Instantly

What it is

Instantly is cold email built around the constraint that decides cold email: how much you can send before your domain reputation suffers. Its answer is unlimited email accounts and unlimited warm-up on every plan, so volume is spread across many mailboxes instead of pushed through one.

Around the sending sit the pieces a campaign needs: a lead database of over 450 million B2B contacts, email verification, and Unibox, a single inbox where replies from every sending account arrive together. Higher tiers add AI agents for sales and replies.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

It fits agencies and B2B teams running outbound at scale, where the operation involves several domains and many mailboxes and the daily question is deliverability. The pricing shape confirms the intended user: the standalone outreach plans start at $47 per month with unlimited accounts, which only makes sense if you have many accounts.

It is a poor fit for low-volume, high-value outreach, where a hundred carefully written emails beat ten thousand generic ones, and for anyone whose instinct is that more sending is the answer to a weak offer. It is also not a CRM: pipeline and customer history live elsewhere, such as Close or HubSpot.

Pricing

Instantly is paid, in two shapes. The standalone outreach plans are Growth at $47 per month with 5,000 emails and 1,000 uploaded contacts, Hypergrowth at $97 per month with 125,000 emails and 25,000 contacts, and Lightspeed at $358 per month with 500,000 emails and 100,000 contacts. All include unlimited email accounts and unlimited warm-up.

The bundles add lead credits and AI features: Starter at $94 per month with 5,000 emails and 1,500 credits, Scale at $194 with 100,000 emails and 5,000 credits, Agency at $555 with 500,000 emails and 10,000 credits, and Enterprise on request. Decide first whether you need the lead data, because that is the whole difference between the two ladders.

Set it up

Official guide: Quick Start Guide (All-in-One)

1. Create an Instantly account and choose the Growth plan ($47/mo). It includes unlimited email accounts and warm-up, 5,000 emails/mo and 1,000 uploaded contacts. Have ready a Google Workspace mailbox that already receives mail, on a separate domain, so a reputation problem cannot hurt your normal email. The domain and the mailbox are billed separately. Safe sending needs at least 2 weeks of warm-up, or 3 to 4 weeks on a new domain. You now have an Instantly account on the Growth plan.
2. In Google Admin, open Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail and click "Authenticate email". Google says to wait 24 to 72 hours after turning on Gmail before this step. Choose your domain, click "Generate New Record", pick 2048 (1024 only if your domain provider cannot handle 2048) and click "Generate". Copy the DKIM value, a digital signature that proves your emails come from you. Do not click "Start authentication" yet. You now see the value to add to your DNS.
3. Open your domain's DNS settings (at the company you bought it from). If an SPF record already exists (TXT starting v=spf1), make sure it contains include:_spf.google.com before ~all, never a second record: a second one can send all your company's email to spam. If none, add TXT host @, value v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all. Add TXT host google._domainkey with your DKIM value. If _dmarc already has a record, add nothing; if not, add TXT host _dmarc, value v=DMARC1; p=none. You now see them listed.
4. Back in Google Admin, open "Authenticate email" again, choose your domain and click "Start authentication". Google says DKIM can take up to 48 hours to start working, and a "You must update the DNS records" message can show for that long even when the record is right. The status now reads "Authenticating email with DKIM".
5. Click "Email Accounts" in the left sidebar, then "Add or Buy Accounts", select "Connect Existing", choose Google and pick "Option 1: oAuth method", following the prompts. Click the flame icon to turn on warm-up (practice emails that teach providers to trust your mailbox). Keep it on for the full 2 to 4 weeks from step 1 before you launch. Warm-up now runs for this account.
6. Go to the Engage dashboard, click "+ Create New", select "Cold Outreach Campaign" and name it. In the "Leads" section import your list as a CSV file (a spreadsheet export) and match each column to a variable; Email is required. In "Editors" write your subject and email, click "+" and select "Insert Unsubscribe Link". Mail only business addresses: in the EU a sole trader counts as a private person and must agree first. You now see your leads and email in the campaign.
7. Click "Preview" and send a test email to your own address. Go to "Settings", select the mailbox that will send, set the start date, time and timezone, and a low daily sending limit such as 30 emails. Launching sends real emails to real people, so launch only after the warm-up from step 5. Click "Launch". The campaign now sends at the time you set.

When this works, Google Admin shows "Authenticating email with DKIM" for your domain, your test email arrives in your own inbox, and your first campaign sends from a warmed-up mailbox on a separate domain with a low daily limit while you watch how people reply.

Strengths and limitations

The strength is infrastructure. Unlimited accounts plus warm-up plus a unified inbox is precisely the shape a high-volume outbound operation needs, and the entry price for that at $47 per month is low.

The limitations are the same in reverse. A tool that makes volume easy makes bad volume easy: irrelevant mail at scale burns domains and annoys the market you are trying to sell to. The legal obligations of cold outreach are yours, and under GDPR that includes a lawful basis and a genuine opt-out. And separating the outreach plans from the lead bundles means the advertised entry price is not what most people end up paying. See Instantly vs lemlist.