Email Lists / B2B Sales Leads
Where to get B2B sales leads, and what each source costs, for a small team selling to one industry
Updated November 13, 2026. Every seller's price on this page was read that day, except Apollo's, read November 6, 2026.
B2B sales leads come from five places: a one-time list, a data subscription, an appointment-setting agency, a done-for-you cold email service, or your own research. For a small team selling to one industry, a one-time list costs least per contact: Sales.co's 74 lists hold a median 9,171 contacts for $295, about 3 cents each.
A lead is only worth what it turns into. So this page prices each source twice: per contact, from each seller's own pricing page, and per booked call, from Sales.co's sending data. Across 2,007,540 cold emails Sales.co sent from October 6, 2025 to October 25, 2026, one interested reply came per 671 emails, and Sales.co's own campaign booked one call per 1,650 emails. Sales.co sells two of the five sources (one-time lists and done-for-you cold email), so both are marked below and the others' strengths have their own section.
B2B sales leads by source: price and cost per contact
A one-time list is the cheapest source per contact, and a data subscription is the cheapest way to get fresh contacts every month. The table puts each seller's printed price next to what one contact costs at that price.
| Source | Example and printed price | What you get | Cost per contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-time industry list (ours) | Sales.co: $295 one time per list | One industry's contacts as a CSV, unlimited use, hard bounces refunded proportionally | 3.2 cents at the median list (9,171 contacts); 0.25 cents on the largest (120,000), 58 cents on the smallest (510) |
| Data subscription, export plan | Lead411 Spark: $49 a month for 1,000 exports, or $490 a year for 12,000 | Search a database and export contacts each month | 4.9 cents monthly; 4.1 cents billed yearly |
| Data subscription, credit plan | UpLead Essentials: $99 a month for 170 credits; Plus: $199 for 400 | One credit unlocks one contact with email and mobile number | 58 cents (Essentials) or 50 cents (Plus); 37 to 44 cents billed yearly |
| Data subscription, seat plan | Apollo Basic: $49 a seat a month billed yearly (read November 6, 2026); SalesIntel: price on request, unlimited export credits per user | A database with sequencing (Apollo) or unlimited exports (SalesIntel) | Not comparable: credits per seat are not printed on either pricing page |
| Appointment-setting agency | Sopro: "pricing starts at around $3.8K per month", no minimum contract | The agency finds the contacts, emails them and books meetings | Not sold per contact; you pay for the program |
| Done-for-you cold email (ours) | Sales.co: $2,000 a month for up to 10,000 emails; $2,500 for 15,000; $3,000 for 20,000 | List building, copy, sending and reply handling on every plan | Not sold per contact; 20 cents per email sent at 10,000 |
| Your own research | LinkedIn, company sites, an email format guess | Exactly the people you choose | Your hours; no cash price |
Cost per contact = the printed price divided by the contacts, exports or credits it buys, worked out November 13, 2026. Sales.co list sizes are the published counts of the 74 lists in the email lists catalog on November 13, 2026 (1,405,644 contacts in all).
What a lead costs once it turns into a booked call
Most B2B sales leads never reply, so the price that matters is per booked call, and it is set by the reply rate more than by the list price. In Sales.co's sending data, 0.50% of emails drew a reply from a person and 0.15% drew an interested reply.
| Stage | Sales.co's measured rate | A median $295 list (9,171 contacts), emailed once |
|---|---|---|
| Emails sent | 2,007,540 from 61 sending workspaces, Oct 6, 2025 to Oct 25, 2026 | 9,171 |
| Replies from a person | 0.50% (10,072 replies) | about 46 |
| Interested replies | 0.15% (2,991), about 1 per 671 emails | about 14 |
| Booked calls | 1 per 1,650 emails (143 bookings from 235,941 emails, Sales.co's own campaign, Mar to Aug 2026) | about 5.6, or about $53 of list cost per booked call |
The last column assumes your offer and copy convert at Sales.co's rates; yours will differ. Two things follow. A cheaper contact matters less than a better one: at these rates, 4.9 cents a contact against 3.2 cents adds about $28 to the list cost of a booked call, while a list that replies at half the rate doubles it. And sending is a real cost on top of the leads: inboxes, domains and a sending tool, or a service that runs them. The lead generation calculator runs the same math on your own volume.
What makes a B2B sales lead worth paying for
A good B2B sales lead is a working email at a company that can buy from you, held by the person who decides. Three checks separate one from a row in a spreadsheet:
- Company size that matches your offer. In Sales.co's own campaign, contacts at companies with 1 to 10 employees replied positively at 0.48%, against 0.07% at companies with 1,001 to 5,000. That is about seven times as often, so a list of owners can beat a larger list of enterprise managers.
- Verified, with a bounce policy. Hard bounces hurt your sending domain. Ask what the seller refunds when an address bounces; Sales.co refunds hard bounces proportionally.
- One industry, not a mix. One message for one trade reads as written for the reader. The B2B lead generation strategies guide covers how to pick the segment first.
How many B2B sales leads each industry list holds
The nine Sales.co industry lists below hold 9,521 to 105,224 contacts each, all at the same $295 (catalog counts, November 13, 2026):
| List | Contacts | Cost per contact at $295 |
|---|---|---|
| Lawyers | 105,224 | 0.28 cents |
| Restaurants | 54,435 | 0.54 cents |
| Realtors | 52,468 | 0.56 cents |
| SaaS companies | 52,000 | 0.57 cents |
| Dentists | 44,420 | 0.66 cents |
| General contractors | 40,849 | 0.72 cents |
| Insurance agents | 32,019 | 0.92 cents |
| Financial advisors | 21,133 | 1.4 cents |
| Architects | 9,521 | 3.1 cents |
How many businesses of a type exist in each state, next to the contacts on file, is on the US business counts tool.
Where the other sources still win
- Data subscriptions, for filters and steady volume. A one-time list is one industry as it stood when you bought it. Lead411, UpLead and Apollo let you filter by job title, seniority or company size and pull new contacts every month. UpLead's credit includes a mobile number with each contact.
- Appointment-setting agencies, for meetings without a team. Sopro and agencies like it find the leads, write and send the emails, and put meetings on your calendar, so you buy outcomes rather than rows. The price is a monthly program, from around $3.8K at Sopro.
- Your own research, for a short target list. For 50 named accounts, a person reading each company's site finds the decision maker better than any file. A free email format finder fills in the address.
Comparing databases directly? UpLead vs ZoomInfo prices 100, 1,000 and 5,000 contacts at each, and Apollo alternatives lists seven databases with a cost per email. For the whole process from list to meeting, see how to generate leads for B2B sales.
One industry, once
If you sell to one industry, a Sales.co industry list is $295 one time, delivered as a CSV, with hard bounces refunded proportionally. If you would rather not send the emails yourself, done-for-you cold email starts at $2,000 a month for up to 10,000 emails, with list building included.
Sources
- Lead411: lead411.com/pricing, Spark monthly and annual plans, read November 13, 2026.
- UpLead: uplead.com/pricing, Essentials and Plus monthly and yearly plans and credits, read November 13, 2026.
- SalesIntel: salesintel.io/pricing, request-pricing plan with unlimited export credits per user, read November 13, 2026.
- Sopro: sopro.io/pricing, "pricing starts at around $3.8K per month" and no minimum contract, read November 13, 2026.
- Apollo: apollo.io/pricing, Basic plan at $49 a seat a month billed yearly, read November 6, 2026 (its page showed no prices to a plain fetch on November 13).
- Sales.co: list sizes and prices from the email lists catalog (74 lists, 1,405,644 contacts), counted November 13, 2026; plan prices from the pricing page, read November 13, 2026.
- Sales.co sending data: replies and interested replies on 2,007,540 emails, October 6, 2025 to October 25, 2026, and booked calls and replies by company size from Sales.co's own campaign, March to August 2026, as published in cold email lead generation: what 2 million emails show.
FAQ
Where can I buy B2B sales leads?
From a one-time list seller (Sales.co sells industry lists at $295 each), a data subscription such as Lead411, UpLead, Apollo or SalesIntel, or an agency that finds the leads and books meetings for you, such as Sopro. Pick by how you will use them: one industry once, a list; fresh contacts every month, a subscription; meetings without a team, an agency.
How much do B2B sales leads cost?
From under a cent to about 58 cents a contact on printed prices read November 13, 2026: 3.2 cents at the median Sales.co list, 4.1 to 4.9 cents on Lead411 Spark, and 37 to 58 cents on UpLead credits. Agencies charge a monthly program instead, from around $3.8K at Sopro.
How many B2B sales leads do I need for one meeting?
About 1,650 emails per booked call in Sales.co's own campaign (143 bookings from 235,941 emails, March to August 2026). Ten meetings a month take about 16,500 emails at that rate, before any gain from a sharper list or offer.
Are free B2B sales leads worth it?
A free lead you research yourself can be the best lead you have, for a short list of named accounts. A free downloaded file may carry no bounce policy and no dated source, and hard bounces damage your sending domain, so ask what the seller refunds and price your time and your domain into "free".
Is a lead list the same as lead generation?
No. A lead list is the contacts; lead generation is the work of turning them into conversations: the message, the sending and the follow-up. You can buy the list and do the work, or pay a service to do both.