Free · Business · 4 of 6 tools · updated Oct 17, 2026
Free AI tools for sales outreach & lead research
Clay is the strongest tool for sales outreach & lead research you can use without paying, at 24/100. What you get for nothing: Starter from $134/mo billed annually. 4 of the 6 tools tracked for this job have a free tier, an open-source licence, or are free outright. The highest-scoring tool overall is Instantly (42), which does not qualify: Rotates sending across many mailboxes with automatic warm-up, which is what keeps high-volume cold email out of spam.
Same evidence score as the ranking — GitHub stars, Hacker News mentions, release activity, free access — recomputed nightly, never sold. See all 6 tools for sales outreach & lead research.
Top 3
evidence / 100
+ Claygent researches each lead on the web and writes a personalized first line at scale.
− Credit consumption is hard to predict and the learning curve is steep.
+ The real-time score and prospect research panel sit next to the compose box and make cold emails shorter and more specific.
− Scores reward a formulaic short style, and it is sales-specific rather than a general email assistant.
+ Prospecting data, email sequencing and a dialer in one tool, with a usable free tier.
− Contact data accuracy is inconsistent and email deliverability suffers if you send from the platform at volume.
All 4, side by side
| Tool | Score | Pricing | What you get free | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clay | 24 | Free tier | Starter from $134/mo billed annually | web |
| Lavender | 15 | Free tier | Starter $29/mo | chrome-extension, web |
| Apollo.io | 10 | Free tier | Basic from $49/user/mo | web, chrome-extension, api |
 Copy.ai | 8 | Free tier | Paid plans from $49/mo | web |
A free tier counts, and so does an open-source licence you can self-host — both are in the table, so a tool that is only free for a trial is not here.
Head to head: Clay vs Lavender