How to Scrape Thousands of Business Leads for Free: Apollo and Apify Method

Gathering quality leads is essential for any business outreach strategy, but it often comes with a high price tag. However, there’s a method to collect thousands of verified business leads at virtually no cost, and we’re breaking down the process step by step.

The approach combines Apollo’s massive database with Apify’s scraping capabilities to extract valuable business information without spending a fortune.

Step 1: Choose Your Target Niche

Before beginning the scraping process, it’s important to define which market segment you’re targeting. For demonstration purposes, we’ll focus on SaaS companies, particularly small businesses with 1-10 employees that are either bootstrapping or recently funded.

Step 2: Set Up Your Apollo Search

Apollo.io hosts a database of over 216 million leads that can be filtered according to specific criteria:

Search for companies in your niche (example: companies with “AI” in their name)
Filter for verified email addresses to ensure deliverability
Target specific job titles (example: CEO, Founder, Owner, Co-founder)
Narrow down by company size (example: 1-10 employees)

While Apollo offers a free tier, it limits exports to just 25 leads per page and restricts browsing to only 5 pages—totaling just 125 leads. This is where the next tool comes in.

Step 3: Leverage Apify for Mass Scraping

Apify is a marketplace where developers publish various scraping tools. New users receive $5 in free credits upon signup, which can be used to extract thousands of leads.

Here’s how to use it:

Sign up for an Apify account to receive your $5 credit
Search the marketplace for “Apollo Scraper”
Select a cost-effective scraper (approximately $1.20 per 1,000 leads)
Paste your Apollo search URL into the scraper
Set the “no timeout” option to ensure complete scraping
Run the scraper

With the $5 free credit, you can extract approximately 4,000 leads. The process takes about 15-30 minutes depending on the volume of data being scraped.

The Results

This method can yield impressive results—previous runs have generated over 40,000 verified business contacts for just $4.90 (using the free credit). Each lead includes details such as:

Verified email addresses
Company information
Contact names
Job titles

Even after exhausting your free credits, continued use of this method remains cost-effective at approximately $6 for 5,000 leads—significantly cheaper than most lead generation services.

Applications for Your Lead List

Once you’ve compiled your leads, you can use them for various outreach formats:

Email outreach campaigns
Combined email and LinkedIn outreach strategies
Cold calling (if phone numbers are available)

This approach provides a sustainable way to build your prospect list without breaking the bank, especially valuable for startups and small businesses with limited marketing budgets.