AI Recruiting Pricing: AI Interviews and AI Sourcing

Two products, priced separately: AI Interviews by monthly interview volume, and AI Sourcing on credits. Full plan detail below.

AI Interview plans

Priced by monthly interview volume. Every interview plan also carries an included sourcing credit allowance at 100 credits per interview; those credits come bundled with the interview plan and are not the standalone Sourcing plans below, which are a separate product bought and billed separately. Annual billing saves 17% on interview plans. Above the top tier, pricing is custom.

PlanPriceInterviewsIncluded creditsOverage
Starter$99/month15 live AI interviews1,500 sourcing credits included$8 per additional interview
Growth$299/month45 live AI interviews4,500 sourcing credits included$7 per additional interview
Scale$499/month100 live AI interviews10,000 sourcing credits included$6 per additional interview
Pro$999/month225 live AI interviews22,500 sourcing credits included$5 per additional interview

AI Sourcing plans

Credit-based. Searching and viewing profiles is unlimited; credits are spent only when a contact reveal succeeds — 5 credits for a verified personal email, 10 for a direct phone number.

PlanPriceCreditsRoughly covers
Starter$49/month500 creditsabout 100 verified emails or 50 phone numbers
Growth$99/month1,500 creditsabout 300 verified emails or 150 phone numbers
Scale$199/month3,500 creditsabout 700 verified emails or 350 phone numbers
Pro$299/month5,500 creditsabout 1100 verified emails or 550 phone numbers

Pricing questions

How does pricing work?

The Cognitive has two products, priced separately. AI Interviews: plans start at $99/month for 15 live AI interviews (Growth $299/45, Scale $499/100, Pro $999/225), with custom pricing above 225 interviews. Every interview plan also includes a credit allowance at 100 credits per interview - Starter 1,500, Growth 4,500, Scale 10,000, Pro 22,500. Those credits come bundled with the interview plan; the AI Sourcing plans below are a separate product, bought and billed separately. AI Sourcing: credit-based plans from $49/month for 500 credits up to $299/month for 5,500 credits, where a verified personal email costs 5 credits and a direct phone number costs 10. Annual billing saves 17% on interview plans.

Do you offer a free trial?

Yes. Every new account starts with a free trial: source up to 20 candidates with AI sourcing AND run 5 free AI interviews (10 minutes each on trial; paid interviews run about 20) - enough to test the full source-to-shortlist pipeline with real candidates before spending a dollar. No credit card required.

What happens if I use all my interviews?

Interviews are never blocked mid-conversation. Past your plan's included volume, overage is billed per interview at your tier's rate: $8 on Starter, $7 on Growth, $6 on Scale, and $5 on Pro. If you regularly hit overage, upgrading is always cheaper - and you can upgrade at any time with the change applying immediately.

How do sourcing credits work?

Sourcing plans include a monthly credit balance: 500 credits on Starter ($49), 1,500 on Growth ($99), 3,500 on Scale ($199), and 5,500 on Pro ($299). Revealing a verified personal email costs 5 credits; a direct phone number costs 10. That means the $99 plan covers about 300 personal emails or 150 phone numbers per month, and the $299 plan about 1,100 emails or 550 phone numbers. Searching and viewing profiles is unlimited - credits are only spent when you reveal contact details, and only when the reveal succeeds.

Can I switch plans or cancel anytime?

Yes. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel either product at any time from your dashboard. There are no lock-in contracts, no cancellation fees, and no minimum commitment periods. Changes take effect on your next billing cycle.

Does it integrate with ATS systems?

Yes. The Cognitive maintains 40+ integrations, including Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday, SmartRecruiters, iCIMS, Bullhorn, and any system that supports webhooks or API connections - see /integrations. ATS integration is included on Scale and Pro interview plans with monthly billing, and on all plans with annual billing.

Do you source candidates?

Yes. AI Sourcing is a full product: describe the role and the AI finds matching candidates, reveals verified emails and phone numbers on a credit basis, engages them with automated outreach sequences and AI agent calls (with manual-call fallback when candidates don't pick up), and pushes them straight into AI interviews - source, engage, interview, and shortlist in one pipeline. You can also bring your own applicants and use interviews alone.

What is Outreach?

Outreach (Pro) lets you reach the candidates you've sourced without leaving the platform - automated email + SMS sequences that run per role, with AI reply triage that reads every response and flags who's interested, who's not, and who opted out. Reveal in Sourcing, launch outreach in one click, and track every conversation in one place. Included with Sourcing Pro and any Pro or Enterprise plan - no extra charge.

What is the Done For You service?

Done For You is a managed hiring service where The Cognitive does the whole pipeline: we source the candidates, call and engage them, configure roles and rubrics, run the AI interviews, review the evaluations, and deliver a shortlist of qualified candidates. Your team only participates in final hiring decisions.

Free trial

Every account starts with 5 free AI interviews and 20 AI-sourced candidates. No credit card required, so scorecard quality can be judged on a real role before paying.

What is Included in Every Interview Plan

Full video recordings, searchable transcripts, evidence-based scorecards, real-time cheat detection, automated 24/7 scheduling, unlimited roles, ATS integration, custom interview rubrics, team review access, analytics dashboard.

What is Included in Every Sourcing Plan

AI candidate search, verified personal emails and phone numbers charged only on successful reveal, Boolean and LinkedIn X-ray search, and one-click push of sourced candidates into AI interviews. Custom credit volumes above 5,500/month are available - book a call.

Outreach (Pro)

Outreach is included with Sourcing Pro and any Pro or Enterprise plan at no extra charge: automated email and SMS sequences that run per role, with AI reply triage that reads every response and flags who is interested, who is not, and who opted out. Reveal in Sourcing, launch outreach in one click, and track every conversation in one place.

Pricing FAQ

How much does The Cognitive cost?

$99/month on the cheapest interview plan, and $49/month for 500 sourcing credits on the cheapest sourcing plan. The two products are priced separately; annual billing saves 17% on interview plans.

Is there a free trial?

Yes - every new account starts with 5 free AI interviews plus 20 AI-sourced candidates, no credit card required. Sign up at app.thecognitive.io.

What happens when I use all my interviews?

Interviews are never blocked mid-conversation. If you go past your plan allowance you keep interviewing and the extra is billed by tier, but sustained overage always costs more than moving up a plan - so the answer is usually to upgrade.

Do unused credits roll over?

No. Credits refresh with each billing cycle; unused credits expire.

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