Research, drafting, talk tracks and lead data all run on one meter: credits. One credit is one cent. This guide lists what each action costs, what's free, how to estimate a campaign before you run it, and how monthly credits, rollover, top-ups and Teams pools work.
One credit, one cent
Every plan spends the same credits. A researched, personalized email is 5 credits of research plus a draft of 2, 4 or 8 credits, so it usually runs 7 to 13 credits depending on the model, and less when research is shared or reused.
Your balance is on the Dashboard: credits left, how many you've used this month out of your monthly credits, how many expire next and when, and anything from top-ups. + Buy credits sits right there.
The price list
| Action | Credits | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Research, per research target | 5 per company | Contacts at the same company share it, and reused research is free for 30 days. |
| Planning research targets | 5 per target | Once per campaign. |
| Draft one email or LinkedIn message | 2 Standard · 4 Premium · 8 Enhance | Per step, per contact. |
| Refine an email | 2 · 4 · 8 | Same as a draft, by model. |
| Apply & redraft on the sample | 1 · 2 · 4 per email | Rewriting the sample with your feedback notes. |
| Talk track card | 2 · 4 · 8 | Per card, plus research when it runs. |
| LinkedIn profile research | 2 per contact | On LinkedIn campaigns with drafted messages. |
| CSV notes column | 1 per lead with a value | Blank cells are free. |
| CSV link column | 0 on email campaigns; from 3 per lead on drafted LinkedIn campaigns | On email campaigns the link is passed as context and the page isn't opened. |
| CSV value inserted as written | 0 | Placement, not research. |
| Find Leads: a new contact shown | 2 | Once per person, ever. |
| Find Leads: a work email found | 10 | Only when one is found. |
| Find Leads: a mobile number found | 100 | Only when one is found. |
What doesn't use credits
- QA, fact-checking and polish on every draft.
- Sending email from your SimpleSend mailboxes. Mailboxes are part of your plan or priced in the setup wizard.
- LinkedIn actions. They come from your seat's own monthly allowance with the LinkedIn add-on.
- AI reply drafts in the Inbox.
- Drafts written by your own Claude through the SimpleSend connector. Research still costs credits.
- Uploading a CSV, importing a HubSpot list, and saving Find Leads results to a list.
- Pre-flight checks and test sends.
- Blank CSV cells, and columns inserted into the email as written.
Worked examples
A Premium campaign with two research targets
200 contacts at 200 different companies, a 4-step sequence on Premium, and two research targets in the brief:
| Line | Math | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | 2 targets × 5 | 10 |
| Research | 200 companies × 2 targets × 5 | 2,000 |
| Drafts | 200 contacts × 4 steps × 4 | 3,200 |
| Total | 5,210 ($52.10) |
If those 200 contacts work at only 80 companies, research is shared and the total drops to 4,010 credits.
A big Standard list with one target
500 contacts, 3 steps on Standard, one research target: 5 for planning, 2,500 for research and 3,000 for drafts, so 5,505 credits ($55.05) at most.
Building the list in Find Leads
A search shows 300 new people (600 credits) and finds work emails for 180 of them (1,800 credits): 2,400 credits in all. People you've been shown before cost nothing to see again, and a search that finds no email charges nothing for it.
A drafted LinkedIn campaign
100 people, a connection note plus two follow-up messages, all drafted on Standard, with no research targets: 600 credits for drafts and 200 for profile research, so 800 credits. Sending them uses LinkedIn actions, not credits.
The same campaign, drafted by your own Claude
Run example one through the Claude connector and the drafts cost nothing: 2,010 credits for planning and research, instead of 5,210.
Estimate before you run
SimpleSend shows the cost before anything is spent. The Brief step's summary reads Estimated cost: ~N credits with what you have left, and the Approve sample step repeats it next to Approve & generate the rest. The estimate assumes every contact needs fresh research, so shared and reused research bring the real cost down. Planning adds 5 per research target, once.
If the estimate is more than you have left, the band says you're over budget and the run won't start. Buy a top-up, pick a cheaper model, or trim the list or the sequence. On LinkedIn campaigns, the Review & launch step shows drafting credits and LinkedIn actions separately.
- Count the draftsMultiply contacts by steps by the model's cost per draft: 2 credits on Standard, 4 on Premium, 8 on Enhance.
- Add researchAdd 5 credits per research target per company. Contacts at the same company share it, and reused research is free for 30 days.
- Add planning and extrasAdd 5 credits per research target once per campaign, plus any talk tracks or CSV column research.
- Check the estimate in the appThe Brief step shows the estimated cost and what you have left before anything runs, and the sample step shows it again next to Approve.
Plans and monthly credits
| Plan | Price | Credits | Roughly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free trial | $0 for 14 days, no card | 375 in total | ~25–50 researched emails |
| Individual | $50/mo or $500/yr | 4,000 a month | ~300–570 a month |
| Pro | $250/mo or $2,500/yr | 14,000 a month | ~1,075–2,000 a month |
| Teams | $215/seat/mo or $2,150/seat/yr, 3-seat minimum | 14,000 per seat a month, pooled | ~1,075–2,000 per seat a month |
Yearly billing gives you two months free, and credits are still granted monthly. The add-ons don't add credits: LinkedIn Outreach is $80/mo on either plan, and Email Sending is $49.99/mo on Individual (Pro and Teams include sending). See Pricing for the full comparison.
Rollover and top-ups
Each month's credits stay spendable for 2 months after they're granted, so a quiet month carries into a busy one. The Dashboard shows how many expire next, and when.
Top-up packs are one-time purchases. Their credits never expire and are spent after your monthly credits. Buy them from + Buy credits on the Dashboard or in Find Leads.
| Pack | Credits | Per 1,000 credits |
|---|---|---|
| $10 | 1,000 | $10 |
| $50 | 5,000 | $10 |
| $100 | 10,000 | $10 |
| $200 | 22,500 | $8.89 |
| $500 | 55,000 | $9.09 |
The free trial
The trial runs 14 days with 375 credits and no card: enough to research and draft roughly 25–50 personalized emails, a real first campaign. It includes the Standard and Premium models, CSV upload, HubSpot import and talk tracks. Find Leads, email sequences and LinkedIn outreach come with paid plans.
Teams: one shared pool
- Every seat adds 14,000 credits a month to one shared pool that every seat holder draws from.
- Admins can cap any member's monthly spend on the Team page: click No cap next to their name and enter a number of credits.
- Admins add top-ups to the pool from Billing (Add credits to the team pool). Pool top-ups never expire either.
- Teammates who don't draft join free as viewers of shared lists, playbooks, campaigns and exports.
- For more than 25 people, or to pay by invoice, talk to us.
Ways to stretch your credits
- Approve a sample before drafting a whole list, so a brief problem costs one contact, not five hundred
- Use fewer, sharper research targets: each one is 5 credits per company
- Draft big lists on Standard and save Enhance for your top accounts
- Put what you already know in a CSV column (1 credit per lead) instead of a web research target (5 per company)
- Reuse the same research targets when you write to the same companies within 30 days: the research is reused for free
- Draft through your own Claude with the connector when you want no draft credits at all
- Refine only the drafts that need it, rather than regenerating the list
To make every credit count on quality, read Getting the Most Out of SimpleSend.