--- title: "SeekOut pricing: Core costs, credits and annual billing" canonical: https://metix.ai/blog/seekout-pricing published: 2026-10-13 updated: 2026-10-13 author: "Metix AI" --- # SeekOut pricing: Core costs, credits and annual billing Canonical: https://metix.ai/blog/seekout-pricing SeekOut Core costs $179 monthly or $1,788 upfront for a year. Compare the payment commitment and usage limits with Metix Starter, then download the cost sheet. By [Metix AI editorial team](https://metix.ai/about) (Editorial) Metix AI publishes this comparison and sells recruiting software. Product facts checked October 12, 2026. Cost examples are calculations from published prices, not customer results. ## What does SeekOut cost? SeekOut Sourcing Core, also called Recruit Core, costs $179 billed monthly or $1,788 paid upfront for a year, equivalent to $149 a month. Core includes 500 contact credits and 1,000 exports each month. SeekOut advertises a 14-day Core trial without a credit card. Prices and plan details come from [SeekOut's pricing page](https://www.seekout.com/pricing/), checked October 12, 2026. If you have been budgeting from an older Lite price or a guide that says every SeekOut plan requires a quote, start with the current Core offer. Swipe horizontally to see every column. **Current SeekOut software plans, USD, checked October 12, 2026** | Plan | Billing | What changes | | - | - | - | | Sourcing Core (Recruit Core) | $179 monthly, or $1,788 upfront annually | 500 contact credits and 1,000 exports per month; AI search and multi-step email campaigns | | Sourcing | Custom quote, billed annually | 750 contacts and 5,000 exports per month per seat; advanced filters, SSO and dedicated customer success | | Sourcing + Integration | Custom quote, billed annually | Adds ATS integration and rediscovery, unified search and reporting | | Full Recruiting Funnel | Custom quote, billed annually | Adds inbound applicant evaluation, AI screening and configurable workflows | **Confirm the seats before paying.** The same official page describes Core for individual recruiters and a first dedicated recruiting seat, but its feature table lists three included seats. We could not reconcile those statements from the public page. Ask SeekOut to confirm the users, permissions and shared allowances shown at checkout. The prices here are for the listed subscription; we do not multiply or divide them by a seat count. Core already includes AI-powered search, more than 30 filters, email integration, sending on behalf of a colleague and AI multi-step campaigns. Calling it a manual search database would miss capabilities a small recruiting team can use. ## Should you pay monthly or annually? At today's prices, twelve monthly Core payments total $2,148. Paying $1,788 upfront saves $360 over that full year. Choose the billing period around your expected hiring workload after the trial. The table below compares cash paid for one listed subscription over different periods. Annual columns stay constant because you pay for twelve months at the start. Metix Starter appears alongside Core to show the commitment required to try a different workflow. Swipe horizontally to see every column. **Base subscription cash paid, before taxes, add-ons and internal labor** | Paid months used | SeekOut Core: monthly | SeekOut Core: annual upfront | Metix Starter: monthly | Metix Starter: annual upfront | | - | - | - | - | - | | 1 | $179 | $1,788 | $99 | $1,068 | | 3 | $537 | $1,788 | $297 | $1,068 | | 6 | $1,074 | $1,788 | $594 | $1,068 | | 10 | $1,790 | $1,788 | $990 | $1,068 | | 12 | $2,148 | $1,788 | $1,188 | $1,068 | For a three-month hiring project, Core monthly payments total $537. An annual purchase still requires $1,788 upfront. Core's annual payment becomes lower than cumulative monthly payments in month 10, by just $2. If you expect to use Core all year and have confirmed the plan fits, the $360 annual saving is more relevant. SeekOut's self-serve terms say subscriptions renew automatically, cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period, and the unused portion of a prepaid year is generally non-refundable, subject to stated exceptions and applicable law. Save the checkout terms before paying. [SeekOut self-serve terms, sections 2 and 5](https://www.seekout.com/terms/selfserve/) Metix Starter's current published prices are $99 monthly or $1,068 billed yearly, equivalent to $89 a month. These are different products with different allowances. A lower subscription payment does not establish lower cost per qualified candidate or per hire. [Metix plans and usage rules](https://metix.ai/pricing) [Download the 12-month cost comparison (CSV)](https://metix.ai/assets/resources/seekout-pricing-cost-worksheet.csv). The monthly columns use `monthly price × paid months`; the annual columns use the full published annual payment. Calculations assume unchanged prices and exclude free trials, discounts, refunds and additional purchases. ## Check contacts, exports and ATS access separately Core's 500 contact credits and 1,000 exports are separate allowances. A contact lookup and a candidate export do different jobs. Check both against the work your team intends to do each month. SeekOut's help center distinguishes email credits from phone credits. Retrieving several email addresses for the same person does not consume extra email credits, and a lookup that finds no contact information returns the credit. Monthly contact credits do not roll over; add-on availability depends on the plan. Ask how the advertised Core allowance is divided or shared before treating it as 500 complete email-and-phone records. [Contact credit rules](https://support.seekout.com/en/articles/11878177-contact-information-credits) An export consumes one export credit per candidate. Exporting 200 candidate profiles therefore uses 200 export credits; downloading an existing XLS export again does not consume more. An export allowance says nothing about whether the exported candidates meet your requirements. [Export credit rules](https://support.seekout.com/en/articles/11878225-export-credits) Core lists Excel, PDF and ATS export. The pricing table places ATS integration and rediscovery in Sourcing + Integration and Full Recruiting Funnel. If the purchase depends on searching your historical applicants or syncing records with your ATS, budget for the right plan and ask for a demonstration using your ATS. ## What changes if you choose Metix Starter? Metix Starter includes one AI Agent plus 5,000 Credits per month. An Agent runs a hiring workflow from sourcing through interview booking. Your team writes the brief, reviews candidates and approves outreach. No Metix staff member reviews the shortlist on a self-serve subscription. Outside an active Agent's workflow, a contact unlock costs 10 Credits and a Deep Search list costs 100. Activating an Agent above the plan allowance costs 3,000 Credits. Work inside an active Agent's workflow uses 0 Credits. That rule does not make the subscription free or guarantee replies, interviews or hires. For standalone work, estimate Credits as `10 × contact unlocks + 100 × Deep Search lists + 3,000 × additional Agent activations`. Do not convert SeekOut contact credits into Metix Credits at a one-to-one rate. They meter different actions. Swipe horizontally to see every column. **Metix Starter: illustrative standalone usage in one monthly allowance** | Work outside the included Agent | Credits used | Of the 5,000 included | | - | - | - | | 100 contact unlocks + 10 lists | 1,000 + 1,000 = 2,000 | 3,000 remain | | Same work + 1 additional Agent activation | 2,000 + 3,000 = 5,000 | 0 remain | | Same work + 2 additional Agent activations | 2,000 + 6,000 = 8,000 | 3,000 short; confirm more capacity before buying | These are budget examples, not trial results. The included Agent does not consume an additional activation charge in this calculation. Agent counts are not recruiter seats. The public pricing information does not establish concurrent Agent limits or cross-month activation rules; confirm those if they determine your purchase. The wider [Metix AI vs SeekOut comparison](https://metix.ai/compare/metix-vs-seekout) covers the workflow choice. Test the tasks that consume your recruiter's time. SeekOut already includes search and campaign automation in Core, so compare the handoff and remaining work on your role. If you need to source inside an AI assistant, SeekOut's [Core announcement](https://www.seekout.com/blog/introducing-seekout-recruit-core-enterprise-grade-ai-sourcing-built-for-small-teams/) describes MCP access and Workspaces for scoring and outreach. Metix does not offer a public people-search API or MCP server. Check that requirement before choosing a trial. If you need people from the vendor to run the search, compare managed services separately. Metix Delivery is quoted separately and is not included in Starter. SeekOut publishes a separate [Spot services agreement](https://www.seekout.com/terms/seekout-spot-services-agreement/) with order forms. Confirm its current offer and quote directly; the Core software price does not price a managed search. ## What to confirm before you buy Save the plan and billing details you are offered, then check the questions below in the trial or quote. Leave unanswered costs blank in your budget instead of estimating a generic onboarding or overage percentage. - Which seats and user permissions does this purchase include, and how are allowances shared? - How many email lookups, phone lookups and exports do you expect to use in a busy month? - Does your workflow need file export, a working ATS integration or ATS rediscovery? - What happens when you exhaust an allowance, and what does extra capacity cost? - What is paid upfront, when does the plan renew, and when does cancellation take effect? A recruiter who needs 200 email lookups and exports 800 candidate profiles in a month has two separate usage requirements to check. A team needing 1,200 exports would exceed Core's listed export allowance even if it only requested 200 contacts. Ask for the extra-export price or the appropriate plan; the public pricing page does not supply a Core overage dollar rate. For a total-cost estimate, use `subscription cash + confirmed extras + internal hours × your hourly cost`. Include time spent reviewing unsuitable profiles, correcting messages and moving records. Measure those hours during the trial. We have not benchmarked either product's recruiting results for this article. ## Test the workflow on one role before committing SeekOut Core is worth testing when your recruiter wants direct search control and campaigns, and its contact and export limits fit the workload. If ATS rediscovery is essential, evaluate the quoted integration plan rather than expecting Core to include it. Try Metix when an open role needs sourcing, approved outreach, reply handling and scheduling, and you want to see how much operating time an Agent leaves with your team. The 14-day trial includes one AI Agent and 500 Credits, with no credit card required. 1. Create a real role brief with must-have requirements, location and compensation. Name the person who will review it. 2. Set up the Agent, review the first candidates and correct the brief where needed. Approve the outreach before it sends. 3. Record qualified prospects, interested replies, confirmed bookings and your review time separately. Use the [vendor evaluation scorecard](https://metix.ai/blog/ai-recruiting-vendor-evaluation-template) to decide whether to continue. Keep the same requirements when testing both tools and avoid contacting the same candidate twice. Before the trial ends, check whether the candidates meet your brief and whether the workflow saves enough of your team's time to justify continuing. ### Try Metix with one live role Bring the brief you plan to hire against. Test the candidate fit and the work left for your team before choosing a paid plan. 1 AI Agent and 500 Credits. No credit card required. ## Next step See plans, Credit rules, and trial terms on the [Metix AI pricing page](https://metix.ai/pricing). A 14-day trial includes a one-time 1 AI Agent and 500 Credits, with no card required.