Clay pricing starts at $185 a month for the Launch plan when you pay monthly, or $167 a month billed yearly, and the Free plan gives you 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions every month. Growth, the next step up, starts at $495 a month ($446 billed yearly), and Enterprise is priced by quote.
That's the short answer. The longer one is that a Clay plan is two meters added together. The price on each card is the cost of a block of Actions (the work Clay does for you) plus a block of Data Credits (the data it buys for you), and either one can run out first.
I went through Clay's pricing page, the full plan comparison and its credits documentation line by line on November 4, 2026, then read what reviewers on G2 say about the bill. The page is clear about the starting prices. It says much less about how fast a real workflow spends credits, so most of this article is about that.
Here's what each plan costs, how both meters work, what one enriched contact really costs, and which plan fits which team.
Clay pricing at a glance
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly (per month) | Credits and limits | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions a month, 200 rows per table, no phone numbers | Learning Clay before you pay |
| Launch | from $185 | from $167 | 2,500 Data Credits and 15,000 Actions a month, up to 50,000 rows per table | Solo operators and small teams enriching about 1,000 records a month |
| Growth | from $495 | from $446 | 6,000 Data Credits and 40,000 Actions a month, CRM sync, HTTP API, webhooks | Teams that run Clay against their CRM |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom, annual contract | 100,000+ Data Credits and 200,000+ Actions a month, SSO, user groups | Large go-to-market teams |
Prices checked on November 4, 2026 on Clay's pricing page. Launch and Growth show the smallest credit and Action tiers; larger tiers cost more. Yearly billing saves 10%.
The real jump is from Launch to Growth. Launch already has phone numbers, signals and email sending. What Growth adds for $310 more a month is the plumbing: CRM sync, HTTP API calls, webhooks, web intent signals and ad audiences. If you don't need Clay talking to your CRM, Launch with a bigger credit tier is usually the cheaper path.
Clay plans: full breakdown
Free: $0
What's included: 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions a month, unlimited seats and tables, up to 200 rows per table, multi-provider waterfalls, Claygent (Clay's AI web research agent) and your own API keys.
Best for: Learning how Clay tables, enrichments and waterfalls work before you commit money.
Pros:
- Unlimited seats, so a whole team can learn on one workspace
- Waterfalls and Claygent are included, so you test the real product
- You can plug in your own data provider keys and skip Data Credits
Cons:
- 200 rows per table rules out any real list
- No phone number enrichment
- 100 Data Credits is roughly 5 to 16 fully enriched records at Clay's own estimate of 6 to 20 credits per record
Launch: from $185 a month ($167 billed yearly)
What's included: 2,500 Data Credits and 15,000 Actions a month at the base tier, phone number enrichment, unlimited search with Audiences, job change and company news signals, reusable functions, scheduled runs, Clay's email sequencer or a sequencer integration, and up to 50,000 rows per table.
The $185 is two lines added together: $60 for 15,000 Actions and $125 for 2,500 Data Credits. Both can be raised separately. On monthly billing the Data Credit tiers run 2,500 ($125), 6,000 ($290), 10,000 ($460), 20,000 ($880) and 50,000 ($2,125) a month.
Best for: A founder, an agency or a small sales team building and enriching lists of up to about 1,000 records a month, which is the volume Clay's docs size this plan for.
Pros:
- Phone numbers, signals and email sending for $310 a month less than Growth
- Credits and Actions scale separately, so you only pay for the meter you use up
- Searching Clay's own company and people database uses no Actions, and Clay's docs example charges 0 Data Credits for it
Cons:
- No CRM integration or HTTP API, which many teams find out after they've built the table
- Actions can't be topped up; when they run out, you move to a higher Action tier
- Extra Data Credits bought mid-month cost 30% more
Growth: from $495 a month ($446 billed yearly)
What's included: 6,000 Data Credits and 40,000 Actions a month at the base tier, plus everything in Launch, CRM auto-sync and enrichment, data warehouse sync, HTTP API integrations, webhooks, web intent signals, unlimited ad audiences, up to 250,000 Audience imports from a CRM or warehouse, and priority support.
The base price splits into $205 for 40,000 Actions and $290 for 6,000 Data Credits.
Best for: Teams enriching 1,000 to 10,000 records a month and syncing them to Salesforce or HubSpot.
Pros:
- The CRM and API connections most teams need sooner or later
- 40,000 Actions covers about 50,000 enriched records a year, by Clay's own sizing
- Priority support queue
Cons:
- $5,940 a year on monthly billing before you add a single extra credit
- Same 30% premium on top-ups as Launch
- No SSO or user groups for managing credit budgets across a large team
Enterprise: custom pricing
What's included: Everything in Growth, 100,000+ Data Credits and 200,000+ Actions a month, bulk enrichment of more than 50,000 records at once, SSO, SCIM, role-based access, user groups with credit budgets, workbook credit limits, a dedicated growth strategist and a 15-minute source sync.
Best for: Go-to-market teams enriching tens of thousands of records a month who need admin controls.
Pros:
- Credit budgets per team and per workbook, the only plan with spend controls
- A named growth strategist for onboarding and building
Cons:
- Annual commitment and a sales call before you see a number
- Data Credit rollover is limited to 15% of the prior year, and only if you renew at the same or a higher level
How Clay credits work
Clay charges two things: Actions for the work and Data Credits for the data. Each record you enrich or export uses 1 Action, whatever the provider. Data Credits pay for what Clay buys from its 150+ data partners: an email address, a phone number, a company detail or an AI run. Clay's credits documentation puts an Action at "a few tenths of a penny" and a Data Credit at "a few pennies".
| What you do in Clay | Actions | Data Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Source companies or people | No | Only from paid providers (0 from Clay's own database in its docs example) |
| Import your own CSV or CRM records | No | No |
| Enrich a record with new data | 1 per enrichment | Yes, unless you use your own API key |
| Run an AI model | 1 per run | Yes, unless you use your own API key |
| Export or send to another tool | 1 per record | No |
Data Credits roll over, Actions don't. On monthly plans, unused Data Credits pile up to a cap of 2 times your monthly amount. On yearly plans, 15% of unused credits carry over if you renew at the same or a higher tier. Unused Actions expire at the end of each billing cycle.
A failed lookup is free. Clay's pricing page says that "If an enrichment returns no result, you're not charged Data Credits or Actions." Some reviewers still feel the credits go fast: G2's review summary counts nine mentions of credits running out quickly.
Your own API keys remove the Data Credit cost, but not the Action. If you already pay for a data provider, connecting its key means each enrichment costs 1 Action and no Data Credits.
AI runs come in two prices. About 80% of models charge a fixed number of Data Credits per task. Token-heavy models charge for the tokens they actually use, shown in Clay with a tilde (~) before the estimate.
A worked example
Clay's own documentation walks through enriching 100 contacts with a LinkedIn profile and an email address:
- Find 100 people in Clay's database: 0 Data Credits
- Enrich the LinkedIn profiles: 50 Data Credits (0.5 each)
- Find emails, with 90 found: 45 Data Credits
- Validate the 90 emails: 0 Data Credits with Clay's free validators
That's 95 Data Credits. On Launch, where 2,500 credits cost $125 a month, one Data Credit works out to 5 cents, so those 100 contacts cost about $4.75 in Data Credits, plus a few hundred Actions from your monthly 15,000.
Phone numbers are where the math changes. Clay's docs say a fully enriched record "typically costs 6–20 Data Credits", and that "emails are cheap, phone numbers are expensive." At 5 cents a credit, that's 30 cents to $1 per fully enriched record, so Launch's 2,500 monthly credits cover somewhere between 125 and about 400 of them.
Hidden costs and limits
- Two meters, two ways to run out: you can have Data Credits left and no Actions, or the other way round. Actions can only be raised by moving to a higher tier (Clay docs).
- Top-ups cost 30% more: extra Data Credits bought mid-cycle carry a 30% premium (50% on legacy plans), with a minimum of 250 credits, a cap of $1,000 per top-up and $5,000 in any rolling 7 days.
- Rollover caps: 2 times your monthly credits on monthly plans, 15% of unused credits on yearly plans, and only when you renew at the same tier or higher.
- Row limits: 200 rows per table on Free and 50,000 on Launch. Enriching more than 50,000 records at once needs Enterprise.
- The CRM connection is a Growth feature: syncing to Salesforce or HubSpot and HTTP API calls start at $495 a month.
- Variable AI pricing: token-heavy models bill by actual use, so a long Claygent prompt across thousands of rows is hard to price in advance.
- Third-party price listings are out of date: G2's pricing tab still showed the old Starter ($143) and Explorer ($314) plans when I checked. Clay now calls those legacy plans, so check clay.com/pricing itself.
- Your time: G2's summary of Clay reviews counts 20 mentions of a steep learning curve. One small-business reviewer wrote: "It takes a lot to fully grasp everything that Clay does and then actually put it into practice." (G2)
Which Clay plan should you choose?
Choose Free if you:
- Want to learn tables, enrichments and waterfalls before paying
- Already pay for a data provider and want to try it inside Clay with your own key
- Need fewer than 200 rows at a time
Choose Launch if you:
- Enrich up to about 1,000 records a month
- Need phone numbers, job change signals or Clay's sequencer
- Export to CSV or a sequencer and don't need a live CRM sync
Choose Growth if you:
- Need Clay to read from and write to Salesforce or HubSpot
- Want webhooks or HTTP API calls in your workflows
- Enrich somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 records a month
Choose Enterprise if you:
- Need SSO, role-based access or credit budgets per team
- Enrich tens of thousands of records a month or more than 50,000 in one run
Is Clay worth the cost?
Clay is worth it if you:
- Have someone who will own the tables (a RevOps lead or a go-to-market engineer)
- Run the same enrichment workflow every week, so the setup time pays back
- Want several data providers in one waterfall instead of separate subscriptions
Skip Clay if you:
- Mostly need a list of companies that fit, without enrichment columns
- Are a team of one with no time to build and maintain tables
- Want one flat price you can predict before the month starts
The G2 reviews say the same thing from both sides. "This is the first truly useful end-to-end automated data enrichment tool," wrote one small-business reviewer who gave Clay 5 out of 5. Another small-business reviewer, also at 5 out of 5, added: "The cost of credits is on the higher side compared to the overall pricing." (G2)
Clay alternatives and pricing compared
| Tool | Starting price | Free plan | How it charges | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clay | $185/month ($167 yearly) | Yes, 100 Data Credits a month | Actions plus Data Credits | Custom enrichment workflows |
| Openlead | $35/month ($29 yearly) | No, $150 in free credits for 3 months | Flat plan, counted in companies found | Lists of companies that fit, with people |
| Apollo.io | $49/seat/month, billed yearly | Yes, 900 credits a year | Seats plus credits (email 1, phone 8) | Contact data and sequences in one tool |
| Hunter.io | $49/month ($34 yearly) | Yes, 50 credits a month | Monthly credits | Finding and verifying email addresses |
| RocketReach | $33/month, billed yearly | 5 free lookups | Exports per year | Email and phone lookups for individuals |
| ZoomInfo | Custom (sales call) | Free trial | Annual contract | Large sales teams |
Prices checked on November 4, 2026 on each vendor's pricing page.
People who leave Clay usually leave over the credit math or the setup time. For the price of each tool on its own:
- Apollo.io bundles a contact database and email sequences per seat.
- Hunter.io finds and verifies email addresses on a simple monthly credit plan.
- RocketReach sells email and phone lookups by yearly export limits.
- ZoomInfo sells by annual contract only.
Openlead vs Clay: which should you choose?
I built Openlead, so weigh this section with that in mind. The two tools overlap on one job: building a list of companies to sell to. They split on everything after it.
Openlead is better for:
- A list from one sentence. You describe your ideal customer ("B2B SaaS in the DACH region, 20 to 200 people") or paste your website, and Openlead returns up to 25 companies per search, each with the reason it fits and the page it came from.
- People without building a table. Every company comes with 1 to 3 relevant people and their profile links.
- A price you know in advance. Solo is $29 a month billed yearly ($35 monthly) for 300 companies a month with their people. Searches your own database can already answer don't count again (openlead.ai/#pricing, checked November 4, 2026).
Clay is better for:
- Contact data. Openlead gives no email addresses or phone numbers. Clay finds both across 150+ providers.
- Enrichment and automation. Waterfalls, AI research columns, signals, sequencing, CRM sync and webhooks. Openlead saves lists and exports CSV, and that's where it stops.
- Volume. Clay's search and imports run to tens of thousands of rows; Openlead returns up to 25 companies per search.
Use both if:
- You want to spend Clay credits only on companies that fit. Find them in Openlead, export the CSV and import it into Clay, which costs no Actions or Data Credits, then enrich just those rows.
Try Openlead free: describe your customer in a sentence and get your first 25 companies, with $150 in free credits for your first 3 months.
My bottom line on Clay pricing
Clay's starting prices are fair for what it does: $185 a month buys phone numbers, signals, sequencing and a 150-provider waterfall. The cost to watch is the second meter. Work out how many records you'll enrich each month, multiply by 6 to 20 Data Credits each, and check that number against the tier before you sign up. Most small teams should start on Launch with monthly billing and move to Growth only when they need the CRM sync. If all you need is a list of companies that fit, Clay is more machine than the job needs.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Clay cost per month?
Clay costs $185 a month for Launch and $495 a month for Growth on monthly billing, or $167 and $446 a month billed yearly. Those are the smallest credit tiers; more Data Credits or Actions raise the price. Enterprise is priced by quote.
Is Clay free?
Yes, Clay has a Free plan with 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions a month, unlimited seats and up to 200 rows per table. It doesn't include phone number enrichment. Paid plans start with a 14-day trial.
How is Clay priced?
Clay prices each plan as two meters: Actions for the platform work (1 per enrichment, AI run or export) and Data Credits for the data it buys from providers. You choose a tier for each, and the plan price is the two added together.
How do Clay credits work?
Data Credits pay for data from Clay's marketplace and start at 5 cents each; a fully enriched record typically uses 6 to 20. They roll over up to 2 times your monthly amount on monthly plans. Actions cover Clay's own work, cost less than a cent each and expire every billing cycle.
Is Clay worth it?
Clay is worth it for teams that run the same enrichment workflow every week and have someone to own it. For a solo founder who mostly needs a list of companies to contact, the setup time and the credit math usually cost more than the result.
What is the best alternative to Clay?
It depends on the job you hired Clay for. For contact data in one tool, Apollo.io starts at $49 a seat a month billed yearly. For email addresses only, Hunter.io starts at $34 a month billed yearly. For a list of companies that fit, with the right people at each, Openlead starts at $29 a month billed yearly.
About the author
Julian KrethFounder, Openlead
