# Apollo.io vs Instantly: which do AI models recommend for sales engagement, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, Sales engagement platforms. Five of twelve models named Apollo.io first on the direct prompt; zero named Instantly. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/sales/sales-engagement/apollo-io-vs-instantly/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo.io | 33% | #2 of 10 | 16% | 57 | 12 of 12 |
| Instantly | 2% | #6 of 10 | 20% | 15 | 9 of 12 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Mistral Small: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Outreach, Salesloft)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesloft)
- Llama 4 Maverick: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io, Outreach, Salesloft)
- Kimi K2: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Outreach, Salesloft)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Salesloft)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither first, one named (alternatives: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach, Salesloft)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither first, one named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither first, one named (first choices: Outreach) (alternatives: Apollo.io, Salesloft)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: HubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Outreach)

## What the models said about Apollo.io

- "Apollo.io is the most cost-effective platform on the market because it consolidates your contact database and your outreach tool into one platform." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Instantly

- "Instantly.ai (CAUTION — account bans & reseller risk)" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "they lack deep CRM orchestration or enterprise telephony" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, comparative prompt, soft negative)
- "Klenty/Reply.io/Lemlist/Instantly for SMB/mid-market (better value, multichannel, ~$40-60/user/mo)" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt, first choice)
- "🥇 Best Overall: Instantly.ai ($30/month) - Exceptional value for pure email campaigns" (Mistral Small, budget prompt, first choice)
- "Consider: Modern alternatives focused on deliverability stability and flexible pricing, such as Instantly, Smartlead" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt, alternative)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.