Vol. I -- September 2026 -- aiagentforsales.com

AI BDR & AI SDR agents: 13 Vendors Compared, with Real Public Pricing (September 2026)

Same role, two labels: enterprise teams call it AI BDR (business development representative); product-led teams call it AI SDR (sales development representative). This page covers both.

Per-researched-contact, per-seat, per-qualified-lead, per-conversation, per-credit. From $1 per qualified lead (HubSpot Breeze Prospecting) to from $3,750 per month for an autonomous AI BDR (11x Alice Growth) and from $550 per user per month (Salesforce Agentforce 1). Plus the math against a $98K-$173K fully-loaded human BDR / SDR. Every figure here comes off the vendor's own pricing page. Where a vendor publishes nothing, this site says so instead of guessing.

The honest 2026 picture (22% / 45% / 2%)

22%fully replaced human SDRs with AI45%run hybrid AI + human models2%successful pure-AI-SDR deployments that stuck

Source: Salesmotion, Topo, Indie Hackers 2026 industry surveys

Vendors compared

September 2026

Publish a real price

3 quote-only, 1 being sunset

Lowest published unit price

per qualified lead (HubSpot Breeze)

$550

Highest published seat floor

Agentforce 1, published as 'from'

Sales Pipeline Calculator

Plug in your numbers. See estimated annual pipeline vs cost per meeting across vendor tiers.

Your Numbers

Monthly outbound volume

5005,000 msgs/mo50K

Reply rate (4% = signal-triggered benchmark)

0.5%4%12%

Average ACV

Close rate

Pipeline Forecast

$22K

estimated annual closed revenue

200

replies/mo

meetings/mo

opportunities/mo

Cost per meeting booked

Human SDR ($130K/yr fully loaded)$722

AiSDR Explore ($900/mo)$36

Apollo Professional 3 seats ($237/mo)$9

Clay Launch + AiSDR Solo ($185 + $250/mo)$17

Full multi-vendor comparison with opportunity conversion at ROI Calculator

13-Vendor Pricing Matrix

Published prices only. Quote-only vendors say "not published" rather than carrying a number we made up. Sorted by category.

Last verified September 2026

Vendor	Category	Pricing Model	Headline Price	Availability	Seat Min	Best For	Profile
C Clay	Outbound	consumption credits	$185/mo Launch	Public pricing	-	Data enrichment + workflow tooling. Pair with AI SDR for sending.	View
A AiSDR	Outbound	per researched contact	$900/mo Explore	Public pricing	-	SMB/mid-market. Predictable contact-research volume. Unlimited seats from Explore up.	View
R Regie.ai	Outbound	consumption credits	$49/mo Pro	Public pricing	-	Self-serve teams wanting a credit-based AI sales engagement platform; RegieOne + Auto-Pilot at the Enterprise tier.	View
1 11x	Pipeline	per ai worker	From $3,750/mo Alice Growth	Public pricing	-	Enterprise outbound at 2,000+ new prospects a month, where managed mailbox infrastructure is worth paying for.	View
A Artisan (Ava)	Outbound	consumption credits	$280/mo Intern	Public pricing	-	SMB to mid-market outbound. Ava runs multi-channel campaigns autonomously on a credit-based plan.	View
S Salesforce Agentforce	Native CRM	per conversation	$2/conversation	Public pricing	-	Salesforce Enterprise+ shops. The free Foundations allocation is the default entry.	View
H HubSpot Breeze Prospecting	Native CRM	per qualified lead	$1.00/qualified lead	Public pricing	-	HubSpot Sales Hub users (Starter edition and up). Outcome-based: no qualified lead, no charge.	View
A Apollo.io	Multi-touch	per seat	$49/user/mo Basic	Public pricing	-	SMB to mid-market wanting data + sequences + AI in one platform.	View
O Outreach Amplify	Pipeline	per seat	Not publishedper user, quote-only	No published price	-	Mid-market / enterprise already on Salesloft/Outreach ecosystem.	View
G Gong	Pipeline	platform plus seat	Not publishedper user + platform fee	No published price	-	Revenue intelligence + AI coaching at mid-market to enterprise.	View
D Drift	Multi-touch	withdrawn	Being sunsetnot sold to new buyers	Being sunset	-	Nothing new. Drift is being sunset; if you already run it, the migration path Clari + Salesloft points at is 1mind.	View
N Nooks	Voice / Dialer	per seat	Not publishedquote-only	No published price	-	Inside sales teams wanting AI parallel dialer + coaching in one tool.	View
B Bland	Voice / Dialer	per minute	$0.11/min connected (Scale)	Public pricing	-	Dev teams building voice AI pipelines. API-first.	View

Outreach, Gong and Nooks publish no dollar figure anywhere, including on AWS Marketplace, so their rows read "not published" and the profile pages list the quote drivers instead. Drift is being sunset: Clari + Salesloft announced this on 5 March 2026 and refers existing Drift clients to 1mind. Artisan, Regie.ai and 11x publish real entry tiers but route larger volume to a sales conversation, so treat a published tier as a floor and confirm with a quote.

The Three Sales-AI Categories

The "AI agent for sales" label covers three distinct categories that buyers often conflate. This site covers category (a) in depth.

(a) AI SDR / Autonomous Outbound

Vendors that automate list-building, enrichment, composition, and sending of outbound email and LinkedIn messages. Clay, AiSDR, Regie.ai, 11x, Artisan, Apollo AI Assistant, HubSpot Breeze Prospecting, Salesforce Agentforce for Sales. PRIMARY FOCUS of this site.

(b) Revenue Intelligence + Post-Call Analysis

Gong, Chorus, Clari Copilot, Avoma. Analyse recorded sales calls, surface coaching moments, forecast pipeline. Different buyer, different pricing, different ROI model.

Bland, Nooks, Vapi, Retell. AI-powered parallel dialers, voice bots, and conversational AI for inbound/outbound calls. Drift used to sit here and is now being sunset. Deep coverage on agenticsalescall.com.

For voice infra and dialer evaluation, see agenticsalescall.com for deeper coverage.

How AI Sales Agents Work in 2026

The 5-stage flow from signal to booked meeting. Not all vendors cover all stages.

1. Identify

Signal-triggered target selection. Job changes, funding rounds, hiring spikes, tech adoption signals. Clay, Apollo, AiSDR strong here.

2. Enrich

Contact and company data enrichment from 200+ data sources. Clay is the clear leader; Apollo has strong native database (275M+ contacts).

3. Compose

AI-personalised message generation using ICP, persona, and signal context. AiSDR, 11x, Artisan, Regie.ai strongest on autonomous composition.

4. Send + Follow-up

Sequenced multi-channel delivery (email + LinkedIn + SMS). AiSDR, Regie.ai, Outreach. Clay does not send; HubSpot Breeze sends within HubSpot only.

5. Reply + Handoff

AI handles initial reply parsing, qualifies intent, books calendar. Human AE takes qualified meetings. HubSpot Breeze, 11x, Artisan strongest on autonomous qualification.

Integration Matrix

Which vendor plugs into the stack you already run. Native = first-party integration. API = REST/webhook integration. - = not supported.

Vendor	Salesforce	HubSpot	Outreach	Salesloft	Apollo	Gong
Clay	Native	Native	API	API	API	-
AiSDR	API	API	-	-	-	-
Regie.ai	Native	Native	API	API	-	-
11x	Native	API	API	API	-	API
Artisan (Ava)	API	API	-	-	-	-
Salesforce Agentforce	Native	-	API	-	-	API
HubSpot Breeze Prospecting	-	Native	-	-	-	-
Apollo.io	API	API	API	API	Native	API
Outreach Amplify	Native	API	Native	API	-	API
Gong	Native	API	Native	Native	API	Native
Drift	Native	API	Native	Native	-	API
Nooks	Native	API	API	API	-	API
Bland	API	API	-	-	-	-

The 6-Question Shortlisting Framework

Answer these six questions to narrow from 13 vendors to 2-3 worth evaluating in depth.

1. What CRM do you run?

Salesforce Enterprise+: Start with the free Salesforce Foundations credit allocation before you buy anything. Evaluate AiSDR or 11x as second-source.
HubSpot Sales Hub (Starter and up): Start with Breeze Prospecting ($1/lead) before evaluating AiSDR or Regie.ai.
Neither / other CRM: Clay + AiSDR or Apollo self-serve are the most CRM-agnostic options.

2. What is your monthly outbound volume target?

Under 2K contacts/mo: Clay Launch ($185) + manual send or HubSpot Breeze. No need for a full AI SDR platform.
2K-10K contacts/mo: AiSDR Explore ($900/mo) or Apollo Professional ($79/user/mo). Good middle ground.
10K+ contacts/mo: 11x Alice Enterprise (10,000+ prospects/mo), Artisan Enterprise, or Outreach at custom pricing make economic sense at scale.

3. Do you need autonomous sending or a human-in-the-loop?

Autonomous (AI sends, handles replies, books meetings): 11x Alice, Artisan Ava, AiSDR full auto-mode, HubSpot Breeze Prospecting.
Human-in-the-loop (AI drafts, human approves): Clay, Apollo AI Assistant, Regie.ai, Outreach Amplify.

4. What is your minimum outbound budget?

Under $500/mo: Clay Launch ($185) + free Apollo (100 credits). Self-serve, no commitment.
$500-$2,500/mo: AiSDR Explore ($900) or Apollo Professional. Per-researched-contact or per-seat value.
$2,500+/mo: 11x Alice Growth starts from $3,750/mo billed annually. Artisan Enterprise, Outreach and Gong are all custom-quoted above this line.

5. Does dialer / voice matter for your team?

Yes, voice is core: Nooks for inside sales parallel dialing (quote-only, so get a number before you plan around it), or Bland ($0.11/min connected on the Scale plan) for API-first voice.
Voice is secondary: Regie.ai bundles an AI Parallel Dialer into its Enterprise tier if you are already on Regie.
No voice needed: Stick to email + LinkedIn vendors. Skip Nooks and Bland entirely.

6. Do you want public pricing or are you OK negotiating?

Transparency required: Clay, AiSDR, Regie.ai, Artisan, Apollo, HubSpot Breeze, Salesforce Agentforce, Bland and 11x all publish at least an entry price.
Negotiation required: Outreach, Gong and Nooks publish nothing at all, so you cannot budget for them without a quote. Artisan, Regie.ai and 11x publish entry tiers but route larger volume to sales. Skip Drift; it is being sunset.

For customer service AI agent evaluation, see aiagentforcustomerservice.com -- same framework, different vendor set (Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, Decagon, Sierra).

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an AI SDR cost?▼

Published prices in this set run from $1 per qualified lead (HubSpot Breeze Prospecting, outcome-based), through $49/mo self-serve credits (Regie.ai Pro), $185-$495/mo platform-only (Clay), $280-$660/mo self-serve credits (Artisan Ava) and $250-$2,500/mo per researched contact (AiSDR), up to from $3,750/mo for 11x Alice Growth (2,000 new prospects a month, billed annually) and from $550/user/mo for Salesforce's bundled Agentforce 1 edition. Three vendors here publish no price at all: Outreach, Gong and Nooks are quote-only, so this site gives you their quote drivers rather than an invented figure. Drift is being sunset and should not be shortlisted. Verified September 2026 against each vendor's own pricing page.

Which AI SDR vendors do not publish pricing?▼

Three of the thirteen. Outreach names four Amplify tiers by AI-credit allocation (Essentials 10,000 through Pro 100,000) and states 'per user pricing, no platform fees', but every tier reads 'Request pricing'. Gong publishes the structure but not the numbers: licences are priced per user and there is a separate platform fee based on the number of users supported, so a seat rate alone will not tell you the bill. Nooks publishes only a custom-quote form. All three are private-offer or demo-gated on AWS Marketplace too, so there is no public rate card anywhere. This site does not print an estimate of what they charge, because no one outside a quote knows it.

Do AI SDRs actually work?▼

Per 2026 industry data (Salesmotion, Topo, Indie Hackers): only 22% of teams have fully replaced human SDRs with AI; 45% run hybrid models; only about 2% report pure-AI-SDR success that sticks. AI handles list-building, enrichment, first-touch composition, and signal-triggered outreach well. It struggles on objection handling, multi-thread relationships, and complex-deal coordination. Hybrid is the modal 2026 deployment.

What is the difference between Clay and an AI SDR?▼

Clay is data and workflow tooling, not an autonomous SDR. It enriches lists, scores accounts, and powers personalised outbound but a human or another tool sends the messages. Combining Clay with AiSDR, Regie.ai, or Outreach is a common 2026 stack. Apollo's March 2026 AI Assistant is converging on the same shelf as Clay by combining data, sequences, and agentic AI in one platform.

How does HubSpot Breeze Prospecting Agent pricing work?▼

HubSpot moved Breeze Prospecting from a recurring per-contact monthly fee to $1 per qualified lead recommended for outreach, effective 14 April 2026. Outcome-based: no qualified lead identified, no charge. It runs on HubSpot Credits, billed at $0.010 per credit ($10 per 1,000), so a recommended lead consumes 100 credits. Available on Sales Hub Starter ($15/seat/mo annual), Professional ($90/seat/mo) and Enterprise ($150/seat/mo) editions. HubSpot's product documentation describes 14 days of free access, beginning when you publish your first play, after which the agent turns itself off.