How to Choose the Right PhantomBuster Plan for your Goals

To choose the right PhantomBuster plan, define your automation goals, estimate how many Phantom slots and hours of execution time you need, check whether you will use AI or email credits, and run a test during your free trial. Start is best for solo users with light automations, Grow suits consultants and small teams running regular workflows, and Scale fits agencies and high-volume setups.

What's included in a PhantomBuster plan

Each plan includes a mix of resources:

• Phantom slots: Fixed per plan, used to run automations simultaneously (Phantoms and Workflows).
• Execution time, AI credits, URL finder credits and email credits: Monthly quotas that reset on your billing cycle.

You can view your current usage on the Usage page of your Workspace.

→ If you're looking for a breakdown of what's included in each plan, see What's included in each PhantomBuster subscription plan

How to estimate your resource needs

1. Define your automation goals

What do you want to do with PhantomBuster?

• Extract LinkedIn or Sales Navigator profiles?
• Extract search results?
• Send outreach messages?
• Find email addresses?
• Use AI to write messages or summarize posts?

Each type of automation uses different resources (slots, time, credits), so defining your goal helps you know what to measure.

2. Review resource usage for your selected automations

When browsing Phantoms and Workflows on the Solutions page, check:

• Slot usage:
  → Phantoms = 1 slot
  → Workflows = up to 3 slots
  
• Execution time estimates:
  → LinkedIn Profile Scraper: ~1 minute per profile.
  → LinkedIn Search Export: ~12 minutes per 1,000 leads.
  Larger input data (like a Google Sheet with 1,000 rows) will naturally require more time.

• Execution time is not affected by your plan:
  Your subscription plan does not make your automations run faster or slower.

  Execution time depends only on:

  • The type of automation → Some automations (like LinkedIn Profile Scraper) are quick, while others (like Search Exports or email enrichers) take longer.
  • The size of your input/output → Larger spreadsheets or datasets naturally take more time to process.

  What your plan determines is how much total execution time per month you get, not the speed of each launch.

• Platform limitations:
  Automations must follow the limits of platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram, or Facebook.

3. Understand how credits are used

Some automations also use credits in addition to execution time.

• Email credits
  → Used only for email-finding automations.
  → 1 credit = 1 lookup, even if no match is found.
  → A good match rate is around 30–50%, depending on how complete and accurate your input (name and company) is.
  → To see the full list of automations that use email credits, learn more in How email discovery works.
• AI credits
  → Used only by AI Phantoms (AI LinkedIn Message Writer, Post Responder, Profile Enricher and Advanced AI Enricher) that generate, rewrite, or enrich content using AI.
  → More complex tasks (e.g. message generation) = higher credit use.

If you're using AI or email Phantoms heavily, you may need a plan with higher monthly credit limits. These resources are shared across your workspace and reset each month based on your subscription.

4. Run a test during your trial

Use your 14-day free trial to simulate real usage:

• Set up a Phantom or Workflow with sample data.
• Launch it, then check:
  • Slots used (from your Dashboard or Usage page - Coin icon)
    
     
  • Execution time consumed (from your automation's console, Activity tab)
    
     
  • AI/email credits spent (from your Usage page - Coin icon)
    
     

This gives you a clearer picture of what your typical automation will consume.

5. Scale based on your needs

Multiply your test usage by:

• How often you plan to run the automation (daily, weekly)?
• How many users or clients will share the workspace?
• Whether you'll be rotating between multiple social accounts?

This helps forecast whether Start, Grow, or Scale will meet your needs, or if a custom plan is better.

Plan recommendations

→ Compare what each plan includes in What's included in each PhantomBuster subscription plan.

Frequently asked questions

Does my plan affect how fast my automations run?

No. Execution time depends on the type of automation and the size of your input data, not your plan. Your plan only determines how much total execution time you get per month.

How many Phantom slots do I need?

Each Phantom uses 1 slot and each Workflow uses up to 3 slots. Count how many automations you want to keep active on your Dashboard at the same time.

What are email credits and how are they used?

Email credits are consumed by email-finding automations. Each lookup uses 1 credit, even if no match is found. A typical match rate is 30–50% depending on input quality.

How can I estimate my monthly execution time?

Run a test during your 14-day free trial, check the execution time in the Activity tab of your Phantom's console, then multiply by how often you plan to run the automation each month.