lemlist API review
API, MCP and CLI on the cheapest plan
GET https://api.lemlist.com/api/{endpoint} Authorization: Basic base64(":" + $LEMLIST_KEY) # the username is empty and the key is the password # so the string starts with a colon before it is encoded # 20 requests per 2 seconds, per key, on every route
The lemlist API is the easiest answer in this category to the question of who charges extra for the API, because lemlist does not. Its pricing page ticks "Developer tools (API, CLI & MCP)" on all three plans, including the Email plan at $55 a month billed annually, which also carries unlimited users and unlimited email senders. Smartlead starts its API at $94 and QuickMail at $99, so lemlist is one of the cheapest programmatic entries in sending.
What it sells separately is data. Contact enrichment is a $16 a month add-on for 2,000 credits across 25-plus providers, and buying intent is another $21 for 100 signals, both billed annually. Credits are charged only for successful results and unused ones roll over while the subscription runs, which is the friendlier end of how credits work in this directory.
The developer surface is wider than most senders publish: a REST API at api.lemlist.com, a hosted MCP server at app.lemlist.com/mcp, and an official CLI on npm. The one thing to read twice is authentication. The lemlist API uses HTTP Basic rather than a bearer token, with an empty username and the API key as the password, and its own documentation flags that as the tricky part.
The rest of the category is in the Sending APIs listing.
lemlist API pricing, plan by plan
lemlist API pricing is not a separate line: every plan includes the API, the MCP server and the CLI, so what you are choosing between is channels and volume.
| Plan | Billed annually | Paid monthly | What it meters |
|---|---|---|---|
| $55/mo | $69/mo | 50,000 emails a month, unlimited users and email senders | |
| Multichannel | $87/user/mo | $109/user/mo | Unlimited emails and messages, 5 senders per user, LinkedIn, SMS and a built-in dialer |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | 5 or more senders per user, SSO, custom roles |
| Enrichment add-on | $16/mo | $20/mo | 2,000 credits, which is 400 emails or 100 phones |
| Buying intent add-on | $21/mo | $29/mo | 100 signals a month |
There is no free tier. The 14-day trial carries the Multichannel plan's features except in-app calls, plus 200 credits for finding emails and phone numbers. WhatsApp is a further add-on on Multichannel, and lemwarm and the deliverability protections are on every plan.
Email is one flat $55 for the whole team, with unlimited users and senders and a 50,000 email ceiling. Multichannel is $87 per user with five senders each and no email ceiling. A three-person team wanting LinkedIn is $261 a month billed annually, so the plan question is really a seat question, and the API is the same on both.
Twenty requests every two seconds, per key
lemlist API rate limits are 20 requests per 2 seconds, applied on every route and to each API key separately. That is 600 a minute for one key, and every response carries the headers that say where you stand.
| Header | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Retry-After | Seconds to wait before retrying. |
| X-RateLimit-Limit | The maximum requests in the window, 20. |
| X-RateLimit-Remaining | What is left in the current window. |
| X-RateLimit-Reset | When the window resets, as a human-readable date string. |
lemlist's own example of X-RateLimit-Reset is a date written out in words with a timezone name, and the docs tell you to pay special attention to it. A client that expects an epoch number will misread it. Back off on Retry-After, which is plain seconds, and treat the reset date as information only.
The limit is per key rather than per account, which is the useful part. Two jobs on two keys do not compete for one window, so a backfill and a live sync can run side by side, each at 600 a minute.
How to create a lemlist API key
A lemlist API key is generated in the app under Settings, on the Integrations tab, and it is shown once: lemlist says to store it securely because you will not be able to see it again. The MCP server and the CLI can skip the key entirely and log in through the browser with OAuth.
Using the key with the REST API
HTTP Basic, not bearer.
- Build the string :YourApiKey, with the colon first, because the username is always empty.
- Base64-encode it and send it as Authorization: Basic ... on every request.
- Every route lives under https://api.lemlist.com/api.
- Treat the key like a password; lemlist will not show it a second time.
The MCP server and the CLI
OAuth is the recommended route for both.
- The MCP server is hosted at https://app.lemlist.com/mcp, with OAuth handled by the client and an API key as the alternative.
- The CLI installs from npm as @lemlist-official/cli, needs Node.js 20 or later, and logs in with lemlist auth login.
- Named CLI profiles keep one client team per profile, which suits an agency.
- lemlist publishes a skill.md for AI agents alongside the docs.
The two routes add up to a clean split. A script or a pipeline uses the key over Basic auth and stores it once, and anything a person drives, an agent session or a terminal, uses OAuth and never handles the key at all.
Where the lemlist API documentation lives
The lemlist API documentation is at developer.lemlist.com, built on Mintlify, and it is split three ways: an API reference with getting started, endpoints and object definitions, a section for the MCP server, and a section for the CLI. The lemlist API docs are unusually candid about the part that goes wrong, and say so on the first page.
| Surface | Where | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| API overview | developer.lemlist.com | The base URL and how the reference is organized. |
| Authentication | developer.lemlist.com/api-reference/getting-started/authentication | Basic auth, the empty username and the leading colon. |
| Rate limits | developer.lemlist.com/api-reference/getting-started/rate-limits | The 20 per 2 seconds and the four headers. |
| Multiple accounts | developer.lemlist.com/api-reference/getting-started/multiple-accounts | Working across several lemlist teams. |
| MCP server | developer.lemlist.com/mcp/setup | OAuth or key setup, the tools, and how to limit which ones are exposed. |
| CLI | developer.lemlist.com/cli/overview | Install, login, profiles and output format. |
The CLI is the most interesting piece for an engineer. Its command surface is generated from the live OpenAPI spec, so a new endpoint works the day it ships, and it prints JSON to stdout with stable exit codes. It retries 429 and 5xx responses with backoff that is aware of idempotency, so a retried POST does not create a lead twice.
The MCP page lists lemlist's MCP access alongside the others in this directory.
lemlist's own integration walkthrough
lemlist publishes this on its own channel, so it is lemlist's account of lemlist, not ours. It is here because a rate card cannot show you the thing moving, and a few minutes of the product is faster than any paragraph on this page at telling you whether the shape of it fits yours.
YouTube · lemlist How to connect HubSpot to lemlist + import leads [lemlist tutorial] 5:55 · Published February 2024A lemlist tutorial on the native HubSpot integration: connecting the CRM and importing HubSpot contacts into a lemlist campaign. It is the sync built into the app, not the REST API this page is about, and it says nothing about plans, limits or the MCP server, so nothing on this page rests on it.
Published 16 February 2024 on lemlist, the channel lemlist's own pages link to, and read on 23 October 2026. Nothing in it is a source for a price or a limit on this page: every figure in the tables above comes from a lemlist page.
Strengths and limits
lemlist gives away the developer surface and charges for data and seats.
What it does well
- The API, MCP server and CLI are on every plan, from $55 a month.
- Unlimited users and email senders on the Email plan.
- A published rate limit, per key, with four headers on every response.
- An official CLI generated from the OpenAPI spec, with safe retries.
- Credits are charged only on a result and roll over while you subscribe.
- A hosted MCP server with OAuth, and a skill.md written for agents.
Where it falls short
- Basic auth with an empty username catches people out, and lemlist says so itself.
- The reset header is a human-readable date rather than a timestamp.
- Data and intent are add-ons, so the real monthly figure is above $55.
- Multichannel is priced per user, with five senders each.
- The Email plan stops at 50,000 emails a month.
- Enterprise, the tier with SSO and custom roles, is quote only.
The trade is the right one for a builder. Everything you need to integrate is included at the entry price and documented plainly, and what costs extra is the data and the seats, which are the things you would compare across vendors anyway.
Who should build on lemlist
lemlist is the sender to pick when the integration matters from day one and the volume is moderate. At $55 a month billed annually you get the API, a hosted MCP server and an official CLI with unlimited users. Woodpecker sells the same set at $39 plus a $20 add-on, and Saleshandy from $34 billed annually. The 600 a minute per key is plenty for anything short of a large backfill.
Get the authentication right first, because it is the one place lemlist differs from almost everything else you have integrated: Basic auth, empty username, key as the password, colon first. After that, back off on Retry-After and ignore the reset header's date string, and the API behaves predictably.
It is the wrong pick when sending volume is the purchase. The Email plan stops at 50,000 emails a month, where Smartlead and Instantly ladders run far higher, and LinkedIn on Multichannel is priced per user. If you need half a million sends a month, the developer tools are not what you are buying.
lemlist is also a pick on the Amplemarket alternatives page. Amplemarket puts its API and MCP server on every account too, but the account starts at $600 a month on an annual term, against lemlist's $55 a month billed yearly for unlimited users.
Before you build against it
Five things to settle first, each one read off lemlist's own pages. The ticks are remembered in this browser, so you can come back to a half-finished integration.
Where the data comes from, and what you may do with it
The question that arrives late and expensively is who is allowed to hold the data. These are the fields it returns, the coverage it claims and the compliance it publishes.
| Provider | Fields returned | Coverage | Compliance | Redistribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| lemlist | Work email, Mobile phone, LinkedIn profile, Intent and news, Job changes | Global | GDPR DPA | Not stated |
lemlist states no redistribution position on its pricing or docs pages. Internally that never matters. Put the rows in something your customers can see and it becomes the question your legal team asks first.
Two practical notes. A compliance badge describes the vendor rather than your use of it, so a GDPR DPA does not give you a lawful basis for the outreach you send. And the vendor runs its own opt-out, which means a person who asks you to delete their record has to be removed from your copy as well as from theirs.
If lemlist is not the answer
Three providers in the Sending APIs listing that solve the same problem differently. Each one is a trade, and the trade is named.
Instantly
$47/moTen times the throughput at $47 a month, with unlimited email accounts and warmup on every Outreach plan.
Reply.io
$49/user/mo annualLinkedIn and email in one sequence, with the API on every plan and in the trial. The closest like-for-like here.
Smartlead
$39/moA $39 headline and unlimited mailboxes on every plan. Read the plan gate before you compare it to anything.
The full set, organized by the reason people leave, is on the lemlist alternatives page.
lemlist against the obvious rival
Same rate cards, read side by side, with the arithmetic done on a worked volume rather than left to you: Instantly vs lemlist, Smartlead vs lemlist and lemlist vs Outreach.
The same again, against the rest of the field: lemlist vs Woodpecker and lemlist vs Saleshandy. Every pairing in the directory is on the compare hub.
Instantly vs lemlist
CompareBoth put the API and an MCP server on the entry plan. Only one adds a CLI, and only one makes you wait for webhooks.
Smartlead vs lemlist
CompareThe API starts at $94 on one and $55 on the other, and the cheaper one throws in a CLI.
lemlist vs Outreach
CompareBoth ship an MCP server. One sells it on a $55 plan you can buy today, the other inside a quote.
Calling these APIs one by one? Run them from one Clay table.
Clay runs a waterfall across 150+ data providers from one table, without a separate contract with each. A lookup that finds nothing costs no data credit, and the free plan includes 500 actions a month.
Frontal is a Clay Elite Studio Partner.
Nothing worth quoting yet
We searched Reddit for threads about the lemlist API and have found none worth quoting yet. When one turns up, it goes here, and nothing on this page leans on an unquoted paraphrase.
lemlist API, answered
Is the lemlist API free?
No free tier. 14-day trial with the Multichannel features and 200 credits. Paid plans start at $55/mo annual.
How much does the lemlist API cost?
lemlist starts at $55/mo annual. Its unit rate is $0.008 per credit. It bills by subscription or by credit pack. Read from lemlist's own pricing page on 23 October 2026.
What are the lemlist API rate limits?
20 requests per 2 seconds per API key, on every route. Retry-After and X-RateLimit headers on every response.
How do I get a lemlist API key?
A lemlist API key is generated in the app under Settings, on the Integrations tab, and it is shown once: lemlist says to store it securely because you will not be able to see it again. Requests authenticate with API key over HTTP Basic, with an empty username. OAuth on the MCP server and CLI. The current steps are in lemlist's own documentation, which is authoritative on anything that has changed since 23 October 2026.
Does lemlist have an MCP server?
Yes, at https://app.lemlist.com/mcp. It is listed with the others on the MCP page.