Clay Pricing Breakdown 2026: Plans, Credits, Hidden Costs, and Cheaper Alternatives
Clay's credit-based pricing sounds simple — pay for what you use, unlimited users. But once you calculate real-world usage for an SDR team, the numbers get complicated fast.
Here's everything you need to know about Clay's pricing in 2026, including the hidden costs most reviews skip.
Clay's Published Pricing Plans
| Plan | Credits/Month | Monthly Price | Annual Price | Cost per 1,000 Credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 100 | $0 | $0 | — |
| Starter | 2,000 | $149 | $134/mo ($1,608/yr) | ~$75 |
| Explorer | 10,000 | $349 | $314/mo ($3,768/yr) | ~$31 |
| Pro | 50,000 | $800 | $720/mo ($8,640/yr) | ~$16 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Contact sales | Contact sales | Variable |
All plans include unlimited users. Annual billing gets a 10% discount with all credits granted upfront. Credits roll over up to 2x your monthly allocation.
How Clay Credits Work (The Math That Matters)
Every action in Clay consumes credits. Here's where it gets tricky:
Basic enrichment actions (1-2 credits each):
- Find email address
- Enrich company data
- LinkedIn profile lookup
Advanced actions (3-10+ credits each):
- Phone number verification
- Claygent AI research
- Multi-provider waterfall enrichment
- Website scraping and analysis
Real-World Scenario: 5-Person SDR Team
Let's say each SDR processes 50 new leads per day and runs a standard enrichment workflow:
| Step | Credits per Lead | Daily Credits (5 SDRs × 50 leads) |
|---|---|---|
| Find email | 1 | 250 |
| Enrich company | 1 | 250 |
| Phone number | 2 | 500 |
| AI research (Claygent) | 3 | 750 |
| Daily total | 7 | 1,750 |
| Monthly total | ~38,500 |
That's a Pro plan ($720-800/month) just for enrichment. And you haven't made a single call or sent a single email yet.
The Hidden Costs Clay Users Don't Expect
1. Clay Doesn't Include Execution Tools
Clay enriches data. It doesn't execute outbound. You still need:
| Tool You'll Need | Typical Cost | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sales engagement (SalesLoft/Outreach) | $100-180/user/month | To actually run email sequences and cadences |
| Dialer (Orum, Nooks, or built into SEP) | $100-150/user/month | To call prospects |
| Website visitor ID (Clearbit, RB2B) | $200-500/month | Clay has no visitor tracking |
| AI chatbot (Drift, Qualified) | $300-2,500/month | To engage website visitors |
Real total for a 5-SDR team:
- Clay Pro: $720/month
- SalesLoft (5 users): ~$750/month
- Visitor ID tool: ~$300/month
- Total: $1,770/month minimum
2. Credit Overages and Burnout
Clay credits don't roll over indefinitely — only up to 2x your monthly allocation. If you have a big prospecting push one month and burn through credits, you either:
- Upgrade your plan mid-cycle
- Stop enriching and lose momentum
- Buy add-on credits at higher rates
3. Implementation Complexity
Multiple Clay reviews mention needing "Clay partners" or agencies for setup. Clay's Sculptor is powerful but requires RevOps expertise. If your team is SDRs and an SDR manager (not data engineers), budget $2,000-5,000 for initial setup help.
4. Data Provider Quality Varies
Clay aggregates 75+ data providers, but not all providers are equal. Email verification rates, phone number accuracy, and company data freshness vary by provider. You may spend credits on enrichment that returns unreliable data and need to re-enrich through different providers.
Clay Pricing Alternatives
If Clay's credit math doesn't work for your team, consider these alternatives:
MarketBetter — Best for SDR Teams That Need Action, Not Just Data
MarketBetter includes visitor identification, daily SDR playbook, smart dialer, email sequences, and AI chatbot in one platform. No credits to manage, no bolt-on tools required. Your SDRs get a prioritized task list every morning instead of a spreadsheet of enriched contacts.
Key difference: Clay answers "who are these leads?" MarketBetter answers "what should your SDRs do right now?"
Apollo.io — Best for Budget-Conscious Teams Needing Data + Outreach
Apollo combines a B2B contact database (270M+ contacts) with built-in email sequencing and a dialer. Pricing starts at $49/user/month with unlimited email credits on paid plans.
Key difference vs Clay: Per-seat pricing instead of per-credit, and includes outreach tools. Less enrichment depth but more complete for small teams.
ZoomInfo — Best for Enterprise Data Quality
ZoomInfo offers the largest B2B database with verified data, but pricing starts at $15,000+/year. If data accuracy is your top priority and budget isn't a constraint, ZoomInfo's verification process is industry-leading.
Key difference vs Clay: Higher quality data, dramatically higher price, no AI workflow builder.
Cognism — Best for European Market Data
Cognism specializes in GDPR-compliant European contact data with phone-verified mobile numbers. Pricing is quote-based but typically more expensive than Clay for comparable coverage.
Key difference vs Clay: Superior European data quality, especially mobile numbers, but less customizable workflows.
When Clay Is Worth the Price
Clay delivers genuine value for:
- RevOps teams with technical talent who can build and maintain complex enrichment workflows
- Marketing teams enriching CRM records for segmentation and targeting
- Agencies managing outbound for multiple clients (unlimited users is a real advantage)
- Teams already using SalesLoft/Outreach who just need better data feeding into existing workflows
When Clay Isn't Worth the Price
Clay is likely overkill or mismatched if:
- Your SDRs need one platform for data + outreach + calling
- You don't have RevOps engineering talent to build Clay workflows
- You want website visitor identification integrated with your outbound
- Your team measures meetings booked, not enrichment coverage rates
- You're a team of 5-20 SDRs (Clay's value scales with volume; smaller teams may overpay)
The Bottom Line on Clay Pricing
Clay's credit-based pricing looks affordable at first glance. But for SDR teams, the real cost is Clay + a sales engagement platform + a dialer + a visitor ID tool + implementation help. That stack easily runs $2,000-4,000/month for a 5-person team.
Platforms like MarketBetter bundle everything SDRs need — data, prioritization, dialing, email, and visitor intelligence — into a single price with no credit math required.
The cheapest tool isn't the one with the lowest price. It's the one that replaces the most tools.