Clay pricing in 2026: the plans, what credits really buy, and the alternatives

The short answer

Clay's Launch plan costs $185 a month ($167 billed annually) for 2,500 data credits and 15,000 actions, with unlimited seats. At Clay's own estimate of 6 to 20 credits for a fully enriched record, that covers about 125 to 416 records a month. CRM sync, the HTTP API and webhooks start on Growth, at $495 a month.

If you only need verified work emails, a waterfall tool such as FullEnrich or BetterContact charges only for what it finds, from $29 and $15 a month. If you want data and sending on one seat, Apollo starts at $49 a user a month billed annually. Clay earns its price when you rebuild the same multi-step list every week.

Clay pricing in 2026: Free, Launch, Growth and Enterprise

Clay is a spreadsheet-like workspace that fills in each row by calling data providers and AI models, then sends the result to your CRM or sequencer. It raised $115 million at a $7.1 billion valuation in September 2026 and reports more than 17,000 customers.

Clay changed its pricing on March 11, 2026. The single credit it used to sell became two meters: data credits, which pay for data from its marketplace and for AI, and actions, which pay for the platform work around them, such as running an enrichment or exporting a row. Clay says the change cut data prices by 50 to 90 percent.

There are four plans, and every one includes unlimited seats and tables, so a founder and a contractor can share one workspace without paying twice. What changes is the monthly allowance and the integrations. The Free plan caps a table at 200 rows; Launch allows 50,000.

Clay plans in 2026: price, data credits, actions and features

	Free	Launch	Growth	Enterprise
Billed monthly	$0	$185	$495	Custom, annual
Billed annually, a month	$0	$167	$446	Custom
Data credits a month	100	2,500	6,000	Custom
Actions a month	500	15,000	40,000	Custom
Seats	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Phone numbers	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Job changes and signals	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sequencer, email integrations	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
HubSpot and Salesforce sync	No	No	Yes	Yes
HTTP API and webhooks	No	No	Yes, one action a call	Yes
SSO, Clay API, warehouse sync	No	No	No	Yes

Data credits and actions: how Clay charges you

A data credit pays for what a provider or an AI model returns. Clay prices them from $0.05 each, and its docs use a work email or a LinkedIn profile at 0.5 credits as an example; phone numbers cost more, and an older Clay FAQ lists 2 to 5 credits for an email depending on the provider. An action costs a few tenths of a cent, and every enrichment or export uses one.

Three rules decide most bills. A lookup that comes back empty costs nothing, neither credits nor an action. A provider connected with your own API key costs no data credits but still uses an action, and the provider bills you for its own credits. And actions neither roll over nor come as top-ups, so a busy month can run out of actions before it runs out of credits.

• Rollover: on a monthly plan, unused data credits build up to twice your monthly allowance; on an annual plan, 15 percent carries over. Actions expire at the end of each billing cycle.
• Top-ups: extra data credits cost 30 percent more than your plan's rate (legacy plans paid 50 percent more). Actions cannot be bought as top-ups; the next plan up is the way to get more.
• AI: Clay sets fixed credit prices for about 80 percent of the AI models it offers and bills the top reasoning models at cost, with no markup. One review, by a competing vendor, measured about 1 credit a row for Claygent on Clay's Helium model.
• Legacy plans: customers on Starter ($149), Explorer ($349) or Pro ($800) can stay on them, but their access to Clay's new products ends on December 31, 2026. Guides still quoting those prices as current are out of date.

What 1,000 enriched leads cost on Clay

Clay's own docs estimate 6 to 20 data credits for a fully enriched record, about $0.30 to $1.00 at $0.05 a credit. The spread comes from what you ask for: a work email alone is cheap; a mobile number, company data and an AI-written line on every row are not.

So the monthly allowance, more than the price, is what limits a founder. Launch's 2,500 credits cover about 125 fully enriched records at 20 credits each, or about 416 at 6. Growth's 6,000 cover 300 to 1,000. Superdupr's October 2026 review reached the same range for Launch.

Clay budget for a founder: five monthly volumes

	Data credits	Plan that covers it	Cost a month
100 leads, full (20 each)	2,000	Launch	$185, or $167 billed annually
400 leads, light (6 each)	2,400	Launch	$185, or $167 billed annually
300 leads, full (20 each)	6,000	Growth	$495, or $446 billed annually
1,000 leads, light (6 each)	6,000	Growth	$495, or $446 billed annually
1,000 leads, full (20 each)	20,000	Growth plus 14,000 top-up credits, or Enterprise	More than $495; top-ups cost 30% above plan rate

Waterfall enrichment: why Clay charges only when it finds something

A waterfall asks one data source for an email; if it finds nothing, it asks the next, and so on until one answers. A verifier then checks the address before it reaches your list. No single provider covers everyone, so a waterfall finds more addresses than any one source, and because Clay charges nothing for an empty lookup, you pay only for the source that answered and for the check.

Clay says its marketplace connects 150+ data providers. Apollo now runs a waterfall of its own, through its data and third-party sources; sources you connect with your own key bill you separately. FullEnrich and BetterContact are built around nothing else, and both charge only when they find valid data.

Clay can call verifiers such as ZeroBounce and NeverBounce as a step in the waterfall; our email verification guide (opens in a new tab) compares them. From there the row goes to your CRM, or to a sequencer such as Instantly or Smartlead, both of which connect to Clay (compared here (opens in a new tab)). The waterfall is also where most credit waste starts: running every provider on every row before you know whether the row fits your customer profile.

Clay vs Apollo: a workflow and a database

The two get compared because both end with an email address in a spreadsheet, but they are different kinds of tool. Apollo is a contact database with a sequencer and a dialer on the same seat: you search its records, export the people you want and email them from Apollo. Clay owns no database of its own. It is a table that calls other data sources, AI research and your own tools, row by row, and hands the result to your CRM or sequencer.

That is why many teams use both. Clay can call Apollo with your own Apollo API key on a paid Clay plan; those lookups then spend your Apollo credits instead of Clay's data credits. Apollo's free plan has no API access, so that route starts on a paid Apollo plan too.

Clay vs Apollo: price, data and what each one does

	Clay	Apollo
What it is	A workflow table that calls 150+ data sources and AI	A contact database with a sequencer and a dialer
Entry paid plan	Launch: $185 a month, or $167 billed annually	Basic: $49 a user a month billed annually, $65 billed monthly
Seats	Unlimited on every plan	Paid per user; Organization needs 3
Monthly allowance	2,500 data credits and 15,000 actions on Launch	2,500 credits a user on Basic, 4,000 on Professional
A work email	0.5 credits in Clay's docs example; varies by provider	1 credit
A phone number	From Launch; varies by provider	8 credits
Its own database	No: it calls other providers	Yes: 210M+ people, by Apollo's own pages
Sequencer	Clay Sequencer, from Launch	Included
CRM sync	Growth plan, $495 a month	From Basic
Empty lookups	Not charged	Its waterfall's cost varies by source
Unused credits	Roll over: up to 2x on monthly plans, 15% on annual	Expire each billing cycle

Learning time is the other cost. Reviews from competing vendors put Clay's learning curve at four to six weeks, which is why many founders hand it to a contractor or an agency; Apollo is a search box and a sequence editor. If the person who would own Clay is you, count those weeks before you count the credits.

The Clay alternatives in 2026

The tools sold as Clay alternatives do one of three jobs. Waterfall tools find and verify contact data and stop there. Clay-style workflow tables do what Clay does, with providers bundled in and a different entry price. And all-in-one databases like Apollo trade flexibility for data and sending in one place (the data providers compared (opens in a new tab)). One name to drop from older lists: Persana AI joined Rox in March 2026 and shut its platform on May 2, 2026.

Clay alternatives: what they are and what they cost

	What it is	Entry paid plan	What a credit buys	Charged when nothing is found?
Apollo	Database, sequencer and dialer	$49 a user a month billed annually, $65 monthly	Email 1 credit, phone 8	Varies by source
FullEnrich	Waterfall for emails and mobiles	$29 a month for 500 credits	Email 1 credit, mobile 10	No
BetterContact	Waterfall across 20+ providers	$15 a month for 200 credits	Email 1 credit, phone 10	No
Databar	Workflow table, 120+ providers bundled	$99 a month for 5,000 credits	Varies by provider	No
Bitscale	Workflow table	$349 a month for 15,000 credits	Varies by provider	Not stated
Cargo	Orchestration for revenue teams and coding agents	$165 a month for 1,500 credits	Workflow steps: 1 credit per 100	Not stated
Unify	Signal-based outbound	$1,740 a month, billed annually	50,000 credits a year	Not stated
ZoomInfo	Enterprise contact database	Quote only; Vendr's median is about $33,500 a year	By contract	By contract

Apollo

All in one

Best for: founders who want contact data, sequences and a dialer on one seat, without building a workflow.

Strengths

• Basic at $49 a user a month billed annually, with 2,500 credits a month
• Its own database: 210M+ people, by Apollo's own pages
• Sequencer, dialer and CRM integrations from Basic
• A Claude connector (MCP), in beta since February 2026

Watch-outs

• Priced per user, so every seat adds cost
• Credits expire each billing cycle
• Monthly billing for Basic rose to $65 in mid-2026

Skip it if: you need data from many providers combined in one table; Clay or Databar does that.

Pricing: Free; Basic $49, Professional $79, Organization $119 a user a month billed annually (Organization needs 3 seats).

FullEnrich

Emails and mobiles

Best for: founders who need verified work emails and mobile numbers for a list they already have.

Strengths

• A waterfall across 20+ providers
• Charges only when it finds data
• Unlimited users
• HubSpot app on every plan, in beta

Watch-outs

• No workflow table or AI research
• A mobile number costs 10 credits
• Guides disagree on its annual discount

Skip it if: you need company research or an AI-written line on each row.

Pricing: $29 a month for 500 credits, $55 for 1,000, up to $3,500 for 100,000.

BetterContact

Lowest entry

Best for: the smallest budget: a few hundred contacts a month, paid only when found.

Strengths

• Starter at $15 a month for 200 credits
• Charged only when valid data is found
• 20+ providers, including Apollo, Hunter and ContactOut
• Native HubSpot

Watch-outs

• Third-party guides list different mid-tier prices
• No workflow table
• A phone number costs 10 credits

Skip it if: you need more than contact data on each row.

Pricing: Starter $15 a month for 200 credits; Pro from $49 for 1,000, up to $1,999 for 50,000.

Databar

Clay-style table

Best for: teams that want Clay's way of working, a table with enrichment columns, at a lower entry price and without their own API keys.

Strengths

• Build at $99 a month for 5,000 credits
• 120+ providers bundled; no keys of your own needed
• Charges only for successful requests
• Two-way sync with HubSpot, Pipedrive and Attio

Watch-outs

• Salesforce sync is push only
• No built-in sequencer
• Older reviews show legacy $39 plans

Skip it if: you want sequences in the same tool; Apollo has them.

Pricing: Build $99 a month (5,000 credits); Scale $495 (50,000); Enterprise by quote.

Claude Code

Build your own

Best for: technical founders who want custom logic and already pay for data APIs.

Strengths

• Any logic you can describe, in scripts you own
• Reaches Apollo through its Claude connector, or any provider's API
• No platform fee beyond your Claude plan

Watch-outs

• You still pay each data provider and manage its key, rate limit and credits
• You fix the scripts when an API changes
• Practitioners are split on whether it replaces Clay

Skip it if: you want a table a non-technical teammate can run every week.

Pricing: Your Claude plan, plus each data provider's own credits.

Can Claude Code replace Clay?

It can replace the orchestration, not the data. Sachin Jha, moving his go-to-market work into Claude Code in May 2026, put it plainly: you still need providers. Garrett Wolfe spent 50 hours testing the idea and came away sceptical that it fully replaces Clay, and Salesforge's comparison lands in the same place: Clay is the better default for repeatable workflows, Claude Code for custom work.

The data side got easier this year. Apollo opened a Claude connector (MCP) in February 2026, so Claude can search and enrich through your Apollo account, and Crustdata published a step-by-step rebuild of a Clay workflow with Claude and its API. The cost moves rather than disappears: each provider brings its own key, rate limit and credit pool. Our Claude Code for go-to-market guide (opens in a new tab) covers the setup.

Clay or an alternative: which to choose

How to keep your Clay bill down

1. Filter before you enrich. Cut the table to the companies and titles that match your customer profile, using the data you already have. Every row you drop is credits you keep.
2. Order the waterfall by price. Put the cheapest source first. Empty lookups cost nothing, so the expensive provider runs only on the rows the cheap ones missed.
3. Use your own keys for tools you already pay for. A connected key costs no data credits, only an action. On paid Clay plans, Apollo can be connected this way.
4. Test each new column on 10 rows. Check the credits it used before you run it on the whole table.
5. Keep AI columns for qualified rows. Research and personalization cost the most per row; run them last, on rows that passed every filter.
6. Pick the billing that fits your rhythm. Monthly plans bank up to twice their credits; annual plans carry over only 15 percent but cost about 10 percent less.

Questions

How much does Clay cost?

Clay has four plans: Free ($0, 100 data credits a month), Launch ($185 a month, or $167 billed annually, with 2,500 credits), Growth ($495, or $446 annually, with 6,000 credits) and Enterprise, priced by quote. Every plan includes unlimited seats.

Does Clay have a free plan?

Yes. The Free plan includes 100 data credits and 500 actions a month, tables of up to 200 rows and unlimited seats. It is enough to learn the product and test a workflow, not to run outbound.

What is the difference between data credits and actions in Clay?

Data credits pay for what a provider or an AI model returns, from $0.05 each. Actions pay for the platform work: every enrichment or export uses one. Both arrived with Clay's new pricing on March 11, 2026.

Does Clay charge for failed lookups?

No. When a lookup returns no data, Clay charges neither data credits nor an action. That is what makes a waterfall affordable: you pay for the provider that found the data, not the ones that missed.

How many leads can I enrich on Clay's Launch plan?

About 125 to 416 fully enriched records a month, if each takes 6 to 20 data credits as Clay's docs estimate. A record with only a work email costs far less; one with a mobile number and AI research costs more.

Can I use my own API keys in Clay?

Yes. A provider connected with your own key costs no Clay data credits, but each call still uses an action, and the provider charges its own credits. Connecting Apollo this way needs a paid Clay plan and a paid Apollo plan.

Is Clay or Apollo cheaper?

For one person, Apollo: Basic is $49 a user a month billed annually, with a database and a sequencer. Clay's Launch is $185 a month but includes unlimited seats and 150+ providers. Many teams run both: Apollo for data, Clay to combine it.

What is the best Clay alternative?

It depends on the job. For verified emails only, FullEnrich or BetterContact, which charge only when they find data. For data and sequences in one tool, Apollo. For a Clay-style table at a lower entry price, Databar at $99 a month.

Did Clay change its pricing in 2026?

Yes. On March 11, 2026, Clay replaced its single credit with data credits and actions, and its Starter, Explorer and Pro plans with Launch and Growth. Existing customers can stay on legacy plans; their access to new products ends December 31, 2026.

Sources

1. Introducing Clay's new pricing (opens in a new tab), Clay, checked October 19, 2026
2. What features are included in the new plans? (opens in a new tab), Clay, checked October 19, 2026
3. Actions and data credits (opens in a new tab), Clay University, checked October 19, 2026
4. Plans and billing (opens in a new tab), Clay University, checked October 19, 2026
5. Do unsuccessful searches consume data credits? (opens in a new tab), Clay, checked October 19, 2026
6. Do unused data credits or actions roll over? (opens in a new tab), Clay, checked October 19, 2026
7. Legacy plans (opens in a new tab), Clay University, checked October 19, 2026
8. AI pricing (opens in a new tab), Clay University, checked October 19, 2026
9. Legacy plans: try before you buy (opens in a new tab), Clay, checked October 19, 2026
10. Waterfall enrichment (opens in a new tab), Clay, checked October 19, 2026
11. Series D (opens in a new tab), Clay, checked October 19, 2026
12. How to connect the Apollo API to Clay (opens in a new tab), Clay Community, checked October 19, 2026
13. Clay pricing review (opens in a new tab), Superdupr (Justin McKelvey), checked October 19, 2026
14. Clay pricing changes in 2026 (opens in a new tab), Cleanlist (a competing vendor), checked October 19, 2026
15. Claygent review (opens in a new tab), Cleanlist (a competing vendor), checked October 19, 2026
16. Apollo plan details and usage (opens in a new tab), Apollo, checked October 19, 2026
17. Apollo pricing (opens in a new tab), Omid Saffari, checked October 19, 2026
18. Waterfall enrichment overview (opens in a new tab), Apollo, checked October 19, 2026
19. Which lead generation tool has the largest contact database? (opens in a new tab), Apollo, checked October 19, 2026
20. Apollo delivers GTM outbound execution to Claude (opens in a new tab), Apollo, checked October 19, 2026
21. Clay vs Apollo: which should you choose in 2026 (opens in a new tab), Artisan, checked October 19, 2026
22. B2B data tool acquisitions and shutdowns in 2026 (opens in a new tab), Cleanlist (a competing vendor), checked October 19, 2026
23. Databar pricing (opens in a new tab), Databar, checked October 19, 2026
24. Bitscale pricing (opens in a new tab), Bitscale, checked October 19, 2026
25. Cargo pricing (opens in a new tab), Cargo, checked October 19, 2026
26. Unify pricing (opens in a new tab), Landbase, checked October 19, 2026
27. FullEnrich pricing (opens in a new tab), Landbase, checked October 19, 2026
28. BetterContact pricing guide (opens in a new tab), Cleanlist (a competing vendor), checked October 19, 2026
29. B2B data providers (opens in a new tab), BetterContact, checked October 19, 2026
30. ZoomInfo alternatives, with Vendr's price data (opens in a new tab), Rework, checked October 19, 2026
31. I'm moving my entire GTM workflow (opens in a new tab), Sachin Jha, checked October 19, 2026
32. Can Claude Code replace Clay? (opens in a new tab), Garrett Wolfe, checked October 19, 2026
33. Clay vs Claude Code (opens in a new tab), Salesforge, checked October 19, 2026
34. Replace a Clay workflow with Claude and an API (opens in a new tab), Crustdata, checked October 19, 2026
35. CRTC assesses the conspicuous publication basis of implied consent (opens in a new tab), Bennett Jones, checked October 19, 2026

How these comparisons are made: from each vendor's own documentation and pricing pages, independent reviews and the policies of the platforms involved, each linked and dated. Prices change often; check the vendor's page before you buy.