What it is
Clay is a go-to-market data platform. It looks like a spreadsheet: each row is a company or person, and each column can pull data from an outside provider, run an AI prompt, or trigger an action. Its best-known feature is waterfall enrichment, which tries several data providers in turn until one finds an email or phone number. Claygent is its AI agent that browses the web to answer research questions about each row, such as "does this company sell to hospitals?"
Clay also watches for buying signals (job changes, web visits, hiring), syncs with CRMs and data warehouses, and has its own email sequencer. It is SOC 2 Type II, says it complies with ISO 27001 and GDPR, processes data mainly on AWS US-East, and says customer data is not used to train its or its AI providers' models.
Pricing is split into Actions (platform work like running a column, a few tenths of a cent each) and Data Credits (data and AI bought from vendors, from $0.05 each). Actions reset monthly; Data Credits roll over within limits that Clay's own pages describe differently. You are not charged when an enrichment finds nothing. Seats are unlimited on every plan.
Our review
Clay has become the standard tool for growth and sales operations teams that build their own outbound workflows, because it treats enrichment as something you program rather than something you look up. Chaining several data providers in a waterfall and asking Claygent to research each row gets better coverage and sharper targeting than any single database. The cost is that someone has to build and maintain those tables.
The learning curve is closer to a no-code programming tool than a contact database. Many companies hire agencies or a dedicated "GTM engineer" to build their Clay tables, and that salary belongs in any comparison with Apollo, which gets a rep from search to sequence faster. The features engineers care about, CRM auto-sync, calls to any HTTP API and webhook triggers, start at Growth ($495 a month), not Launch.
Pricing now runs on two meters. Actions cost a few tenths of a cent and, Clay says, 90% of customers never hit the limit. Data Credits drive the bill: of Launch's $185, $125 pays for the 2,500 credits, and phone numbers have no fixed published price because each provider sets its own. Top-ups mid-cycle cost 30% more. Failed lookups are free, which is fair for waterfalls that try several vendors per row.
The official pages still disagree with each other. The pricing table says Launch and Growth roll over up to one month's credits; the FAQ and billing docs say up to twice the monthly amount, or 15% a year on annual plans. Data warehouse sync is a Growth feature on the plan card and an Enterprise extra in the FAQ. Odder still, Launch charges less than Growth for the same Actions volume: 480,000 a year costs $135 a month on Launch and $185 on Growth.
Where it earns its place
A two-person RevOps team supporting 50 account executives at a B2B SaaS company
Build weekly lists of hospitals hiring for revenue-cycle roles, with verified emails
Signals catch the hiring posts, a waterfall finds emails and Claygent checks whether each account sells to hospitals. Cost scales with Data Credits, not seats, so phone lookups are the line to budget, since each provider prices them differently.
A data engineer at a Series B company with a cloud data warehouse
Keep CRM firmographics fresh and push enriched accounts back to the warehouse
Growth is the minimum, adding CRM auto-sync, warehouse sync, any HTTP API and webhooks. Running the team's own provider keys counts one Action per run and no Data Credits, which keeps large refresh jobs cheap.
A solo founder doing outbound for the first time
Build a list of 200 qualified leads this week
Free covers it on paper, with 100 Data Credits and 200 rows per table, but no phone numbers. Beyond that, Launch at $185 a month is expensive for one person, and Apollo gets to a sequenced list faster.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Start free or take the 14-day trial with 1,000 Data Credits (phone enrichment is not available during the trial); a useful table means configuring each column's provider, prompt and run condition.
- Integrations
- CRM sync and email sending from Launch; CRM auto-sync, data warehouse sync, any HTTP API and inbound webhooks on Growth; an MCP server; your own keys for supported AI and data providers.
- Data and privacy
- SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and GDPR and CCPA compliance claimed; data processed mainly on AWS US-East; no training on customer data; deleted workspaces purged after 30 days. SSO, SCIM and RBAC are Enterprise-only.
- Cost at scale
- Growth at 100,000 Actions and 20,000 Data Credits a month costs $450 plus $880, about $1,330 a month on monthly billing. Enterprise needs an annual commitment starting at 100,000+ credits a month.
- Limits
- Free: 200 rows per table, no phone numbers. Launch and Growth: 50,000 rows per table. Actions reset monthly; Data Credit rollover rules differ between Clay's own pages.
What's good
- Waterfall enrichment across many data providers
- Claygent researches each row on the web
- No charge for failed enrichments; unlimited seats
- SOC 2 Type II; customer data not used for AI training
What's not
- Steep learning curve; often needs a dedicated builder
- CRM auto-sync, HTTP API and webhooks start at $495 Growth
- Phone enrichment prices vary by provider and are not published
- Clay's own pages contradict each other on credit rollover
Best for
Growth and sales operations teams that build custom outbound and account-research workflows.
Alternatives
Clay: common questions
- Is Clay worth it?
- Clay is a programmable data workbench for outbound, and it repays a dedicated operator far more than a casual user. We rate it 4.5 out of 5.
- How much does Clay cost?
- Free (500 Actions, 100 Data Credits/month); Launch from $185/month ($167 yearly); Growth from $495/month ($446 yearly); Enterprise custom. Extra Data Credits cost 30% more mid-cycle.
- What are the downsides of Clay?
- Steep learning curve; often needs a dedicated builder; cRM auto-sync, HTTP API and webhooks start at $495 Growth; phone enrichment prices vary by provider and are not published; clay's own pages contradict each other on credit rollover.
- Who is Clay best for?
- Growth and sales operations teams that build custom outbound and account-research workflows.
- How much does Clay cost for a team or in production?
- Growth at 100,000 Actions and 20,000 Data Credits a month costs $450 plus $880, about $1,330 a month on monthly billing. Enterprise needs an annual commitment starting at 100,000+ credits a month.
- Is Clay safe for company data?
- SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and GDPR and CCPA compliance claimed; data processed mainly on AWS US-East; no training on customer data; deleted workspaces purged after 30 days. SSO, SCIM and RBAC are Enterprise-only.
- What are the best Clay alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Apollo.io, HubSpot Breeze and Agent Hub and Attio.
Answers checked Oct 23, 2026.
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