The Best Free B2B Contact Databases - What You Actually Get for $0
Most "free" B2B contact databases give you just enough credits to see the UI, not enough to actually prospect. We've tested eight of them, and the gap between what's advertised and what's usable is staggering. B2B contact data decays roughly 2-3% per month, so even the contacts you pull for free might bounce before your sequence fires.
Here's what each tool actually delivers at $0.
Our Picks (TL;DR)
- Prospeo - 75 free verified emails/month at 98% accuracy. Best free tier for data you can trust.
- Apollo.io - One of the largest free databases (270M+ contacts), but only 5 mobile credits and 10 export credits/month.
- Hunter.io - 25 searches plus 50 verifications/month. Email-only, dead simple.
Free B2B Contact Database Comparison
| Tool | Free Credits/Mo | Free Plan? | Key Limitation | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo.io | 5 mobile + 10 export | Yes | Very low export cap | Broad search |
| Lusha | 40 credits (~6 full contacts) | Yes | Phones burn 5 credits | Quick lookups |
| Hunter.io | 25 searches + 50 verifs | Yes | Email only | Simple email finding |
| GetProspect | 50 valid emails | Yes | Limited filters | CSV list building |
| Snov.io | 50 credits + 100 recipients | Trial only | No export/integrations/API | Testing only |
| Kaspr | ~5-10 credits | Yes | Small monthly cap | Chrome extension |
| Cognism | None | N/A | Starts ~$15,000+/year | Enterprise (not free) |
Most free tiers give you stale data that bounces before your sequence fires. Prospeo's 75 free emails/month run through 5-step verification on a 7-day refresh cycle - the same data that keeps Stack Optimize's bounce rates under 3% across every client.
Stop wasting free credits on contacts that bounce.
Best Free Contact Databases Ranked
Here's the thing most comparison articles won't tell you: database size is a vanity metric. A platform with 270M contacts and 15-30% bounce rates is objectively worse than one with 143M verified emails at 98% accuracy - the contacts that bounce don't just waste your time, they damage your sender reputation. When you're evaluating free email list providers, accurate data should be the first filter, not record count. (If you want a broader shortlist beyond free tiers, see our B2B databases ranking.)
Prospeo
Use this if you care more about data quality than database size. Prospeo's free tier gives you 75 verified emails and 100 Chrome extension credits every month - forever, no credit card required. The 98% email accuracy holds up in practice: Stack Optimize built from $0 to $1M ARR using Prospeo data with bounce rates under 3% across all clients and zero domain flags.
The platform pulls from 300M+ professional profiles yielding 143M+ verified emails, running a 5-step verification process with catch-all handling and spam-trap removal. What separates this from other free tiers is the 7-day data refresh cycle - the industry average is six weeks. That gap matters when you're working a list of 75 contacts. Stale data at this volume means you're wasting a third of your free credits on bounces. When you're ready to scale, paid plans run about $0.01 per email. (More on tooling and benchmarks in our B2B prospecting strategies guide.)
Skip this if you need thousands of unverified contacts for broad-funnel research. That's Apollo's game.
Apollo.io
Apollo's 270M+ contact database is one of the largest free options out there, and the search filters are genuinely excellent - you can slice by company size, tech stack, funding stage, and more without paying anything. You also get 50 AI credits and up to 2 sequences on the free plan. For anyone looking for free contact database software with deep filtering, Apollo's search experience is hard to beat.
But here's what catches people off guard: the free plan caps you at 5 mobile credits and 10 export credits per month, and credits don't roll over. That's functionally a product demo, not a prospecting tool. G2 reviewers also flag inconsistent email verification, especially for international contacts.
Apollo is great for finding people. It's not great for exporting them. Ten export credits per month won't feed any real outbound motion. Paid plans start at $49/user/mo.
Lusha
Lusha's free plan advertises 40 credits per month. Sounds reasonable until you do the math: one email costs 1 credit, one phone number costs 5 credits, and revealing both for a single contact burns 6. So your 40 "credits" translate to roughly 6 complete contacts per month.
Use this if you only need emails (40/month at 1 credit each) and don't care about phone numbers. The Chrome extension is fast and the UX is clean. Skip this if you're prospecting roles where direct dials matter - at 5 credits per phone number, you'll burn through your monthly allotment in your first session. CRM integrations for Salesforce and HubSpot don't unlock until the Scale tier, which is custom pricing. Paid plans start at $22.45/user/mo annually, but expect 8-15% renewal bumps. (If phone is a core channel, brush up on phone sales skills and outbound call scripts.)
Hunter.io
Hunter keeps it simple: email finding and verification, nothing else. The free tier gives you 25 searches plus 50 verifications/month. No phone numbers, no company data, no intent signals.
In our experience, Hunter is the tool you reach for when you already know exactly who you want to email and just need the address. It doesn't pretend to be a full prospecting platform, and that honesty is refreshing. Paid plans start around $38/user/mo when you need higher volume. (If you're comparing options, see our Hunter alternatives roundup.)
GetProspect
GetProspect's free tier is quietly generous - 50 valid emails per month with a 50K CSV export cap. For teams building targeted lists on a budget, that export flexibility is a real differentiator. The search filters aren't as deep as Apollo's, but for straightforward list-building by industry, title, and location, it works at zero cost. Paid plans start around $49/month. (Related: our deep dive on GetProspect email finder.)
Snov.io
Fair warning: Snov.io's free option is a trial plan, not a forever-free tier. You get 50 credits per month and 100 email recipients, but no data export, no integrations, no bulk search/verification, and no API access. It's enough to test the interface, not enough to prospect. Don't build a workflow around it - it's designed to expire. Paid starts at $29.25/mo if you like what you see.
Kaspr
Kaspr offers a limited free tier through its Chrome extension, focused on revealing contact details from professional profiles. The monthly credit cap sits around 5-10 credits, which is small enough that you'll hit it in a single prospecting session. Useful for one-off lookups when you're already on someone's profile, but it won't support any kind of systematic outreach. Paid plans start around EUR45/user/mo.
Cognism
Cognism doesn't have a free tier. Custom pricing typically runs $15,000-$100,000+/year depending on team size and data needs. It's an enterprise play. And if you're wondering about ZoomInfo, it starts around $14,995/year and goes up from there. If you're after a free B2B email database, neither of these is your tool. (If you're evaluating enterprise vs verified data tools, see cognism-vs-prospeo.)
How to Combine Free Tools for $0
You don't need one perfect free tool. You need a stack.
Here's the workflow we've seen work best:
- Search broadly in Apollo - use the filters to build your target list
- Verify emails through Prospeo - confirm the contacts that matter most before you hit send
- Supplement with niche sources - Crunchbase for recently funded startups, GitHub for developer contacts
- Never send unverified - platforms with the largest databases report 15-30% bounce rates, and one bad send can tank your domain reputation
The consensus on r/sales and r/coldemail is pretty clear: pairing a large-database tool with a separate verification step is the move. The free-tier data alone isn't reliable enough to send cold at scale. You don't need 300 million contacts. You need 200 that actually pick up the phone. The free stack above gets you there. (To systematize the motion, use a sales outreach strategy and a clean follow up email sequence strategy.)
What Free Tiers Won't Give You
Let's be honest - free tiers are product demos disguised as plans. Five to fifty credits per month lets you evaluate a tool, not run outbound. B2B data decays 2-3% monthly, and poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9M per year. There's also a compliance angle most free tools gloss over: GDPR treats names, work emails, and job titles as personal data, with fines up to EUR20M or 4% of global turnover. Free doesn't mean risk-free.
When you're ready to move past the free tier ceiling, the jump to paid doesn't have to be expensive. Tools with transparent, self-serve pricing - no annual contracts, no mandatory sales calls - exist at a fraction of what enterprise platforms charge. (If deliverability is part of the problem, start with email reputation check and outbound email spam prevention.)
You just saw the math: 270M contacts mean nothing at 15-30% bounce rates. Prospeo's 143M+ verified emails deliver 98% accuracy - so every one of your 75 free monthly credits actually lands in an inbox, not a spam trap.
Get 75 verified emails free every month - no credit card required.
FAQ
Is there a truly free B2B contact database?
Yes - Apollo, Lusha, and Hunter all offer free plans that renew monthly with no expiration. "Free" means 5-75 contacts per month depending on the tool, not unlimited access. Snov.io's free option is a trial, not a permanent plan.
How many contacts can I get for free each month?
It ranges from 10 export credits on Apollo to 75 verified emails on Prospeo. Lusha advertises 40 credits, but phone numbers cost 5 credits each - so you'll realistically get about 6 complete contacts with both email and phone.
What's the difference between a free trial and a free-forever plan?
Free-forever plans renew monthly indefinitely - Apollo, Lusha, and Hunter all work this way. Trial plans like Snov.io's give temporary access with restricted features (no export, no integrations) and are designed to push you toward a paid upgrade.
Are free B2B contact databases GDPR compliant?
Not automatically. GDPR applies to any personal data - including work emails and job titles - regardless of whether the tool is free or paid. Look for platforms that enforce opt-out requests globally and offer Data Processing Agreements. Fines can reach EUR20M or 4% of global turnover.
What's the best free alternative to ZoomInfo for verified emails?
Prospeo offers 75 verified emails per month at 98% accuracy on its free plan - no credit card required. Hunter provides 25 searches plus 50 verifications monthly. Both are strong options for teams that need ZoomInfo-quality data without the $14,995+/year price tag.