Best AI Recruiting Software for Small Teams: 8 Tools I Priced, and Where the AI Costs Extra

You have three roles open, a pile of applications in a shared inbox and nobody whose job title says recruiter. So the reading, the replies and the scheduling land on you, between everything else you already do.

AI recruiting software uses AI for parts of that work: finding candidates, scoring applications, writing outreach, booking interviews and sometimes running a first interview. Most of it is an applicant tracking system (ATS) with AI built in, or a tool that sits beside one.

The pages that rank for AI recruiting tools are written for what Greenhouse calls "scaling and enterprise teams", and no page on Google's first page prints today's prices with the billing state next to them. This guide prices what a small team can buy, and shows where the AI costs extra.

I read every pricing page, product page and the rules on 7 November 2026. Nothing was tested hands-on, so each feature below is described in the vendor's own words.

Payroll, onboarding and the employee record are a different purchase, and the rest of the HR stack for a small team covers them.

How I compared the AI recruiting tools

Every AI hiring tool here got the same five questions, asked of its own pages:

• Which hiring job does it do? Sourcing, screening, outreach, scheduling, interviewing, or the ATS itself.
• Is the price on the page? A page had to show no price on two loads before I called it missing.
• What billing state is that price? Seven of the eight open on annual or yearly billing. Ashby opens on monthly, and I give the other state wherever I read it.
• Is the AI included, on a higher plan, or billed per use? This is where a cheap seat stops being cheap.
• Who makes the decision? Where a vendor says a person does, I quote it.

Prices are in US dollars as each vendor published them on 7 November 2026. I have not run a trial or screened a candidate in any of these tools. The workflow side, how an AI recruiter fits into your ATS, has its own guide.

Quick comparison

The rows follow the order of the sections below. My own product is the last row, labelled as ours.

Prices read on each vendor's own page on 7 November 2026, in USD, in the billing state the page opens with. AI usage can cost extra; see each section. Greenhouse and Teamtailor give prices only after a demo or a quote, and Paradox showed no price on its homepage; see the bigger platforms.

1. Zoho Recruit: the free plan to start on

Of the eight, Zoho Recruit is the only applicant tracking system with a plan that stays free. The Free plan is "US$0 Forever Free" and gives you one active job per recruiter license, with candidate management, email and interview scheduling included.

Zoho shows prices by country; these are the US figures as of November 2026. Standard is $25 per recruiter a month billed annually, with 10 active jobs per license plus candidate sourcing, premium job boards and a branded careers site. Enterprise is $50 per recruiter a month billed annually, with 20 active jobs per license and an "Includes AI" badge. Monthly billing costs more on both.

The free plan covers one job at a time, and the AI sits on Enterprise.

"AI Candidate Matching" appears only on the Enterprise card. The 15-day trial runs on Enterprise features, and when it ends Zoho moves you to the Free plan; there are "No forced contracts" and a 45-day money-back guarantee. Video interviews are an add-on at US$12 per job opening, and add-ons do not work on Free.

Best for

The smallest budget and one role at a time.

Pricing

Free $0; Standard $25 and Enterprise $50 per recruiter a month billed annually, as of November 2026.

Free tier

Yes, forever: 1 active job per recruiter license.

Verdict

Start free, and pay for Enterprise only when you want the AI to match candidates.

2. Manatal: AI scoring from $15 a user

$15. That is Manatal's entry price per user a month on yearly billing as of November 2026, and the cheapest paid seat of the eight. The Professional plan is labelled "For individuals & small teams" and allows up to 15 jobs, 10,000 candidates and unlimited hiring managers.

Enterprise is $35 and Enterprise Plus $55 a user a month on yearly billing. Monthly billing adds $4 a seat on every priced plan.

Scoring and summaries are in the feature list, and the AI Interviewer is a separate add-on.

The plan comparison lists automatic AI-based candidate scoring, AI summaries of how each candidate matches your requirements, AI-written job descriptions and an AI Copilot that can compare and rank candidates. The AI Interviewer, which offers "24/7 automated video screening" in six languages, is marked as an add-on on all three paid plans, with no price on the page.

The trial lasts 14 days, and Manatal's FAQ says "no card required". During it you cannot post to free or premium job boards or send emails.

Best for

A one-person HR function.

Pricing

Professional $15, Enterprise $35, Enterprise Plus $55 a user a month on yearly billing ($19, $39, $59 monthly), as of November 2026.

Free tier

No; 14-day trial, no card.

Verdict

The lowest seat price here that lists AI scoring.

3. Breezy HR: one price however many people help hire

Breezy's FAQ says: "Every plan includes unlimited users and unlimited open positions, and the price doesn't change as your company grows." One bill, however many managers. When four people each want to see their own candidates, that sentence matters more than any feature.

As of November 2026, Startup is $157 a month billed annually, Growth $273 and Business $439, or $189, $329 and $529 billed monthly. Custom Pro is priced by quote, and there is no free plan. Breezy is part of Learning Technologies Group plc.

The AI is billed by the applicant, not by the seat.

Breezy Intelligence, the AI layer, runs on credits you can add to any plan:

• Credits start at $30 per 100,000, as of November 2026.
• Scoring one applicant uses about 500 credits, so 100,000 score about 200 applicants. At the starting rate, that is roughly 15 cents an applicant.
• A resume audit uses up to 600.
• The 14-day trial needs no card and includes 100,000 credits that never expire.

Applicant Insights is Breezy's AI candidate screening. It scores each applicant from 0 to 10 against your job description and up to five criteria you choose, and explains each score. Breezy says personal details are removed before scoring and that "your team still makes every hiring decision". Resume Audit flags resumes that look auto-generated, copied or stuffed with keywords, and Interview Analysis is a separate subscription.

Best for

Every hiring manager in, one price.

Pricing

$157, $273 or $439 a month billed annually ($189, $329, $529 monthly), as of November 2026; AI credits from $30 per 100,000.

Free tier

No; 14-day trial with 100,000 AI credits.

Verdict

Pick it when several people review candidates and you want a bill that never grows with seats.

4. JazzHR: a yearly budget for posting jobs

JazzHR sells three plans, and the cheapest one comes only yearly. As of November 2026:

• Hero (for getting started): $1,000 a year billed annually. It covers job postings, the ATS, email templates and premium job listings, and it does not appear on the monthly toggle.
• Plus (for growing teams): $3,480 a year billed annually, or $350 a month billed monthly, for up to 200 active jobs.
• Pro (for serious hiring): $5,508 a year, or $549 a month.

Hero gets you posting, and Plus is where matching starts.

"AI-Powered Candidate Matching" first appears on Plus, along with structured interviews, assessments and task automation; Pro adds offers with eSignatures and custom reports. Spread over twelve months, Plus on yearly billing works out to $290 a month, against $350 on monthly billing.

Read the small print before you budget. Standard pricing does not apply to staffing or recruiting agencies, HR service providers, franchises, multi-location businesses or organizations with over 250 employees, among others at JazzHR's discretion. The pricing page shows no free plan, and the footer names Employ Inc. as the owner.

5. Workable: AI agents inside the ATS

Workable's page opens on annual billing and on a company of 1 to 20 employees, and its price changes with headcount. For that smallest band, as of November 2026, Standard is $299 a month billed annually ($3,588 a year) or $360 on monthly billing. Premier is $599 and Enterprise $719 a month, both annual only. On Standard, texting, video interviews and assessments are add-ons at $89, $109 and $59 a month.

Three agents run on credits, and the trial leaves them out.

Every plan includes a Job Brief Agent. The Sourcing, Screening and Engagement agents use AI credits at these rates:

• 1 credit each time a candidate is screened against your ideal candidate profile.
• 2 credits each time a passive candidate is identified and added to your pipeline.
• 10 credits per chat session in which a candidate gives at least one answer.

Each ATS plan comes with 3,000 complimentary credits. After that, packs cost $600 for 5,000 ($0.12 a credit), $1,000 for 10,000 and $4,750 for 50,000, as listed on 7 November 2026, and credits expire a year after purchase with no refunds. The 15-day trial needs no card and opens the full Enterprise feature set, with one exception printed on the page: "Free trial does not include Workable Agent."

Best for

Sourcing, screening and the ATS on one bill.

Pricing

Standard $299 a month billed annually or $360 monthly, for 1 to 20 employees, as of November 2026; Premier $599 and Enterprise $719, annual only.

Free tier

No; 15-day trial, agents excluded.

Verdict

Budget for credit packs if the agents will source as well as screen.

6. Juicebox: an AI sourcing tool for people who have not applied

Juicebox looks for people who never applied. You search, it returns candidates, and you write to them from inside the tool. It does not track applicants; the Business plan integrates with your ATS or CRM, so it sits beside an ATS.

As of November 2026, the Free plan gives you limited free searches and AI email templates. Starter is $99 per seat a month on yearly billing, or $119 monthly, with unlimited searches and 500 contact credits for emails and phone numbers. Growth is $179 per seat on yearly billing or $199 monthly, with 1,500 contact credits and up to 5 seats. Business is custom and annual only.

Search is the product, and agents cost $199 each.

The Juicebox Agents add-on is $199 per agent a month on Starter, Growth and Business. An agent can be set to "auto-email or auto-shortlist" and comes with unlimited contact and email credits. If your outreach runs through LinkedIn messages rather than email, outreach on LinkedIn walks through how an agent handles that part.

Best for

Finding people who have not applied.

Pricing

Starter $99 and Growth $179 per seat a month on yearly billing ($119 and $199 monthly), as of November 2026; Agents $199 each a month.

Free tier

Yes: limited free searches and AI email templates.

Verdict

Worth paying for when your problem is too few applicants, not too many.

7. Gem: the startup deal

Gem puts a clock on its best price. The startup program puts it plainly: "Under 30 employees? You get Gem All-in-One free for six months, then 50% off when you move to a paid plan." Companies of 30 to 100 people "still get reduced rates from day one".

Under 30 people, the first six months cost nothing.

On its default setting of 1 to 10 FTE and yearly terms, Gem's startup calculator showed $130 a month on 7 November 2026, with $270 struck through. I did not read other company sizes or monthly terms. The bundle covers AI sourcing and CRM, analytics, scheduling and an ATS, and the page names four AI agents:

• AI Sourcing Agent, which searches profiles automatically.
• AI Application Review Agent: "Every inbound application scored and ranked before a recruiter opens it."
• AI Talent Rediscovery Agent.
• AI Fraud Detection Agent.

Happy with the ATS you have? Gem's other path keeps it and adds AI sourcing, outreach, scheduling and analytics on top, at custom pricing based on your headcount. If you take the startup deal, put a reminder in your calendar for month five.

8. Ashby: when hiring becomes weekly

Foundations is Ashby's all-in-one plan for companies of up to 100 employees. Its calculator opens on 11 to 25 employees and monthly terms and shows $400 a month as of November 2026; annual commitments get a 10% discount, and emerging-market pricing is available.

The first price on the page is for a company of 11 to 25.

The calculator also offers 1 to 10, 26 to 50, 51 to 75 and 76 to 100 employees. I read only the default, so do not assume $400 at any other size. Plus, for 101 to 1,000 employees, and Enterprise are priced on request.

The plan comparison lists AI features such as application review against criteria you define, a notetaker that records and summarizes interviews, and an auto-scheduler, Ashby's version of AI interview scheduling. Which plan includes which is shown only by icons, so I assign none of them to Foundations.

Best for

The step up when hiring is weekly.

Pricing

Foundations $400 a month on monthly terms for 11 to 25 employees, as of November 2026; 10% off annual commitments.

Free tier

No.

Verdict

Too much for three hires a year. Look again when you post a role every week.

9. Gravity: a Hiring agent for the team without a recruiter

Gravity is my product, so weigh this section with that in mind. It is an AI agent platform: you type the task you need done, and it matches an expert-built agent that runs it. The catalog in November 2026 includes a Hiring agent, described this way: "Finds people for a role, writes to them, runs tests, interviews, offers. Nothing goes out without you."

It runs one role from search to offer, and you approve every message.

The agent reads your Gmail, Google Calendar and Notion, then works through the role: finding people, writing to them, and running tests, interviews and offers. The shortlist comes back as a CSV spreadsheet you can download, kept in Gravity or saved to Google Drive, and offer letters can go to Google Drive too.

It is not an applicant tracking system, and it does not score applicants against a job description. If every role already brings in hundreds of applications, one of the ATS picks above is the better buy.

Best for

One role, no recruiter, no ATS yet.

Pricing

Free $0 with no card and your first 3 agent runs free (no automated agents); Mini Pilot $15 a month for one automated agent. Buy more usage if you run out. See pricing, as of November 2026.

Free tier

Yes: 3 agent runs, no card.

Verdict

For the owner filling one role alone.

What about Greenhouse, Paradox, Ribbon and LinkedIn?

These names fill the ranking lists. Here is what their own pages said on 7 November 2026:

• Greenhouse: pricing "is customized based on your company's hiring needs", and Core, Plus and Pro each sit behind "Get a demo".
• Teamtailor: "Let us give you a quote."
• Tellent Recruitee: no plan price on the page when I read it, only a demo or a free trial. Its Advance plan lists an AI-powered Screening Assistant at 100 credits a month.
• hireEZ: solo recruiters start at $494 a month, with a 7-day free trial.
• Paradox: Workday completed its acquisition on 1 October 2025. Paradox sells Olivia, a conversational assistant for high-volume hourly hiring, and showed no price on its homepage.
• Ribbon: Dayforce announced on 23 October 2026 that it had signed an agreement to acquire Ribbon AI, and ribbon.ai/pricing returned Ribbon's own 404 page. For other AI interviewers, see AI interviewers compared.
• LinkedIn Recruiter with Hiring Assistant: sold through "Contact sales", with no price on the page. LinkedIn says Hiring Assistant will "search, review, and deliver a summarized shortlist of top talent for you."

I treat a demo-only price as a sign the product is sold to bigger teams first. For a handful of hires a year, start with the priced tools above.

The rules that apply when AI screens candidates

Four sets of rules can apply when software screens your candidates. Each one below carries its date and status from the primary text:

• New York City, Local Law 144 (in force). DCWP, the city agency that enforces it, began enforcement on July 5, 2023. An employer may not use an automated employment decision tool unless it had a bias audit within one year of use, information about the audit is public, and candidates or employees got notice; DCWP says the notice must come 10 business days before use.
• Illinois, Public Act 103-0804 (in force since January 1, 2026). It amends the Illinois Human Rights Act. In recruitment and hiring, an employer may not use AI that has the effect of discriminating on the basis of protected classes, or use zip codes as a proxy for them, and must give employees notice that it uses AI this way.
• Colorado, SB 26-189 (signed May 14, 2026; takes effect January 1, 2027). It repeals and reenacts the 2024 law with new requirements for automated decision-making technology in consequential decisions, employment included.
• EU AI Act (adopted; recruitment obligations apply from 2 December 2027). Annex III lists AI used for the recruitment or selection of people as high-risk, and Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 moved those obligations to 2 December 2027.

This is not legal advice. If a tool will score or filter your applicants, read the rule for each place you hire, or ask an employment lawyer, before you switch the AI on.

Which one should you choose?

Pick by the problem you have this quarter. Prices are as of November 2026.

• One open role and no budget: Zoho Recruit Free. Move to Enterprise only when you want AI matching.
• One HR person who wants AI scores: Manatal, from $15 a user a month on yearly billing.
• Several managers reviewing candidates: Breezy HR, because extra users cost nothing.
• Posting jobs on a fixed yearly budget: JazzHR Hero at $1,000 a year.
• Agents that source and screen for you: Workable. Budget for credits past the 3,000 included.
• The hard part is finding people: Juicebox, next to whichever ATS you keep.
• A startup under 30 people that will keep hiring: Gem, while the six free months last.
• Hiring every week: Ashby.
• No recruiter, no ATS and one role to fill: Gravity's Hiring agent.

Recruiting is one job among many in a small company. AI agents for small business covers the others, and AI agents for HR covers the rest of the people side, from onboarding to the employee record.

FAQ

Sources