Pricing
Pay for the emails you send, not for mailboxes or seats.
Plans run from $19 to $349 a month and differ only in how many emails you send. Mailboxes, seats, warmup, the Unibox, the API and MCP come with all of them.
Ballast is cold email software with every feature on every plan. Connect unlimited mailboxes, send sequences at a pace your domains survive, and handle replies in one inbox, priced by the emails you send.
Last updated
Emails a month
Up to 10,000 active contacts
Starter
$0.95 per 1,000 emailsBilled monthly
300 AI drafts a month, no limit with your own AI key
Included on all five plans
- Unlimited mailboxes
- Unlimited seats
- Warmup
- Deliverability Network
- Unibox with AI labels
- Sequences and A/B variants
- Domain monitoring
- Import presets
- API, webhooks and MCP
- One-click unsubscribe
80% cheaper than Instantly at this volume**20,000 emails a month: $19 on Ballast Starter, $97 on Instantly Hypergrowth. Monthly prices checked October 2026.
More than 2,000,000 emails a month? Write to us.
All plans
Every plan, side by side.
Yearly billing charges 10 months for 12. Active contacts are leads waiting for their first email or mid-sequence; leads that finished, replied, bounced or unsubscribed don't count.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Emails a month | Active contacts | Per 1,000 emails | AI drafts a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19 | $190 | 20,000 | 10,000 | $0.95 | 300 |
| Growth | $39 | $390 | 125,000 | 75,000 | $0.31 | 1,000 |
| Pro | $79 | $790 | 300,000 | 150,000 | $0.26 | 2,500 |
| Scale | $149 | $1,490 | 750,000 | 375,000 | $0.20 | 5,000 |
| Agency | $349 | $3,490 | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | $0.17 | 10,000 |
- Over your plan, sending pauses until the next monthly period or an upgrade. No overage bill.
- AI drafts have no monthly limit when you connect your own OpenAI or Gemini key.
- Each workspace has its own plan. Seats and mailboxes inside it are unlimited.
- Card required, no free plan. Full refund on request within 3 days of a charge.
How we compare
The same volume on Instantly and Smartlead.
Their cheapest public plan that sends at least as many emails a month, from their pricing pages, monthly billing, checked October 2026. Contacts can push you a plan higher on both. Full comparisons
| Emails a month | Ballast |  Instantly |  Smartlead |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20,000 | $19 Starter | $97 Hypergrowth | $94 Pro |
| 125,000 | $39 Growth | $97 Hypergrowth | $174 Unlimited Smart |
| 300,000 | $79 Pro | $358 Light Speed | $379 Unlimited Prime |
| 750,000 | $149 Scale | No public plan | No public plan |
| 2,000,000 | $349 Agency | No public plan | No public plan |
Sources: Instantly pricing, Smartlead pricing. Instantly lists Hypergrowth at both 100,000 and 125,000 emails; we use the higher figure.
The honest part
Skip Ballast if this is you
You have no list or offer yet
A sending tool won't find you customers. Work out who you're writing to and why they'd reply, then come back.
You want to blast a bought consumer list
Our acceptable use policy forbids it and the breakers would pause you anyway.
You send newsletters or receipts
Use an email service built for that. Ballast is for one-to-one outbound from your own mailboxes.
You want guaranteed inbox placement
Nobody can sell that honestly. We keep you inside the published rules and stop before a bad day burns a domain.
Billing questions
How plans, limits, refunds and payment work. Questions about the product are on the homepage and in the docs.
What does each plan include?
The same product. Every plan has every feature, unlimited mailboxes and seats, warmup, the Unibox, the API and MCP. Plans differ in emails sent a month, active contacts and Write with AI drafts a month.
All featuresWhat counts as an active contact?
A lead that hasn't been emailed yet or is in the middle of a sequence. Leads that finished their sequence, replied, bounced or unsubscribed stop counting, so the number follows your live outreach and not the size of your list.
Billing and plansHow does yearly billing work?
Yearly costs ten months for twelve, charged once a year. Monthly and yearly are the same plan with the same limits.
What happens if I go over my plan?
Sending pauses until your next monthly period or until you move up a plan. There is no overage bill. We email you when you reach the limit.
Can I change plan or cancel?
Owners and admins change the plan in Settings > Billing, and the change is prorated on the next invoice. The person who pays manages the card, invoices and cancellation in the billing portal. A cancelled plan runs to the end of the period you paid for.
Who handles payment and tax?
Payments go through Dodo Payments, our merchant of record. It charges the card, issues the invoices and charges VAT or sales tax where it applies.
Sub-processorsIs there a refund?
Yes. Ask for a full refund within 3 days of a charge and you get it.
Terms of ServiceIs there a free trial or free plan?
No. A card is required, because free cold email accounts attract people who burn the shared sending network for everyone. The domain checker is free and needs no signup.
Check your domain freeDo I pay per workspace?
Yes. Each workspace has its own plan, so a client's sending is billed on its own. Seats and mailboxes inside a workspace are unlimited.
Need more than 2,000,000 emails a month?
Write to contact@ballast.to. We'll work out a plan for your volume.
Bring your mailboxes. Keep your domains.
Import from Instantly, Smartlead, Lemlist, Apollo or Clay. Every feature on every plan, from $19 a month.