Updated October 2026

Pricing analysis

Clay Pricing 2026: Real Cost Per Lead vs Listed Plans

Clay is one of the most talked-about B2B data enrichment platforms right now. But between the credit-based pricing, a separate actions meter, price selectors that raise the "starts at" figure, and the required tool stack, figuring out what Clay actually costs your team is anything but simple.

✓ Pick Clay if

You have a dedicated RevOps function with a budget from $446/mo and need multi-provider data aggregation in one workflow builder
Your team is running 5+ concurrent enrichment workflows with branching logic (AI + waterfall + scoring)

✕ Skip if

You're 1-10 seats and want predictable monthly costs - Launch starts at $167/mo (annual) or $185/mo (monthly), and Sales Nav + top-ups come on top
Your motion is mostly LinkedIn + email enrichment - Derrick from €20/month finds a work email for €0.01 (5 credits at the Standard rate)

Price transparency 8/10

Value at small team 3/10

Hidden costs Medium

↓ See pricing plans what Clay actually does →

Clay vs Derrick · price for the same credit volume

ⓘ

Heads up - Derrick is a data layer, not a sequencer. It enriches contacts (email, mobile, company, signals) in its web app (or Google Sheets, Claude, API). If you also need cold-email sequencing, dialer or CRM workflow, you'll keep your existing stack (La Growth Machine, Lemlist…) - Derrick replaces only the data-enrichment line of your Clay bill.

Slide to pick a monthly credit need. We pick the cheapest plan on each side that covers it.

Credits needed per month 5,000 credits

500 10k 20k 30k 40k 50k+

Clay

- plan $-/mo - /year

- plan €-/mo - /year

Switching to Derrick saves you €- per year

Try Derrick free → 4.5/5 on G2 · 254 upvotes on Product Hunt · 34,000+ B2B sales teams

or use it directly in

Claude

or via API

Part 1 / 9

Plans

Clay's free plan and its 3 paid tiers

Clay ships 4 tiers. Per-seat pricing combined with a credit system for data lookups - the listed price is rarely the real cost.

Free

$0 $0 monthly

Credits1,200 / 6,000/yr
Min seats1

100 credits/month + 500 actions/month
Access to 150+ data partners
Up to 200 rows per table
No card required

Two separate metrics: 'credits' for data provider lookups + 'actions' for workflow steps. 100 credits = ~25-50 enrichments, 500 actions = ~1 small workflow run.

Launch

$167+/mo billed annually $185+/mo monthly monthly

Credits30K credits + 180K actions/yr
Min seats1

2,500+ credits/mo + 15,000 actions/mo
Entry paid plan: 'starts at' price, selectors expand it
Phone enrichment and job-change signals
Unused credits accumulate up to 2x your monthly amount

Pricing is built from two selectors (actions + data credits), and the price shown is the entry combination. Actions = workflow steps (filters, AI calls, integrations). Run out of actions = workflow pauses.

Growth

$446+/mo billed annually $495+/mo monthly monthly

Credits72K credits + 480K actions/yr
Min seats1

6,000+ credits/mo + 40,000 actions/mo
Auto-sync & enrich CRM
HTTP API integration + webhook automation
Credit selector goes up to 50K credits/mo

Growth is the top self-serve tier: the selector goes up to 50K data credits/mo ($2,125/mo on monthly billing). Enterprise is custom pricing with annual commitment (100,000+ data credits).

Enterprise

Custom pricing with annual commitment Custom monthly

Credits100K+ credits + 200K+ actions per month/yr
Min seats1

Custom credit + action pools
Dedicated CSM + workflow consulting
Custom integrations + SSO
Sub-credit cost negotiation

Sales-led, with custom pricing and an annual commitment.

Why these tiers exist - full plan breakdown

Clay pricing tiers - verified October 2026 against the vendor's own pricing page:

Plan	Price	Best for	Limits / Inclusions
Free	$0	Evaluation / testing	100 credits + 500 actions · 100 credits/month + 500 actions/month · Access to 150+ data partners
Launch	$185+/mo monthly ($167+/mo billed annually)	2,500+ credits/mo + 15,000 actions/mo	2,500+ credits + 15K actions · Entry paid plan: 'starts at' price, selectors expand it · Phone enrichment and job-change signals
Growth	$495+/mo monthly ($446+/mo billed annually)	6,000+ credits/mo + 40,000 actions/mo	6,000+ credits + 40K actions · Auto-sync & enrich CRM · HTTP API integration + webhook automation
Enterprise	Custom	Custom credit + action pools	100K+ credits and 200K+ actions per month · Custom pricing with annual commitment

Part 2 / 9

Credits

How Clay credits work

Clay bills actions in credits with non-equal costs. A 5,000-credit plan does NOT mean 5,000 lookups.

Basic contact enrichment (name, title, company) 1-3

Email lookup (single provider) 1-2

LinkedIn profile enrichment 1

Mobile phone lookup 2-13

AI / Claygent step Variable

Read the full credit-system breakdown

Clay credits are the platform’s internal currency. Every action you run - a data lookup, an AI enrichment, a workflow step - consumes credits or actions from your monthly allocation.

The tricky part: credit consumption varies significantly depending on the data provider and the type of information you’re requesting. Clay aggregates 150+ data partners (per its pricing page), so the cost per action is highly variable.

Rough consumption benchmarks per action:

Action	Credits consumed
Basic contact enrichment (name, title, company)	1–3 credits
Email lookup (single provider)	1–2 credits
LinkedIn profile enrichment	1 credit
Mobile number lookup	2–13 credits (provider-dependent)
AI/Claygent step	Variable
Data cleaning and formatting	Free

The more expensive operations - mobile numbers in particular - can quickly use up a Launch allocation. A single mobile lookup can cost up to 13 credits depending on the provider, and the vendor says Data Credits start at $0.05 each.

Credit rollover: capped, not unlimited

On Launch and Growth, unused credits can accumulate, but only up to 2x your monthly allocation. Anything beyond that cap is lost.

For teams with seasonal prospecting cycles - heavy in Q1 and Q3, quiet in Q2 and Q4 - this cap can create waste. Credits accumulated during slow months aren’t all available when a big campaign launches.

This is one area where the contrast with tools like Derrick is sharpest: Derrick credits never expire while you stay on a paid plan, regardless of usage patterns.

Part 3 / 9

Hidden costs

Hidden costs to know before buying Clay

Things Clay's pricing page doesn't put in big type.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator required - $1,188/year/seat

Most of Clay's high-value LinkedIn enrichment workflows require an active Sales Nav subscription per active user. A 5-person SDR team adds $5,940/year before a single Clay credit is spent. Some workflows work without it, but serious scale on LinkedIn effectively requires it.

Top-up credits cost extra over your plan rate

Run out mid-month and you buy extra credits, which cost more than the rate built into your plan (the vendor says Data Credits start at $0.05 each). A heavy campaign month can raise the bill, so check the current top-up rate before launching one.

CRM sync is listed under Growth, not Launch

Auto-sync & enrich CRM appears under the Growth plan on Clay's pricing page. Launch users get enriched data into Clay tables but need manual exports or custom Zapier/Make workflows to push it to a CRM - friction + ops overhead.

Two separate meters: data credits AND actions

Clay bills data credits and workflow actions separately. If an enrichment returns no result you are not charged either, but every workflow step that runs counts against your actions cap, and a workflow pauses when you run out.

20-40 hour learning curve

Reviewers on G2 + Reddit consistently report 20-40 hours to build a first production-ready workflow. For RevOps teams without dedicated tooling resources, that's a real cost - either consultant fees ($150-300/hr) or engineer time.

Read the full hidden-costs analysis

The subscription price is only part of the real cost of running Clay at scale. Here are the additional expenses to budget for.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator: $1,188/year per user

Many of Clay’s most powerful LinkedIn enrichment features rely on an active Sales Navigator subscription. At $99/month per seat, a 5-person SDR team adds $5,940/year before a single Clay credit is spent. Some workflows work without it, but serious scale on LinkedIn enrichment effectively requires the subscription.

Derrick, by contrast, works autonomously in its web app or Google Sheets without requiring a Sales Navigator subscription - which is a meaningful cost difference for smaller teams.

Top-up credits: extra cost over your plan rate

When you exhaust your monthly allocation, you need additional credits, and those cost more than the rate built into your plan (the vendor says Data Credits start at $0.05 each). During high-volume months or campaign surges, check the current top-up rate before you launch.

CRM sync sits in the Growth plan

Auto-sync & enrich CRM is listed under Growth on Clay’s pricing page. Launch users get enriched data into Clay tables, but syncing it to their CRM requires manual exports or custom Zapier/Make workflows - adding both friction and operational overhead.

Two meters: credits and actions

Clay bills data credits and workflow actions separately. You are not charged either one when an enrichment returns no result, but every workflow step that runs uses actions, and a workflow pauses when the actions cap is reached.

The learning curve tax

According to multiple G2 and Reddit reviews, Clay takes several weeks to fully master. Teams typically spend 20–40 hours building their first production-ready enrichment workflow. For revenue ops teams without dedicated tooling resources, this is a real cost - either in consultant fees or engineer time.

Clay Alternatives: 10 tools worth considering in 2026

Looking for simpler or more affordable enrichment options? We compared the top Clay alternatives on price, features and ease of use.

Part 4 / 9

Compare

Clay vs alternatives

How Clay stacks against Derrick, Hunter, and the other tools we benchmarked.

Detailed comparison + cost-per-action breakdown

Both tools offer B2B data enrichment with a credit-based model. Here’s a direct comparison on the metrics that matter most for budget decisions (Clay prices are in USD, Derrick prices in EUR):

	Clay Launch	Clay Growth	Derrick Standard	Derrick Plus
Credits/month	2,500 (+ 15K actions)	6,000 (+ 40K actions)	10,000	25,000
Price/month	$185 monthly / $167 annual	$495 monthly / $446 annual	€20	€47.50
Cost/credit	Data Credits from $0.05	Data Credits from $0.05	€0.002	€0.0019
Credit rollover	Up to 2x	Up to 2x	✓ Credits never expire on a paid plan	✓ Credits never expire on a paid plan
CRM integration	✕	✓	Via Zapier/Make	Via Zapier/Make
Web app + Google Sheets	✓	✓	✓	✓
Sales Navigator required	Often	Often	✕	✕

Important nuance on credit consumption: Derrick and Clay don’t use credits at the same rate per action. Some Derrick enrichments (notably phone finder) consume significantly more credits than Clay’s equivalent. The comparison below reflects per-action costs:

Action	Clay (Data Credits from $0.05)	Derrick Standard	Winner
LinkedIn profile enrichment	1 credit	€0.002 (1 credit)	Derrick
Email finder	1–2 credits	€0.01 (5 credits)	Derrick
Phone finder	2–13 credits (provider-dependent)	€0.40 (200 credits)	Clay (at the low end of its range)

For LinkedIn enrichment and email finding - the core workflow for most SDR teams - Derrick’s per-action cost is much lower. Phone number lookup is the exception where Clay can have an advantage.

Real-world scenario: 5,000 LinkedIn enrichments/month + email finding

A sales team enriching 5,000 profiles monthly, pulling email addresses for each:

Clay:

LinkedIn: 5,000 × 1 credit = 5,000 credits
Email: 5,000 × 1–2 credits = 5,000–10,000 credits
Total: 10,000–15,000 data credits, above the 6,000 included at Growth’s entry price, so the credit selector has to go up
Monthly cost: at least $495 (Growth, monthly billing, entry price), more once the selector is raised

Derrick (Pro, €175/month):

LinkedIn: 5,000 × 1 credit = 5,000 credits
Email: 5,000 × 5 credits = 25,000 credits
Total: 30,000 credits, above the 25,000 of Plus, so Pro (100,000 credits) fits
Monthly cost: €175

On this workflow, Derrick Pro costs €175/month against a Clay entry price of $495/month before extra credits, with no LinkedIn Sales Navigator requirement and no CRM export friction (Derrick is a web app with nothing to install, also in Google Sheets).

To get started with data enrichment in Google Sheets, Derrick’s approach removes the export step entirely - enriched data lands in the web app or directly in the spreadsheet your team already uses.

Part 5 / 9

What's included

What's included in every Clay plan

Features bundled into Clay's plans - synthesised from the vendor's pricing page and documentation :

Unlimited seats and users per workspace (no seat fees)
Free: 100 data credits + 500 actions per month, up to 200 rows per table
Launch: 2,500 data credits + 15,000 actions per month (monthly billing), phone enrichment and job-change signals
Growth: 6,000 data credits + 40,000 actions per month at the entry price, auto-sync & enrich CRM, HTTP API integration and webhook automation
Work email waterfall that finds and validates emails
Google Sheets integration and an MCP server for AI tools
You are not charged Data Credits or Actions when an enrichment returns no result

Not every feature ships in every tier - confirm against the plan card above before you commit.

Part 6 / 9

The verdict

Is Clay worth paying for? Our verdict

Pick Clay if…

You have a dedicated RevOps function with a budget from $446/mo and need multi-provider data aggregation in one workflow builder
Your team is running 5+ concurrent enrichment workflows with branching logic (AI + waterfall + scoring)
You need access to 150+ data partners under one credit pool (vs managing separate subscriptions)

Skip Clay if…

You're 1-10 seats and want predictable monthly costs - Launch starts at $167/mo (annual) or $185/mo (monthly), and Sales Nav + top-ups come on top
Your motion is mostly LinkedIn + email enrichment - Derrick from €20/month finds a work email for €0.01 (5 credits at the Standard rate)
You don't have someone willing to spend 20-40 hours learning the workflow builder

Pick Derrick instead if…

You want enrichment in a web app with nothing to install, or right IN your spreadsheet
You want a from €20/month rate where credits never expire while you stay on a paid plan (vs Clay's 2× cap)
You want to start free (100 credits/mo, no card) and scale from €20/month without per-tier upgrade math

Try Derrick free →

Clay is a genuinely powerful platform for GTM teams that need flexible, multi-provider enrichment with workflow automation. For organizations with a dedicated RevOps function, mature prospecting processes, and a budget from $446/month, the Growth plan delivers strong value.

The challenge is the entry point. At $167/month (annual billing) or $185/month (monthly), the Launch plan offers limited monthly volume (2,500 data credits) and no CRM sync, which is listed under Growth. Because the listed prices are “starts at” prices, real workflows in production tend to cost more than the entry figure.

If your team is earlier stage, budget-conscious, or simply doesn’t need Clay’s full workflow builder, there are leaner paths to quality B2B data enrichment with less operational overhead.

derrick •

Switch from Clay to Derrick

Web app: import a list or paste LinkedIn URLs, nothing to install
Free plan: 100 credits every month, no credit card
Also in Google Sheets, in Claude (MCP) and via the API
Native LinkedIn and Sales Navigator import

Try the app free

or use it in

Google Sheets

Claude

API

No credit card · No contract

Part 7 / 9

Switch to Derrick

How to switch from Clay to Derrick in 3 steps

Derrick is a web app: nothing to install, no credit card, 100 free credits every month.

Open the Derrick web app

Import your Clay list

Upload the CSV you exported from Clay, paste LinkedIn URLs, or import from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. The same actions also run in Google Sheets, in Claude (MCP) and via the API.

Enrich your list with one click

Pick the column to enrich and the data you need: emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn data, company info, tech stack. Derrick fills the columns, and the email and phone finders only charge for what they find.

How much does Clay cost for a small team of 5?

Clay has unlimited seats, so there is no per-seat fee. Budget a Launch plan ($167/mo billed annually or $185/mo monthly) or a Growth plan ($446/mo annual or $495/mo monthly), plus LinkedIn Sales Navigator for each active user ($5,940/year for five users, a cost outside Clay), plus an outreach tool and any top-ups. These are "starts at" prices: the credit and action selectors raise them.

Does Clay have a free plan?

Yes. The free plan includes 100 data credits/month (1,200/year) and 500 actions/month, unlimited seats, up to 200 rows per table and access to 150+ data partners. It’s sufficient to test workflows and understand the interface, but not for consistent professional use.

Do Clay credits expire?

On Launch and Growth, unused credits accumulate up to 2x your monthly allocation. Beyond that cap, excess credits are lost. This rollover policy can create waste for teams with variable monthly usage.

Does Clay charge for failed enrichment lookups?

No. According to Clay’s pricing page, if an enrichment returns no result you’re not charged Data Credits or Actions. You do pay for lookups that return data, and workflow steps that run still count against your actions cap.

What is the difference between Clay and Derrick?

Clay is a standalone web platform combining 150+ data partners with workflow automation, with paid plans starting at $167/month (annual billing) or $185/month (monthly). Derrick runs in its web app, inside Google Sheets (sidebar), through an MCP server and a REST API, enriches LinkedIn profiles, finds emails and phones, and integrates with CRMs via Zapier/Make/n8n - starting at €20/month with credits that never expire on a paid plan. Clay has an edge on workflow complexity and mobile phone data; Derrick has an edge on price, ease of use, and LinkedIn/email enrichment cost per action.

Can I use Clay without LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

Some workflows work without Sales Navigator, but many of Clay’s core LinkedIn enrichment features perform significantly better - or exclusively work - with an active Sales Navigator subscription. Budget for $99/month per user if LinkedIn is a primary source.

Part 8 / 9

Keep exploring

Other Email + Phone Finder pricing breakdowns

Comparing options? These are the other email + phone finder tools we've torn down at the same depth - real per-credit cost, hidden fees, plan calculators.