Clay Pricing: What You'll Actually Pay for Credits

Clay uses a credit-based pricing model, which means the "real" cost depends on how much data you're enriching and which providers you're hitting. Plans start at $149/month but scale up fast if you're running serious outbound campaigns.

Here's what you need to know about Clay's pricing structure, what you actually get at each tier, and whether it's worth the investment.

How Clay's Credit System Works

Clay doesn't charge per user or per contact. Instead, you buy credits that get spent every time you enrich data or perform certain actions in the platform.

Most basic actions cost 1-2 credits. Finding an email address might cost 2-5 credits depending on which data provider you use. Mobile phone numbers are more expensive - anywhere from 2 to 25 credits depending on the provider. AI workflows using Claygent can run 10-25 credits per action.

The tricky part: credit costs vary by provider. If you're using premium data sources or hitting multiple providers in a waterfall enrichment, credits burn fast. Clay gives you access to 100+ data providers without separate subscriptions, but you're paying for each lookup through credits.

The Pro plan costs about $16 per 1,000 credits while the Starter plan runs around $75 per 1,000 credits. That's a massive difference if you're enriching thousands of contacts per month.

Clay Pricing Plans Breakdown

Free Plan - $0/month

The free plan gives you 100 credits per month (1,200 credits per year). You get unlimited users, access to 100+ data providers, AI/Claygent features, and the Clay Chrome extension. You can run up to 100 searches per company or people search.

What's missing: Phone number enrichments aren't available on the free plan. This is basically a testing ground to see if Clay fits your workflow.

Starter Plan - $149/month or $134/month annually

The Starter plan includes 2,000 credits per month (24,000 annually) or you can upgrade to 3,000 credits per month (36,000 annually) for $229/month or $206/month annually.

You get phone number enrichments, the ability to use your own API keys to reduce credit consumption, and up to 5,000 results per people/company search.

This plan works for solo operators or very small teams doing light prospecting. But if you're enriching hundreds of leads per week, you'll hit the credit limit fast.

What you can't do: No CRM integrations. No webhooks. No HTTP API access.

Explorer Plan - $349/month or $314/month annually

The Explorer plan starts at 10,000 credits per month (120,000 annually). You can scale up to 14,000 or 20,000 monthly credits depending on your needs.

This tier unlocks webhooks, HTTP API integration, email sequencing tool integrations (like Outreach and Salesloft), and filters to exclude people or companies.

Still no CRM integrations though. That's reserved for Pro and above.

Pro Plan - $800/month or $720/month annually

The Pro plan gives you 50,000 credits per month (600,000 annually) at the base tier. You can upgrade to 70,000, 100,000, or 150,000 monthly credits, with the highest tier running $2,000/month or $1,800/month annually.

This is where you finally get CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other platforms. Everything from the Explorer plan is included, plus significantly better cost-per-credit economics.

For teams running multi-channel outbound campaigns with heavy data enrichment, this is the realistic starting point.

Enterprise Plan - Custom Pricing

Enterprise plans are fully customized. You get unlimited rows using Passthrough Tables, up to 40 column actions per table, Snowflake integration, dedicated AI prompting support, dedicated Slack support, credit reporting analytics, and SSO.

Based on third-party data, the median Enterprise contract is around $30,400 per year, with some contracts reaching $154,000 annually depending on usage and team size.

What Actually Costs Credits

Clay charges credits for data enrichment actions, not for basic operations. Here's what's free versus what costs credits:

Free actions: Data cleaning and formatting, exporting data, CRM connections (on Pro plan), email sequencer integrations, prospecting from databases, web scraping setup, using your own API keys for data providers.

Costs credits: Email lookups, phone number enrichments, company data (revenue, headcount, etc.), LinkedIn profile scraping, AI-powered research with Claygent, contact enrichment from Clay's data providers.

The cost varies wildly. A simple email lookup might be 2 credits. A mobile number lookup could be 2-25 credits. An AI workflow with multiple steps could easily burn 30+ credits per lead.

Hidden Costs and Gotchas

The plan price is just the starting point. Here's what else factors into your real cost:

Credit top-ups: If you run out of credits mid-month, you can buy more at 1.5x your normal per-credit rate. That adds up fast.

Learning curve tax: Multiple users mention it takes weeks to understand how to optimize Clay workflows. During that learning period, you're burning credits inefficiently. Poor waterfall setups, unnecessary enrichments, and workflow loops can waste thousands of credits.

Data provider variability: Some providers charge 2 credits for a mobile number, others charge 25 credits for the same data point. If you don't carefully order your waterfall enrichments (cheapest providers first), you'll overspend.

No deliverability tools: Clay doesn't include email warm-up or deliverability features. You'll need separate tools for that.

Is Clay Pricing Worth It?

Clay is expensive compared to traditional data providers, but you're paying for flexibility and access to 100+ data sources without managing separate subscriptions.

It makes sense if:

• You need data from multiple providers and want waterfall enrichment to maximize coverage
• You're building complex prospecting workflows with custom logic and AI personalization
• You have the technical skills (or support) to optimize credit usage
• You're doing high-volume outbound and need serious automation

It doesn't make sense if:

• You just need basic email lookups - dedicated email finders are cheaper
• You're a small team without technical resources to manage complex workflows
• You need an all-in-one CRM with pipeline management (Clay is a data enrichment tool, not a CRM)
• You want predictable, flat-rate pricing

Multiple reviewers mention Clay works best for agencies and power users who live in the tool daily. If you're a sales team that just wants clean data pushed to your CRM without managing workflows, simpler alternatives exist.

How to Save on Clay Credits

If you're committed to using Clay, here's how to stretch your credits:

Annual billing: Saves 10% on all plans. That's $180/year on the Starter plan, $420/year on Explorer, $960/year on Pro.

Use your own API keys: If you already subscribe to data providers like Apollo, ZoomInfo, or OpenAI, connect your API keys in Clay and use those services for free (no Clay credits charged).

Optimize your waterfalls: Order enrichments so cheaper providers run first. Don't use expensive providers for data you can get cheaper elsewhere.

Filter before enriching: Use free filtering and qualification logic to narrow your list before running credit-consuming enrichments. Don't enrich contacts that don't match your ICP.

Test small batches: Before running a workflow on 10,000 contacts, test on 50 to make sure your logic is working correctly. Workflow mistakes can waste thousands of credits instantly.

Clay vs Alternatives for Pricing

If Clay's pricing doesn't work for you, consider these alternatives:

RocketReach offers flat-rate pricing for email and phone lookups without complex credit systems. Lusha provides simpler per-contact pricing that's easier to predict.

For full sales automation, try Clay if you want maximum flexibility, but expect to invest time learning the platform. If you want something that just works out of the box, you'll pay for that simplicity with less customization.

Clay's credit-based model rewards power users who optimize workflows. For everyone else, it can feel expensive and unpredictable.

Bottom Line on Clay Pricing

Clay pricing starts at $149/month but the real cost depends entirely on how you use it. Credits burn fast if you're not careful about workflow design and provider selection.

The Pro plan at $720-$1,800/month is where most serious users land once they need CRM integrations and scale. The Starter and Explorer plans are too limited for most B2B teams doing real outbound.

If you're technical, running high-volume prospecting, and need data from multiple sources, Clay's pricing can make sense. If you just need basic data enrichment without the complexity, you'll likely overpay.

Want to see other tools for your sales stack? Check out our guides on the best sales intelligence tools and best cold email software.