Short answer: Clay has four plans: Free, Launch (from $185 a month billed monthly, or $167 a month billed annually), Growth (from $495 a month, or $446 a month annually) and a custom Enterprise plan. Every paid price is two meters added together: Actions, which count the work Clay does, and Data Credits, which pay for the data and AI that Clay buys for you. Seats are unlimited on every plan, so headcount isn’t what moves the bill. What moves it is how many records you enrich, which fields you ask for (phone numbers are the expensive one), how your waterfalls are set up, whether you need CRM sync (a Growth feature), and the separate tools you still pay for to send email and run LinkedIn outreach.
All Clay figures in this post were checked on clay.com/pricing and Clay’s help docs on 26 October 2026. Clay changes its pricing often (the current model only arrived in March 2026), so confirm on Clay’s pricing page before you budget. Clay vs twl quotes the same starting prices, dated 23 October 2026. I founded twl, which appears as one option near the end, so check any figure here against Clay’s own page.
How Clay pricing works in 2026#
In March 2026 Clay moved from a single credit meter to two (legacy plans doc). Older guides that only talk about “credits” describe the old plans.
Actions measure platform work. Per Clay’s Actions & Data Credits doc, each enrichment uses one Action, each AI run uses one Action, and each record you export or push (to a CRM, a sequencer, an ad audience or an HTTP API) uses one Action. Sourcing lists, imports, formulas and CSV export don’t. Clay says each Action costs “a few tenths of a penny”.
Data Credits pay for data and AI from Clay’s marketplace of 150+ providers. Clay’s pricing page says they start at $0.05 each. One enrichment costs between 0.5 and 10+ Data Credits depending on the data type, and Clay’s docs say a fully enriched record (company and person profile, email, phone and custom AI fields) “typically costs 6–20 Data Credits”.
Three rules matter for your bill:
- If an enrichment returns nothing, Clay charges neither Actions nor Data Credits (Clay FAQ).
- If you connect your own API key for a provider, you skip the Data Credits but still use one Action per run. You then pay that provider directly.
- Actions reset every billing cycle and can’t be topped up. Data Credits roll over (within limits) and can be topped up.
Clay plans at a glance (as of 26 October 2026)#
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing (per month) | Included Actions | Included Data Credits | What the plan adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 500/mo | 100/mo | Unlimited seats and tables, multi-provider waterfalls, Claygent, your own API keys, 200 rows per table |
| Launch | From $185 | From $167 | 15,000/mo | 2,500/mo | Phone enrichment, job-change, company news and social signals, email via Clay’s sequencer or an integration, 50,000 rows per table |
| Growth | From $495 | From $446 | 40,000/mo | 6,000/mo | CRM auto-sync, HTTP API, webhooks, web intent signals, ad audiences, priority support |
| Enterprise | Custom, annual commitment | Custom | Custom | 100,000+/mo | SSO, SCIM, RBAC, credit budgeting, bulk enrichment past 50,000 rows, a dedicated growth strategist |
Source: clay.com/pricing and Clay’s plans and billing doc, checked 26 October 2026. The pricing page opens on the Annual toggle, which is why the plan cards show $167 and $446 while Clay’s FAQ quotes $185 and $495.
Two details on Clay’s own pages don’t line up, so this post sticks to the figures that agree. The annual Launch card shows a rounded “3K” data credits a month, while Clay’s slider, FAQ and billing doc all say 2,500 a month (30,000 a year), which is what the table uses. Clay’s pages also quote different Enterprise Action minimums, so the table leaves that as custom.
How the price is built#
Each paid plan is an Actions tier plus a Data Credits tier. On monthly billing, Launch’s $185 is $60 for 15,000 Actions plus $125 for 2,500 Data Credits. Growth’s $495 is $205 for 40,000 Actions plus $290 for 6,000 Data Credits.
You can raise either slider on its own. Data Credit tiers cost the same on both plans: 6,000 for $290, 10,000 for $460, 20,000 for $880 and 50,000 for $2,125 a month. Actions cost more on Growth at the same volume (40,000 Actions are $150 a month on Launch, $205 on Growth).
Rollover, top-ups and running out#
- Actions never roll over. If you run out, you move to a higher Action tier.
- Data Credits roll over. On monthly plans, unused credits build up to a cap of 2× your monthly amount. On annual plans you can carry over up to 15% of the year’s credits, provided you renew on the same or a higher plan.
- Top-ups of Data Credits cost a 30% premium on Launch and Growth. Clay’s own advice is that regular overage is cheaper handled by moving up a credit tier. Clay’s pages disagree on whether top-ups have a cap, so check the current limits in the app before you plan around large ones.
Clay says its plans are sized so 90% of customers never hit their Actions limit, so for most small teams Data Credits run out first.
Where the Clay bill balloons#
The entry price is rarely the real price. Six things push it up.
1. The fields you ask for#
Emails and LinkedIn profile data are cheap. In Clay’s own worked example, enriching 100 contacts with a LinkedIn profile and a work email used 95 Data Credits (0.5 per profile, 0.5 per email found, with select validators free). Phone numbers are a different story. Clay’s docs say plainly that “emails are cheap, phone numbers are expensive”, and a fully enriched record with a phone runs 6–20 credits.
Cleanlist, which sells a competing enrichment tool, ran Clay’s pricing calculator on 16 October 2026: 1,000 contacts a month with profile, company profile and work email fit Launch at $185, and adding a phone number moved the same 1,000 contacts to the 10,000-credit tier at $520 a month. Decide whether every record really needs a phone.
2. Waterfalls and validation#
A waterfall tries providers in order until one returns a valid result. Clay explains that each step that returns data uses Data Credits and an Action, each validation step does the same, and nothing more is charged once validated data comes back. Providers that return nothing cost nothing.
That’s efficient when the first provider is right. It costs more when an early provider returns an email that fails validation, because you pay for that result and the check before the waterfall moves on. Clay’s work email waterfall doc suggests a free “Infer Email” step first. Provider order is a budget decision, not just an accuracy one.
3. AI research columns#
Every AI run uses one Action plus Data Credits set by the model. On Clay’s AI pricing doc, its own Helium model costs 1 Data Credit per web-research task and Argon costs 3. The most advanced reasoning models are priced by actual token use, with an estimate shown before the run. Clay’s docs list auto-run, AI columns and re-run columns among the common causes of “unexpected” credit deductions.
4. Features that sit behind Growth#
CRM auto-sync, HTTP API calls, webhooks and web intent signals are Growth features on Clay’s pricing page. If your tables need to write back to HubSpot or Salesforce on their own, you’re on Growth from $495 a month, whatever your volume. Astra GTM, an outbound agency that builds on Clay, worked out that at equal volume (40,000 Actions and 6,000 Data Credits a month), Launch costs $440 and Growth $495, so the Growth features cost about $55 a month at that size. If you export to a sequencer and nobody needs CRM sync, Launch with a bigger credit slider is usually cheaper.
5. Seats aren’t the cost. The rest of the stack is.#
Credit where it’s due: Clay doesn’t charge per seat. Every plan has unlimited seats, and Clay’s FAQ says adding people to your workspace is free.
The seats that cost money are usually in the tools around Clay. Clay can send email: its sequencer is on Launch and above (one Action per lead added to a campaign), and Growth adds buying domains and mailboxes for it, though the pricing page doesn’t list what those cost. But as of 26 October 2026 Clay’s pricing page lists email campaigns and LinkedIn and Meta ad audiences, not LinkedIn connection requests or messages. If LinkedIn is part of your outreach, you’ll probably be paying for a separate LinkedIn tool, and you’ll need to keep that account inside the range LinkedIn tolerates (see LinkedIn connection limits and weekly invites). Add a signal tool or an outside sequencer and you can end up with three or four subscriptions passing the same lead around.
6. The time to build and keep tables working#
This never shows up on the invoice. As Astra GTM puts it, Clay’s pricing “covers the platform and the data, not the hours to design waterfalls, prompts and syncs.” Clay itself sells onboarding and co-building on Enterprise and runs a directory of Clay experts you can hire, a fair sign that building in Clay is real work. If nobody owns the tables, they stall or you pay someone to run them.
A worked example (illustration only)#
This is an illustration built from Clay’s published prices and credit guidance, not a quote. Assumptions: monthly billing, all data bought through Clay’s marketplace (no own API keys), and Actions staying within the plan’s included tier.
| Scenario | Data Credits needed per month | Plan and tiers | List price per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. 1,000 contacts: LinkedIn profile + work email | About 950 (Clay’s 100-contact example × 10) | Launch: 15,000 Actions + 2,500 credits | $185 |
| B. 1,000 contacts, fully enriched including phone | 6,000–20,000 (6–20 per record) | Launch: 15,000 Actions + the 6,000 to 20,000 credit tier | $350–$940 |
| C. Same as B, synced to your CRM | 6,000–20,000 | Growth: 40,000 Actions + the 6,000 to 20,000 credit tier | $495–$1,085 |
How the numbers add up: B is $60 for Actions plus $290 (6,000 credits) to $880 (20,000 credits). C is $205 for Actions plus the same credit tiers. In scenario A, a rough Actions count of 1,000 profile lookups, about 900 emails found, about 900 validations and about 900 exports comes to roughly 3,700 Actions, well inside Launch’s 15,000.
None of these include a LinkedIn tool, an outside sequencer or mailboxes, top-ups at the 30% premium, or build time. Bringing your own provider keys cuts Data Credits, but you pay those providers directly.
Who Clay is good for, and who it isn’t#
Clay is a strong fit if:
- You have an operator (often called a GTM engineer) who wants fine control over every column.
- You get value from mixing many providers in waterfalls, or already hold provider contracts and can bring your own keys.
- You need CRM sync, webhooks and HTTP API steps.
- You have a larger team. Unlimited seats make Clay cheaper per user than seat-priced tools.
Clay may be the wrong buy if:
- Nobody will own building and maintaining the tables.
- You only need a few hundred emails a month from one provider. Price that provider directly first.
- You want LinkedIn and email outreach running from the same place as your signals.
- You keep topping up. At a 30% premium, that means the plan is sized wrong or you’re enriching records you never contact.
Alternatives to consider#
The wider list, with what you give up in each case, is in Clay Alternatives: Cost, Complexity and a Simpler Stack. The short version:
Make Clay cheaper first. Clay’s docs suggest filtering before enriching, only enriching empty or outdated fields, testing on 10–20 rows, and connecting your own API keys. Annual billing takes about 10% off.
A database with a built-in sequencer. If you mainly want contacts and email sends without custom tables, a tool such as Apollo can be the simpler buy. Check each vendor’s own pricing page.
A single-purpose enrichment tool. If Clay is only finding emails and phone numbers for you, a per-result enrichment tool may cost less for that one job.
A connected signals-to-outreach stack. If the real job is finding who’s in-market now and starting a relevant conversation, look for tools that keep the signal, the lead and the outreach together.
Where twl fits#
twl is one option in that last group. It’s a connected set of tools for outbound: twl signals finds people and companies showing activity you choose to track (such as engaging with a competitor’s LinkedIn posts, hiring, funding or leadership changes), twl tables keeps and enriches those prospects, and twl reach runs email and LinkedIn sequences that start from the signal that found the person. The signal stays on the record, so the message can reference the real reason you’re reaching out. You approve what gets sent, and Reach works inside the account limits you set; it isn’t built to get around LinkedIn’s limits. The tools are sold separately, so you can start with one.
To be fair about it: twl doesn’t claim a provider-for-provider match with Clay’s data marketplace. If you want waterfalls and a grid you control column by column, Clay is the better tool. twl fits teams that want the outcome (signal-led, qualified prospects and reviewed outreach) without the table becoming a job. twl’s current prices are on its pricing page, and the side-by-side with Clay is on Clay vs twl.
Frequently asked questions#
How much does Clay cost per month?#
As of 26 October 2026: Free is $0, Launch starts at $185 a month and Growth at $495 a month on monthly billing, or $167 and $446 a month billed annually. Enterprise is custom with an annual commitment. Bigger Action or Data Credit tiers raise Launch and Growth above those starting prices.
Is Clay free?#
Yes. The Free plan has 500 Actions and 100 Data Credits a month, unlimited seats and 200 rows per table, with no phone enrichment. It’s enough to learn Clay and test a workflow.
What’s the difference between Actions and Data Credits?#
Actions count the work Clay does (one per enrichment, AI run or export). Data Credits pay for marketplace data and AI, from $0.05 each.
Does Clay charge per seat?#
No. Every Clay plan includes unlimited seats, and adding people to a workspace is free.
How many credits does a Clay enrichment cost?#
One enrichment costs 0.5 to 10+ Data Credits plus one Action. A fully enriched record typically costs 6–20 Data Credits, per Clay’s docs.
Do Clay credits roll over?#
Actions don’t. Data Credits do: monthly plans bank up to 2× the monthly amount, and annual plans carry over up to 15% of the year’s credits if you renew on the same or a higher plan.
What happens if I run out of Clay credits?#
You can buy one-time or automatic Data Credit top-ups at a 30% premium, or move to a higher credit tier with no premium. Actions can’t be topped up, so running out means moving to a higher Action tier.
Does Clay charge for failed lookups?#
No. An enrichment that returns no data costs nothing. A step that returns data which then fails validation is still charged.
Why is Clay so expensive?#
Usually it’s not the entry price but what’s added on top: phone numbers, CRM sync that requires Growth, 30% top-ups, separate LinkedIn and sending tools, and build time. Teams that use the whole platform often find it worth it. Teams that mostly need contact data often don’t.
Want fewer tools between the signal and the send?#
If most of your Clay bill goes on finding who’s in-market and then moving them into other tools to contact, try one signal end to end in twl. Pick a competitor’s LinkedIn post or a hiring signal, see who shows up, check fit, and review the outreach in twl reach before anything is sent.
TWL Signals
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Monitor the people and companies your buyers already follow, keep the original context, enrich the profiles and route only the strongest matches into outreach.
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