Clay

Clay is a spreadsheet-style platform for connecting information and automating work, designed for salespeople, growth teams, and small agencies finding and reaching customers. It enriches data from more than 150 providers and can chain providers in waterfalls. Its Claygent AI agent can research the web and create custom data points. Depending on plan, Clay can track job changes, promotions, new hires, company news, social activity, and web intent signals. Integrations include Salesforce, HubSpot, Snowflake, and Google BigQuery. Clay can centralize audience data and sync advertising audiences to LinkedIn, Meta, and Google; its Salesforce integration can manage data, create or update records, and access reports and views. The Free plan provides 500 actions and 100 data credits monthly, unlimited seats and tables, and a 200-row-per-table limit; phone enrichment is excluded. Actions measure platform use, while Data Credits pay for data and AI from marketplace vendors. Launch starts at $167.00 per month, and Growth is $446.00 per month. Enterprise uses custom pricing. Clay says customer data is not used to train its AI models or those of its AI providers.

Clay combines data enrichment, web research, signals, and audience workflows in a spreadsheet-style workspace. The free plan has row and phone-enrichment limits, while paid plans add capacity and capabilities.

Clay may suit sales and growth teams that need to enrich prospect data, research accounts, or coordinate CRM-based workflows. The company describes Launch for small teams automating prospecting and Growth for teams with CRM workflows and growth campaigns.

Clay is a spreadsheet-style workspace for prospect research, enrichment and automated customer-finding workflows. It suits sales and growth teams plus small agencies that need many data sources and destinations in one process. Its breadth is a strength, but the 200-row Free-table limit and absent phone enrichment make paid capacity relevant quickly.

Overview

Clay combines enrichment from more than 150 providers with multi-provider waterfalls, so a workflow can try multiple sources rather than depend on one database. Its enrichment covers contacts, companies, people, email, phone, social media, financial, job, technology, news and online-content data. Claygent adds an AI agent that researches the web and creates custom data points, useful when a standard field is not enough.

Signals can identify job changes, promotions, new hires, company news, social signals and web intent, although the available signals depend on the plan. Integrations include Salesforce, HubSpot, Snowflake and Google BigQuery. Salesforce users can manage data, create or update records, and access reports and views. Clay can also centralize audience data and synchronize advertising audiences with LinkedIn, Meta and Google.

The main qualification is its metered model: Actions measure platform work, while Data Credits pay for marketplace data and AI. Teams therefore need to budget both kinds of consumption rather than treat the subscription as an all-inclusive allowance.

Key features

• Multi-source enrichment: Waterfalls across 150-plus providers improve coverage and give teams a way to pursue missing fields through additional sources.
• AI web research: Claygent generates custom data points, extending research beyond fixed enrichment attributes.
• Signals: Change, hiring, company, social and intent events can support timely outreach, but lower plans do not expose every signal.
• CRM and warehouse connections: Salesforce operations and integrations such as HubSpot, Snowflake and BigQuery suit workflows that must write results back to operating systems.
• Audience activation: Centralized audience data and syncing to LinkedIn, Meta and Google connect research with advertising execution.
• Privacy and security: Clay states SOC 2 Type II compliance and displays GDPR, CCPA, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001. It says customer data is not used to train its own or its AI providers’ models.

Pricing

The Free plan costs $0.00 and includes 500 actions and 100 data credits per month, unlimited seats and tables, and up to 200 rows per table. It is a useful way to prototype workflows, but the row ceiling and lack of phone-number enrichment make it unsuitable for sustained, phone-led prospecting.

Launch costs $167.00 per month, billed monthly, and includes 15,000 actions, 3,000 data credits, phone enrichment, and job-change and other signals. It is the sensible entry point for small teams automating prospecting, provided that allowance covers their combined platform and vendor usage.

Growth costs $446.00 per month, billed monthly, with 40,000 actions and 6,000 data credits. It adds CRM and data-warehouse sync, HTTP API integrations and priority support, making it the stronger fit for CRM-based workflows and growth campaigns rather than occasional list building.

Enterprise uses custom pricing and provides custom actions and credits, SSO, role-based access control and a dedicated growth strategist. It is aimed at organizations that need governance and tailored capacity. Clay offers a 14-day trial, while renewal terms beyond the stated monthly billing are not given.

Platforms

Clay runs on the web and supports macOS and Linux. API access is available, which helps teams place enrichment and workflow steps inside their own systems.

Who it's for

Choose Clay when a sales or growth operation needs enrichment, AI research, event signals, CRM connections and audience activation in one spreadsheet-style environment. Small agencies can use Launch to automate prospecting across clients, while larger teams gain more from Growth’s synchronization and API capabilities. It is a poor fit for a very small, phone-focused workload that must stay within a free plan, or for buyers seeking a simple fixed-price database with no separate action and credit accounting.

Pros and cons

• Pro: More than 150 providers and waterfalls broaden enrichment coverage.
• Pro: Claygent and signal tracking add custom research and timely buying context.
• Pro: Salesforce operations, warehouse connections and ad-audience sync connect research to execution.
• Pro: Enterprise controls and stated privacy and compliance measures support managed deployments.
• Con: Free tables stop at 200 rows and exclude phone enrichment, limiting serious no-cost use.
• Con: Actions and Data Credits are separate budgets, complicating forecasting as workflows scale.
• Con: Signals and higher-value integrations are reserved for paid tiers, so the entry plan is not feature-complete.

Alternatives

For a narrower enrichment focus, compare Data Enrichment Software, Account Enrichment Software and Lead Enrichment Software lists. Teams prioritizing AI-led prospecting can review AI Lead Generation Software, while data movement specialists should consider Reverse ETL Tools. For a broader prospecting shortlist, see Sales Prospecting Software.

Coresignal is an API and web service with a free tier of 2,000 credits and a 7-day trial, then a $49-per-month Mini plan with 2,500 credits; pick it when a focused API matters more than Clay’s workspace. People Data Labs is an API-only freemium option with tiered credit plans; choose it for an API-first implementation. B2BEnrich offers a forever-free 50-credit plan and a $49-per-month Starter tier, fitting small tests and projects. Diffbot includes all four APIs on its free plan with 10,000 credits monthly and a $299-per-month Startup plan, suiting API users who need that packaging. Elvesora Enrichment starts at $30 per month for 1,000 enriched company records and bulk processing, a lower-cost company-enrichment route. PredictLeads uses usage-based API-call tiers, appropriate when call volume is the primary sizing metric. TargetWise has a free allowance of 20 work emails and five business-phone results plus API and MCP access, useful for small targeted lookups. ZoomInfo offers a permanent free Lite plan and a paid Professional tier with custom pricing, for buyers considering a more conventional database approach.

Verdict

Clay is a strong choice for sales and growth teams that want one programmable workspace spanning enrichment, web research, signals, CRM or warehouse sync and audience activation. Choose it for breadth and workflow flexibility; look elsewhere if your volume is modest, your budget depends on a generous free tier, or you want a simpler single-meter pricing model.