LeadMagic vs Hunter.io (2026): Pricing, Credits, and Sending Compared

LeadMagic is a $49.99/month API-first enrichment layer built for GTM engineers who already have a sending stack. Hunter.io is a $49/month all-in-one platform that finds emails and sends the sequence too. If you just need clean, verified contact data to feed into Smartlead or Instantly, LeadMagic's per-credit pricing wins. If you want finding and sending under one login with zero extra tooling, Hunter.io gets you there faster.

How do LeadMagic and Hunter.io pricing plans compare in 2026?

LeadMagic prices by unified credits covering email finding, verification, mobile numbers, and company data. Hunter.io prices by a single search-and-verify credit pool bundled with sending seats. The table below lines up the plans buyers actually compare, per each vendor's own pricing page.

Plan	Price	Credits Included	Cost/Credit	Best For	Standout Feature
LeadMagic Basic	$49.99/mo ($490/yr)	24,000/yr	$0.0204	Solo GTM engineers piping data into Clay or Smartlead	Credits only deduct on a successful, verified hit
LeadMagic Essential	$99/mo ($990/yr)	60,000/yr	$0.0165	Teams up to 20 seats needing Apollo or Instantly integrations	Credit rollover up to 2 months
LeadMagic Growth	$249/mo ($2,490/yr)	240,000/yr	$0.0104	Teams scaling enrichment volume past 20 seats	Dedicated Slack support and a success rep
Hunter.io Free	$0/mo	50/mo	n/a	Testing the tool before committing	500 recipients per sequence, no card required
Hunter.io Starter	$49/mo ($34/mo billed yearly)	2,000/mo	not published	Small teams that want finding and sending together	Sequences send from your own Gmail or Outlook inbox
Hunter.io Growth	$149/mo ($104/mo billed yearly)	10,000/mo	not published	Teams running up to 10 mailboxes	AI Writing Assistant included on every paid tier

What does a credit actually buy on each platform?

On LeadMagic, 1 credit finds a verified email, 0.25 credit runs a standalone verification, and 5 credits pull a direct-dial mobile number, per LeadMagic's pricing page. On Hunter.io, 1 credit finds an email via Domain Search, one credit covers up to 10 bulk results, and 0.5 credit verifies an address, per Hunter's pricing page.

The gap shows up at volume. LeadMagic's Growth plan works out to roughly $0.0104 per credit, cheaper than its own Basic tier at $0.0204. Hunter doesn't publish a flat per-credit rate, since verification and sending seats are bundled together.

Does LeadMagic or Hunter.io send the actual cold emails?

No, on LeadMagic. It's a pure enrichment API with no sequencing or inbox connection, by design. Hunter.io ships Sequences natively, sending from your own connected Gmail, Google Workspace, or Outlook account rather than a shared server, which helps deliverability out of the box.

That difference decides most buying calls. Teams already running a dedicated sending tool pay twice if they also buy Hunter's sending seats. Teams with no sending stack get a faster path to a live sequence on Hunter.

Which tool is more accurate for finding verified emails?

LeadMagic publishes a specific number: 97% email accuracy and under 200ms typical response time, per LeadMagic's own site. Hunter.io doesn't publish an exact accuracy percentage, leaning instead on G2 and Capterra leadership and a claimed 7 million users as its trust signal.

A published number beats an unpublished one. If accuracy reporting matters, LeadMagic is the more transparent of the two, and it's worth pressure-testing with a real domain list before you commit.

Which one should you actually buy?

If you already run Smartlead, Instantly, or a similar sending tool, paying Hunter's markup for sending seats you won't use is a waste. Buy LeadMagic and route its API output into your existing stack. If you're starting from zero, Hunter.io's Starter plan gets you from a blank list to a scheduled sequence without a second tool.

Neither tool fixes bad targeting or a weak list. Across 3,000+ qualified B2B meetings booked for our clients, the pattern holds: the finder matters less than what happens after the email lands, meaning warmup, cadence, and reply handling.

FAQ

Is LeadMagic cheaper than Hunter.io?

At the entry tier, Hunter.io's Free plan at $0/mo is cheaper than LeadMagic's $49.99/mo Basic plan. At volume, LeadMagic is usually cheaper per contact because its Growth plan credits work out to about $0.0104 each versus Hunter's bundled per-seat pricing.

Does Hunter.io include cold email sending?

Yes. Hunter.io's Sequences feature sends personalized cold emails and follow-ups from your own connected Gmail, Google Workspace, or Outlook account, starting on the $49/mo Starter plan. LeadMagic has no sending feature at any tier.

What does a LeadMagic credit cost at each plan tier?

Basic works out to about $0.0204 per credit, Essential to about $0.0165 per credit, and Growth to about $0.0104 per credit, per LeadMagic's pricing page. Professional and Ultimate use custom, locked-in credit pricing.

Can I use LeadMagic and Hunter.io together?

Yes, and some teams do. LeadMagic finds and verifies the contact through its API, and that clean list gets uploaded into a separate sending tool, whether that's Hunter Sequences or a dedicated platform like Smartlead. The two aren't mutually exclusive, they solve different halves of the problem.

If you'd rather skip evaluating finder tools altogether and just get verified meetings on the calendar, that's the execution layer Modern Inbound builds for clients: https://moderninbound.com/setup.

By Rishabh Ambasta, Founder, Modern Inbound.