The 11 best AI SDR toolsfor inbound and outbound sales in 2026
Eleven AI SDR tools, split into inbound and outbound. Pick by your bottleneck: leads going cold after they reach you, or not enough leads to begin with.
A sales development rep does two jobs that have very little in common. One is chasing people who have never heard of you.
The other is getting back to people who already raised a hand, before they lose interest and open a competitor's tab.
Most AI SDR roundups lump both together, which is how teams end up buying a cold email engine when the real problem is a pricing page nobody answers after 6pm.
This guide sorts 11 tools by the job they do, with prices, channels and the catches, so you can shortlist two or three with a clear head.
Quick TL;DR
Best inbound AI SDR for most teamsFlowxperia. A live video agent on your website talks to visitors, helps them choose, qualifies them and books the meeting. The same agent follows up on WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS. From $797 a month.
Best inbound AI SDR on SalesforceQualified (Piper). The deepest Salesforce fit here, with deals that typically land around $62K a year.
Best outbound AI SDR on a small budgetAiSDR. You pay $1.50 per person prospected and you never have to sit through a sales call to start.
Best outbound platform with AI on topApollo.io. A free plan, 240M contacts, and paid seats from $49 a month.
Inbound vs outbound AI SDRs
Outbound means finding the right people, writing to them and earning a meeting.
Inbound means replying to whoever filled in a form, asked a question on your site or messaged you, then qualifying them and passing them to sales. A human SDR often does both in the same afternoon.
AI SDR tools don't. Each one is built for a single direction, and that decides more about fit than anything on the feature page.
Compare
Inbound AI SDR
Outbound AI SDR
What it does
Talks to people who reach out to you, qualifies them and books the meeting
Finds prospects, writes cold outreach and handles replies
Where it works
Your website (text, voice or live video), WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, email replies
A quick gut check: if leads already come in and some go cold because nobody answers in time, start with inbound. If there aren't enough leads in the first place, start with outbound. Plenty of teams end up with one of each, and that's fine.
What to look for in an AI SDR
Feature grids make every AI SDR look the same. These are the things that actually separate them once you're past the demo.
The direction it works in
Match the tool to your bottleneck. An outbound agent can't help a lead who filled in your form at 9pm, and an inbound agent won't fill an empty pipeline.
The channels your buyers use
If a good share of your leads message you on WhatsApp, Instagram or text, an agent that lives only on your website will miss them. Look at where your last 50 leads came from before you look at anything else.
Whether it can talk face to face
For bigger purchases, like a home, a solar install or a software contract, a video agent that explains options out loud holds attention better than a chat box. Four tools here offer one. Ask what it costs, because three of them sell it on enterprise contracts.
Real price and time to go live
Starting prices on this list run from $1.50 per contact to six figures a year. Setup runs from about 48 hours to 60 days, and outbound tools add weeks of mailbox warm-up on top.
What happens when it gets something wrong
Every AI SDR will eventually say something you wouldn't. Ask how you review its answers and outreach, and how it hands a conversation to a person.
The video column is where the gap shows. Docket's Pro plan works out to $72K a year, Qualified charges for PiperX on top of a contract that typically runs around $62K, and 1mind usually starts near $100K. Flowxperia includes a live video agent on every plan, starting at $797 a month.
Live video agent
Flowxperia video agentSee a live video agent on this page
Flora, the agent on this page, is running on Flowxperia. Ask her a question out loud or type it, and she'll answer from our own content and offer to book a time with the team.
These four talk to the people who come to you, and all four can book a meeting. Only one keeps the conversation going on WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS once the visitor leaves your site.
1
Flowxperia
Best for: teams of any size that get leads from their website, ads and social, and lose some because nobody answers fast enough
Type
Inbound
Starting price
$797 a month
Free trial
20 min on your site, 7 days on WhatsApp and Instagram
Video agent
On every plan
Flowxperia puts a live video agent on your website: a lifelike AI presenter that talks to visitors by voice or text and answers from your own content.
When someone is stuck between two plans or products, it compares them and recommends one. Then it asks your qualifying questions and books the meeting, at 2pm or 2am.
You can start with a pre-built presenter, or on the Scale plan create up to three custom avatars of people on your team, with cloned voices.
The same agent picks up new leads on WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS within seconds and follows up until they book (Growth and Scale plans).
It goes live in about 48 hours, syncs with HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, Pipedrive, Dynamics 365 and Zendesk, and speaks English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and more.
One commercial real estate brokerage recovered 33.5% of the leads it had been losing within 45 days.
What we like
A live video agent on every plan, from $797 a month
Follow-up on WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS, which the other inbound tools here leave out
Published prices and a free trial set up on the demo call
Fits real estate, home services, insurance and manufacturing as well as SaaS
Watch out for
No outbound prospecting or contact database
No account-based intent data
It doesn't join your live sales calls
Bottom line: Pick Flowxperia when leads already reach you and the gap is answering them fast, both on your site and in their messages.
2
Qualified (Piper)
Best for: mid-market and enterprise B2B companies on Salesforce with heavy website traffic
Type
Inbound
Starting price
Quote only, typically about $62K a year
Free trial
No
Video agent
PiperX, sold separately
Piper has been around longer than any other inbound AI SDR on this list. It talks to website visitors by text, voice or video, works inbound leads over email and books meetings, with routing driven by your Salesforce data.
Salesforce closed its acquisition of Qualified on April 1, 2026 and is folding it into Agentforce.
There are no public prices. Plans start at 250,000 web sessions a month, and deals typically land around $62K a year. Video avatars come with PiperX, a separate paid SKU that requires Salesforce as your CRM.
Implementation takes 30 to 60 days with a Salesforce-certified architect, at no extra charge. Qualified holds 4.9 out of 5 on G2 from 1,567 reviews, and support is what customers praise most.
What we like
The deepest Salesforce fit on this list
Ten built-in avatars and voices with PiperX
Intent data from 6sense, Demandbase and ZoomInfo
Support that customers rate highly
Watch out for
PiperX needs Salesforce as your CRM
A real learning curve and plenty of setup
No WhatsApp, Instagram or SMS, and no free trial
Bottom line: If you run Salesforce, have serious traffic and can wait up to two months for launch, Piper is the safe enterprise choice.
3
Docket
Best for: B2B SaaS teams of 200 to 2,000 people with a technical sales cycle
Type
Inbound
Starting price
$4K a month, billed annually
Free trial
No
Video agent
From the Pro plan
Docket's website agent leans on voice, and 70 to 73% of its conversations happen that way.
Its knowledge base pulls from Gong, Slack, Google Drive, Notion and SharePoint, so it can handle the security and integration questions that stall technical deals. Once the visitor has answers, it qualifies them and books the meeting.
Plans start at $4K, $6K and $10K a month, billed annually, and the video avatar arrives on the $6K Pro plan. Standard onboarding takes 7 to 14 days. Docket rates 4.8 out of 5 on G2 from 55 reviews. Read our Flowxperia vs Docket comparison.
What we like
Handles deep technical questions from internal sources
Published prices
SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001
40+ languages
Watch out for
$48K a year at minimum
Some lead flows need custom work
No WhatsApp, Instagram or SMS, and no free trial
Bottom line: Docket suits SaaS teams whose buyers want hard technical answers before they'll agree to a call.
4
1mind
Best for: enterprise revenue teams, especially Salesloft customers moving off Drift
Type
Inbound
Starting price
Quote only, about $100K+ a year
Free trial
No
Video agent
Yes, its core product
1mind sells photorealistic AI "Superhumans". They talk to website visitors, run product demos mid-conversation, sit in on live sales calls as an AI sales engineer and guide users inside your product.
Amanda Kahlow, who founded 6sense, started the company, and it has raised $40M. In March 2026, Clari + Salesloft named it Drift's successor.
Prices aren't public, and the founder has described contracts of roughly $100K to $400K a year. It has 4.9 out of 5 on G2, though from only 7 reviews. Read our Flowxperia vs 1mind comparison.
What we like
The most realistic avatars on this list
Joins live sales calls
One agent across website, product and customer success
Watch out for
Six-figure annual contracts
Self-service tools are still being built
No WhatsApp, Instagram or SMS
Bottom line: Worth a serious look if you're an enterprise on Salesloft with budget for a flagship rollout.
The best outbound AI SDRs
These tools go out and find prospects for you. None of them puts an agent on your website. Whichever you pick, budget for warmed-up mailboxes and a few weeks of tuning before the numbers settle.
5
11x (Alice)
Best for: mid-market and enterprise teams that want a managed, multichannel outbound engine
Type
Outbound, plus inbound voice
Starting price
Quote only, typically about $65K a year
Free trial
No
Channels
Email, LinkedIn, phone, SMS, WhatsApp
Alice researches accounts, writes personalized outreach and runs sequences across email, LinkedIn and a dialer, with a 400M-contact database behind it.
11x also sells voice and chat agents for inbound leads, with SMS and WhatsApp follow-up, so it can cover both directions if you're willing to pay for both.
Know the history before you sign. In March 2025 TechCrunch reported that 11x had shown ZoomInfo and Airtable logos on its site although neither was a customer, and quoted former staff on high early churn.
11x said its retention was 79%. The founder stepped down as CEO in May 2025. Deals typically land around $65K a year.
What we like
Deep prospect research
Email, LinkedIn and phone in one sequence
SMS and WhatsApp agents
Watch out for
Expensive and quote-only
Setup takes work, and output can be inaccurate
A 2025 controversy over customer claims
Bottom line: 11x makes sense for larger teams that want one vendor running outbound across every channel and can live with an enterprise contract.
6
Artisan (Ava)
Best for: startups and mid-market teams that want email-first autonomous outbound
Type
Outbound
Starting price
Quote only
Free trial
Free to start
Channels
Email, LinkedIn
Ava pulls leads from a 250M-contact database, writes sequences without templates, sends them from your reps' names, handles replies and books meetings.
You can lock down tone, length and banned phrases, and cap spend per campaign. Ava doesn't make calls itself. It queues them up for your reps instead.
Artisan stopped publishing prices in 2026. Plans are sized by lead volume, roughly 2,500 leads a month on Team and 6,000 on Scale.
It raised a $25M Series A in April 2025, and LinkedIn briefly restricted its company page in December 2025. It sits at 4.3 out of 5 on G2.
What we like
Fast setup, under a day for some teams
Tight controls over what Ava sends
Free to start
Watch out for
No published prices
Early lead lists can need tuning
No calling from Ava itself
Bottom line: Artisan is a good fit for teams that want email outbound running quickly with firm guardrails on tone.
7
AiSDR
Best for: founders and lean teams that want outbound without a contract
Type
Outbound
Starting price
$1.50 per person
Free trial
Build free, pay at launch
Channels
Email, LinkedIn, phone via Aircall
AiSDR builds lists from public signals, like keywords in LinkedIn posts or a competitor getting mentioned on an earnings call.
It researches each lead and sends email and LinkedIn outreach, with AI call steps through Aircall, and it follows up on inbound leads too. Its "AI video" feature means recorded outbound videos, not a live agent on your site.
The pricing is the simplest on this list. You pay $1.50 per person prospected, charged daily, and you can stop whenever you like. Team plans for 1,000+ contacts a month add Salesforce, website visitor signals and a dedicated GTM engineer.
What we like
Pay as you go, no sales call
Signal-based list building
Two-way HubSpot sync on every plan
Watch out for
Needs close oversight in the first weeks
Campaign setup takes longer than you expect
No native dialer
Bottom line: AiSDR is the low-risk way to test AI outbound before you commit to a contract.
8
Salesforge (Agent Frank)
Best for: B2B sellers with $5K to $100K deals who want email infrastructure and the agent in one stack
Type
Outbound
Starting price
$499 a month + infrastructure
Free trial
No
Channels
Email, LinkedIn
Agent Frank prospects around the clock from a 500M-contact search engine and writes email and LinkedIn outreach in more than 20 languages.
You choose Auto-Pilot, or Co-Pilot if you want to read every message before it goes out. Everything runs on Salesforge's own sequencer, mailboxes and warm-up.
Frank costs $499 a month. Email infrastructure for 1,000 active contacts adds about $416 a month, billed quarterly or annually. Expect a demo and two weeks of mailbox warm-up before anything sends.
What we like
Published prices
Deliverability and personalization in one stack
No seat-based pricing
Watch out for
Campaigns sometimes stop without warning
The interface gets cluttered with many campaigns
Not built for enterprise or RFP-led sales
Bottom line: Salesforge fits mid-ticket B2B sellers who'd rather buy mailboxes, warm-up and the agent from one place.
9
Amplemarket (Duo)
Best for: SMB and mid-market teams with human reps who want an AI copilot
Type
Outbound
Starting price
$600 a month, annual
Free trial
Yes
Channels
Email, LinkedIn, phone, voice messages
Every day Duo scans for buying signals, such as a job change, a competitor review or a visit to your website.
It researches each one and drafts a multichannel sequence, and a rep approves or dismisses it. That makes Amplemarket a copilot more than a hands-off SDR, and a lot of teams prefer it that way.
Startup costs $600 a month on an annual term for two users. Growth and Elite are custom and add AI voice messages and auto-drafted replies. Every plan comes with a free trial.
What we like
A daily signal feed with drafted sequences
Data, sequences and dialer in one place
Free trial on every plan
Watch out for
Annual terms
A steep learning curve
Contact data can be patchy
Bottom line: Amplemarket is for teams that want their reps to stay in the loop, with AI doing the research and first drafts.
10
Apollo.io
Best for: founders and SMB teams that want data, sequences and a dialer in one low-cost seat
Type
Outbound
Starting price
Free, then $49 a seat
Free trial
Free plan
Channels
Email, phone, LinkedIn
Apollo is a sales platform first: 240M contacts, sequences, a dialer and a CRM. Its AI comes as goal-based agents that plan and run prospecting and sequencing while you supervise.
It doesn't sell anything called an AI SDR, and you stay in charge of what the agents do.
There's a free plan, and paid seats cost $49, $79 or $119 a month, billed annually. Apollo passed $150M in annual revenue in May 2025 and bought Pocus in March 2026. It has the biggest review base of any tool here, at 4.7 out of 5 on G2.
What we like
A free plan and low seat prices
Strong Salesforce and HubSpot sync
Data, sequences and dialer in one login
Watch out for
Not a hands-off AI SDR
The interface can feel overwhelming
Credits don't roll over, even when the data was bad
Bottom line: Start with Apollo if you need contacts and sequences on a tight budget and are happy to drive the work yourself.
11
Reply.io (Jason AI)
Best for: SMBs and agencies already running sequences who want an AI SDR layer
Type
Outbound
Starting price
$500 a month
Free trial
Platform only
Channels
Email, LinkedIn, calls, SMS, WhatsApp tasks
Jason AI works out your ideal customer, finds prospects in a 1B-contact database and writes sequences across email, LinkedIn and calls.
It handles replies and books meetings in Google Calendar. It works in 50+ languages, you can choose the AI model behind it, and each message links to the research it was based on.
The AI SDR plan starts at $500 a month. The core Reply platform starts at $59 with a 14-day free trial, but you'll need a demo to get Jason.
What we like
Approval mode before messages go out
Calls and SMS as add-ons
Shows the research behind each message
Watch out for
Reporting is thin
A busy interface
$500 a month is a lot for a solo rep
Bottom line: Reply suits agencies and SMB teams already on its platform that want an AI layer without switching tools.
How to choose an AI SDR for your team
Find the row that sounds most like your team today, then shortlist only the tools it names.
If this is youTeams that get leads and lose some to slow replies
Your leads often arrive on Instagram or WhatsApp. Pick a tool that answers there and books the site visit or estimate. See real estate and home services.
If this is youEnterprises on Salesforce or Salesloft
At the same budget level, 11x covers the most channels.
Losing inbound leads to slow replies
Try Flowxperia free: 20 minutes with the video agent on your website and 7 days on WhatsApp and Instagram. We set it up with you on a 15-minute demo call.
An AI SDR is software that does a sales development rep's job: it starts or answers sales conversations, qualifies the person and books a meeting with your team. Inbound AI SDRs talk to people who contact you. Outbound AI SDRs reach out to prospects who haven't.
The best AI SDR is the one built for your bottleneck. For inbound leads, Flowxperia suits most teams, with a live video agent on your site and follow-up on WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS from $797 a month.
On Salesforce with a large budget, Qualified is the usual pick. For low-cost outbound, start with AiSDR or Apollo.
Four AI SDRs on this list have one, all of them inbound: Flowxperia on every plan from $797 a month, Docket from its $6K-a-month Pro plan, Qualified through PiperX (a separate paid SKU that requires Salesforce) and 1mind, which typically costs $100K or more a year.
None of the outbound tools put a live video agent on your website.
AI SDRs cost anywhere from pay as you go to six figures a year. AiSDR charges $1.50 per person, Reply and Salesforge start around $500 a month, Flowxperia starts at $797 a month and Docket at $4K a month. Qualified, 11x and 1mind usually run $60K to $100K or more a year.
No, not entirely. AI SDRs handle the repetitive work well, like replying instantly, following up and booking, and they don't clock off at 6pm. Most teams still keep people for complex deals, negotiation and anything the AI hands over.
Flowxperia answers and follows up with inbound leads on WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS. On the outbound side, 11x sells SMS and WhatsApp agents, and Reply.io offers WhatsApp tasks.
Yes, in part. Apollo has a free plan, Artisan is free to start, and AiSDR lets you build a campaign before you pay. Flowxperia gives you 20 free minutes with the website video agent plus 7 days on WhatsApp and Instagram.
Buy inbound first if leads already come in and some go cold, because those are the cheapest meetings you'll ever book. Buy outbound first if you don't have enough leads to begin with.
Answer every inbound lead in seconds, day or night
A live video agent on your site, follow-up on WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS, and live in about 48 hours.
FloraComparing AI SDRs? Ask me how an inbound one works, or I can book you a time with the team.
Before you pick an AI SDR
Start with the leads you already have
Outbound tools need fresh lists every month. Flowxperia works the visitors and leads you already get, qualifies them and books the meeting. Book 15 minutes and we'll set up your free trial on the call.
Answers new leads in seconds, day or night
Asks your qualifying questions and books the meeting
Harsh Shah
