A cold calling service costs from about $8 an hour for an offshore freelancer to $14,000 a month for a managed outbound program. The spread comes from five pricing models, three units of work (dials, conversations and meetings) and the gap between the listed price and the invoice after setup fees, minimum terms and no-shows.
We run cold calling for US and Canadian companies from Pakistan and we publish our prices: a dedicated SDR at $1,800 a month, or a single job from $399. Below they sit next to what other vendors published in 2026; every third-party figure was read from the linked page on October 14, 2026.
Freelancers charge by the hour ($8-$75). Agencies charge a retainer ($2,000-$14,000 a month) or a per-meeting fee ($150-$1,500), per REsimpli, Leadium and Belkins, all verified October 14, 2026 and linked below. The only comparison that holds up is cost per connected call and cost per meeting held.
What you are actually buying: dials, conversations or meetings
Settle the unit first. A vendor sells one of three things.
- Dials. One attempt to reach the number on the row; most end in voicemail, a gatekeeper or a dead line. Hourly and pay-as-you-go pricing is dial pricing.
- Connected calls. A human picks up, gatekeepers included. Across our 2026 campaigns, 35-48% of dials are answered by a person; the decision-maker rate is lower.
- Meetings. A booked (or, if you negotiate it, held) appointment with someone in your ICP. Pay-per-appointment vendors price here, and the definition of “qualified” decides whether the price is a bargain or a trap.
Our Jan-Sep 2026 totals, every client: 78,252 connected calls, 8,846 strategic follow-ups, 6,848 high-quality leads and 2,228 meetings and conversions. That is one meeting per 35 connected calls, averaged over every campaign type. Some campaigns did far better; some produced nothing.
The five pricing models side by side
| Model | Typical 2026 price | Minimum term | Who owns the list | Recordings | What you hold at the end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly freelancer | $8-$15/hr offshore, $20-$75/hr US (REsimpli) | None, usually | You | If you provide the dialer | Whatever they logged |
| Commission-only | $0 upfront, a cut of closed deals or a per-meeting fee | None | Often theirs | Rarely | Little; the caller leaves with the pipeline |
| Pay-per-appointment | $150-$1,500 per meeting (Leadium); $150-$400 per set B2B appointment (REsimpli) | Often a block of meetings | Usually theirs | Sometimes | Meetings, plus the no-shows you paid for |
| Monthly retainer | $3,000-$14,000/month (Leadium); $5,000-$15,000 plus $1K-$15K setup (GigRadar) | 3-6 months common | Varies; ask | Usually | Pipeline, reports, sometimes the data |
| Pay-as-you-go job | Munzai Starter: $399 launch price, $499 list, for 150 leads and 300 dials | One job | You | On request, kept 90 days | Your list back with a disposition on every row, a summary and a debrief call |
| AI voice agent (sub-market) | $0.07-$0.15 per minute for autonomous agents; $15-$149 per user per month for AI-assisted dialers (Prospeo) | Monthly | You | Yes | Transcripts; qualification quality varies |
Table sources, all verified October 14, 2026: Leadium, Outsourced SDR Cost in 2026 (dated June 15, 2026); GigRadar, Outsource Sales 2026 (May 2026); REsimpli, How Much Does Cold Calling Cost? (updated August 3, 2026); Prospeo, AI Cold Calling in 2026; Munzai pay-as-you-go SDR.
To test outbound without a retainer, see our pay-as-you-go SDR packages: your list, your script, a Munzai SDR dialing every lead twice, from $399 a job, no monthly commitment. The dispositioned file is back in four to seven business days depending on the package.
Published 2026 prices from named vendors
| Vendor or source | Published price | Where we read it |
|---|---|---|
| Leadium | $3,500/month cold-calling-only with Leadium’s SDRs in the US; $4,000-$5,000/month multichannel; month to month | Leadium blog, verified October 14, 2026 |
| SalesRoads | Starts at $9,950 per 4-week cycle (ZoomInfo); $6,950-$9,500/month with $1K-$3K setup, 3-6 month minimum (GigRadar) | ZoomInfo Pipeline and GigRadar, both verified October 14, 2026 |
| CIENCE, Belkins, Martal, SalesHive (third-party estimates) | CIENCE $5,000-$10,000; Belkins $6,000-$12,000 with $5K-$15K setup; Martal $3,000-$11,000; SalesHive $4,000-$8,000 per month | GigRadar, verified October 14, 2026 |
| Belkins (own explainer) | Basic retainers from about $2,000/month; $5,000-$10,000/month for comprehensive programs; cost per appointment $50-$500 | Belkins pricing models, verified October 14, 2026 |
| Callbox | Outsourced lead generation $6K-$15K/month; $150-$600 per qualified lead | Callbox cost comparison, verified October 14, 2026 |
| Munzai | Dedicated SDR $1,800/month, 40 hours a week, month to month, no setup fee; pay-as-you-go jobs $399/$699/$1,249 launch ($499/$899/$1,599 list) | B2B cold calling services and pay-as-you-go SDR |
The retainer market clusters between $3,500 and $10,000 a month; the low end is usually single-channel or offshore. Most vendors do not publish a number. SalesHive’s pricing page lists Starter, Growth and Crush packages with no dollar figure (verified October 14, 2026). Few publish a seat under $2,000 or a per-job price you can buy without a sales call. Our comparison pages go agency by agency.
What Munzai charges, and why it is lower
Our prices as published on October 14, 2026:
- Dedicated SDR: $1,800 a month for a 40-hour week, month to month with 10 days’ notice, no setup fee (B2B cold calling services page). Seat scope is on the outsourced SDR services page.
- Pay-as-you-go Starter: $399 launch price (first 25 jobs), $499 list. 150 leads, 300 dials, one SDR, 4-5 business days. File, summary and debrief call included (pay-as-you-go SDR page).
- Growth: $699 launch, $899 list. 300 leads, 600 dials, two SDRs in parallel, 5-6 business days.
- Scale: $1,249 launch, $1,599 list. 600 leads, 1,200 dials, two to three SDRs, 6-7 business days.
- Announcement: $1.20 per lead at launch, $1.50 list. One dial, voicemail and email per lead, minimum 300 leads.
- Add-ons: a third attempt on every lead for +25% of the package (+35% at list price), and a script written for you at $149.
The price is lower because we are a Pakistani company and our SDRs live and are paid in Pakistan. They work US and Canadian business hours from local numbers, with evenings and weekends available when a campaign needs them. Leadium’s cold-call-only program, staffed from the US, is $3,500 a month; our dedicated SDR on a 40-hour week is $1,800. The payroll sits in a different country.
Cost per connected call and cost per meeting: the math
Pay-as-you-go Starter first. $399 for 150 leads and 300 dials is $2.66 per lead or $1.33 per dial at the launch price ($3.33 and $1.66 at the $499 list price). Growth is about $1.17 per dial and Scale about $1.04 at launch prices. At our 35-48% answer rate, 300 dials produce roughly 105-144 connected calls, about $2.77-$3.80 per connected call on a Starter job.
The dedicated seat is cheaper per dial. Our outsourcing benefits post puts a dedicated SDR at 80-110 dials a day, roughly 1,700 a month, about $1.06 per dial on the $1,800 seat.
Per meeting, the arithmetic is hypothetical. Our B2B cold calling services page says a dedicated SDR making about 1,700 dials a month typically books 8-20 qualified meetings. On the $1,800 seat that is $90-$225 per meeting. The cross-client average of one meeting per 35 connected calls would put a seat’s 600-800 connects at 17-23 a month, but that total counts conversions as well as meetings across every campaign type, so treat 17-23 as an upper bound. Our pay-as-you-go FAQ agrees from the other direction: when list and offer fit, a booked meeting took 50 to 170 dials in 2026, and some campaigns produced none. On a 300-dial Starter job that is 2-6 meetings, or $67-$200 per meeting. None of this is a forecast for your list.
Belkins’ own benchmarks (verified October 14, 2026) report a 9.9% per-dial connect rate, 58% of connects becoming conversations and 4.6% of conversations booking a meeting, roughly one meeting per 370 dials across 175,000+ dials in 2025. Belkins’ calls follow email silence, so the funnels differ, but the unit is the same.
Why pay-per-appointment looks cheap and often is not
A $200 meeting sounds cheaper than an $1,800 seat. Run the numbers first.
- Booked and held are different things. Suppose three in ten booked meetings never show. At $200 per booking, ten bookings cost $2,000 and you sit in seven: $286 per held meeting, before you check whether the seven fit your ICP.
- Quality bands are priced in. Leadium’s breakdown (verified October 14, 2026) puts loosely qualified appointments at $150-$300, ICP-matched meetings at $300-$500 and verified executive meetings at $800-$1,500. The cheap end is cheap because the bar is low.
- Year one is the expensive year. GigRadar (verified October 14, 2026) estimates year-one effective cost per qualified meeting at most retainer firms at $1,000-$3,000 once setup fees and ramp are counted.
- Against a seat: eight meetings in a month from an $1,800 seat, the bottom of the typical range, is $225 each, and you keep every callback and note from the other conversations.
We sell attempts and conversations. A vendor paid only for meetings has every reason to book soft ones.
Is 200 dials a day a lot?
For a human caller who logs notes and emails after every answered call, 200 dials a day is the top of what is realistic. Our dedicated SDRs log 80-110. The Bridge Group’s 2025 SDR Metrics report (351 B2B companies, verified October 14, 2026) found phone-centric in-house teams average 56 dials a day. If a vendor quotes more, ask for a day’s call log and a recording.
Which model fits which company
The Bridge Group’s 2025 report (verified October 14, 2026) puts median in-house SDR on-target earnings at $80,000 ($55K base, $25K variable), average ramp at 3.0 months, tenure at 1.9 years and 60% of SDRs at quota. Leadium, citing 2026 stack-cost surveys (verified October 14, 2026), adds $150-$400 per rep per month for a lean tool stack. That is the baseline; our in-house vs outsourced SDR guide has the full comparison.
- Under $1M revenue, or a new offer: do not sign a retainer. Run one pay-as-you-go job ($399-$1,249) to learn whether the list and offer convert. If your deals are under about $2,000, a human caller is hard to justify at any price.
- $1-10M revenue with someone free to take meetings: a dedicated seat ($1,800 a month with us, $3,500-$8,000 elsewhere) is usually the best cost per meeting, as long as a closer is free the same week.
- $10M+ with a long cycle and big ACV: per-meeting pricing at the $800-$1,500 “verified executive” tier can make sense when one deal pays for a year of meetings; multichannel retainers at $5,000-$14,000 earn their keep when you need email and LinkedIn too.
Questions to ask any vendor about price before signing
- What is the all-in monthly number, including setup, data, tools and management? Leadium (verified October 14, 2026) says get it in writing, because a $5,000 quote can become $8,000 on the invoice.
- What is the minimum term, and what does cancellation cost?
- Who owns the list and the CRM data when we stop?
- Do I get recordings, and for how long? (Ours: on request; pay-as-you-go recordings are kept 90 days.)
- Where are the callers, and what hours do they work in my prospects’ time zone?
- What counts as a “qualified” meeting, and do I pay for no-shows?
Our B2B cold calling services page covers the fee, the term, the recordings and the hours. Ask us the other two; we answer in writing.
FAQ
How much does a cold calling service cost per hour?
Hourly cold callers run $8-$15 an hour offshore and $20-$75 in the US, with B2B callers at $35-$85, per REsimpli’s August 2026 guide (verified October 14, 2026). Our dedicated SDR at $1,800 for about 173 hours a month is roughly $10.40 an hour, with the local number, DNC scrubbing and weekly reporting included (B2B cold calling services page).
How much does it cost to hire a cold caller in-house?
The Bridge Group’s 2025 report (verified October 14, 2026) puts median SDR on-target earnings at $80,000, plus a 3.0-month paid ramp, then tools at $150-$400 a month per rep (Leadium, citing 2026 stack-cost surveys, verified October 14, 2026), a manager’s time, benefits and recruiting. GigRadar’s fully loaded estimate for a US SDR in 2026 is around $140,000 a year (verified October 14, 2026).
Is commission-only cold calling a good deal?
It is cheap until it works. Commission-only callers usually keep the list, pick the easiest prospects and leave when a salaried job appears, taking the relationships with them. You pay in churn and lost data. We do not offer it.
Do cold calling services charge setup fees?
Many retainer vendors do. GigRadar (verified October 14, 2026) lists setup fees of $1,000-$3,000 at CIENCE, Martal and SalesRoads and $5,000-$15,000 at Belkins and Operatix, on top of 3-12 month minimums. Our pay-as-you-go jobs have no setup fee and no commitment beyond one job; the dedicated seat has none either and runs month to month with 10 days’ notice (B2B cold calling services page).
Pay per appointment or retainer: which is cheaper?
Per appointment is cheaper when you want a handful of meetings and never need the data behind them. A retainer or seat is cheaper per held meeting once volume passes roughly ten a month, because you stop paying for no-shows and loosely qualified bookings. Price both as cost per held, ICP-fit meeting.
