Media Database Cost (2026), What You Pay and What You Get
A Media List plan costs $99 a month at the entry level, $399 a month for a small team and $999 a month at the top, and every plan begins with a 3 day trial. What changes between them is how many contacts you can export, how many people can sign in, and whether you can send and report from inside the app.
This page lays out the exact numbers, the cost per export, and the part most pricing pages leave out, which is what a list costs you in hours when you build it by hand.
Facts and counts checked October 19, 2026. See something wrong? Tell us.
Key takeaways
- Plans are $99, $399 and $999 a month, with 2,500, 10,000 and 25,000 exports a month.
- Every plan starts with a 3 day trial, $0 today, with up to 25 exports during the trial.
- Paid yearly, a plan costs ten months instead of twelve.
- At every tier the price works out to about four cents per export, so the tier you pick is about volume, seats and sending, not a better rate.
- Media List does not sell a plan that includes exports at no cost, so compare the price against your own hours, not against zero.
What each plan costs
These are the live numbers from the plans page, checked on October 19, 2026.1
| What you get | Basic | Professional | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price a month | $99 | $399 | $999 |
| Price a year | $990 | $3,990 | $9,990 |
| Exports a month | 2,500 | 10,000 | 25,000 |
| Exports a day | 500 | 2,000 | 5,000 |
| Searches and lists | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| People who can sign in | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| AI searches a day | None | 50 | 200 |
| Sending mailboxes | None | 1 | 5 |
| Campaigns running at once | None | 5 | Unlimited |
| Recipients in one campaign | None | 2,500 | 5,000 |
| Client reports | 1 brand | 3 brands, private label | Unlimited brands, private label |
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What the 3 day trial includes
Every plan starts with a 3 day trial. You pay $0 today, you can pay by card or PayPal, and exports are capped at 25 until the first charge goes through, so the trial cannot be used to take a whole month of exports.1 Searching and building lists are not capped during the trial.
There is no plan that hands out exports at no cost. If you want contacts without paying, the honest route is bylines and staff pages, and the price there is your time. The seven free methods guide walks through each one and where it runs out.
Cost per export at each tier
Divide the monthly price by the monthly export allowance and the tiers land in the same place.
| Plan | Price a month | Exports a month | Cost per export |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $99 | 2,500 | About 4 cents |
| Professional | $399 | 10,000 | About 4 cents |
| Scale | $999 | 25,000 | About 4 cents |
That is the useful way to read the ladder. You are not buying a cheaper contact at the top, you are buying more of them in a month, more seats and the ability to send. If you export a few hundred contacts a month, the entry plan is the right one no matter how big your agency is.
Monthly or yearly
Paid monthly for a year, Basic comes to $1,188, Professional $4,788 and Scale $11,988. Paid yearly the same plans are $990, $3,990 and $9,990, which is twelve months for the price of ten.1 If you pitch all year, the yearly price is the cheaper line. If you run two campaigns a year, monthly and cancelling between them is cheaper.
What drives the price of any media database
Prices differ for reasons you can check before you pay. Ask about each of these.
| What to ask about | Why it moves the price | How to check it |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | A database that holds creators, podcasts and newsletters costs more to maintain than a newsroom list | Search your own beat and count the results |
| Freshness | People change jobs, so records need rechecking | Look at when a record was last updated |
| Email checks | Checking addresses costs money per address | Look for a per contact status, not a blanket promise |
| Export limits | Export volume is the main thing plans are priced on | Compare the monthly allowance to what you actually send |
| Seats | More people signing in means more support and more use | Count who really needs an account |
| Sending and reporting | Mail infrastructure and reports are extra software | Decide whether you will send from the app or your own inbox |
What a hand built list costs in hours
A fair comparison is not price against zero, it is price against your hours. Building a list by hand takes about ten minutes per contact once you include finding the person, reading a recent story, confirming the beat and checking the address. At that rate 50 contacts is about eight hours of work.
Put an hourly rate on your own time and the arithmetic is quick. At $50 an hour, those eight hours cost $400, which is more than four months of the entry plan. That does not make a database the right answer for everyone. If you pitch two reporters a year, hand building is fine.
Which plan fits which team
| Your situation | The plan that fits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One person, a few launches a year | Basic | Unlimited search and lists, 2,500 exports a month, one seat |
| A small agency with client reporting | Professional | Three seats, private label reports for three brands, 50 AI searches a day |
| A team sending campaigns at volume | Scale | Ten seats, five mailboxes, unlimited campaigns, 25,000 exports |
| A team that wants the work done for them | Concierge | A managed service rather than a plan, from $2,500 a month |
Start on the plan that matches this month, not the one that matches your best month. Plans switch from the billing page, and the price changes at the switch.
Questions, answered
How much does a media database cost?
A Media List plan is $99 a month for Basic, $399 for Professional and $999 for Scale, with 2,500, 10,000 and 25,000 exports a month. Every plan begins with a 3 day trial at $0 today.
Is there a free media database?
There are free sources, which are bylines, staff pages and the contact pages of outlets, and they cost time rather than money. Media List does not sell a plan that includes exports at no cost. Every plan starts with a 3 day trial that includes up to 25 exports.
What does the trial include?
Unlimited searching and list building for 3 days, $0 today, with exports capped at 25 until the first charge goes through. You can pay by card or PayPal.
Is the yearly price cheaper?
Yes. Twelve monthly payments come to $1,188 on Basic, while the yearly price is $990, which is twelve months for the price of ten. The same ratio applies on Professional and Scale.
What happens if I need more exports than my plan allows?
Switch up a plan from the billing page. Export allowances reset every month, and there is a daily cap as well, which is 500 a day on Basic, 2,000 on Professional and 5,000 on Scale.
What is the cost per contact?
At every tier the monthly price divided by the monthly export allowance works out to about four cents per export. The higher tiers add volume, seats and sending rather than a lower rate.
Related guides
- Media list database, six questions before you buy
- Media database, what is inside and what it is for
- Free media list for press releases, seven free ways
- How to create a media list, seven steps in two hours
- Media list template, the columns every PR list needs
Sources
- Media List pricing page, checked 2026-10-19
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