Free B2B leads come in four forms. A contact tool's free plan, a free list file, a lead vendor's free sample, or your own research. Each is free in money and costs you time. They differ in what you can check. Look for a contact, a date, and a page that shows the person at the company.
A name with no email or phone is only a start. You still need a way to reach the person.
The four options side by side
| Option | What you get | Who picks the people | What you can check | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A free plan of a contact tool | A few emails a month for names or companies you enter | You | That the email exists, if the tool tests it | Small limits. No sign that the person cares about your topic |
| A free list file | A spreadsheet of names and emails | The seller, from filters | Little before you send | Old rows bounce. You rarely see when a row was last checked |
| A free sample from a lead vendor | A handful of people who fit your buyers | The vendor | Whatever fields the vendor gives: ask for a date and a source page | A sample is small, and the vendor picks it |
| Your own research | Names from company team pages, event speaker lists and job posts | You | Everything, because you found it | Hours per name, and you still need the email |
A free plan of a contact tool
Contact tools find an email for a name or a company you give them. Their free plans are small on purpose. On 2026-10-30, Hunter's free plan gave 50 credits a month. Finding an email costs one credit, and testing one costs half a credit.
So a free plan gives you up to 50 found emails a month. You still choose the 50 people. The tool tells you nothing about whether they need what you sell.
Use it when you already know the names and only need their emails.
A free list file
Some sellers give away a list to win a paid order. A list file is delivered once and starts to age that day. A list-building vendor's buying guide puts the decay at 2–3% a month. It says list files average about 55% valid after delivery. That guide has no date, and the vendor sells data itself, so read its numbers as a rough direction.
Its test is one you can run. Send to 100 contacts from the file. If more than 25 bounce after 30 days, walk away from that seller.
Use it when you can afford a bounce test on a spare sending domain. Never test a free file from your main domain.
A free sample from a lead vendor
A sample shows you the product before you pay. It is the only free option where someone else picks people for your buyers. So judge the vendor by what the sample lets you check:
- A work email and a phone, not only a name and a company
- A date for when the person was active on your topic
- A source page, a public page that shows the person at the company
- Who checked it, and how: online, by phone, or by a tool
- What happens to a wrong one in a paid pack: a new lead, a refund, or nothing
A sample with no date and no source page tells you little. It may be the best ten rows the vendor has.
Your own research
You can build a list by hand from public pages. Company team pages, event speaker lists and job posts name people and their roles. You know each name is current, because you saw the page today.
The cost is time. You read pages, guess the email pattern and test it. For a founder who sells alone, those are hours not spent on calls.
Use it when you sell to a short list of companies you can name.
Our free 10, and their limits
We are a lead vendor, so our free sample is one row in the table above. Here is what is in it, and what is not.
- What you get. 10 people who fit your buyers, with a work email and a phone. Each one engaged with content on your topic in the last 30 days
- The checks. A person checked each one online. Then a phone call confirmed their company. Each lead has a proof link: a public page that shows them at the company
- Who picks them. We do, one person per company. We do not send names you ask for, or people at your own company
- Where they go. Only to the work email on your request
- If fewer fit. We tell you how many we found and why
- What is not included. The free leads are a trial, so a wrong one is not replaced. In a paid pack, it is
See what a lead holds on the sample leads page. The steps from free leads to a paid pack are in buy B2B leads without a sales call.
We have special offers for startups with a fresh funding round and for accelerator founders.
How to judge any free lead
Run the same three checks on every free option. They take an hour on ten leads.
- Open the source page for five of them. Is the person still at the company, in the role you were told?
- Send to ten from a spare domain and count the bounces after a week
- Work out your top price per lead in the CPL calculator. CPL means cost per lead. A free lead that leads nowhere still costs your hours
Questions
Where can I get free B2B leads?
A contact tool's free plan, a free list file, a lead vendor's free sample, or your own research. Each is free in money and costs time to check.
Are free lead lists safe to send to?
Test them first. A list-building vendor's guide puts list files at about 55% valid after delivery. Send to a small part from a spare domain, and stop if many bounce.
How many free leads do I get from a contact tool's free plan?
It depends on the tool. On 2026-10-30, Hunter's free plan gave 50 credits a month. Finding one email costs one credit.
What is in your free sample?
10 people who fit your buyers, with a work email and a phone, one per company. Each engaged with content on your topic in the last 30 days. A wrong one in the free sample is not replaced.
Do I need to talk to sales to get the free leads?
No. You give your work email and tell us who you sell to. We email the leads to that address.
Test it on your own buyers
Give us your work email, then tell us who you sell to. We send 10 leads that fit, with contacts, free. If fewer fit, we tell you how many and why.
Sources
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