Ava by Artisan

Artisan told San Francisco to “Stop Hiring Humans” on billboards in late 2024, then raised a $25 million Series A in April 2025 with about 250 customers and $5 million in annual recurring revenue. Its chief executive now says of the backlash, “I think the backlash is earned.” The product behind the slogan is Ava, an AI business development rep that finds prospects, writes outreach, handles replies and books meetings.

Ava is best for startups and lean sales teams that want lead data, email writing and sending in one tool, with the option to approve every message first. Pricing has changed several times: Artisan’s default tiers are now quote-based, while startup plans are reported at $250 and $600 a month billed annually, with credit allowances reduced in October 2026. Stable, published pricing would help buyers plan. We rate it 8.1/10 on our scale. We have not used Ava ourselves; this review is based on Artisan’s published material, funding coverage and pricing trackers.

Ava’s Record in Checkable Figures

Artisan is one of the most talked-about AI sales startups, as much for its marketing as its product. These are the figures a buyer can check, with the source and date for each.

Two numbers matter most for a buyer. Growing from about 120 companies and $1 million in ARR in September 2024 to about 250 customers and $5 million in ARR six months later shows real demand. The 1% response-rate target shows what Artisan itself considers good: at that rate, 2,500 leads contacted produce about 25 replies, not 25 meetings.

The LinkedIn episode is the trust point to consider. Artisan’s CEO said very little of its data comes from LinkedIn and that it now verifies data partners. Any team using a built-in contact database can ask where the records come from and how consent and opt-outs are handled.

One Product Replacing a BDR’s Four-Tool Stack

Ava replaces the stack a human BDR would use: a contact database, an enrichment tool, a sequencing tool and an inbox. Artisan describes the work in four stages, and teams decide how much of it Ava does without approval.

The Outbound Workflow

• Find: Ava searches a database of more than 250 million contacts and 130 million local businesses, enriches records and watches intent signals such as funding rounds and leadership changes.
• Research and write: it researches each prospect and writes personalized email and social outreach. To limit made-up details, customers supply product information through a form and Ava writes within fixed templates.
• Send and follow up: sequences run from managed mailboxes with deliverability checks and warm-up, and call steps can be added for human reps.
• Reply and book: Ava classifies and answers replies and books meetings on reps’ calendars.

What Ava Handles on Its Own

In full-send mode, Ava runs the whole cycle above without a person in the loop and works thousands of conversations in parallel, according to Artisan. Teams can also set banned phrases and escalation rules. Website visitor identification, called Watchtower, flags companies that visit your site so Ava can reach out.

Ava Queues Warm Leads, Humans Make the Calls

Phone calls do. Ava queues warm leads for human reps, who call through Artisan’s dialer, which is sold per seat. TechCrunch reported in January 2026 that outbound AI calling was planned. People also supply the product information Ava writes from, decide on approval settings and take the meetings it books. Teams new to AI outbound are better off starting with approval on and moving to full send once message quality holds.

Sales-Gated Tiers and a Startup View With Prices

Artisan’s pricing page has two views. The default business view shows sales-gated tiers sized by lead volume, mailboxes and dialer seats. A startup view, as tracked by UsagePricing in October 2026, lists self-serve credit plans with prices.

Credits are spent per action: about 2 for email enrichment, 10 for phone enrichment, 4 for website visitor identification, 2 per autonomous reply and roughly 20 per person in a full campaign. New startup accounts get 10,000 trial credits for 30 days.

A Lone Founder on the $250 Intern Plan

These scenarios use the startup-view prices above. Volumes are our own illustrative assumptions.

• A founder doing outbound alone: Intern at $250 a month billed annually is a $3,000 yearly commitment for about 500 leads contacted a month, or about $0.50 per lead.
• A small team with two callers: Employee at $600 a month plus two dialer seats at $67 each comes to $734 a month, or $8,808 a year, for about 1,250 leads contacted a month, before mailboxes and phone numbers.
• The October 2026 change: Intern used to include 12,000 credits for the same $250, so each credit now costs 20% more. At about 20 credits per person, that is roughly 100 fewer leads contacted each month.

Anyone contacting 2,500 or more leads a month will land in the quote-only tiers. Competitors report 2026 quotes of $1,500 to $5,000 a month for sales-led plans, figures Artisan has not confirmed. Ask whether the contract is annual and paid upfront, as the earlier public plans were, and what mailboxes cost.

Ava by Artisan Compared With Alice by 11x, Apollo and Clay

Ava sits between two kinds of tools: full AI SDRs such as Alice, and data and sequencing platforms such as Apollo and Clay that a human rep or ops team drives.

If you want the agent to do the work, Ava and Alice are the real comparison, and Ava is far easier to try. If you have a rep who will run campaigns, Apollo at $79 a user a month for Professional on annual billing gives three people data and sequencing for $237 a month. Clay suits teams that want to design their own research. See more options in our AI agents for sales and startups guides.

Startups Without an SDR Team

• Startups without an SDR team: the Intern plan puts lead data, writing and sending in one product for $250 a month billed annually.
• Teams that want control before full autonomy: approval gates can be turned on at every stage and loosened later.
• Companies selling to local businesses: Artisan lists 130 million local business records alongside B2B contacts.
• HubSpot or Salesforce users: CRM sync is included, so replies and meetings land in the system of record.
• Large sales floors: Artisan says its largest deployment covers more than 1,000 reps, and the Scale and Enterprise tiers are built for volume.

Teams Wanting AI Phone Calls Can Pair It With a Dialer Tool

• Teams that want an AI to make calls: Ava queues calls for humans; consider Alice with Julian or a voice agent.
• Buyers who need stable published pricing: tiers and credit allowances changed several times in 2026.
• Very niche markets: a competitor’s review describes users finding a handful of matching senior contacts in narrow segments.
• Companies with strict data-provenance rules: the LinkedIn dispute over third-party data brokers is worth reviewing with your legal team first.
• Teams that already run Apollo or Clay well: adding an autonomous writer may cost more than improving the workflow you have.

Credit Changes and Annual Terms to Confirm

• Shrinking credits: the October 2026 cut means each credit costs 20% more, and it was not announced. Check your allowance at renewal.
• Annual commitments: the published startup prices are annual rates, and past plans required upfront payment.
• Extra line items: mailboxes, phone numbers and dialer seats are billed on top of the plan.
• Sender reputation: full-send mode puts your domains in the agent’s hands; start in approval mode and watch bounce and spam rates.
• Realistic expectations: Artisan treats about a 1% response rate as good, so plan pipeline from replies, not from emails sent.
• Brand association: the billboards still draw graffiti in San Francisco; some buyers may care whose name sits behind their outreach.

Smaller Credit Allowances at the Same Price in October

• On October 24, 2026, pricing trackers recorded cuts to Intern and Employee credit allowances, from 12,000 to 10,000 and from 30,000 to 25,000 a month, at unchanged prices.
• On September 7, 2026, a competitor reviewed Artisan pricing and found the default Team, Scale and Enterprise tiers listed without prices; UsagePricing dated the switch to sales-gated tiers to July 2026.
• On September 2, 2026, the San Francisco Standard reported that Artisan’s ads are defaced about once a week and that the CEO says the backlash is earned.
• On May 26, 2026, Artisan launched Ava 2.0 with a built-in dialer for reps, optional approval gates and named customers including SumUp and Quora.
• On January 7, 2026, TechCrunch reported that LinkedIn had restricted Artisan in December 2025 and was reinstating it.

Email Outbound for Startups, With Approval Settings

For startups and small teams that want an AI to run email outbound, yes, with care. Ava scores 8.1/10 on our scale: strong on autonomy and user sentiment, middling on pricing, integrations and trust. Its path from about $1 million to $5 million in ARR in six months and deployments covering more than 1,000 reps show the product works for many buyers, and the startup plans make it one of the cheaper AI SDRs to try.

The points to plan for relate to the company more than the agent. Pricing has changed several times, credit allowances were reduced without a public announcement, and the LinkedIn dispute raised data-sourcing questions that Artisan has since addressed by verifying partners. Start on a startup plan or the 30-day trial credits, keep approval on for the first weeks, measure positive replies per 1,000 leads against Artisan’s own 1% benchmark, and then talk to sales about Team or Scale.

Intern and Employee Plan Costs for Ava

How Much Does Artisan Ava Cost?

The startup view of Artisan’s pricing page is reported at $250 a month for Intern and $600 for Employee, both billed annually, plus a free plan. The default Team, Scale and Enterprise tiers are quote-only and sized by lead volume, mailboxes and dialer seats.

Does Artisan Have a Free Trial?

New startup accounts get 10,000 trial credits for 30 days, and a free plan includes 300 credits a month. Campaigns, deliverability tools and integrations need a paid plan.

Why Was Artisan Banned From LinkedIn?

According to Artisan’s CEO, LinkedIn objected to Artisan using its name on its website and alleged that some of Artisan’s data brokers had scraped LinkedIn. Artisan removed the references, worked on vendor checks and was reinstated in January 2026.

Is Ava Better Than 11x Alice?

Ava is easier and cheaper to start, with published startup plans and an approval dial. Alice covers more channels, including inbound calls through Julian, but sells only through quotes. Teams with an enterprise budget should compare both on a pilot.

Which Tasks Does Ava Leave to Your Team?

Ava does not place phone calls itself; it queues them for human reps on the dialer. It writes from the product information you supply, so your team owns positioning, and results in very narrow markets depend on how many matching contacts exist.