# What AI recruiting tools actually cost in 2026, read off the vendors' own pages

Canonical: https://metix.ai/blog/ai-recruiting-tools-pricing-2026

Fourteen AI recruiting tools, every price read off the vendor's own page, most of them on 10 August 2026. Eleven publish at least one number, Paradox, Findem and GoPerfect publish none, and the gap between sticker and spend comes from three places: seats that multiply, quotas that run out, and tiers that only exist behind a sales call.
Market-wide pricing survey of fourteen AI recruiting tools (LinkedIn Recruiter, hireEZ, SeekOut, Juicebox, Leonar, Wellfound, Ashby, Gem, Dover, Fetcher, Paradox, Findem, GoPerfect, Metix AI) organized by billing unit, with every published price read off the vendor's own page, quote-only tiers stated as quote-only, a five-line twelve-month spend model, a checklist of questions to send every vendor, and SHRM cost benchmarks cited to the primary source. Eleven vendors publish at least one transactable number; Paradox, Findem and GoPerfect publish none. Checked August 2026.
## FAQ

**Which AI recruiting tools publish real pricing in 2026?**

Eleven of the fourteen we checked in August 2026 publish at least one transactable number: LinkedIn (Recruiter Lite only, on its help center), hireEZ (one solo rate), SeekOut (Core only), Juicebox, Leonar (both plans, at all three billing terms), Wellfound, Ashby (Foundations only), Gem (one startup figure), Dover, Fetcher, and Metix AI. Three publish nothing: Paradox and Findem redirect their pricing URLs to marketing pages, and GoPerfect lists plan names and scope with no dollar figure at any tier.

**How much does LinkedIn Recruiter cost in 2026?**

Recruiter Lite is $170 a month or $1,680 a year for a single license, with licenses two through five at $270 a month each and a five-recruiter cap (checked August 2026, published on LinkedIn's help center rather than its marketing pages). Each license includes 30 InMails a month. Recruiter Corporate, RPS and RPS+ publish no prices; all three are quote-only.

**What is the cheapest AI recruiting tool in this comparison?**

It depends on the job you are buying it to do. Four vendors have a free way in that is not a full hiring process on its own: Dover's ATS is free with unlimited users and jobs, with marketplace recruiters paid separately; Juicebox has a free tier below its paid seats; Wellfound Reach Explore is free with 20 contact reveals a month; and Gem is free for six months for companies under 30 employees. Among published paid entry prices, Metix AI Starter is $99 a month for 5,000 Credits and 1 AI Agent, Leonar Starter is $95 per user a month if you prepay the year and $119 billed monthly, Juicebox Starter is $99 per seat a month on yearly billing, and Gem shows $130 a month for an eligible 1 to 10 FTE startup. Those are different products with different eligibility rules, so the cheapest usable option is the one that covers your seats, your outreach volume and the recruiting work your team can actually do.

**Why is the published price different from what teams actually spend?**

Three mechanisms separate them. Seats multiply, sometimes at a higher rate than the first one, as with LinkedIn's $270 add-seats, and sometimes by plain multiplication, as with Leonar at $95 to $119 per user, where five recruiters is $475 to $595 a month. Metered quotas of InMails, contact credits or email lookups run out before the month does, and the overage is a purchase. And most ladders end in a quote-only tier, where the price is a negotiation rather than a number.

**How much does Metix AI cost?**

Monthly plans are $99, $199, $299, and $499; annual plans cost $1,068, $2,148, $3,228, and $5,388. They include 5,000, 10,500, 16,000, or 27,000 monthly Credits and 1, 2, 3, or 5 AI Agents. Contact information costs 10 Credits, a Deep Search list 100, and an additional AI Agent 3,000. The 14-day trial includes 1 AI Agent and 500 Credits with no card.