AI SDR pricing explained: per seat vs credits

The two models in one paragraph each

Per seat. You pay a fixed amount for each person who uses the tool, usually per month. Send one email or a thousand, the bill is the same. It changes when you add or remove people, or change plan.

Credits or usage. You pay for what you consume. A credit might buy one enriched contact, one verified email address, one AI-written message or one intent signal. You buy a bundle of credits, often monthly, and top up when you run out. Some tools charge per message or per contact instead of using the word credits, but the idea is the same.

Hybrid. Many tools charge a seat price for access and sell credits on top for data or extra features. This is common, and it is where comparisons get difficult.

How per-seat pricing works

With per-seat pricing, the questions are simple. How many people need a login? Which plan do they need? Monthly or yearly?

Per-seat pricing has clear strengths:

• You can forecast it. Seats times price times twelve. Finance can put it in a budget without guessing how many campaigns sales will run.
• Volume does not change the bill. A good month does not cost more than a quiet one.
• Nobody rations activity. When every action costs money, people start saving credits instead of following up. A flat price removes that pressure.

It has limits too. If one person on the team sends ten times more than everyone else, they cost the same as everyone else. And a seat price only stays predictable if the vendor does not also charge for usage somewhere else. Always check the small print for limits, overage fees and add-ons.

How credit and usage pricing works

Credit pricing ties cost to activity. It suits some situations well:

• Very uneven usage. If you run one big campaign a quarter and nothing in between, paying per action can be cheaper.
• Data you only need sometimes. If you only occasionally need to find an email address, a small credit pack can cost less than a seat.

The trade-offs show up later:

• The bill is hard to predict. It depends on how many leads you enrich, how many messages you send and how many credits each action uses.
• Credits are a second currency. One action might cost one credit, another five. Comparing tools means converting each one back into money.
• Unused credits may expire. Check whether a monthly allowance rolls over.
• Success fees move with results. Some tools charge per enriched contact or per signal found. That can be fair, but it means more success costs more.

Here are two real examples of usage pricing, taken from the vendors' own pages when we checked them on 23 September 2026. lemlist lists pay-per-success add-ons: data enrichment at $75 a month for 10k credits, and intent signals at $21 a month for 100. Dripify sells email finder credit packs from $29 for 1,000 to $99 for 10,000. Both are optional extras on top of a seat price. Prices change, so check the current pages.

Where hidden costs usually sit

Whatever the model, most surprises come from the same places. Go through this list with every tool on your shortlist:

• Channels on higher tiers. LinkedIn, WhatsApp or calls may only come on an upper plan, or as an add-on.
• Data and enrichment. Finding emails, phone numbers or company details often costs credits.
• Per-message fees. Some channels, especially SMS and WhatsApp, carry a cost per message or conversation.
• Mailboxes and domains. Some tools include sending infrastructure. Others expect you to bring your own mailbox, which you may already pay for.
• Minimum seats or annual commitment. A low per-seat price can come with a minimum team size or a yearly contract.
• Onboarding and support fees. Check whether setup help costs extra.
• Price rises at renewal. Ask whether an introductory price is fixed.

None of these is wrong in itself. The problem is only finding out after you have signed.

How to work out the real cost for your team

Do this for each tool you are considering. It takes twenty minutes and saves a lot of guessing.

1. Write down how many people need a login today, and how many in twelve months.
2. Write down the channels you need: email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, calls.
3. Find the cheapest plan that includes all of them.
4. Estimate monthly volume: new prospects, enrichments, messages.
5. Add every usage charge your process needs, at that volume.
6. Add anything else you will pay for: mailboxes, phone numbers, WhatsApp conversation fees.
7. Multiply by twelve, in the currency you will be invoiced in, and note whether VAT is included.

You end with one number per tool. That number is the comparison. Headline prices are not.

When you compare across vendors, keep each price in the currency the vendor shows. Converting dollars to euros in your head mixes an exchange rate into a pricing decision, and the rate will have changed by the time you renew.

Monthly or yearly billing?

Most tools offer a discount for paying yearly. The maths is simple, but the decision is not only about price.

Yearly billing makes sense when you are confident the tool fits and your team size is stable. Monthly billing makes sense while you are still proving the tool works, or if headcount may change. Check how each vendor handles switching: some let you move from monthly to yearly at any time, but not the other way round mid-year.

How Sequenz is priced

Sequenz uses per-seat pricing only. There are no credits, no per-message fees and no pay-per-success add-ons. These are the prices per seat per month, excluding VAT:

Yearly billing works out at about 20% less than monthly. You can move from monthly to yearly at any time, and the discount applies from your next renewal.

Plans differ in what they include. None of them adds a usage meter:

• Every plan includes email and LinkedIn outreach, with the same account-safety limits on LinkedIn whatever you pay.
• Starter is for one person working alone, with one seat.
• Growth adds team seats, WhatsApp through your own WhatsApp Business account, two-way sync with HubSpot and Pipedrive, and automatic A/B testing. Salesforce and Zoho are coming soon.
• Scale adds faster CRM sync, AI Voice with a fair-use allowance per seat, and agency workspaces as a paid add-on.
• Enterprise adds unlimited workspaces, API access and custom terms, billed yearly.

A few costs sit outside Sequenz, and we would rather you knew them now. Email goes out from your own Gmail or Outlook account, so you keep paying your existing Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 subscription. If you use WhatsApp, Meta bills you directly for conversations at its published rates, and Sequenz adds no margin on top.

Here is a worked example. A team of five on Growth, billed yearly, pays 5 × €55 = €275 a month, or €3,300 for the year, before VAT. The same team billed monthly pays €345 a month. That number does not change if they send twice as many messages next quarter.

Every plan starts with a 14-day trial, with one user and no card. When it ends, campaigns pause and your data is kept. Nothing is charged unless you choose a plan. See the full breakdown on the pricing page.

Questions to ask any vendor about price

Pricing pages are written to be read quickly. Contracts are not. Before you sign, ask each vendor these questions and keep the answers in writing:

• What exactly is a seat? Can two people share one, and what happens when someone leaves?
• Is there any limit on volume, and what happens when we reach it?
• Which features on our plan cost extra, and how is each one charged?
• Do unused credits roll over, or expire at the end of the month?
• Is there a minimum number of seats or a minimum contract length?
• Will our price change at renewal, and how much notice will we get?
• What happens to our data if we stop paying?

A vendor that answers all seven clearly is usually one whose invoices will not surprise you. A vendor that needs a call to answer them is telling you something too.

Which model is right for you?

Neither model is right for everyone. A rough guide:

• Choose per seat if your team prospects every week, you want a budget finance can sign off once, and you would rather nobody counted credits before following up.
• Choose credits or usage if your outbound is occasional and bursty, or you mainly need data on demand rather than a daily workflow.
• Be careful with hybrids. A seat price plus credits can be a good deal, but only once you have priced the credits at your real volume.

Whichever you pick, run the twelve-month calculation above, and make the vendor show you every line that could appear on an invoice.

If you are comparing Sequenz with a specific tool, our Sequenz vs lemlist and Sequenz vs Dripify pages set the pricing side by side, with every competitor figure linked to its source. And if LinkedIn safety is part of your decision, read Is LinkedIn automation safe?.