What AI marketing software costs in 2026

How many AI marketing tools publish their prices?

We read the pricing page of every tool we review. Of the 17, 12 put a dollar figure on the page. The other 5 do not: Chowbus, Later Influence, SevenRooms, Toast Email Marketing and Upfluence. For each of them, the first step is a sales call or a demo.

One of the 12 sits on the line. Slang AI lists Core “starting at” $399 per location and Premium “starting at” $599, but every plan button says “Get a quote” and the page states no billing period (Slang AI). We count it as published, and the table shows its listed price with the billing not stated.

We found a free plan on 3 of the tools we score: GRIN, Smith.ai and Zapier.

Restaurant software is the least open category. Only Popmenu and Owner.com publish plan prices. Chowbus says its final price “depends on hardware and restaurant size” (Chowbus). SevenRooms shows plan names with a “Get a quote” button (SevenRooms). Toast’s pricing page names the product but gives no cost (our Toast review).

The other categories are more open. Every cold email tool publishes a price. Every AI voice agent tool lists a figure, though Slang AI sells by quote. In influencer marketing, Upfluence says its pricing “is modular and custom-quoted” (Upfluence), and the plans on Later’s pricing page cover Later Social, not Later Influence (Later). The full restaurant marketing ranking is on its own page.

Entry price by category

This is the cheapest paid plan for each tool, as the vendor’s page showed it when we read it on October 5 or 6, 2026. Where a vendor offers yearly billing, the yearly rate per month is shown too.

Vendor sources for the published rows: Smartlead, Instantly, lemlist, Goodcall, Smith.ai, Owner.com, GRIN, Modash, Creator.co and Zapier. Popmenu’s page blocked our reader on October 7, so its figures come from our Popmenu review, read October 5.

What a small business pays at a realistic volume

An entry price is a floor. What you pay depends on how much you send, answer or sell.

Cold email: 5,000 and 20,000 emails a month

At 5,000 emails a month, the entry plans all fit. Smartlead Base is $39 and allows 6,000 sends. Instantly Outreach Growth is $47 for 5,000 emails. lemlist Email is $69 billed monthly for 50,000 emails. The two cheapest plans also cap contacts: Smartlead Base at 2,000 and Instantly Growth at 1,000 uploaded contacts.

At 20,000 emails a month, two of the three need a bigger plan. Smartlead Pro is $94, or $4.70 per 1,000 emails. Instantly Outreach Hypergrowth is $97, or $4.85 per 1,000. lemlist Email stays at $69, or $3.45 per 1,000. See Instantly vs Smartlead and lemlist vs Smartlead for the trade-offs beyond price.

AI phone answering: 150 calls a month

Smith.ai’s Pro plan with 150 calls costs $270, which works out to $1.80 a call. Staying on the free plan would cost more at that volume. It includes 25 calls, then charges $3.00 a call, so 150 calls come to $375.

Goodcall counts unique customers, not calls. Starter at $79 includes 100 unique customers a month, then $0.50 per extra customer. At 150 unique callers that is $104. Repeat callers do not add to the count.

Slang AI’s listed price for a restaurant starts at $399 per location, and the final figure comes from a quote.

Restaurant online ordering: $5,000 a month in online sales

Owner.com’s Flexible plan is $249 a month plus a 5% restaurant fee on each order. At $5,000 a month in online sales, that is $249 plus $250, or $499. The Flat Rate plan is $499 with no restaurant fee. Below $5,000 a month, Flexible costs less. Owner.com says Flat Rate is “best for restaurants at $5k+/mo in online sales” (Owner.com).

Popmenu charges $1 per online order on top of its plan. Its FAQ says the restaurant can pass that fee to the guest at checkout or pay it itself (our Popmenu review).

Influencer marketing: self-serve vs managed

Self-serve platforms charge for software. The creators are paid separately. GRIN Starter is $200 a month, month to month. Modash Essentials is $299 a month, or $2,388 a year billed yearly. Creator.co Self Serve is $299 a month with a 3-month minimum, so the smallest monthly commitment is $897.

Managed service costs more. Creator.co Managed is $1,499 a month billed annually, or $2,199 billed monthly with a 6-month minimum. That minimum is $13,194. The plan includes up to 5 creator collaborations a month.

Hidden costs: minimums, contracts and per-order fees

These are the charges that do not show in the headline price.

• Contracts and minimums. Upfluence’s minimum contract is 12 months (Upfluence). Creator.co needs 3 months on Self Serve and 6 on Managed when billed monthly.
• Guest-side fees. Owner.com guests pay a 5% order support fee on both plans (Owner.com).
• Per-location pricing. Popmenu charges per location and does not publish its multi-location savings. Slang AI also prices per location.
• Add-ons. Creator.co sells extra contact credits at $99 for 100 and a $395 Jumpstart Onboarding (Creator.co). GRIN sells more credits on paid plans but gives no price for them.
• Overage. Smith.ai Pro (75 calls) charges $2.50 for each extra call. Goodcall charges $0.50 per extra unique customer.
• Payment fees. On Performance billed yearly, Modash Payments carries no fee up to $10,000 a year in payouts (creator payments and affiliate payouts combined), then 5% (Modash).
• Notice periods. Smith.ai bills month to month and asks for 30 days of notice to cancel (Smith.ai).

Monthly or yearly billing?

Yearly billing lowers the monthly rate on most published plans. Goodcall takes 15% off, Smartlead 17% and lemlist 20%. Zapier’s page says yearly billing saves 33%. Modash drops from $299 to $199 a month on its entry plan, and Creator.co from $299 to $199. Popmenu Starter drops from $179 to $159 per location when prepaid annually.

GRIN and Owner.com publish month-to-month plans with no annual contract. If you are trying a tool for the first time, a month-to-month plan limits what you lose if it does not fit.

How we read these prices

Each figure comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, with the date we read it. When a page shows a figure but sells by quote, we say so. The full table, with billing unit and source for every plan, is on our prices page. How we score tools is on our methodology page.