Instantly Free Trial: What's Actually Included (And What's Not)

Looking to test Instantly.ai before committing to a paid plan? Here's the deal: Instantly offers a 14-day free trial, but only for certain products. Let me break down exactly what you get, what's restricted, and how to make the most of your trial period.

Does Instantly Have a Free Trial?

Yes. Instantly provides a 14-day free trial for its Sending & Warmup plans. This is the core email outreach product that most people are looking for when they search for cold email tools.

However-and this is important-the free trial doesn't cover everything. The Leads plans (their B2B database product) don't include a free trial option. The Enterprise tier is also excluded from the trial.

The good news? You don't need a credit card to start the trial. You'll only need to add payment information when you're ready to upgrade to a paid plan, which gives you the full 14 days to test without any commitment.

What's Included in the Instantly Free Trial

During your 14-day trial of the Sending & Warmup product, you get access to:

The trial also includes access to their Accelerator tab with 50+ docs, SOPs, and 600+ email outreach templates to help you get started.

Understanding the Unlimited Email Accounts Feature

One of Instantly's biggest selling points is unlimited email accounts on all plans, including the trial. This is a significant advantage over competitors that charge per seat or limit mailbox connections. You can connect accounts from Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or any SMTP provider.

Why does this matter? Because proper cold email deliverability requires spreading your sending across multiple accounts. If you send 500 emails per day from one inbox, you'll quickly get flagged as spam. But if you spread those same 500 emails across 10 accounts (50 per account), you maintain healthy sending patterns that email service providers trust.

The Email Warmup Network Explained

Instantly's warmup feature connects you to a network of over 1 million real email accounts. When you enable warmup, your accounts automatically send and receive emails with other users in the network. These exchanges simulate natural email behavior-opens, replies, marking as important-which gradually builds your sender reputation.

The warmup uses AI-generated content that looks like real conversations. Each warmup email includes a unique subject ID so you can easily identify them. The system includes features like slow ramp (gradually increasing daily volume), read emulation (scrolling through emails to mimic human behavior), and spam protection (moving warmup emails from spam to inbox to signal legitimacy).

During your trial, you can warm up unlimited accounts simultaneously. This is crucial because new domains typically need at least 2 weeks of warmup before they're ready to send cold campaigns effectively.

What's NOT Included

Here's where people get tripped up:

When your 14 days end, your dashboard access pauses, warmup stops, and any active campaigns halt until you upgrade.

The Credit System Breakdown

Instantly operates on a credit-based model for advanced features. During your trial, you receive a limited pool of credits to test features like SuperSearch, email verification, and AI tools. Here's how credits are typically consumed:

SuperSearch & Lead Finding: Finding a verified work email through SuperSearch costs 1-2+ credits depending on whether partner providers are used through waterfall enrichment. Many teams budget around 1.5 credits per contact as a working average.

Email Verification: Verifying an email address you already have costs 0.25 credits. This is essential for cleaning third-party lists before sending.

Enrichment: Each optional enrichment (company technologies, job listings, recent news, funding data) costs 0.5 credits per data point.

AI Features: The AI Reply Agent costs 5 credits per automated response. AI web research costs 0.5 credits, while custom AI prompts cost 1 credit per execution.

The trial credits don't roll over, and they're meant to give you a taste of these premium features rather than support full-scale operations. If you plan to rely heavily on lead finding or AI features, factor separate Leads or Credits plans into your budget after the trial.

Instantly Pricing After the Trial

Once your trial ends, here's what you're looking at for the Sending & Warmup plans:

PlanMonthly PriceWhat You Get
Growth$37/moUnlimited email accounts, unlimited warmup, 1,000 active leads, 5,000 emails/month, live chat support
Hypergrowth$97/moEverything in Growth + 25,000 active leads, 100,000 emails/month, A/B testing, API/webhooks, team collaboration, premium support
Light Speed$358/moEverything in Hypergrowth + 100,000 active leads, 500,000 emails/month, SISR (dedicated IP rotation), highest-volume sending

If you pay annually, you save about 20% on all plans.

For the Leads plans (no free trial available):

For full pricing details, check out our Instantly pricing breakdown.

Understanding SISR (Server & IP Sharding and Rotation)

The Light Speed plan includes SISR, which stands for Server & IP Sharding and Rotation System. This is Instantly's proprietary infrastructure that automatically distributes your sending across multiple IPs and servers, constantly rotating them if performance drops.

Why does this matter? In traditional setups, cold emails are sent through shared or static servers. If another sender on the same IP gets flagged for spam, your deliverability suffers too-even if you follow every best practice. SISR eliminates this risk by giving you the benefits of dedicated infrastructure without the cost and complexity of managing it yourself.

For high-volume senders (agencies, large sales teams), SISR can be the difference between 70% inbox placement and 95%+ placement. It's expensive at $358/month, but for operations sending 500,000 emails monthly, the ROI justifies it.

The CRM Plans

Instantly also offers CRM plans that add multichannel capabilities:

The CRM plans are separate from the core email outreach product and don't include a free trial. They're designed for teams that want to consolidate their sales stack into one platform rather than juggling separate tools for email, calling, and pipeline management.

How to Start Your Instantly Free Trial

Getting started is straightforward:

  1. Go to Instantly.ai and click "Start for Free"
  2. Create your account with email
  3. Answer a few quick setup questions
  4. Confirm your email address
  5. You'll land on your organization dashboard ready to connect email accounts

No credit card required to start the trial. You'll only need to add payment info when you decide to upgrade.

First Steps After Signup

Once you're in the dashboard, you'll see several tabs: Email Accounts, Campaigns, Leads, Unibox, and Analytics. Don't get overwhelmed by all the options. Focus on these priorities:

Day 1 Priority: Connect at least 2-3 email accounts and enable warmup immediately. Every day of warmup counts, so don't delay this step. You can add more accounts later, but get your initial batch warming from day one.

Account Setup Options: You have three ways to add accounts. You can connect existing email accounts from Google, Microsoft, or other providers. You can purchase pre-warmed accounts directly from Instantly (ready to send from day one, but at a premium price). Or you can buy Done-For-You accounts where Instantly automates DNS configuration, though these still require 2 weeks of warmup.

DNS Configuration: If you're connecting existing accounts, verify your DNS records are configured correctly. Click "Test domain setup" in the Email Accounts dashboard. You'll need SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records properly configured. These authentication protocols prove to email service providers that you're a legitimate sender, not a spoofer or scammer.

How to Actually Use Your 14 Days

Don't waste your trial just poking around the interface. Here's how to run a legitimate test:

Day 1-3: Setup and Warmup

Connect your sending email accounts immediately and turn on warmup. Instantly's warmup network includes 4.2M+ accounts, and you need time to build sender reputation before sending real campaigns. Don't skip this step-it's the foundation of deliverability.

Use the default warmup settings unless you have specific reasons to change them. Instantly recommends 30 cold emails + 10 warmup emails per day per account. Keep warmup enabled at all times-never turn it off, even after you launch campaigns. Continuous warmup maintains your sender reputation long-term.

While your accounts warm up, spend time exploring the template library in the Accelerator tab. Review the 600+ email templates across different industries and use cases. You're not looking to copy these verbatim, but to understand what patterns work in cold outreach.

Day 4-7: Import Leads and Build Sequences

Upload a focused lead list (ideally already verified). Keep your sequences short-under 110 words with one clear CTA. Launch two different sequence variants so you can compare performance.

During the trial, focus on quality over quantity. Import 100-200 highly targeted prospects rather than thousands of mediocre contacts. You want engagement, not just volume. High reply rates (even if some are negative) signal to email service providers that your messages are relevant.

Building Your First Sequence

Use the Campaign Builder to create your sequence. A solid cold email sequence typically includes:

Email 1 (Day 0): The initial outreach. Personalized, value-focused, with a single clear question or CTA. Keep it under 90 words.

Email 2 (Day 3-4): A brief follow-up referencing the first email. Add new value or a different angle. Don't just say "checking in."

Email 3 (Day 7): The breakup email. Acknowledge they're busy, provide one final value point, and give them an easy out.

During your trial, test two sequence variants using A/B testing. Change one variable between them-subject line approach, opening hook, value proposition, or CTA format. This gives you data on what resonates with your audience.

Day 8-14: Send, Monitor, Iterate

Keep your sending conservative-don't exceed 30 emails per inbox per day. Watch your deliverability metrics, check responses in Unibox, and adjust your copy based on early feedback.

The goal: book at least one meeting during your trial to prove ROI before you commit to a paid plan.

Monitoring Deliverability During Your Trial

Pay close attention to these metrics in your Analytics dashboard:

Bounce Rate: Should stay at or below 1%. If you're seeing 2%+ bounces, your list quality is poor or your email verification isn't working. Hard bounces hurt your sender reputation significantly.

Spam Complaint Rate: Keep this under 0.3%. Even one spam complaint per 1,000 emails sent is problematic. If your rate climbs higher, your messaging is off-target or your targeting is too broad.

Reply Rate: For cold email, 1-3% reply rates are typical. If you're below 0.5%, your messaging isn't resonating or your targeting needs work.

Open Rate: This metric is less reliable due to privacy updates, but 30-50% is a reasonable range. Much lower might indicate deliverability issues.

Run inbox placement tests using Instantly's built-in feature to see what percentage of your emails land in the primary inbox versus spam or promotions tabs. Aim for 90%+ inbox placement. If you're consistently below this, troubleshoot your technical setup before scaling volume.

Technical Setup: DNS Records Explained

Proper email authentication is non-negotiable for cold email deliverability. During your trial, verify these records are configured correctly:

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

SPF specifies which mail servers are authorized to send emails from your domain. This prevents spammers from spoofing your domain. Email service providers check the SPF record to verify the sender's legitimacy.

For Google Workspace, you'll add a TXT record to your DNS with a value like: "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all". For Microsoft 365, it's slightly different. Instantly's help docs provide step-by-step instructions for different email providers.

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails, making them traceable and preventing spoofing. The receiving server verifies the signature against a public key published in your DNS records.

Setting up DKIM requires generating a key pair through your email provider, then adding the public key as a TXT record in your DNS. Each email provider has specific instructions-Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 both have detailed setup guides.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)

DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM, telling receiving servers what to do if authentication fails. It also provides reporting on email authentication results.

Important: Configure DKIM and SPF before setting up DMARC, since DMARC depends on these underlying protocols.

A basic DMARC record looks like: "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:[email protected]". This tells servers to quarantine emails that fail authentication and send reports to the specified address.

Custom Tracking Domain

Instantly allows you to set up a custom tracking domain for links and open tracking. Instead of clicks going through instantly.ai, they route through your own subdomain (like track.yourdomain.com).

This improves deliverability because email service providers see consistent domains throughout your message. It also protects your main domain reputation if tracking domains ever get flagged.

What Users Actually Say

After reviewing feedback from real Instantly users across G2, Trustpilot, Reddit, and other platforms, here are the consistent pros and cons:

What works well:

What frustrates users:

Recent User Concerns (From Reddit and Review Sites)

Several themes emerge from recent user discussions:

Pre-warmed Account Quality: Some users report that Instantly's Done-For-You email accounts have been flagged shortly after purchase, suggesting shared infrastructure issues. If you're considering pre-warmed accounts, proceed cautiously and monitor deliverability closely.

Price Increases: Multiple users mention unexpected price increases when plans renew. One reviewer noted their bill climbing from $47 to $147 over a few months with minimal notice. Read renewal terms carefully and understand how credit usage affects billing.

Credit Transparency: The credit system, while straightforward in theory, causes confusion in practice. Credits are "prorated" in billing but adjustments aren't always visible in the dashboard. Set up tracking outside the platform if credits are central to your workflow.

Deliverability Variability: While many users praise Instantly's deliverability, others report sudden drops in inbox placement without clear explanations. Deliverability depends on numerous factors beyond the tool itself (sender reputation, list quality, content, targeting), but the inconsistent experiences suggest that Instantly's warmup isn't a guaranteed fix for poor practices elsewhere.

Instantly vs. Competitors: How Does It Stack Up?

Instantly vs. Smartlead

Both tools offer unlimited email accounts and strong warmup features, but they serve slightly different audiences.

Smartlead advantages: Better for agencies with white-labeling and client management features ($29/client/month). AI-driven email warmup with dynamic IP rotation available at lower pricing tiers. More robust API and webhook integrations. Master inbox for reply management included in lower-tier plans.

Instantly advantages: Built-in B2B database (450M+ contacts) eliminates need for separate lead sourcing tools. More intuitive interface for beginners. AI personalization and pre-made templates make campaign creation faster. Slightly lower entry price at $37/month versus Smartlead's $39/month.

Both tools have comparable deliverability when properly configured. The choice comes down to whether you need agency-specific features (Smartlead) or prefer an all-in-one platform with built-in data (Instantly).

Instantly vs. Lemlist

Lemlist focuses heavily on personalization and multichannel outreach.

Lemlist advantages: Built-in LinkedIn integration for true multichannel sequences. Advanced image and video personalization (custom thumbnails, dynamic text in images). Lemwarm email warmup is highly regarded. More creative campaign options overall.

Instantly advantages: Unlimited email accounts versus Lemlist's account limits on lower tiers. Larger B2B database (450M vs. Lemlist's smaller proprietary data). Lower starting price point. Better for high-volume, email-only operations.

Choose Lemlist if personalization and multichannel are priorities. Choose Instantly if you're focused on scaling email volume affordably.

Instantly vs. Smartreach / Reply.io

These platforms offer more comprehensive sales engagement features beyond just cold email.

Reply.io advantages: Native multichannel sequences (email, LinkedIn, calls, SMS, WhatsApp). AI SDR that handles responses automatically. Deeper CRM integrations and workflows.

Instantly advantages: Significantly cheaper for email-only use cases. Simpler learning curve. Unlimited accounts without per-seat pricing.

If you need a full sales engagement platform, Reply.io is worth the premium. If email outreach is your primary channel, Instantly offers better value.

Cold Email Deliverability Best Practices

Your success with Instantly (or any cold email tool) depends on following deliverability fundamentals. Here are the practices that consistently produce 90%+ inbox placement:

Domain Strategy

Never send cold emails from your primary company domain. If your cold outreach damages your sender reputation, it affects all email communication from that domain-including transactional emails, customer support, and internal communications.

Instead, purchase secondary domains for cold outreach. If your company is acmeco.com, buy domains like tryacme.com, acmeinfo.com, or getacme.com. These should be similar enough to be recognizable but separate enough to protect your primary domain.

Optimal setup: Use one sending address per domain. Multiple addresses on the same domain share reputation, so if one gets flagged, they all suffer. For 500 emails per day, you'd want 10 domains with one address each sending 50 emails daily.

Sending Volume and Ramp-Up

New email accounts should never send at full volume immediately. Email service providers watch for sudden volume changes, which look like hijacked accounts or spam operations.

A safe ramp schedule:

Never exceed 50 cold emails per account per day. Some aggressive senders push to 100+, but the risk of spam flags increases exponentially above 50. Staying conservative protects your investment in domain and account setup.

List Quality and Verification

Bounce rates above 2% damage sender reputation. Every hard bounce signals to email service providers that you're sending to poor-quality lists, which is spam-like behavior.

Always verify email addresses before adding them to campaigns. Instantly includes limited verification during the trial. After the trial, budget for ongoing verification-either through Instantly's credits system or a separate tool like Findymail.

Avoid purchased email lists entirely. They're filled with spam traps, dead addresses, and people who never opted into communications. One spam trap hit can blacklist your domain across major email service providers.

Content and Engagement

Modern email filters analyze engagement patterns as much as technical authentication. Emails that generate positive engagement (opens, replies, forwards) build sender reputation. Emails that get ignored, deleted unread, or marked as spam destroy it.

Write emails that encourage replies:

Avoid spam trigger content:

Reply Handling and Re-engagement

How quickly you respond to replies affects deliverability. Email service providers see two-way conversations as a trust signal. If someone replies and you respond within hours, it reinforces that you're a legitimate sender having real business conversations.

Use Instantly's Unibox to centralize reply management. Set up notifications so you never miss responses. Aim to reply within 4 hours during business hours.

For negative replies ("not interested," "remove me," "stop emailing"), respond politely and remove them immediately. Don't try to re-convince them. A negative reply is better than a spam complaint, but only if you honor the request immediately.

Advanced Trial Strategies

The Two-Campaign Test

Don't run just one campaign during your trial. Set up two parallel campaigns targeting similar audiences with different approaches:

Campaign A: Problem-focused. Lead with the pain point your product solves. Example: "We noticed [Company] is expanding into [Market]. Most companies struggle with [Specific Challenge] during this phase..."

Campaign B: Curiosity-focused. Lead with an intriguing question or observation. Example: "Quick question about [Company]'s [Initiative]-have you considered [Alternative Approach]?"

Split your test list evenly between campaigns. After 7-10 days, compare reply rates. The winner becomes your template for the paid plan.

Deliverability Benchmarking

Run inbox placement tests on Days 1, 7, and 14 of your trial. This shows whether your deliverability is improving, stable, or declining.

Create a seed list-email addresses you control across different providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.). Send test emails to this list and manually check where they land (inbox, promotions, spam). Track the results:

If Day 14 results are below 80%, don't upgrade yet. Troubleshoot your setup first-check DNS records, review email content, verify list quality.

Documentation and Knowledge Transfer

During your trial, document everything that works and doesn't work:

This documentation becomes your playbook when you upgrade. You won't waste time in month one figuring out what you already learned during the trial.

Common Trial Mistakes to Avoid

Waiting to enable warmup: The single biggest mistake. If you wait until Day 5 to start warming accounts, you only have 9 days left to test campaigns. Start warmup on Day 1, no exceptions.

Testing with too many variables: Changing multiple elements simultaneously makes it impossible to know what works. Test one variable at a time-audience, message, sequence timing, etc.

Ignoring bounce rates: Some trial users upload large lists without verification, see 5-10% bounce rates, and assume that's normal. It's not. Clean your lists before the trial starts.

Not connecting enough accounts: Testing with one account gives you incomplete data. Connect at least 3-5 accounts to understand how the platform handles multi-account management and inbox rotation.

Targeting too broadly: During a 14-day trial, you don't have time to test multiple audiences. Pick your best-fit segment and go deep on messaging for that group.

Skipping the Accelerator resources: Instantly includes 50+ docs and 600+ templates for a reason. Spending 2-3 hours reviewing these resources can save you days of trial-and-error.

Is Instantly Right for You?

Instantly makes the most sense if:

Instantly is NOT the best choice if:

For multichannel needs, you might want to look at Lemlist or Smartlead as alternatives.

Making the Most of Your Investment

If you decide Instantly is the right fit after your trial, here's how to maximize ROI:

Start with Growth, Scale to Hypergrowth

Most users should start with the Growth plan ($37/mo) even if it feels limiting. Use the first month to refine your processes, templates, and targeting. Once you're consistently using 80%+ of the Growth plan limits (5,000 emails monthly, 1,000 active leads), upgrade to Hypergrowth ($97/mo).

Starting too large often leads to wasted spending. The Growth plan forces you to focus on quality and efficiency before scaling volume.

Bundle Strategically

If you need both lead data and sending capabilities, consider these bundles:

For solopreneurs: Growth Sending ($37) + Growth Leads ($47) = $84/mo total. Gets you basic outreach plus 1,000 verified leads monthly.

For small teams: Hypergrowth Sending ($97) + Supersonic Leads ($97) = $194/mo total. Covers 100,000 emails and 4,500 leads monthly-enough for most small B2B operations.

For agencies: Light Speed Sending ($358) + Hyperleads ($197) = $555/mo total. Supports multiple clients with high volume and SISR deliverability protection.

Always choose annual billing if possible-the 20% discount pays for itself within 10 months.

Supplement with Specialist Tools

While Instantly provides an all-in-one platform, supplementing with specialist tools can improve results:

Lead enrichment: Use Clay for more sophisticated data enrichment and waterfall sequences across multiple data providers.

LinkedIn prospecting: Pair Instantly with Expandi for LinkedIn outreach that warms prospects before email sequences begin.

List cleaning: Use Findymail for catch-all verification beyond what Instantly's credits provide.

Analytics and attribution: Connect Close CRM via Instantly's native integration to track which campaigns actually generate closed deals, not just replies.

Success Stories and Realistic Expectations

What can you realistically achieve with Instantly? Based on user reports and industry benchmarks:

Deliverability: 85-95% inbox placement is achievable with proper setup. Users report this consistently when following best practices.

Reply rates: 1-3% is typical for cold email. High-quality targeting and messaging can push this to 4-5%. Lower than 0.5% indicates targeting or message problems.

Meeting booking: Of the replies you get, roughly 20-30% will be positive and interested. Of those, 40-60% will actually schedule meetings. So for every 1,000 emails sent, expect 10-15 replies and 2-4 booked meetings.

Time to value: Most users report seeing their first positive replies within the first week of sending campaigns (after the 2-week warmup period). Consistent meeting flow typically establishes by week 6-8.

ROI timeline: If your average customer value is $5,000 and Instantly costs $97/month (Hypergrowth), you need to close one deal every 5 months to break even. Most B2B operations achieve this within 2-3 months of consistent outreach.

Alternatives If Instantly Isn't the Right Fit

Based on your specific needs, here are alternatives worth considering:

For agencies needing white-label: Smartlead offers agency-specific features including client sub-accounts, white-labeling, and client-specific reporting.

For multichannel outreach: Lemlist combines email, LinkedIn, and phone in unified sequences with strong personalization features.

For enterprise sales teams: Reply.io provides comprehensive sales engagement features including AI SDR capabilities and deeper CRM integrations.

For tight budgets: Woodpecker or QuickMail offer email-only features at lower price points, though with fewer advanced features.

For technical teams: Building a custom solution with SendGrid or Amazon SES for sending and a tool like Clay for enrichment can be more cost-effective at very high volumes, but requires significant technical expertise.

Bottom Line

Instantly's 14-day free trial gives you enough time to test the core email outreach features, but you'll need to move fast. Connect your accounts on day one, start warmup immediately, and run a real campaign-don't just click around.

If cold email is your primary outreach channel and you want unlimited sending accounts without complicated per-user pricing, Instantly is worth testing. The Growth plan at $37/mo is a reasonable entry point after the trial, though most serious users end up on Hypergrowth ($97/mo) for the higher limits and team features.

The platform excels at deliverability when you follow best practices, offers genuine value with unlimited email accounts, and provides enough features to run sophisticated campaigns. The credit system for premium features adds complexity and cost, but it's transparent enough once you understand it.

Key takeaway: Instantly isn't a magic solution that automatically generates meetings. It's a powerful tool that amplifies good strategy and proper execution. If you have strong targeting, compelling messaging, and follow deliverability fundamentals, Instantly helps you scale those efforts efficiently. If you're hoping the tool will compensate for weak fundamentals, you'll be disappointed regardless of which platform you choose.

Start Your Free 14-Day Instantly Trial →

Just remember: the Leads database requires a separate subscription, and credits don't roll over. Plan your usage accordingly, document what works during your trial, and be ready to scale what proves successful in those first 14 days.