Sales Navigator vs Apollo 2026: data, price and LinkedIn rules

Sales Navigator and Apollo do different jobs. Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's own tool for finding people and messaging them by InMail, from US$119.99 per seat a month (US$89.99 billed yearly), but it is not a contact database: LinkedIn releases a member's email only with their consent and offers no CSV export. Apollo sells emails and phone numbers with email sequences and a US dialer, free to start or $49 per seat a month billed annually ($65 monthly), and leaves LinkedIn steps to you. Pick Sales Navigator if your buyers answer on LinkedIn and Apollo if you reach them by email or phone; one seller using both pays about $1,668 to $2,220 a year (our estimate).

Checked on 16 October 2026 against LinkedIn's and Apollo's own pages. Prices are US dollar list prices: LinkedIn says its prices "may exclude" VAT, and Apollo's exclude tax.

Revexa builds Leo, a buying-signal agent in the same market, so read with that in mind. This comparison is about the two tools in the title.

Sales Navigator vs Apollo at a glance

Sources: Sales Navigator plans, plan features, InMail credits, cancelling, Apollo pricing, Apollo data, Apollo terms.

What one seller or a team of three pays

Every plan and term is in Sales Navigator pricing and Apollo pricing, and 30 tools are compared in our pricing research. Our estimates at list price, before VAT or tax:

A Core seat buys 50 InMails a month and no contact data; a Basic seat buys 2,500 Apollo credits a month, enough for 2,500 verified emails or about 312 phone numbers. CRM sync needs Advanced Plus, which has no public price.

Using both: how the hand-off works

With both, you find people in Sales Navigator and get contact details from Apollo. Four limits apply:

• No file export. LinkedIn "currently doesn't offer the option to export account and lead information from Sales Navigator into a CSV or XLS file"; CRM sync on Advanced Plus is the official route.
• One profile at a time. On a Sales Navigator search, Apollo's Chrome extension shows "suggested leads based on your Sales Navigator search", but "You can't select leads or take bulk prospecting actions from the extension on the search results page". Apollo data "may appear on some" Sales Navigator profiles; otherwise you continue on the standard LinkedIn profile.
• Lookups cost credits. Apollo charges for net-new contacts: 1 credit per email and 8 per phone number.
• EU contacts are not filtered out. "Apollo doesn't remove EU-based or UK-based contacts from the Apollo Chrome Extension", and Apollo asks you to check each prospect's location first.

LinkedIn's rules on automation and export

Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's own product, so using it by hand is within the rules, though invitation limits apply to all members. Section 8.2 of LinkedIn's User Agreement, in force since 3 November 2025, says you will not:

• "Use bots or other unauthorized automated methods to access the Services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages"
• use software "(such as crawlers, browser plugins and add-ons or any other technology) to scrape or copy the Services, including profiles and other data from the Services"

LinkedIn's help center adds that it doesn't permit "browser plug-ins, or browser extensions that scrape, modify the appearance of, or automate activity on LinkedIn's website", and users of such tools "risk having their accounts restricted or shut down". Apollo says "Apollo doesn't automatically complete LinkedIn tasks for you". None of the LinkedIn or Apollo pages we read say how these rules apply to Apollo's extension; judge the risk yourself; see LinkedIn outreach without restrictions.

Data quality: what each publishes

• Sales Navigator searches LinkedIn's member profiles with "50+ sales-specialized search filters". It sells no contact data, so it has no email or phone accuracy figure.
• Apollo states "98% email accuracy", credits it to a seven-step verification, and says phone numbers are "verified in real time when you request them". Its data pages give no sample or method behind the figure, no phone accuracy figure and no counts per country.
• Mismatched figures circulate. ZoomInfo's comparison post, updated 15 June 2026 and frequent in our searches, lists Core at "~$99/seat/month (Core, reported)" and Apollo at "270M+ contacts" with "91% email accuracy", against US$119.99, 240M+ and 98% on the vendors' own pages.
• Independent tests. We found none. The tests of Apollo's emails we found came from companies that sell email verification or data, such as BounceZero (July 2026).

To test, run 20 people you can verify, such as customers, through Apollo's trial and count the emails and numbers that reach them.

When to pick Sales Navigator

• Your buyers answer on LinkedIn. InMail lets you "contact anyone on LinkedIn without an introduction or their contact information", and the credit comes back if they reply within 90 days.
• You research accounts. Advanced adds Buyer Intent signals, TeamLink and CSV upload of your book of business.
• Your CRM is Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics 365 or Oracle Sales and you can buy Advanced Plus for CRM sync.

When to pick Apollo

• You need emails and phone numbers. Basic includes 2,500 credits per seat a month, pooled across the team.
• You want outreach in the same seat. Sequences, a US dialer at 1 credit per 30 seconds of a connected call, call recording and deal management come with Basic.
• You pay month to month. Basic costs $65 per seat billed monthly, and cancelling takes effect at the end of the term.

When neither fits

• You want LinkedIn steps sent for you inside an email sequence. lemlist's Multichannel plan automates LinkedIn steps next to email for $109 per user a month, or $87 billed yearly, with the account risk LinkedIn warns of; see Apollo vs Instantly vs lemlist.
• Nobody has time to search and write. An agent such as Leo by Revexa watches buying signals such as hiring, funding and engagement with competitors' LinkedIn posts, and drafts LinkedIn and email messages in your voice from your own profile and mailbox; by default you approve each draft before it is sent. $99 a month in the US, €89 in Europe, 999 SEK in Sweden, excluding VAT, 7 days free. Wrong choice if you want a database to export lists from, a search tool to browse yourself, or no automation on your LinkedIn account at all: Leo automates actions on your own account, so LinkedIn's rules apply to it too.

GDPR and where the data is

• LinkedIn. LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company is the controller for members in the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, and "LinkedIn stores personal data on its servers located in the US", under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses (EU privacy notice). For member data you use, its DPA makes you and LinkedIn "independent controllers".
• Apollo says the personal data it processes "is hosted in the United States", with EU and UK transfers under Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (processing notice). Records you pulled stay your responsibility as "an independent controller".
• Your outreach needs your own lawful basis, usually legitimate interest under GDPR art. 6.1 f, and Germany's UWG §7 requires prior consent for advertising email. This is not legal advice.

Common questions

Is Sales Navigator or Apollo better for prospecting?

Sales Navigator if your buyers answer on LinkedIn: it finds and researches people and includes 50 InMails a month, from US$119.99 per seat. Apollo if you reach buyers by email or phone: it sells verified emails and numbers with sequences, free to start or $49 per seat a month billed annually.

Does Sales Navigator give you email addresses?

Not as a data product. LinkedIn says it "only releases information that members consent to distributing", and most contact details become visible only after you connect with the member. InMail lets you message people without their contact information.

Can I export leads from Sales Navigator into Apollo?

Not as a file. LinkedIn says it doesn't offer export of lead and account information to CSV or XLS; Advanced Plus syncs with your CRM instead. Apollo's Chrome extension works on Sales Navigator pages but allows no bulk actions on search results, and LinkedIn's User Agreement bans scraping.

How much do Sales Navigator and Apollo cost together?

For one seller, about $1,668 a year with Core and Apollo Basic billed annually, or about $2,220 paid monthly (our estimate at list price).