Updated October 31, 2025

TL;DR: Agencies need scalable, cost-effective AI solutions for managing multiple client campaigns. Instantly's AI Reply Agent uses a credit-based pricing model that eliminates per-seat fees, allowing you to automate reply handling across unlimited client accounts. The core structure combines flat-fee Outreach plans (starting at $37/month for unlimited email accounts) with predictable credits for AI operations (5 credits per AI reply). This approach gives agencies transparent costs, efficient scaling, and maximum ROI across diverse client portfolios without compounding software expenses as you grow.

How Instantly's AI Reply Agent pricing works for agencies

Instantly built its AI Reply Agent pricing around credits rather than per-seat fees. This matters when you manage 10, 20, or 50 client campaigns simultaneously.

Understanding the credit system for AI replies

The AI Reply Agent consumes 5 credits per automated reply. These credits come from your SuperSearch plan allocation, which also fuels lead enrichment and other AI features.

Nano SuperSearch starts at $9/mo with 150 credits, Growth SuperSearch starts at $47/month with 1,500 to 2,000 credits. Supersonic offers 5,000 to 7,500 credits at $97/month.

You control exactly when the AI Reply Agent engages. Configure it for Human-in-the-Loop review where a team member approves each draft before it sends, or set Autopilot mode to let the agent respond within 5 minutes. One agency operator noted:

"The platform is super intuitive, easy to set up, and makes it simple to manage multiple domains and inboxes at scale. Deliverability is great and the analytics give us exactly what we need to optimize campaigns quickly." - Customer Review

Watch Instantly's AI Reply Agent in action below:

No per-seat fees: A key advantage for agency growth

Traditional AI agent platforms often charge per user or per resolution, with some platforms costing nearly $1 per resolution plus per-seat fees for human agents. That model creates unpredictable expenses as your team grows or as AI handles more conversations.

Instantly flips this. Your Outreach plans provide unlimited email accounts and warmup for a flat monthly fee.

Add three new clients with 15 email domains? Your base Outreach cost stays the same. Scale to 100 client inboxes? Still the same flat fee. This structure gives you predictable overhead for managing throughput across your entire client portfolio.

AI Reply Agent credit consumption explained

Calculate your monthly credit needs in three steps:

• Estimate reply volume per campaign. If a client campaign generates 200 replies monthly and you automate 50 percent with the AI Reply Agent, you consume 500 credits (100 replies × 5 credits each).
• Multiply by client count. Run 10 similar campaigns and you need 5,000 credits monthly. The Supersonic SuperSearch plan at $97/month delivers 5,000 to 7,500 credits.
• Track consumption in your dashboard. Monitor usage per campaign and adjust AI engagement rules if any client niche generates unexpectedly high reply volumes.

For higher volumes, Hyper Credits starts at $197/month with 10,000 to 200,000 credits depending on your tier.

Instantly's core pricing plans: Outreach, SuperSearch, and CRM

Instantly separates its platform into modular plans so agencies pay only for what they use and scale each component independently.

Outreach plans: Unlimited accounts for scalable sending

Outreach plans handle email sending, warmup, sequences, A/B testing, and deliverability protections. All tiers include unlimited email accounts and unlimited warmup.

• Growth costs $37/month ($30/month annual). It supports 2,000 uploaded contacts and 10,000 emails monthly. Use this for smaller client portfolios or pilot campaigns.
• Hypergrowth runs $97/month ($77.60/month annual). You get 10,000 uploaded contacts, 100,000 emails monthly, and premium support. Agencies managing 5 to 15 active client campaigns typically land here.
• Light Speed is $358/month ($286.30/month annual). This tier adds SISR, or Server & IP Sharding and Rotation, with dedicated private IP pools, 100,000 uploaded contacts, and 500,000 emails monthly. Choose Light Speed when primary inbox placement at scale becomes mission-critical.
• Enterprise offers custom pricing. It includes 200,000+ credits monthly, 500,000+ emails, a dedicated account manager, and a shared Slack channel.

SuperSearch plans: Fueling your AI with quality leads

SuperSearch taps into 450 million B2B leads with waterfall enrichment across 5+ data providers. Credits here power both lead access and AI Reply Agent operations.

• Nano is $9/month ($8.10/month annual) with 150 credits. This works for small tests or niche prospecting.
• Growth SuperSearch costs $47/month ($42.30/month annual) and delivers 1,500 to 2,000 credits. Most agencies start here for combined lead generation and moderate AI reply automation.
• Supersonic at $97/month ($87.30/month annual) provides 5,000 to 7,500 credits. Use this when you run multiple concurrent client campaigns with active AI reply handling.
• Hyper Credits starts at $197/month ($177.30/month annual) and scales up to 200,000 credits for agencies managing dozens of clients simultaneously.

Watch how to generate unlimited leads with SuperSearch in this tutorial below:

CRM plans: Managing replies and opportunities efficiently

Instantly's CRM module centralizes reply handling through Unibox, tracks opportunities, and manages pipelines. The AI Reply Agent integrates directly with Unibox for audit-friendly workflows.

• Growth CRM costs $47/month. It includes unlimited seats, Unibox access, opportunities tracking, and reporting.
• Hyper CRM runs $97/month and adds calling, SMS, Salesflows, and advanced team reporting.

Agencies typically bundle Outreach + SuperSearch + CRM for a complete stack. A starter combination runs about $131/month ($37 + $47 + $47), while a power sender setup with Light Speed Outreach and Hyper Credits approaches $555/month.

Outreach, SuperSearch & CRM Plans

Calculating the true cost of AI Reply Agents for your agency

Understanding total cost of ownership prevents surprises three months into heavy usage.

Estimating monthly AI Reply credit needs

Build a simple spreadsheet with four columns:

• Column A: Client name
• Column B: Estimated monthly replies
• Column C: Automation percentage
• Column D: Credit consumption (B × C × 5)

Sum Column D and match it to a SuperSearch tier. Ten clients generating 150 replies each with 60 percent automation need 4,500 credits monthly (covered by Supersonic). Twenty clients at that rate need 9,000 credits, pushing you into Hyper Credits at $197/month.

Combining AI Reply Agent with Outreach and lead generation costs

Layer your modules for total monthly spend. A mid-size agency stack:

• Hypergrowth Outreach: $97/month for unlimited sending across all clients
• Hyper Credits SuperSearch: $197/month for lead data and AI reply credits
• Hyper CRM: $97/month for centralized reply management

Total: $391/month. Spread across 15 clients, your per-client software cost is $26.

Calculate ROI with this formula: (Revenue from AI-assisted deals – Total Instantly cost) / Total Instantly cost. Instantly's TCO calculator guide walks through the complete math including domain costs and verification.

Beyond a cost standpoint, you can also easily integrate your AI Reply Agent with your entire stack like Calendly, Slack and more.

Avoiding hidden costs and maximizing ROI

Watch three potential cost traps:

• Uploaded contact limits: Growth Outreach caps at 2,000 contacts. Consolidating all client lists into one account may hit this ceiling fast. Hypergrowth's 10,000 contact limit usually solves this.
• Email throughput limits: Campaigns that exceed your plan's monthly email cap require a tier upgrade. Track send rates per client weekly to avoid deliverability issues.
• Credit overages: If AI Reply Agent automation exceeds your monthly allocation, you either pause automation or upgrade mid-month. Set dashboard alerts when credit usage hits 75 percent of your monthly pool.

When to pause AI automation

You always have the option of running the agent full autonomous or with a human in the loop (HITL). Start with HITL, train with the guidance section and then go full autonomous.

• Brand-sensitive conversations: Keep human oversight for executive outreach or regulated industries where AI errors carry reputation risk.
• Low-volume, high-value campaigns: If you send 50 emails monthly to Fortune 500 prospects, manual personalization may yield better results than AI handling.
• Complex negotiations: AI handles questions and objections well but can't navigate pricing discussions or multi-stakeholder buying processes.

To handle edge cases or just to tune the agent to mimic your style or tone of voice you can easily do this in our agent guidance section.

How Instantly helps agencies maximize AI Reply Agent value

Beyond pricing, the platform architecture and support systems determine real-world ROI.

Built-in warmup and deliverability network for optimal inbox placement

Instantly operates a deliverability network of 4.2 million accounts. Every email account you connect enters automated warmup, exchanging emails with network peers to build sender reputation before you launch client campaigns.

This warmup happens in the background at no additional cost. The process:

• Connect new client domains
• Let them warm for 30 days
• Ramp sending from 5 to 15 to 30 emails per day per inbox
• System monitors bounce rates, spam signals, and domain health automatically
• Sends pause if health metrics dip below safe thresholds

Light Speed plans add SISR technology, routing sends through dedicated IP pools. This isolates client campaigns from shared sender reputation risks and includes blacklist monitoring for proactive domain health management.

Human-in-the-Loop for quality control and brand consistency

Configure the AI Reply Agent for Human-in-the-Loop when brand voice precision matters. The agent drafts a response, flags it for review in Unibox, and waits for approval before sending.

This mode consumes credits only when you approve and send the reply. Rejected drafts do not trigger credit charges.

Autopilot mode removes the review step. The AI Reply Agent reads the incoming message, generates a contextually appropriate response based on your campaign goals, and sends it within 5 minutes.

Use Autopilot for high-volume, well-defined campaigns where response speed outweighs manual review. Instantly also integrates with Slack for reply notifications, letting agencies route AI-generated drafts to client-specific channels for quick approval.

Unified inbox for efficient reply management across clients

Unibox consolidates replies from all connected email accounts into a single interface. Tag conversations by client, campaign, or lead status using AI Custom Reply Labels.

The system automatically categorizes responses as "Interested," "Not Interested," "Out of Office," or custom labels you define. Agencies handling 50 to 100 active client inboxes can triage replies in minutes.

One user described their efficiency gains:

"It has all the tools needed for cold outbound in one place. Previously, I was running 3 different systems to get a fraction of the results." - Customer Review

Transparent reporting and analytics for performance tracking

Instantly provides campaign analytics tracking opens, replies, meetings booked, opportunities created, and pipeline value. Export these reports by campaign, client, or time period for client billing and internal audits.

The AI Reply Agent reports separately on automation rates, credit consumption, and response times. These metrics reconcile with your CRM and calendar data, giving you defensible numbers when clients ask for ROI proof.

Track which campaigns benefit most from automation and adjust strategy accordingly. If one client's reply rate drops after enabling Autopilot mode, switch back to Human-in-the-Loop and analyze message quality.

Instantly AI Reply Agent: A mini demo overview

Understanding setup and daily operations helps estimate implementation time.

Setting up your AI Reply Agent for client campaigns

Connect client email accounts through the Instantly platform. Upload contacts from your CRM or SuperSearch database. Build a sequence with 3 to 5 email steps, spacing follow-ups 3 to 5 days apart.

Navigate to AI Reply Agent settings inside your campaign. Toggle the feature on and choose Human-in-the-Loop or Autopilot mode. Write custom prompts defining how the agent should handle common replies like "Tell me more," "Not interested," or "Wrong person."

Watch the workshop video for an end to end view of how to use these agents.

Monitoring performance and adjusting strategy

Check your dashboard daily for:

• Credit consumption and remaining monthly balance
• Reply rates (AI-handled versus manual)
• Conversion rates from reply to meeting
• Domain health and bounce rates

If credit burn exceeds projections, adjust automation rules to engage only high-intent replies. Test different AI prompts and measure reply sentiment.

Monitor domain health weekly. Pause campaigns immediately if bounce rates exceed 1 percent or spam complaints spike. A deliverability crash during peak campaign season can cost you 2 to 4 weeks of pipeline coverage while domains recover.

Instantly's warmup system and health monitoring alert you before sender reputation drops. For troubleshooting, the beginners guide covers common optimization strategies.

Smart scaling for agencies with Instantly's AI Reply Agent

Predictable pricing structures give agencies the confidence to grow. Instantly's flat-fee Outreach plans eliminate per-seat penalties. Credit-based AI Reply Agent pricing scales with actual usage rather than headcount.

The math favors agencies. Traditional per-seat models charge $50 to $150 per user monthly. An agency with 10 team members pays $500 to $1,500 monthly just for seat access.

Instantly's Hypergrowth Outreach at $97/month serves the entire team with no seat multiplier. Calculate your per-client software cost by dividing total stack cost by client count. With a $400 monthly stack spread across 15 clients, software costs just $27 per client.

Ready to test AI reply automation with transparent pricing? Try Instantly free for 14 days. Connect one client inbox, measure credit consumption, and calculate ROI with real campaign data before committing to a paid plan.

FAQs

How many credits does an AI reply consume?
Each AI-generated reply consumes 5 credits from your SuperSearch plan allocation.

Can I use the AI Reply Agent with unlimited email accounts?
Yes. All Outreach plans include unlimited email accounts and the AI Reply Agent works across all connected inboxes. Set up client workspaces and assign team members to manage replies for specific campaigns without per-seat costs.

What is the difference between Instantly's AI Reply Agent and Copilot?
Copilot assists with campaign creation, lead research, and analytics, while the AI Reply Agent automates responses to incoming messages.

Are there any discounts for annual plans?
Yes, annual billing saves approximately 20 percent across Outreach and SuperSearch plans compared to monthly pricing.

How does Instantly ensure deliverability for AI-handled replies?
Replies route through the same warmed sender domains as your outbound campaigns, maintaining consistent sender reputation and primary inbox placement rates.

Key terms glossary

AI Reply Agent: Instantly's feature that automatically reads incoming lead replies and generates contextually appropriate responses within 5 minutes, configurable for Human-in-the-Loop review or Autopilot mode.

Credits: The consumption unit for SuperSearch lead access and AI Reply Agent operations, where 5 credits equal one AI-generated reply.

Human-in-the-Loop (HITL): A mode where the AI Reply Agent drafts responses for human review and approval before sending, providing quality control while reducing manual writing time.

Unibox: Instantly's centralized inbox interface that consolidates replies from all connected email accounts into a single dashboard for efficient triage and response management across multiple client campaigns.

SISR: Server & IP Sharding and Rotation, a deliverability feature on Light Speed and Enterprise plans that routes emails through dedicated private IP pools, protecting domain health when sending high volumes across multiple client campaigns.