What is Apollo MCP, and how fast is it growing?
Apollo MCP is Apollo.io's hosted server for the Model Context Protocol, which lets AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT search Apollo's data and take actions in your Apollo account from a chat. Apollo announced the beta of its native Claude connector, built on the MCP server, on 24 February 2026. Its help centre now lists connectors for ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Replit and Cursor, and its developer docs describe a standalone server that any MCP client supporting Streamable HTTP and OAuth can connect to.
On 30 September 2026, at its ApolloNEXT conference, Apollo said the number of teams actively using its MCP grew more than 4x over the six months from March to August 2026, and that daily credit consumption rose nearly 10x over the same period. Both are Apollo's own figures, and its product page adds that 40K+ companies use Apollo MCP.
This guide has no screenshots or sample outputs. Setup, plans, credits and limits come from Apollo's own pages, checked 20 October 2026, and the prompts further down are untested examples to adapt.
Which Apollo plans include the MCP?
Apollo says any plan qualifies, including free, and there is no additional cost to connect; your plan, permissions and credits still apply. The detail is spread across several Apollo pages:
| Question | What Apollo's pages say |
|---|---|
| Which Apollo plans? | Available on all Apollo plans, including free (help centre and product page) |
| What can a free plan do? | Search and manage contacts already saved in Apollo, enrich individual people, add contacts to sequences, analyse performance and view connected email accounts. Paid plans add prospecting from Apollo's database, bulk enrichment and company search. |
| Which email address? | A work email address. The Claude and ChatGPT help articles say personal addresses such as Gmail or Yahoo aren't supported; the developer docs say free accounts registered with a personal address can't use search or enrichment actions, and paid accounts aren't affected. |
| Which Claude or ChatGPT plan? | Any subscription, including free accounts |
| Extra cost? | None to connect. Enrichment and some search actions use your plan's credits. |
| Status? | Apollo labels the Claude and ChatGPT integrations beta; functionality and pricing may change |
| Team or individual setup? | Individual: each person connects their own account |
Credits are the real cost. Apollo's pricing page says credits are pooled across the whole team, granted at the start of each billing cycle, and don't roll over; admins can set per-user credit caps. On a three-person team, one enthusiastic afternoon of enrichment can use credits the others were counting on, so set caps before anyone connects.
How do you connect Apollo MCP to Claude or ChatGPT?
In Claude you add Apollo from Customize > Connectors, and in ChatGPT from Settings > Apps. These steps follow Apollo's help articles for Claude and ChatGPT, checked 20 October 2026.
Prepare both accounts
Sign in to Apollo with a work email address and link the mailbox you will send from. Then turn off model training in your Claude or ChatGPT account: Apollo prohibits model training with Apollo MCP integrations and asks you to switch it off before connecting.
Connect in Claude
Click Customize > Connectors, search for Apollo.io, click Connect to Claude, review the terms and click Authorize. To use it, start a new chat, click + > Connectors and toggle Apollo on.
Connect in ChatGPT
Click your name > Settings, then Apps > Explore apps, search for Apollo.io, click Connect, review the permissions and click Authorize. To use it, start a new chat, click + and choose More > Apollo.io.
Set a permission for every action
Apollo's docs say most clients let you set each action to Always allow, Approval required or Blocked, and Apollo recommends Approval required for any action that consumes credits. On a small team, also require approval for sending one-off emails and adding contacts to sequences, since both reach real people.
Other clients, if you need them
For Claude Code, Apollo's docs give the command claude mcp add --transport http apollo https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp, followed by /mcp to finish sign-in. Any other MCP client can add https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp as a remote server using Streamable HTTP and OAuth 2.0.
Which Apollo MCP actions use credits?
Enrichment, company search and job-posting lookups use credits; people search, records, lists, sequences, one-off emails, tasks and analytics don't, according to Apollo's developer docs.
| Action | Uses credits? |
|---|---|
| Search for people (Apollo's database) | No |
| Search for contacts already in Apollo | No |
| Search for companies | Yes |
| People enrichment, single or bulk | Yes |
| Company enrichment, single or bulk | Yes |
| Company job postings | Yes |
| Create or update contacts and accounts | No |
| Create lists and add records to them | No |
| Create or update a sequence; add or remove contacts | No |
| Send one-off emails | No |
| Query analytics data | No |
| Get conversation insights | Only if the conversation has AI insights |
So search before you enrich. Apollo's help centre says people search returns profile-level information such as names, titles, companies and location, with net-new prospects partially redacted; enrichment reveals verified emails and phone numbers and spends credits. You can see MCP credit use in Apollo under Settings > Credits and activity > Credit usage.
Example prompts for a three-person team
These example prompts are ordered around Apollo's published best practices: refine searches with follow-ups, search before enriching, enrich one company at a time, and review a sequence before enrolling anyone. We have not run them; what comes back depends on your plan, your credits and Apollo's data. Replace the bracketed parts with your own details.
- Search (no credits): Find heads of operations at logistics companies with 50 to 200 employees in [region]. Show name, title, company and location.
- Refine: Narrow this to companies with 100 to 200 employees and drop anyone whose title includes assistant or intern. Show the next page too.
- Save (no credits): Create a contact list called [list name]. Check for existing contacts first, then create contacts for the top 15 and add them to the list.
- Check hiring (credits): Show recent job postings for [company].
- Enrich (credits): Enrich the contacts at [company] using the domain [domain] and show which have verified emails. Apollo suggests enriching one company per request and including the company domain.
- Draft (no credits): Create a 3-step sequence for heads of operations at logistics companies. Keep step 1 under 60 words, mention [problem you solve], and show me a preview before you create it in Apollo.
- Pick the sender: List my connected email accounts.
- Enrol, after review: Add the enriched contacts on [list name] to [sequence name] using [mailbox].
- Review later: Which of my sequences had the highest reply rate in the last 3 months?
Keep sequence creation and enrolment as separate steps, which is also Apollo's advice: review the steps, then confirm the sender, schedule and contacts. For first-email wording, start from our cold email templates and paste one into the draft prompt.
What are Apollo MCP's limits?
Apollo's docs and help centre list these limits, checked 20 October 2026:
- No contact details in people search. Emails and phone numbers need an enrichment action, which uses credits, and Apollo may not have a verified email for every person.
- Paginated results. Most searches return up to 25 results per page; ask for the next page when you need more.
- No destructive bulk actions. Bulk delete and unrestricted bulk updates aren't supported.
- Tools vary. Tool availability depends on your Apollo plan, workspace permissions, client support and rollout status.
- Enrichment isn't saved automatically. Apollo's Claude article says enrichment results returned in Claude aren't saved as Apollo contacts, so they won't appear in Apollo CSV exports unless you save or update the contact.
- Your permissions apply. The assistant can only do what your Apollo user can do, within your plan and Apollo's API rate limits.
- Sequences need a mailbox. Adding contacts to a sequence requires at least one connected email account.
- API keys reach the whole workspace. For headless setups, Apollo MCP needs a master API key; requests act as the workspace's longest-standing active admin and spend workspace credits, and Apollo says to treat a master key like a password.
Is prospecting from a chat right for a small team?
It fits a team that already pays for Apollo and already does its research in Claude or ChatGPT. Each action starts from a request someone types, so the time saved depends on how often someone sits down to run it. A few rules reduce the risk:
- Keep Approval required on every action that spends credits, sends an email or enrols a contact.
- Set a per-user credit cap before anyone connects.
- Save enriched people as contacts in the same session, so the data stays in Apollo.
- Ask for a preview before a sequence is created, review it, then enrol. Our guide to cold email sequences that get replies covers step count and spacing.
If you would rather have prospecting run every day without anyone prompting it, an AI SDR is the other route. Siela's AI SDR sends on its own within the daily goals you set once you press Save and start, across LinkedIn, X and email, scores every lead hot, warm or cold with a one-line reason, and saves each one to its built-in CRM with the reason it was picked.
Frequently asked questions
Is Apollo MCP free?
Apollo says there is no additional cost to connect Apollo MCP, and any Apollo plan qualifies, including free. Your plan's credits still apply: enrichment, company search and job-posting actions use credits, while people search, contact records, lists, sequences, one-off emails and analytics don't. Apollo's help centre says paid plans add prospecting from its database, bulk enrichment and company search.
Does Apollo MCP work with free Claude or ChatGPT accounts?
Yes, according to Apollo's help articles, which say the integration works on any Claude or ChatGPT subscription, including free accounts. You need an Apollo account on a work email address, and Apollo asks you to turn off model training in your Claude or ChatGPT settings before connecting. Each person on a team connects their own account separately.
Can Apollo MCP send emails for me?
It can send one-off emails to contacts, including custom To, Cc and Bcc recipients, and add contacts to an existing sequence that sends from a mailbox connected to Apollo. Apollo's docs say the email is created and sent after you confirm the send request. Setting these actions to Approval required in your AI client adds a check before anything reaches a prospect.
Why does Apollo MCP search return no email addresses?
People search in Apollo MCP returns profile-level information such as names, titles, companies and location, and Apollo says net-new prospects are partially redacted. To get verified emails or phone numbers you run an enrichment action, which uses credits. Apollo suggests including the company domain and enriching one company per request, and notes it may not have a verified email for everyone.
Is Apollo MCP the same as the Apollo GraphQL MCP Server?
No. Apollo MCP is Apollo.io's connector for sales and go-to-market teams, giving AI assistants access to Apollo's B2B database for prospecting, enrichment and outreach. Apollo's FAQ says the Apollo GraphQL MCP Server is a separate open-source developer tool from Apollo GraphQL, a different company, for exposing GraphQL APIs through MCP.
Can I connect Apollo MCP to a script or server without a browser?
Yes. Apollo's docs say headless clients can connect to Apollo's MCP endpoint by sending an Apollo master API key in the X-Api-Key header. Scoped keys are rejected with a 403 error. Requests made this way act as the workspace's longest-standing active admin and spend workspace credits. Apollo says to treat a master key like a password.
Sources
- Apollo: Apollo Delivers GTM Outbound Execution to Claude (24 Feb 2026; checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Apollo: Apollo Reveals the AI GTM System (ApolloNEXT) (30 Sep 2026; checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Apollo: Apollo MCP product page (checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Apollo developer docs: Apollo MCP (updated 5 Oct 2026; checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Apollo Knowledge Base: Use Apollo MCP with AI Tools to Run Your GTM Workflow (checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Apollo Knowledge Base: Integrate Apollo with Claude (checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Apollo Knowledge Base: Integrate Apollo with ChatGPT (checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Apollo pricing (FAQ on credits) (checked 20 Oct 2026)