a three-user minimum. It says AI research arrives with Professional and that Basic includes unlimited sequences. AI research costs 1 credit per record and column combination, and Apollo's own example puts 100 prospects through a three-field research job at roughly 300 credits. Credits do not roll over.

Apollo's pricing page names the tiers Free, Basic, Professional and Custom, so the Organization name in the article and the page differ. It says the free plan can connect Gmail accounts only. One limit: Apollo's knowledge-base pages returned an access error, so we cannot report its sending limits, and we read only the pricing page and one plan article, which do not present an autonomous SDR agent. Sources: pricing and plan article. Checked 18 October 2026.

Clay (Claygent)

Best for building the research and qualification layer in front of whichever tool sends. Clay describes Claygents as "agents in Clay that perform tasks on your behalf", pointed at jobs such as company research, lead qualification and signal detection. General-purpose Claygents run in tables and workflows. Account Agents run across every account in a segment, are in beta on the Enterprise, Growth and Launch plans, and write to a CRM or warehouse subject to human approval. The page does not say Claygent sends outreach. It lists drafting copy as a use.

Pricing is published. Free is $0 with 500 actions and 100 data credits a month. Launch has a $167 base (the FAQ says $185) and Growth a $446 base (the FAQ says $495). Enterprise is custom. Claygent is included on every plan, most models cost a flat number of data credits per task, and token-heavy models are charged "exactly for the tokens consumed with no markup". The catch: you still need a sending tool and a way to approve what goes out. Clay is the one tool here that we use in practice; see the Clay alternatives list for others. Sources: Claygent and pricing. Checked 18 October 2026.

11x

Best for revenue teams that want voice and chat agents alongside email. 11x sells two agents: Alice for outbound, with email and social agents "built to research every account, craft a relevant message, and earn the reply", and Julian for inbound and expansion, with voice and chat agents that contact, qualify and book meetings. The channels listed are voice, chat, email, social, SMS and WhatsApp, plus a human dialer. Integrations include HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, LinkedIn, Gmail, Outlook and Google Calendar. The page says agents route conversations to human reps and "step back" when appropriate.

No prices are published; the calls to action are "Book a Demo" and "Try Voice AI". The page shows company-reported results such as "$4M pipeline generated" and "120+ opportunities influenced in 3 months", which are claims we did not verify. Limit to know: beyond the handoff to a rep, the page describes no approval controls. Source: 11x.ai. Checked 18 October 2026.

Artisan

Best for teams that want one vendor to run outbound end to end. Artisan sells "AI employees for go-to-market teams". The first, Ava, is an autonomous AI BDR that "runs outbound end to end", covering lead finding, outreach, reply handling and meeting booking, with B2B data, enrichment and intent signals in the same platform. A post dated May 26, 2026 says approval gates can go "wherever you want them".

The homepage links to a "Pricing & plans" page. Its description mentions credit-based pricing with plan tiers from startups to enterprise, but the figures did not load when we fetched it, so we list no price. One limit: the homepage claims are broad ("autonomous", "end to end") and show no metrics. Sources: artisan.co and the Ava 2.0 post. Checked 18 October 2026.

Questions

What is an AI SDR?

It is software that researches prospects, writes outreach and, in some products, sends it, handles replies and books meetings. Products differ on how much runs without a person. Agent Frank has Auto-Pilot and Co-Pilot modes, and Amplemarket's Duo leaves sending to the rep.

Which AI SDR tools publish pricing?

On the pages we checked on 18 October 2026, Salesforge, Regie.ai, AiSDR, Amplemarket, Apollo and Clay published at least one price. 11x published none, and we could not read Artisan's figures.

Should an AI SDR send messages without review?

Start with review. Google advises keeping the spam rate in Postmaster Tools below 0.10 percent and never reaching 0.30 percent, and an unreviewed weak message can push you toward that line.

Can I use an AI SDR instead of a human one?

Salesforge describes Agent Frank as "an AI-powered member of your team", and Amplemarket's Duo leaves the send decision to the rep. Booked meetings still need a person to run the call and the follow-up, which is why we measure outbound on booked meetings.