What does Apify do?
- Hosts a store of 90,000+ Actors (ready-to-run scrapers and automations); most Store Actors use pay-per-event pricing, for example Compass's Google Maps Scraper at from $1.50 per 1,000 scraped places.
- Runs Actors on Apify's cloud with compute billed per compute unit (CU): $0.20/CU on Free and Starter, falling to $0.16 on Scale and $0.13 on Business.
- Includes proxies for scraping: residential proxy at $7 to $8 per GB depending on plan, datacenter IPs bundled (5 on Free, up to 500 on Business) and a SERP proxy from $1.70 to $2.50 per 1,000 searches.
- Caps concurrency by plan: 5 concurrent Actor runs on Free, 32 on Starter, 128 on Scale and 256 on Business, with maximum memory from 16 GB up to 512 GB.
- Lets you build and publish your own Actors, call any Actor by API or webhook, and connect runs to n8n, Make, Zapier, HubSpot, Google Drive and an Apify MCP server for AI agents.
- Plugs into Clay natively with two actions: import an Actor's dataset as a table source, or run an Actor per row as an enrichment with column values mapped into its JSON input.
Where does Apify fit in a GTM engineering stack?
Apify is the custom-scraping layer in a GTM engineering stack: it collects public web data no enrichment vendor sells, such as Google Maps listings or job posts, and lands it in Clay as rows or columns.
- 1An Apify Actor scrapes a public source on a schedule, for example Google Maps listings for a city and category
- 2Clay imports the Actor's dataset as a new table source using your Apify account
- 3Clay enriches each business with a domain, decision-makers and verified emails through its provider waterfall
- 4OpenAI or Claygent columns qualify each row against your ICP and draft a first line
- 5Qualified contacts push to Smartlead, Instantly or lemlist, and accounts sync to HubSpot
See how every layer connects in Clay integrations: how the GTM engineering stack fits together.
How do you use Apify?
Apify's official walkthrough, from the Apify YouTube channel.
How much does Apify cost?
Prices as shown on Apify's pricing page on 17 October 2026 (USD). Free plan: Free plan: $0 with $5 of included usage a month, no credit card required, community support, 5 concurrent runs. Access is blocked until the next monthly cycle once the $5 is used.
Free
$0
Monthly
$5 of included usage a month, $0.20 per compute unit, 16 GB max RAM, 5 concurrent runs, 5 datacenter IPs, community support.
Starter
$19/month, or $17/month billed annually
Monthly or annual
$19 of included usage a month, $0.20 per compute unit, 64 GB max RAM, 32 concurrent runs, 30 datacenter IPs then $1/IP, chat support, Bronze Store discount.
Scale
$199/month, or $179/month billed annually
Monthly or annual
$199 of included usage a month, $0.16 per compute unit, 256 GB max RAM, 128 concurrent runs, 200 datacenter IPs then $0.80/IP, residential proxy $7.50/GB, priority chat support, Silver Store discount.
Business
$999/month, or $899/month billed annually
Monthly or annual
$999 of included usage a month, $0.13 per compute unit, 512 GB max RAM, 256 concurrent runs, 500 datacenter IPs then $0.60/IP, residential proxy $7/GB, account manager, Gold Store discount.
Annual billing saves 10% on paid plans. The plan fee is prepaid usage: usage beyond it is billed as overage on the next invoice on paid plans, and unused prepaid usage expires at the end of the billing cycle. Store Actors are priced per event (a fixed price per result or action set by the Actor's developer) or per usage (you pay only platform usage), so check each Actor's pricing before a large run. No free trial of paid plans is described on the pricing page.
Who is Apify best for?
A good fit if you
- GTM engineers who need data no enrichment provider sells, such as local business listings from Google Maps, job posts from Indeed or LinkedIn, or reviews, and want it inside a Clay table without CSV exports.
- Teams building signal-based lists from public web sources, since Actors can run on a schedule and an Actor's output can feed Clay as a source table.
- Builders comfortable writing JSON input and reading Actor documentation, who want per-result pricing rather than a seat licence.
Look elsewhere if you
- Teams that want verified work emails and phone numbers out of the box: Apify returns what a page publishes, so you still need an email finder or waterfall in Clay.
- Anyone who needs predictable Actor quality: most Store Actors are built and priced by third-party developers, so reliability, fields and pricing vary Actor by Actor.
- Free-plan users with ongoing volume: Free stops when the $5 of monthly usage runs out, and unused prepaid usage on any plan does not roll over.
Does Apify integrate with Clay and your CRM?
- Clay
- Native Clay integration. Clay lists Apify as a Clay-built native integration included in all Clay plans, with two actions: Import data from Apify Actor (use an Actor's dataset as a table source) and Run Apify Actor (run an Actor per row as an enrichment, with JSON input and column tokens, auto-update and conditional runs). Both require your own Apify account, connected with the API token from the Apify Console's Integrations page, so Actor costs bill to Apify, not Clay. (source)
- Integrations
- Documented integrations include the Apify API, webhooks and GitHub; n8n, Make, Zapier and Gumloop; Snowflake, Airtable, Google Drive and HubSpot; and AI tooling such as the Apify MCP server, OpenAI Agents SDK, LangChain and Vercel AI SDK. Clay is a native integration built by Clay. (source)
- GDPR
- Apify Technologies s.r.o. is based in Prague, Czech Republic. Its privacy policy says Apify acts as a data processor for data you manage on the platform, under the Apify Data Processing Addendum, and that personal data is processed primarily in the EU and the US, with EU Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers. Apify states the platform is SOC 2 Type II compliant, with the report available through its Trust Center. You remain responsible for the lawful basis for scraping and storing personal data. (source)
- Data coverage
- Apify does not hold its own B2B database. Coverage depends on the Actor and the public source it scrapes: the Store lists 90,000+ Actors, including Google Maps, LinkedIn jobs, Indeed and Glassdoor scrapers. Compass's Google Maps Scraper, for example, returns name, category, address, phone, website, rating and opening hours, with optional paid add-ons for company contacts and social profiles. (source)
What are the best Apify alternatives?
Other automation and AI tools that do the same job in a GTM engineering stack, with their own trade-offs.
Cloud automations (Phantoms) that extract and act on data from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and 15+ other platforms, run on a time budget.
- Pricing
- €56/mo (annual)
- Free trial
- A 14-day trial on the free Trial tier; PhantomBuster says no credit card is needed.
AI-native web search API plus Websets, a tool that builds verified company and people lists from a natural-language description.
- Pricing
- Free credits; Websets from $49/mo
- Free trial
- Websets Pro shows a 'Start free trial' option; length not stated.
Public web data provider selling company, employee and job-posting records through credit-based APIs and bulk datasets.
- Pricing
- $49/mo
- Free trial
- 7-day free trial (2,000 credits).
Apify FAQs
Is Apify free?
Apify has a free plan with $5 of platform usage a month and no credit card required. When the $5 runs out, runs are blocked until the next monthly cycle. Paid plans start at $19 a month, or $17 a month billed annually.
How do I use Apify in Clay?
Connect your Apify API token in Clay under Settings, Connections, or from the enrichment panel. Then either import an Actor's results as a new table source, or add the Run Apify Actor enrichment to an existing table and map column values into the Actor's JSON input. Actor usage is billed to your Apify account.
How much does it cost to scrape Google Maps with Apify?
Compass's Google Maps Scraper on the Apify Store starts at $1.50 per 1,000 scraped places as of October 2026. Add-ons such as company contact enrichment, reviews and social profiles cost extra per result, and the per-result price is lower on higher Apify plans.
Is scraping LinkedIn with Apify allowed?
The Apify Store lists LinkedIn jobs, profile and company scrapers built by third-party developers, but Apify does not make the legal call for you. Section 8.2 of LinkedIn's User Agreement prohibits bots and scraping software, and scraping personal data from EU or UK profiles also needs a lawful basis under GDPR. Check both before running these Actors at scale.
What is a compute unit on Apify?
A compute unit is Apify's measure of the memory and time an Actor run uses, and it is how pay-per-usage Actors and your own Actors are billed. A compute unit costs $0.20 on the Free and Starter plans, $0.16 on Scale and $0.13 on Business. Most Store Actors instead charge a fixed price per event, which may include platform usage.
Compare and learn
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Sources
Checked on 17 October 2026.
Pricing, integrations and data policies are checked against Apify's own pages. How we research tools.