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 running multi-step enrichment (waterfall email → mobile → tech stack → news), the numbers get complicated fast. Most teams I talk to are paying 3x what they budgeted on day one.
Here's everything you need to know about Clay's pricing in 2026, including the credit-per-action math, the hidden costs most reviews skip, and how Clay stacks up against Clearbit pricing, Apollo.io pricing, and the broader best B2B data enrichment tools shortlist.
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