SeekOut Pricing 2026: Plans, Costs and What Buyers Pay

By Sparsh Goyal, Founder at The Cognitive. Published 2026-10-30 · Last updated 2026-11-04

• SeekOut publishes one price: Sourcing Core at $149 a month billed annually ($1,788 a year) or $179 a month billed monthly, with 500 contact credits a month.
• Its three team plans are quoted and billed annually, and Vendr reports a $20,000 median contract across 65 purchases.
• Core alone has a 14-day free trial with no card, and monthly contact credits do not roll over.

SeekOut publishes one price. SeekOut Sourcing Core (formerly Recruit Core) costs $149 a month paid annually upfront, which is $1,788 a year, or $179 a month billed monthly. Core includes 500 contact credits and 1,000 exports a month. The other three plans, SeekOut Sourcing, Sourcing + Integration and Full Recruiting Funnel, are quoted by sales and billed annually.

Core is also the only plan with a free trial: 14 days, no credit card. For the quoted plans, the best public guide is buyer data. Vendr reports a median SeekOut contract of $20,000 a year across 65 purchases, with buyers saving 16% on average (last updated February 2026). That is a third-party figure, not a SeekOut list price.

SeekOut pricing plans in 2026

SeekOut sells four plans. One is self-serve with a price on the page. Three are team plans with "Custom" in the price slot.

What each plan adds, in SeekOut's terms:

• Sourcing Core: AI search across 1B+ profiles, 30+ filters, 1,000 exports a month, Excel, PDF and ATS export, email integration with send on behalf, and AI multi-step campaigns.
• Sourcing: 5,000 exports a month per seat, custom and inferred power filters including inferred security clearance, advanced diversity filters, healthcare search, SSO and dedicated customer success. Per-seat pricing "adjusts with volume". AI Screening is an add-on.
• Sourcing + Integration: ATS integration, ATS rediscovery and silver medalists, one search across external profiles and your ATS, usage reports, messaging analytics and market intelligence. Packages are "tailored to team size". AI Screening is an add-on.
• Full Recruiting Funnel: inbound applicant evaluation and AI screening included, job-specific workflows and rubrics, agentic AI workflows, custom integrations and SLAs, and white-glove implementation. "Volume-based pricing available."

SeekOut's pricing page says annual billing saves $360 a year on Core. That is the $30 gap between $179 and $149, times twelve. SeekOut's pricing page does not say "per user" next to the Core price.

Seats are where SeekOut's own page contradicts itself. The Core plan card is pitched "For individual recruiters getting started". The comparison table lists 3 seats included for Core and additional seats "Not included". Confirm the seat count in writing before you pay.

Recruit Lite, Recruit Core, Sourcing Core: same plan

Buyers see three names for the entry plan because SeekOut renamed it twice in 2026. According to PricingSaaS, Recruit Lite became Recruit Core on 15 June 2026. That change added the $179 monthly option and kept the $149 annual rate. On 5 October 2026 the Recruit plans were rebranded as Sourcing tiers, with prices unchanged.

That history explains a lot of confusion online. Several widely cited pricing write-ups still use the Recruit Lite name, quote an annual figure near $2,150, or say SeekOut publishes no prices and offers no trial. SeekOut's live pricing page shows a published Core price, monthly and annual options, and a 14-day trial.

How SeekOut contact credits work

Search on SeekOut is unlimited on every plan, with no query caps. What runs out is contact details. Each plan comes with a monthly pool of contact credits, and SeekOut's help center sets the rules.

• One credit per contact found. One email credit buys one candidate's email, and one phone credit buys one candidate's phone number. If a person has several emails, it still costs one credit.
• No charge on a miss. Credits are refunded for any candidate where SeekOut cannot find contact information.
• Monthly credits expire. "Credits do not roll over from month to month." Add-on credits you buy never expire.
• Top-ups are mostly self-serve. Extra contact and network search credits can be bought by card from the Account page, at a price SeekOut does not publish. Teams on pooled credits buy through SeekOut instead.
• Pooling depends on plan. Admins can pool contact and export credits across a team. Contacts one user reveals become visible to every licensed user.

The practical point: 500 credits is at most 500 contacts a month on Core. It is fewer if you reveal both an email and a phone for the same person. Past that, you buy top-ups or move to a team plan at 750 a seat.

What drives SeekOut's cost

On Core, the price is fixed. The only variables are billing term and top-up credits. On the three team plans, four things move the quote.

• Seats. SeekOut Sourcing uses per-seat pricing that adjusts with volume. SeekOut says it offers volume discounts based on team size, hiring volume and product needs.
• Tier. ATS rediscovery only arrives with Sourcing + Integration. Inbound applicant evaluation and AI screening are only included in Full Recruiting Funnel.
• Add-ons. Applicant Evaluation and AI Screening is an add-on on the two middle tiers, at a price SeekOut does not publish. Healthcare search is not on Core but comes with every team plan.
• Contract term. Team plans are billed annually. Multi-year deals change the per-seat rate, per Vendr below.

What a year of SeekOut costs

Vendr publishes negotiated contract data for SeekOut. Its tier names are older ones that no longer match SeekOut's plans. Its page also says SeekOut does not publish list prices, which is no longer true for Core. Treat its figures as a range for team contracts, not a price list.

Across all 65 purchases, Vendr reports a median of $20,000 a year, a low of $5,820 and a high of $54,920. Buyers negotiated 16% off on average.

Note the gap. A year of Core costs $1,788, yet Vendr's smallest team band starts at $15,000. Vendr's figures come from contracts negotiated through its platform, which are likely to be team deals rather than self-serve Core accounts. If you need SSO, ATS rediscovery or several heavy users, budget closer to the Vendr numbers than to the Core price.

Other pages quote slightly different versions of Vendr's data, such as 64 purchases or an average near $27,000. Those are older snapshots.

Hidden costs and how to negotiate

SeekOut's pricing page leaves several costs unstated. Vendr fills some gaps with buyer data, so each figure here carries its source.

• Onboarding. Vendr reports onboarding fees of $2,000 to $10,000 on lower tiers. SeekOut lists "dedicated integration and onboarding" on Sourcing + Integration and "white-glove implementation" on the top tier, without a price.
• Add-ons. Vendr says add-ons can add 10% to 30% to a contract.
• Renewal escalators. Vendr says escalators are "typically 3 to 7% per year" in one section and 5 to 7% in another.
• Credit top-ups. Bought when the monthly pool runs dry, at a price SeekOut does not publish.
• The AI screener. Applicant Evaluation and AI Screening is extra on the middle tiers and included only at the top.

How to negotiate a SeekOut quote

Vendr's 16% average savings tells you SeekOut quotes do move. Four levers are worth pulling.

• Ask about multi-year. Vendr reports multi-year terms with per-seat pricing 15% to 25% lower than annual contracts. Only take one if you are confident the team will use it in year three.
• Cap the escalator. A yearly rise compounds. Ask for a fixed cap in the order form.
• Price add-ons at signing. Add AI Screening now if you will want it, since leverage drops after you sign.
• Bring a real seat count. Pay for seats people will use. Ask whether credits can be pooled so light users do not waste theirs.

SeekOut free trial

SeekOut offers a 14-day free trial of Sourcing Core. The trial page says no credit card, no approval process and no sales call. The pricing page adds "no contract commitment". Sign-up is by work email only.

The trial includes AI search, AI scorecards, talent pool insights, shortlists, multi-step email campaigns, export to Excel or PDF, SeekOut's healthcare data and SeekOut's MCP. SeekOut says 14 days is enough "to run a complete recruiting workflow for 1 to 2 open roles". The trial's contact credit allowance is not stated.

When the trial ends, you keep read-only access to the workspaces you built, and SeekOut's team reaches out about a plan. There is no free plan. The three team tiers have no trial at all, so you evaluate those through a demo.

SeekOut vs LinkedIn Recruiter cost

SeekOut is the more transparent of the two at entry level. It prints a Core price. LinkedIn Recruiter shows "Contact sales" and no figure. Recruiter Lite shows "Try for $0" with no dollar price to a signed-out visitor.

The products meter different things. LinkedIn Recruiter gives up to 150 InMails a month per seat, and Recruiter Lite 30, for messaging inside LinkedIn. SeekOut meters contact details instead, 500 a month on Core, and you send email through its email integration. For LinkedIn's plans and what teams report paying, see our LinkedIn Recruiter pricing guide.

Is SeekOut worth it?

For one recruiter, Core is a small line item. A year costs $1,788. For scale, SHRM's 2025 benchmarking reports an average cost per hire of $5,475 for nonexecutive hires. Executive hires average $35,879.

The team plans are worth it when you need what only they include. The strongest case is ATS rediscovery. Gem's 2026 benchmarks put rediscovered candidates, people already in a company's CRM or ATS, at 46% of sourced hires, against 26% in 2021. Sourcing + Integration searches your ATS and SeekOut's external profiles in one place.

SeekOut also fits teams hiring cleared talent, thanks to the inferred security clearance filter above Core. Healthcare teams get healthcare search on every team plan. Teams that work inside Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Amazon Quick can use SeekOut there through its MCP, which the Core trial includes.

It is a weaker fit if you want a team plan on monthly billing, or a price without a sales call above Core. Our SeekOut review covers features and user feedback in more depth.

Cheaper or different options

If SeekOut's team quotes are out of reach, or you want interviewing in the same platform, these five are worth a look. (The Cognitive is our product.)

The Cognitive: best for sourcing-led hiring that runs end to end

If Core's 500 contacts a month is the ceiling you keep hitting, The Cognitive meters differently. There is no separate contact cap. One pool of credits covers both search and reveals. The trade-off is that search is not free: each person a search shows costs 1 credit. A personal email reveal costs 4 credits and a phone reveal 12, with phone reveals on Pro and above. So it suits recruiters who search tightly and reveal often, more than those who browse widely.

The Cognitive sells two products, each with a published price. AI Sourcing starts at $99 a month and AI Interviews starts at $99 a month, monthly or yearly. Email outreach from your own Gmail or Outlook comes with Sourcing Pro, Team and above. ATS sync sits on higher plans. Unused monthly credits do not roll over, the same as SeekOut's.

So compare honestly. SeekOut Core at $149 to $179 a month includes email campaigns. On The Cognitive, sourcing with outreach plus interviews costs more than two $99 plans. What the extra buys is the full chain in one platform. It is the only platform that runs sourcing, outreach, a live AI interview and ATS sync end to end.

Search starts from a plain-language brief across about 900M public profiles, shown ten to a page, each with a short "Why this match" line. Candidates who reply can take a live two-way AI video interview of 10 or 20 minutes. It asks role questions and follows up on their answers, and you get a scored report. It connects to 100+ ATS on the plans that include sync.

SeekOut is stronger in four places. The Cognitive does not search your ATS history, has no security clearance filter and has no dedicated healthcare pool. It has a connector for Claude, while SeekOut also runs inside Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini and Amazon Quick. SeekOut also has its own AI video screener, as an add-on or at the top tier.

The other four, briefly

hireEZ publishes a solo plan with a 7-day free trial. Its enterprise pricing is configured to the tools it replaces rather than a flat seat rate. Juicebox starts free with limited searches, then charges per seat monthly or annually.

Pin has a free forever plan and paid plans per user. LinkedIn Recruiter Lite suits a recruiter who mostly works through InMail. Head-to-heads are in hireEZ vs SeekOut, SeekOut vs Juicebox and SeekOut vs Gem. The full list is in our SeekOut alternatives guide.

A fair test is one open role. Run the search, open a handful of contacts, and send the first emails from your own inbox. Then compare what you spent against a month of Core.

The Cognitive has a 7-day free trial with no card.

Start free with The Cognitive.

Sources

• SeekOut, pricing page, www.seekout.com/pricing, October 2026.
• SeekOut, free trial page, www.seekout.com/free-trial, October 2026.
• SeekOut Help Center, Contact Information Credits; How to Purchase Additional Credits; Credit Pooling, support.seekout.com, October 2026.
• SeekOut, homepage, www.seekout.com, October 2026.
• Vendr, SeekOut Software Pricing and Plans, last updated February 2026.
• PricingSaaS, SeekOut pricing history, changes of 15 June and 5 October 2026.
• SHRM, SHRM Releases 2025 Benchmarking Reports, 15 October 2025 (2,371 members surveyed January to March 2025).
• Gem, Key takeaways from the 2026 Recruiting Benchmarks Report, 1 December 2025.
• LinkedIn, Recruiter and Recruiter Lite pages, business.linkedin.com, October 2026.
• hireEZ, Juicebox and Pin pricing pages, October 2026.

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