What does Clay do?
New to Clay? Start with the full guide: What is Clay? How the clay.com GTM data platform works.
- Finds and enriches people and company data from a marketplace of 150+ third-party providers, billed in Clay data credits or through your own provider API keys.
- Runs multi-provider waterfalls: Clay tries one provider, and if it returns nothing moves to the next, and you are not charged when an enrichment returns no result.
- Claygent, Clay's AI agent with web research, generates custom data points such as pricing-page details or hiring signals for each row.
- Tracks signals including job changes, promotions, new hires, company news and social activity (Launch and above), plus web intent signals and webhooks on Growth.
- Sends records onward: native CRM sync (HubSpot, Salesforce) and HTTP API calls on Growth, sequencer integrations, Clay's own email sequencer, and LinkedIn and Meta ad audiences.
- Offers a developer CLI, Public API and an agent plugin for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, so coding agents can run Clay searches and functions.
Where does Clay fit in a GTM engineering stack?
Clay is the data and orchestration layer of a GTM engineering stack: it pulls accounts and contacts into tables, enriches them through provider waterfalls and AI research, then routes the results to your CRM and sequencers.
- 1Import target accounts from a CSV, CRM list, webhook or Clay's own search
- 2Find contacts and run a waterfall of email and phone providers such as Prospeo and FullEnrich
- 3Use Claygent to research each account and write custom data points
- 4Sync records to HubSpot or Salesforce and push contacts to Smartlead, Instantly or lemlist
See how every layer connects in Clay integrations: how the GTM engineering stack fits together.
How do you use Clay?
Clay's official walkthrough, from the Clay YouTube channel.
How much does Clay cost?
Prices as shown on Clay's pricing page on 17 October 2026 (USD). Free plan: Yes. Free: $0, 500 actions/mo and 100 data credits/mo (6,000 actions and 1,200 data credits per year), unlimited seats and tables, multi-provider waterfalls, Claygent, bring your own API key, up to 200 rows per table. No phone enrichment, CRM integrations, HTTP API or scheduled runs. Free trial: 14-day trial offered on the Free, Launch and Growth plans.
Free
$0
Free
500 actions/mo, 100 data credits/mo, 200 rows per table.
Launch
From $167/mo (annual) or $185/mo (monthly)
Monthly or annual (annual saves 10%)
Headline price combines an action tier and a data credit tier. Annual: actions from $54/mo (180K/yr) plus data credits from $113/mo (30K/yr). Monthly: actions from $60/mo (15K/mo) plus data credits from $125/mo (2.5K/mo). Adds phone enrichment, signals, scheduled runs, custom functions, email campaigns. Up to 50,000 rows per table.
Growth
From $446/mo (annual) or $495/mo (monthly)
Monthly or annual (annual saves 10%)
Annual: actions from $185/mo (480K/yr) plus data credits from $261/mo (72K/yr). Monthly: actions from $205/mo (40K/mo) plus data credits from $290/mo (6K/mo). Adds CRM auto-sync, HTTP API, data warehouse sync, web intent signals, webhooks, ad audiences, priority support.
Enterprise
Custom
Annual commitment, via sales demo
Adds SSO/SAML, SCIM, RBAC, IP allowlists, credit budgeting, custom CSA and DPA, bulk enrichment over 50K records, dedicated growth strategist.
Worked cost examples and how credits are consumed: Clay pricing in 2026: every plan, credit and worked cost example.
Clay prices two units: actions (platform work, under $0.01 each, reset every billing cycle, no rollover) and data credits (third-party data, from $0.05 each). On Launch and Growth, Clay's FAQ says unused data credits can accumulate up to 2x the monthly amount; the plan comparison table describes rollover as up to 1 month's credits or 15% of annual credits, so the page is not fully consistent. Using your own provider API key costs one action and no data credits. Higher action and data credit tiers are listed on the pricing page.
Who is Clay best for?
A good fit if you
- GTM engineers building custom enrichment and qualification workflows that combine several data providers in one table.
- Teams that want waterfall enrichment without negotiating separate contracts with each data vendor, since Clay bills third-party data in its own data credits.
- Teams on the Growth plan that need two-way CRM sync, HTTP API calls to any tool and webhook-triggered signal automation.
- Testing workflows before buying: the free plan includes unlimited seats, multi-provider waterfalls and Claygent, capped at 200 rows per table.
Look elsewhere if you
- Teams that only need a contact database and a sequencer in one seat-priced tool; Clay is a workflow layer, and its pricing is split between actions and data credits.
- Teams that need CRM sync or HTTP API calls on a small budget, because both are gated to the Growth plan ($446/mo billed annually, $495/mo monthly).
- Anyone wanting phone number enrichment on the free plan, which Clay's pricing page says excludes it.
- Users who need predictable fixed costs: actions reset monthly and do not roll over, and token-heavy AI models are billed on actual usage.
What does Clay integrate with?
- Clay
- Native Clay integration. This is Clay itself. Other tools connect to it through Clay's integrations directory, its HTTP API action (Growth and above), webhooks, the Public API, or the Clay CLI and agent plugin. (source)
- Integrations
- Clay's integrations directory lists native integrations with HubSpot (including HubSpot Sequencer), Salesforce, Smartlead, Instantly, lemlist and Apollo, plus data providers such as Prospeo and FullEnrich and AI providers such as Anthropic. Growth adds data warehouse sync (Snowflake, Fivetran, Postgres, Databricks, BigQuery), any HTTP API and LinkedIn and Meta ad audiences. (source)
- GDPR
- Clay's trust centre lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001:2022, ISO 42001:2023, GDPR and CCPA, and publishes a subprocessor list. Clay's public Data Processing Agreement covers GDPR, UK and Swiss law and uses the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the UK Addendum for international transfers; a signed DPA can be requested from security@clay.com. Enterprise adds a custom DPA. (source)
- Data coverage
- Clay does not sell one proprietary contact database; it aggregates third-party providers. Clay's pricing page says you can find and enrich data from 150+ providers, its integrations navigation refers to 200+ providers in its data marketplace, and its trust centre describes 100+ premium data sources. These are vendor figures and they differ by page. (source)
What are the best Clay alternatives?
Other enrichment and orchestration tools that do the same job in a GTM engineering stack, with their own trade-offs.
B2B contact database with built-in sequencing, dialler, CRM enrichment and AI research, priced per seat with pooled credits.
- Pricing
- Free; paid from $49/seat/mo (annual)
- Free trial
- 14-day trial on Basic and Professional; Apollo's FAQ says the trial includes 75 credits and access to most features of the selected plan.
Waterfall contact enrichment across 25+ data sources for verified work emails, personal emails and mobile numbers, pay per result.
- Pricing
- $26/mo (annual)
- Free trial
- Free trial: $0, 50 credits, no credit card, full Pro feature set; extra credits by inviting team members.
B2B contact data provider for verified work emails and mobile numbers, with people search, CSV and API enrichment and CRM sync.
- Pricing
- Free plan; paid from $37/user/mo
- Free trial
- None listed
Workflow automation platform with AI agent nodes, available as n8n Cloud or as a free self-hosted Community edition.
- Pricing
- Free self-hosted; Cloud €20/mo (annual)
- Free trial
- 14-day n8n Cloud trial with Pro features, no credit card, capped at 1,000 executions and Starter-level compute. A 14-day Business trial is also offered and requires a card.
Which GTM stacks use Clay?
- AI-agent GTM stack with Claude CodeRole: Runs searches, enrichment waterfalls and tables that the agent triggers; webhook tables receive rows from n8n and HTTP API columns call back out.
- Clay-centred enrichment stackRole: Holds the table, runs the waterfall, the AI columns and the CRM sync; Growth adds CRM auto-sync, the HTTP API and webhooks.
- Enterprise outbound stackRole: Combines ZoomInfo and Bombora data, scores and routes accounts, and writes records to Salesforce and prospects to the sequencer.
- Signal-based outbound stackRole: Receives signals, scores and filters accounts, finds the right people and runs every enrichment and verification step as table columns.
Clay FAQs
Is Clay free to use?
Yes, Clay has a free plan at $0 with 500 actions and 100 data credits per month, unlimited seats and up to 200 rows per table. It includes multi-provider waterfalls and Claygent but excludes phone enrichment, CRM integrations and the HTTP API. A 14-day trial is also offered on paid plans.
What is Clay used for?
Clay is used to build lead lists, enrich them with emails, phone numbers and company data from many providers, and qualify them with AI research before outreach. GTM teams then push the results into a CRM, a sequencer such as Instantly or lemlist, or ad audiences.
What is the difference between Clay actions and data credits?
Actions measure platform work such as running enrichments, AI calls and exports, cost under $0.01 each and reset every billing cycle. Data credits pay for third-party data from Clay's marketplace, start at $0.05 each and can roll over on Launch and Growth. Bringing your own provider API key uses one action and no data credits.
Does Clay have its own data?
Clay mainly aggregates data from third-party providers rather than selling a single proprietary database. Its pricing page says you can enrich from 150+ providers and combine them in waterfalls. You can pay with Clay data credits or connect your own accounts with providers such as Apollo or Prospeo.
Is Clay GDPR compliant?
Clay's trust centre lists GDPR and CCPA compliance alongside SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certification. Its DPA uses EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK Addendum for transfers, and a signed copy is available from security@clay.com. You remain responsible for having a lawful basis for the outreach you run on enriched data.
Compare and learn
- Clay alternatives in 2026: what to use instead, by use case
- Clay vs Apollo: pricing, data and which one you need
- Clay integrations: how the tools fit into a GTM engineering system
- Clay pricing in 2026: every plan, credit and worked cost example
- Clay tutorial for beginners: build your first outbound table step by step
- Cold email deliverability in 2026: domains, authentication, warm-up and monitoring
- How to choose enrichment and orchestration tools
Want a GTM engineering system built for you?
Tentt builds signal-driven outbound, enrichment and CRM systems into B2B companies' stacks. Or start free with the resources from every video.
Sources
Checked on 17 October 2026.
Pricing, integrations and data policies are checked against Clay's own pages. How we research tools.