Apollo to Instantly: How to Move Leads from Apollo into an Instantly Campaign (and Route Replies Back)

To move leads from Apollo to Instantly, build and verify a list in Apollo, export it as a CSV with verified emails only, then upload that file to an Instantly campaign and map each column to an Instantly variable. Connect and warm your sending accounts first, launch with a modest daily limit, and route interested replies to your CRM with an Instantly automation, Zapier or a webhook.

Some tool links here are affiliate links (disclosure). If you want to follow along, open Instantly and Apollo in two tabs. Nerdy Joe is a certified Apollo.io Managed Services Partner; we are not an Instantly partner, only an affiliate.

Every step below follows Apollo's knowledge base and Instantly's help center as of October 2026, with each article listed in Sources. If a button has moved, check the linked article.

Is there a native Apollo to Instantly integration?

Partly, and it is not documented yet. Instantly's integrations marketplace has an Apollo page, labeled "Built by Instantly," that describes importing targeted Apollo contacts with enriched lead data. As of October 2026, that page gives no setup steps or plan requirements, and Instantly's help center has no Apollo article.

Instantly's "Adding Leads to a Campaign" article lists five import methods: CSV, manual entry, Google Sheets, HubSpot and Pipedrive. Apollo's knowledge base does not document an Instantly integration either, so Apollo cannot push contacts into Instantly on its own.

That leaves three practical ways to connect them:

This guide uses the CSV route because both help centers document it, and it lets you inspect the list before it touches your domains.

Plan limits to check before you start (as of October 2026)

Two limits shape this workflow: Apollo credits on the way out, and Instantly's uploaded contacts cap on the way in.

Apollo: credits and record selection

Apollo's pricing page renders its price table dynamically, and the text we could read on October 24, 2026 named the plans but showed no dollar amounts. The figures below come from two 2026 pricing reviews that read the live page (Valley on October 6 and Emelia on October 12), and they agree with each other.

What Apollo itself confirms:

• Export credits. Exporting saved contacts uses no credits. Net new people are saved before export, and each one with a verified email uses 1 credit.
• Pooled credits. Credits are pooled across the team, granted at the start of each billing cycle, and do not roll over.
• Selection limit. Without a limit, you can select and export up to 10,000 leads in one click. With a limit, you save records in smaller batches, then bulk-export everything you saved.
• No separate export cap is published. Apollo's export and credits articles do not list a per-plan export limit, so your real ceilings are credits and the selection limit.

Confirm current prices on Apollo's pricing page before you buy. Our Apollo review covers the credit math in more depth.

Instantly: uploaded contacts

Instantly prices its Outreach plans by emails per month and uploaded contacts. These figures are from Instantly's pricing page and its uploaded contacts article, checked October 24, 2026.

Three rules from Instantly's uploaded contacts article matter here:

• The limit is a fixed total, not a monthly allowance. It does not reset or refresh each month.
• Duplicates count. The same email uploaded to two campaigns counts as two uploads.
• Deleting leads from a campaign (or deleting the campaign) frees space. Deleting leads from Lists does not.

An Outreach add-on at $87 per month adds 25,000 contacts and 125,000 emails on eligible plans, per Instantly's pricing page. All Outreach plans include unlimited email accounts and warmup.

The practical takeaway: size your Apollo export to the room left in Instantly. A 2,500-row export will not fit on Growth, so batch it before you spend Apollo credits on contacts you cannot upload yet.

Step 1: Build your list in Apollo

Per Apollo's search filters article:

1. Open Apollo and click People.
2. Click Show Filters, then More Filters.
3. Set your core filters: Job titles, Location, # of employees, Industry & keywords and Email status (choose Verified).
4. Click Save search at the bottom of the filters so you can rerun it.

Then save the people to a list. Per Apollo's list article, select each person, click Add to list, choose Create new list, name it and confirm. Each verified email for a net new contact uses one email credit (check usage under Settings, then Manage Plan), and contacts you already saved cost nothing.

Naming tip: give the Apollo list and the Instantly campaign the same name, for example "VP Ops, 3PL, US, Oct." It keeps the round trip traceable when replies come back.

For a fuller walkthrough of filters and list building, see our guide on how to use Apollo for prospecting.

Step 2: Verify before you export

Bounces are the fastest way to hurt new sending domains, so this step matters more than any setting in Instantly. Apollo lists six email statuses: Verified, Unverified, Update required, Unavailable, User managed and Catch-all.

Apollo's guidance is to "stick with verified emails," and it says to "Only use unverified emails as an infrequent last resort." Its verification article says Apollo runs a 7-step process with a 91% accuracy rate, can tell valid from invalid addresses on many catch-all domains, and refunds the email credit if a verified email bounces within 30 days of the request.

Our working rules for a list headed to Instantly:

• Filter to Verified in the search.
• Choose verified emails only at export.
• Put catch-all addresses in a separate, smaller campaign so a bounce spike stays contained.
• If a saved list is a few months old, enrich it first. Apollo's export article notes that it does not automatically enrich emails and mobile numbers when you export existing records.

You can add a second check in Instantly at upload (Step 5). It costs Instantly credits, so it is most useful for older lists and catch-alls.

Step 3: Export the CSV from Apollo

From a list, per Apollo's list article:

1. Go to Lists.
2. Click Export next to the list.
3. Choose all emails or verified emails only. Pick verified only.
4. Click Export records.

From search results, per Apollo's export article:

1. Go to Search, then People, and filter by your saved list or saved search.
2. Select contacts (or use bulk selection at the top) and click Export.
3. Choose verified emails only.
4. Optionally click Edit export CSV settings to choose fields.
5. Click Export records, then Download when it finishes.

Exports of more than about 1,000 contacts can take several minutes. Check progress under Settings, then Import & Exports, then CSV Exports.

Fields to include. Apollo notes that email and phone fields are not always included by default, and any field you did not select exports as a blank column. For an Instantly campaign, include first name, last name, title, email, email status, company name, website, industry, employee count, location, LinkedIn URL and the Apollo contact ID (you need it in Step 8).

Open the file before you upload it. Apollo warns that spreadsheet apps can change ZIP codes, phone numbers, long IDs and dates, so format those columns as text. The rows may also be in a different order than in Apollo.

Step 4: Connect sending accounts and warm them up in Instantly

Do this at least two weeks before you plan to launch. Our how to use Instantly guide covers it in more detail; this is the short version from Instantly's help center.

Connect accounts. Click Email Accounts in the left sidebar, click Add or Buy Accounts, then Connect Existing and choose Google (Workspace uses Option 1: oAuth method), Microsoft (enable SMTP access first) or IMAP/SMTP. Instantly needs both IMAP and SMTP, because IMAP is how it detects replies and runs warmup.

Turn on warmup. On the Email Accounts dashboard, click the flame icon next to an account. For several accounts, tick their boxes, click the three dots in the top right and choose Bulk enable warmup. Warmup starts at the next 12:00 AM UTC.

Know when an account is ready. Instantly's readiness article says at least 2 weeks of warmup (3 weeks for AirMail accounts), a warmup health score above 90% over the last 7 days, and MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records in place, which you can check with Test Domain Setup. Keep warmup running after launch.

Planning domains and inbox counts is its own job. Our cold email infrastructure guide covers how many to set up for a given volume.

Step 5: Upload the Apollo CSV to an Instantly campaign

Create the campaign first. Per Instantly's campaign setup guide, go to the Engage dashboard and click + Create New in the top right, then name it to match your Apollo list.

Before you upload, confirm you have room under your uploaded contacts limit. Then follow Instantly's CSV import article:

1. In the campaign, open the Leads section and click Upload CSV, then select your Apollo file.
2. Review the suggested mapping for each column and change it with the dropdown where needed (details in Step 6).
3. Set the two upload options: - Check for Duplicates Across All Campaigns/Lists is on by default and blocks leads already in another campaign or list. Leave it on. - Verify Leads checks each address for 0.25 credits per lead. If you lack credits, Instantly asks you to upgrade to an Instantly Credits plan.
4. Click Upload all.

Instantly then reports any "missing or invalid email(s)" and any "email(s) already exist." The lead count can take up to 5 minutes to update, so wait before you assume rows are missing.

Step 6: Map Apollo fields to Instantly variables

Instantly's mapping dropdown offers four kinds of target: Email (required), predefined variables, Custom variable and Do Not Import. Its campaign guide lists the predefined variables as Email, First name, Last name, Job title, Company name, Personalization, Phone, Website, Location and LinkedIn.

Header rules that trip up Apollo exports. Instantly's import article says the first row must hold column names, names should start with a capital letter, cannot be duplicated and can be up to 20 characters. The file should be saved as UTF-8 and can carry at most 50 variables per upload, so delete columns you do not need before uploading.

Custom variable names. Instantly uses the column name as the variable, so a column named Industry becomes {{Industry}} in your copy. Its campaign guide also says custom variables should not be named like the predefined ones, so rename a custom column "Sector" rather than something close to "Company name." Short names such as "ApolloId" or "Headcount" stay under the 20-character limit.

Step 7: Write the sequence, set the schedule and launch

Per Instantly's campaign setup guide, write step 1 in the sequence editor, add follow-ups with the + button and set gaps with Wait X days/hours/minutes. Instantly suggests 3 to 4 steps for most cold outreach, and leaving a follow-up's subject line empty keeps it in the same thread.

Insert variables from the variable option in the bottom editor toolbar, or the bolt icon on the subject line. Then click Preview, pick a sender under Send From and a lead under Load data for lead, and check that every Apollo field fills in. Send yourself a test with the Send to field.

In the campaign Settings, set these before launch:

• Accounts to use: pick your warmed inboxes. Instantly rotates sending across them automatically.
• Daily limit: this is a campaign-wide total. Instantly's campaign settings article recommends 30 campaign emails per day per account (20 for AirMail), so ten inboxes support about 300 a day.
• Schedule: choose During office hours, At custom times or On any day, any time, plus days and timezone.
• Stop sending emails on reply: turn it on so follow-ups stop once someone answers.
• Delivery optimization: the option Send first email as text-only is worth testing for cold email. Turning delivery optimization on also disables open tracking.

Leave BounceProtect on (it is the default, found under Allow risky emails). When the checklist in Instantly's setup guide is done, click Launch. Start the first week below your full daily limit so you can see whether bounces and replies look normal.

Step 8: Route interested replies back to your CRM (and Apollo)

Replies land in Instantly's Unibox. Note the plan gate from Instantly's plan comparison: replying from the Unibox, webhooks and team invites need Hypergrowth or Light Speed, while Zapier, integrations and the API are on every Outreach plan.

Pick the route that fits your stack.

Route A: Instantly automation to HubSpot (no code)

1. Connect HubSpot in Instantly's Integrations tab. Instantly's HubSpot article says to choose New HubSpot for Automations.
2. Open the Agents tab, click Create New, then Create from scratch or a template.
3. Choose a trigger such as Lead Interest Status Changed, Lead Replies or Any Positive Label, select your HubSpot account and click Continue.
4. Optionally add a Condition (If/Else Logic) step so only interested leads continue.
5. Add the HubSpot action Create or update contact, map fields by typing /, test it, then toggle the automation on and watch Live Feed.

To get those contacts into Apollo, connect Apollo to the same HubSpot account: in Apollo, click Integrations, then Connect beside HubSpot CRM. Apollo syncs contacts, accounts and deals both ways with HubSpot, and it connects to one CRM at a time.

Activities sync only from Apollo to HubSpot, so Instantly's email history stays in HubSpot rather than in Apollo's timeline.

Route B: Instantly webhook to Apollo's API

This needs Hypergrowth or higher and an automation tool such as Zapier, Make or n8n.

1. In Instantly's settings, open Integrations, go to Webhooks and click Add Webhook.
2. Enter your automation's URL, choose the event Lead is marked as interested (or Reply received), pick the campaign and click Add Webhook.
3. In the automation, read the Apollo contact ID you mapped as a custom variable in Step 6.
4. Call Apollo's Update Contact Stage for Multiple Contacts endpoint to move the contact to a stage like "Interested." Apollo's API docs list it at 0 credits, and the stage IDs come from the List Contact Stages endpoint.

Now Apollo shows who replied, so your team does not prospect the same person again next month.

Route C: Zapier to another CRM

Instantly's help center has Zapier recipes that start with the Instantly trigger New Event set to "Lead is marked as interested." One recipe creates a lead in Close with the Create Lead action; others create a HubSpot contact or a Pipedrive lead. To start, copy your API key from the Zapier app in Instantly's Integrations tab, then build the Zap in Zapier.

If you are still choosing a CRM for this, our roundup of the best CRM for cold email compares the common picks.

Troubleshooting: common Apollo to Instantly problems

Import errors

Instantly's "Why Are Leads Not Uploading" article covers most failed or partial uploads:

Duplicate leads

There are three kinds, and Instantly treats each one differently:

• Duplicates inside the file. Instantly removes repeated emails automatically. Clean them first in your spreadsheet (Data, then Remove Duplicates) so the counts make sense.
• Duplicates across campaigns or lists. With Check for Duplicates Across All Campaigns/Lists on, Instantly skips them and reports "email(s) already exist." To confirm, search for the missing leads under Leads, then All Leads.
• Duplicates you allowed on purpose. If you turn the check off, each copy counts toward your uploaded contacts limit.

On the Apollo side, export from a saved list rather than re-running a search with net new people each time. Exporting saved contacts costs no credits.

Bounced emails

Instantly pauses a campaign automatically when its bounce rate exceeds 5%, once it has sent at least 200 emails, and shows a "Bounces" error. Per Instantly's auto-pause article, check the reasons under the campaign's Analytics, then Bounces, fix the cause (often by verifying leads), then restart. After a restart, the campaign is exempt from auto-pause for 7 days, so fix the list before you resume.

Apollo's bounced email article says a bounce rate is typically acceptable under 2% and should be investigated right away if it stays above 5%. It also says to remove hard-bounced addresses from your list. For catch-alls or older lists, turn on Verify Leads at upload or split them into a smaller campaign.

One caution on Apollo's credit refund: it applies to verified emails that bounce within 30 days of the request. Apollo's articles do not say how bounces from a separate sender such as Instantly are reported back, so do not plan your budget around that refund.

The same workflow with Smartlead

The Apollo half of this guide does not change if you send from Smartlead; only the upload and mapping screens differ. We cover that version in our Apollo to Smartlead workflow. For a full look at Instantly's plans, features and trade-offs, read our Instantly review, then start an Instantly trial when your list is ready.

Rather not run it yourself?

Building Apollo lists, verifying them, warming inboxes and wiring replies back to a CRM is ongoing work. If you would rather hand it off, book a 30-minute call with David at Koldify, the done-for-you cold email agency where David Tile is a partner. Koldify runs campaigns on PlusVibe, Smartlead and Email Bison.

Disclosure: My relationship with Instantly is that of an independent party. I do not hold any position, nor do I have the power to form binding agreements or act on behalf of Instantly. My earnings are derived from referral compensations provided by Instantly. The views I share are solely mine and should not be seen as official statements, promises, or representations of Instantly, or any related entities or personnel.

Sources

• Apollo pricing: https://www.apollo.io/pricing
• Apollo, Use Search Filters to Find Prospects: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4412665755661-Search-Filters-Overview
• Apollo, Create and Use a List: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409728608525-Create-and-Use-a-List
• Apollo, Export Contacts to a CSV: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409237712141-Export-Contacts-to-a-CSV
• Apollo, What Are Credits: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/9527776320781-What-Are-Credits-
• Apollo, email statuses: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4423314404621
• Apollo, How Apollo Verifies Emails: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/10826699994381-How-Apollo-Verifies-Emails
• Apollo, Troubleshoot Bounced Emails: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409227148045-Troubleshoot-Bounced-Emails
• Apollo, HubSpot integration: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4416619021837
• Apollo, Zapier integration: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4415362778509-Zapier-Integration-Overview
• Apollo API, Update Contact Stage for Multiple Contacts: https://docs.apollo.io/reference/update-contact-stage
• Valley, Apollo pricing and credits explained (2026): https://www.joinvalley.co/blog/apollo-pricing-and-credits-explained-2026
• Emelia, Apollo pricing: https://emelia.io/software/apollo/pricing
• Instantly pricing: https://instantly.ai/pricing
• Instantly pricing.md: https://instantly.ai/pricing.md
• Instantly marketplace, Apollo: https://instantly.ai/marketplace/apollo
• Instantly, Uploaded Contacts Limits: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/7918680-uploaded-contacts-limits
• Instantly, Email Outreach Plans Comparison: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/7920548-email-outreach-plans-comparison
• Instantly, Adding Leads to a Campaign: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/6253114-adding-leads-to-a-campaign
• Instantly, How to Import Leads via CSV: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/6254215-how-to-import-leads-via-csv
• Instantly, Why Are Leads Not Uploading: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/13644475-why-are-leads-not-uploading
• Instantly, How to Connect Your Email Accounts: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/6222224-how-to-connect-your-email-accounts-to-instantly
• Instantly, How to Enable Warmup: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/5975330-how-to-enable-warmup
• Instantly, When Your Email Account Is Ready for Campaigns: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/13938078-when-your-email-account-is-ready-for-campaigns
• Instantly, How to Create a Campaign: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/6386134-how-to-create-a-campaign-complete-setup-guide
• Instantly, Campaign Settings: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/6222396-campaign-settings
• Instantly, BounceShield: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/8486604-bounceshield
• Instantly, High Bounce Auto Pause: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/9823139-high-bounce-auto-pause-feature
• Instantly, Integrations collection: https://help.instantly.ai/en/collections/9548903-integrations
• Instantly, How to Connect HubSpot: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/8848886-how-to-connect-hubspot-to-instantly
• Instantly, HubSpot Integration in Automations: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/13342530-hubspot-integration-in-automations
• Instantly, Webhooks: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/6261906-webhooks
• Instantly, Zapier recipe for Close CRM: https://help.instantly.ai/en/articles/6664765-zapier-integration-add-a-lead-to-close-crm-when-marked-as-interested-in-instantly
• Zapier, Apollo and Instantly integrations: https://zapier.com/apps/apollo/integrations/instantly