# AI SDR: What It Actually Does and What It Costs

What an AI SDR is, what it does versus a human SDR, the real tools by lane with pricing verified in September 2026, and where EaseClaw honestly fits.

URL: https://www.easeclaw.com/guides/ai-sdr

Written by Pritesh Mann, Founder, EaseClaw. Updated September 2026.

## The tools, ranked

### Email-first AI SDRs

The agent's main channel is a mailbox it sends from, with other channels layered on top of it.

#### 1. 11x

- What it is: Two digital workers, Alice for outbound and Julian for inbound, that research prospects, draft messages and hand off replies across email, LinkedIn, phone and chat in one sequence.
- Pricing: Not published. Every path on the page ends at a demo booking rather than a price. (read from https://www.11x.ai/)
- Key capability: The widest channel spread of any tool on this page: email, LinkedIn, an AI phone agent, and chat, SMS and WhatsApp in the same sequence.
- Free tier: None published. A live demo is the only way to see it.
- Best for: A revenue team that wants one AI worker running every channel at once and is comfortable buying without a published price first.
- Pro: Multi-channel by default, including a phone agent nothing else on this page offers.
- Con: Nothing about cost is visible until a sales call, which rules it out for a founder pricing options on their own.
- Link: https://www.11x.ai/

#### 2. Artisan

- What it is: Ava researches accounts, writes outbound emails and social messages, and queues calls for a rep to make, built for enterprise revenue teams replacing or supplementing a BDR desk.
- Pricing: Not published. Three tiers, "Team," "Scale" and "Enterprise," are each marked "Pricing scoped on your plan" after a sales call. (read from https://www.artisan.co/pricing)
- Key capability: Usage-based pricing that is meant to charge for work performed rather than a flat seat count.
- Free tier: None published on the pricing page itself.
- Best for: An enterprise team with budget for a scoped deal rather than a self-serve card charge.
- Pro: Its tiers are scoped around real volume, roughly 2,500 to 6,000 leads contacted a month, rather than a vague seat.
- Con: No self-serve number to compare against anything else here, and a one-person outbound motion is not who the sales-scoped tiers are built for.
- Link: https://www.artisan.co/

#### 3. AiSDR

- What it is: Researches contacts and writes and sends outbound across email and LinkedIn, including connection requests, direct messages and InMail, from a fixed monthly contact and mailbox allowance.
- Pricing: $250 a month for Solo, $900 a month on a quarterly contract for Explore, $2,500 a month on a quarterly contract for Scale (read from https://aisdr.com/pricing)
- Key capability: Every tier states its exact contact allowance and its exact mailbox and LinkedIn account count, rather than a vague seat or credit.
- Free tier: None. Its own pricing page states plainly that it does not offer one.
- Best for: A team that wants a published starting price it can see without a call, and is fine paying quarterly above the entry tier.
- Pro: The only tool in this lane with a real, published starting price a single founder can check without talking to anyone.
- Con: 200 AI-researched contacts a month on the entry plan is a small volume, and the two tiers above it lock you into a quarterly contract.
- Link: https://aisdr.com/

### LinkedIn-first outreach agents

The agent's main channel is a connected LinkedIn account, with email added as a secondary step at most.

#### 1. Gojiberry

- What it is: An AI go-to-market agent that sources people from signals such as competitor engagement, job changes and hiring activity, then writes and sends LinkedIn and email steps in one workflow.
- Pricing: Pro is $99 a month, described on the page as "2 AI agents prospecting 24/7" for up to 1,800 prospects contacted a month. A Custom tier for teams of five or more has no public price. (read from https://gojiberry.ai/)
- Key capability: Sources its own prospects from the same family of signals this guide covers, rather than starting from a list you already built.
- Free tier: A free trial is offered; its length and whether it takes a card are not published.
- Best for: A small outbound team that wants sourcing and sending from one product at a published starting price.
- Pro: Signal-based sourcing at the same $99 starting price as EaseClaw's Pro plan, with a Custom tier that scales to a team.
- Con: Its own FAQ says a reply still lands in a human's calendar rather than being booked automatically, and CRM sync and enrichment breadth go further than most $99 tiers.
- Link: https://gojiberry.ai/

#### 2. Valley

- What it is: A signal-based outbound platform that sources and researches prospects, then runs LinkedIn campaigns per seat, with email added as a paid step on its higher tiers and an optional fully managed service.
- Pricing: $199 a seat a month for LinkedIn only (Starter), $299 a seat with 1,000 email messages a month included (Plus), $499 a seat with added credits (Growth), or $1,499 a month for its done-for-you Studios service (read from https://www.joinvalley.co/pricing)
- Key capability: A done-for-you tier, Valley Studios, for a team that wants the whole job run for them rather than just the software.
- Free tier: A 7 day free trial, with a payment method required to start it.
- Best for: A team willing to pay a per-seat price well above this page's other entries, in exchange for a dedicated customer success manager and, on request, a fully managed service.
- Pro: The clearest published per-seat pricing in this lane, with a real menu from self-serve up to done-for-you.
- Con: The entry price is double Gojiberry's and EaseClaw's for LinkedIn alone, and its trial takes a card before you see whether it fits.
- Link: https://www.joinvalley.co/

### Sequencers with AI features added

You still build the list and the steps. The AI sits inside the sending infrastructure, not in the decision of who to write to.

#### 1. Smartlead

- What it is: An email sending platform built around unlimited mailboxes and AI-assisted inbox warmup, priced by sending volume rather than by seat or by AI action.
- Pricing: $39 a month for Base (6,000 sends), $94 for Pro (90,000 sends), $174 for Unlimited Smart (150,000 sends), $379 for Unlimited Prime (500,000 sends), each roughly 17% cheaper paid annually (read from https://www.smartlead.ai/pricing)
- Key capability: Unlimited mailboxes on every tier, so cost scales with how much you send rather than how many inboxes you connect.
- Free tier: None published. Pricing starts at the Base tier.
- Best for: A team already sending high email volume that wants AI-assisted warmup and deliverability rather than an agent that decides who to write to.
- Pro: The cheapest entry price of any tool on this page, at $39 a month.
- Con: It is a sending and deliverability platform, not an agent: nothing on its pricing page describes it choosing who to contact or drafting the message itself.
- Link: https://www.smartlead.ai/

#### 2. Instantly

- What it is: An email sending and deliverability platform whose bundle plans add a purchased lead database and an AI Sales Agent or AI Reply Agent feature on top of the sending infrastructure.
- Pricing: $47 to $358 a month across the email-only Growth, Hypergrowth and Lightspeed tiers, or $94 to $555 a month on the bundle tiers that add the lead database and the AI agent features (read from https://instantly.ai/pricing)
- Key capability: A built-in lead database of more than 450 million contacts on its bundle tiers, so the list and the sending infrastructure come from one vendor.
- Free tier: None published; every tier is a paid monthly or annual plan.
- Best for: A team that wants its list, its sending infrastructure and a bolt-on AI reply feature from a single subscription.
- Pro: The purchased lead database removes one step other tools in this lane leave to you.
- Con: A purchased list is not a buying signal: nothing about a name sitting in a database says that person is in the market right now.
- Link: https://instantly.ai/

#### 3. Lemlist

- What it is: Primarily an email sequencer with AI-assisted personalization, adding LinkedIn connection requests, messages and voice notes on its multichannel plan.
- Pricing: $109 per user per month for the plan that includes LinkedIn (read from https://www.lemlist.com/pricing)
- Key capability: Several sending identities per seat on the multichannel plan, rather than one.
- Free tier: No free tier. A 14 day trial, no card required.
- Best for: A team where email is the main channel and LinkedIn is added on top, rather than the other way round.
- Pro: AI-assisted personalization runs across a large email sending allowance.
- Con: Buying it specifically for the LinkedIn steps means starting on its highest priced plan.
- Link: https://www.lemlist.com/

### Founder-led warm-buyer discovery on LinkedIn

One founder, one LinkedIn account, no list to build first.

#### 1. EaseClaw

- What it is: Finds warm buyers on LinkedIn from what they just did, writes the invite and the follow up in your voice, and runs the outreach inside the campaigns and limits you set. Review every message, or let it run.
- Pricing: Pro $99 a month, Business $199 a month. (read from https://www.easeclaw.com/pricing)
- Key capability: Works out who is worth writing to from your own website, then writes and runs the outreach to them.
- Free tier: 14 days free. No card.
- Best for: Founders and small B2B teams doing their own selling, who want the work of deciding who to write to taken off them.
- Pro: The list arrives already built, and the invite and the first message are written per person rather than filled into a template.
- Con: One connected LinkedIn account per member, and the outreach it runs is LinkedIn plus an email step from your own mailbox. It is not a contact database, and it does not post to public feeds.
- Link: https://www.easeclaw.com/trial?utm_source=guides&utm_medium=guide&utm_campaign=ai-sdr

## Prices

| Vendor | Plan | Price | What it buys | Billing | Read on | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AiSDR | Solo | $250 | per month, 200 AI-researched contacts | monthly | 2026-09-26 | https://aisdr.com/pricing |
| AiSDR | Explore | $900 | per month, 800 AI-researched contacts, quarterly contract | quarterly, paid in advance | 2026-09-26 | https://aisdr.com/pricing |
| AiSDR | Scale | $2,500 | per month, 2,500 AI-researched contacts, quarterly contract | quarterly, paid in advance | 2026-09-26 | https://aisdr.com/pricing |
| Gojiberry | Pro | $99 | per month, 2 AI agents, up to 1,800 prospects contacted | monthly | 2026-09-15 | https://gojiberry.ai/ |
| Valley | Starter | $199 | per seat per month, LinkedIn only | monthly | 2026-09-26 | https://www.joinvalley.co/pricing |
| Valley | Plus | $299 | per seat per month, LinkedIn plus 1,000 email messages | monthly | 2026-09-26 | https://www.joinvalley.co/pricing |
| Smartlead | Base | $39 | per month, 6,000 email sends | monthly | 2026-09-26 | https://www.smartlead.ai/pricing |
| Instantly | Growth | $47 | per month, unlimited email accounts, 5,000 emails | monthly | 2026-09-26 | https://instantly.ai/pricing |
| Instantly | Starter bundle | $94 | per month, adds a 450M+ lead database and an AI Sales Agent | monthly | 2026-09-26 | https://instantly.ai/pricing |
| Lemlist | Multichannel, the plan with LinkedIn | $109 | per user per month | monthly | 2026-09-15 | https://www.lemlist.com/pricing |
| EaseClaw | Pro | $99 | per month, one LinkedIn account per person | monthly | 2026-09-26 | https://www.easeclaw.com/pricing |
| EaseClaw | Business | $199 | per month, one LinkedIn account per person | monthly | 2026-09-26 | https://www.easeclaw.com/pricing |

## Our own data

- Invite acceptance, a warm comment against a cold send: **56% versus 27%, across 14,752 tracked comments**. Source: Reachium's published dataset, cited in marketing/research/comment-gate-playbook-2026-09-05/PLAYBOOK.md, third party, not an EaseClaw measurement, as of 2026-09-05.
- Public engagers who turned out to be a rival vendor, not a buyer: **286 of 1,672, or about 17 percent**. Source: EaseClaw's own engager ledger, marketing/harvests/engager-ledger.json, as of 2026-09-08.
- Genuine buyers found among posts scored for buying intent: **125 of 5,789 scored, about 2 percent**. Source: easeclaw.com/research/buying-intent-2026, as of 2026-08-04.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is an AI SDR?

An AI SDR is software that takes on part of a sales development representative's job: finding people worth contacting, researching them, and writing and sending the first outreach message, with a human reviewing or supervising the result rather than typing every message by hand. It is not one product category with one shape. Some AI SDRs work mainly through a mailbox, some work mainly through a connected LinkedIn account, and some are closer to an email sending tool with an AI feature bolted on, and the difference matters more than the label does.

### What does an AI SDR actually do differently from a human SDR?

A human SDR spends real hours on research, list building, writing the first draft of every message, and following up on a schedule, then a smaller share of time actually talking to a qualified reply. An AI SDR is built to compress the first part: it can research a prospect and draft a message in seconds rather than minutes, and some of the tools on this page will also decide who is worth writing to in the first place, from a signal such as a job change or a competitor's engaged audience. What it does not replace is judgment on an actual reply, the meeting itself, and, in most of these products, actually pressing send without a human setting the rules it operates inside.

### Is an AI SDR the same thing as LinkedIn automation software?

No, and the difference is worth knowing before you buy either. Automation software runs a plan you already built: your list, your sequence steps, your message text, on a schedule you set, with nothing deciding who belongs on the list. An AI SDR takes on part of that decision itself, researching a prospect and drafting the message rather than filling your template into a fixed sequence. Several tools on this page, including EaseClaw, also decide who is worth writing to in the first place, from a live signal rather than a list you handed it.

### How much does an AI SDR cost?

It ranges from under $50 a month for an email sending platform with an AI feature added, to a five figure annual contract for an enterprise-scoped agent with no public price at all. Among the tools on this page with a real published number, AiSDR starts at $250 a month, Gojiberry and EaseClaw both start at $99 a month, and Valley starts at $199 a seat a month for LinkedIn alone. 11x and Artisan publish no price on their own pages at all; every path on both sites ends at a sales call rather than a number, so budget a real conversation before assuming either fits your budget.

### What should you never hand an AI SDR?

Never hand it the final decision to send outside the limits you actually reviewed, and never let it act on a stale signal without checking it is still true: a job change or a hiring post loses most of its value within weeks, and writing to someone about a role they already left is worse than writing to nobody. Also never hand it a list you have not deduplicated against people you already contacted, and never let its draft go out unread the first several times, since the fastest way to lose trust in an AI SDR is a message that is fluent but factually wrong about the person it was sent to.

### Can an AI SDR fully replace a human SDR?

Not for the parts that require judgment on an actual conversation. Every tool on this page still hands a real reply to a human, and the meeting itself is booked and run by a person in every case, including EaseClaw's. What an AI SDR can genuinely replace is the repetitive front half of the job: researching who to contact, writing the first draft, and in the more capable tools, deciding who is worth writing to at all. Treat it as removing a specific set of hours rather than removing the role.

### Is EaseClaw an AI SDR?

It is the entry in the fourth lane on this page, and the label fits loosely rather than exactly: it is a LinkedIn-first agent built for one founder rather than a sales floor. It builds an ideal customer profile from your own website, finds the people worth writing to from public LinkedIn signals such as competitor engagement, a job change or a hiring post, then writes the connection note and the first message in your voice and runs the outreach inside the campaign and limits you set. Review every message, or let it run. It has no phone channel and no InMail, and it is not built for a team rotating several client accounts.

## See also

- [LinkedIn prospecting playbook](https://www.easeclaw.com/guides/linkedin-prospecting)
- [Gojiberry alternative](https://www.easeclaw.com/alternatives/gojiberry)
- [Best LinkedIn automation tools (2026)](https://www.easeclaw.com/guides/best-linkedin-automation-tools-2026)
- [LinkedIn cold outreach](https://www.easeclaw.com/guides/linkedin-cold-outreach)

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## About EaseClaw

EaseClaw is an AI agent for LinkedIn outreach for founder led B2B teams. It reads your site, works out who your buyers are, writes the invite and the follow up in your voice, and sends from your own connected LinkedIn account at the pace you set. Review every message, or let it run. You work the replies. EaseClaw never posts to public feeds. Plans: Pro $99 a month, Business $199 a month, monthly only. The trial is 14 days free. No card. Nothing is charged during it.

- Website: https://www.easeclaw.com/
- Start the free trial: https://www.easeclaw.com/trial