How to Set Up Apollo.io for Your Team

By the end of this guide your team will share one Apollo.io account with users and permission profiles set, credit limits in place, mailboxes linked and your first outreach tasks ready. Apollo combines a contact database with email sequences, so the setup protects credits and sender reputation.

Before you start

Choose at least one admin. Apollo’s help center says only admins can change users and their roles, so name two if you can. Have the work email address each salesperson will send from.

Plan	What it adds for a team	Price as listed
Free	For exploring or very light use. Email campaigns limited to Gmail accounts	Free
Basic	Email sequencing and core integrations. Links 1 mailbox per user	See the current price on the Apollo pricing page
Professional	Higher credit limits, AI features, call recording, advanced CRM integrations	See the pricing page
Custom	Custom volumes, SSO, advanced security, dedicated support, API access	Through sales

The pricing page says all seats on an account are on the same plan, and that credits are pooled across the team. They are granted at the start of each billing cycle and do not roll over. Monthly billing can be canceled any time. Annual billing commits you for 12 months. The page text we read did not show per-user prices or seat minimums, so check them before you buy.

Create the account and workspace

1. Open the pricing page and start a trial or sign up for the free plan.
2. Sign up with the first admin’s work email.
3. Confirm you can log in, and have your sending email account ready.

Apollo’s onboarding page says paid teams are invited to book a session within 30 days of signing up. It lists installing the Chrome extension, launching a first sequence, setting up your mailbox and learning the AI Assistant as the essential steps. Free plan users do not get live onboarding but can use webinars, Apollo Academy and the Knowledge Base.

Invite your team

According to Apollo’s user article, you need an admin account for this.

1. Launch Apollo, then go to Settings, Users & teams, then Users.
2. Click New User.
3. Select a permission profile and enter the email addresses.
4. Click Send Invites.

Each person gets an email, clicks Accept Invitation and sets a login or signs in with single sign-on. If the email does not arrive, ask them to check spam and resend. If you have run out of seats, you need to buy more first.

The permission profiles article lists default profiles: Admin, Non-admin, Billing and seat manager, and Call assistant. Custom profiles are listed for organization plans.

Set the admin and data settings

On the Users page, admins can set a credit limit for each user. Click the user’s credits, or check several users and click Edit credit limit, choose a limit and click Save. Admins can also assign a territory, which limits a user to prospecting contacts in that area, and assign teams.

On data, Apollo’s AI policy says it may use Customer Data as inputs to train its internal models, which run on its own infrastructure and are not shared with third parties. It says it will not share customer data with third-party providers for training without disclosure and consent. The page does not describe an opt-out. If you connect Apollo to tools such as Claude or ChatGPT, the policy says you must disable model-training settings on those platforms first. Read it fully and contact [email protected] with questions. Our AI use policy guide can help you set rules.

Connect your other apps

Each person links their own mailbox, as the mailbox article explains.

1. Launch Apollo and click Settings, Outbound, then Mailbox.
2. Click Link mailbox.
3. Click Gmail or Outlook, check the box to agree to Apollo’s terms of service and click Link mailbox.
4. Select or sign in to your email account and agree to the permissions.

Apollo says Gmail is its preferred provider, the connection applies only to the person who authorizes it, and Outlook uses delegated permissions. Mailbox limits depend on plan, with Basic at 1 mailbox per user. Apollo recommends you then configure the mailbox to avoid deliverability issues. For CRM links, the onboarding page says teams commonly connect Salesforce or HubSpot.

Tasks to try first

Build a small starter list

Use this when you know your ideal customer but not their names. Agree your filters first and write them down.

Job titles: [owner, general manager]
Location: [your service area]
Company size: [1-50 employees]
Industry: [your target industry]
Rule: save the list, review 20 contacts by eye before enriching any.

Draft a first outreach email with the AI Assistant

Use this to get a plain first draft for review.

Write a short cold email to a [job title] at a [type of business] in [city]. We offer [service]. Mention one reason it could help them, ask one question, and keep it under 90 words. Do not invent facts about their company.

Set a credit rule for the team

Use this so credits last the whole cycle.

Rule 1: Each user has a credit limit set by an admin.
Rule 2: Enrich only contacts you plan to email this week.
Rule 3: The admin checks the credit usage page every Friday.

Common problems

If linking a mailbox fails with an error, Apollo says to check that it is not a Google group, because those are not supported. If you hit your mailbox limit, upgrade your plan or unlink a mailbox before linking another. If you need more mailboxes, the help center says you can generate domains and mailboxes inside Apollo.