Clay Pricing Plans and Clay.com Costs per Action and Data Credit
Clay costs $185 a month on Launch and $495 a month on Growth when billed monthly, or $167 and $446 a month on an annual contract. Each price is two meters added together: Actions for platform work and Data Credits for enrichment, and both can be raised in steps. If you already have a prospect list and mainly need one personalized email written and sent per prospect, ColdMailer covers that from $49 a month without a credit meter.
Clay prices read from clay.com/pricing and Clay University on October 5, 2026. Totals that combine two Clay meters are our own arithmetic and are labelled that way.
Cold email cost calculator
Where the money goes
| Line item | Qty | Per month |
|---|---|---|
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What actually drives a Clay bill
Two meters, one price
Since its March 2026 restructure Clay prices every paid plan as Actions plus Data Credits. The $185 Launch price is $60 of actions (15,000) and $125 of data credits (2,500). Raise either one and the plan price moves.
Data credits pay for the data
Data Credits buy enrichment from Clay's provider marketplace: emails, phone numbers, firmographics, AI model runs. They start at $0.05 each on the smallest tier and get cheaper per credit as the monthly block grows.
Actions pay for the work
Actions cover orchestration: running a column, routing a row, sequencing a lead. Clay prices them under a cent each. They reset every billing cycle and never roll over, so unused actions are simply gone.
Growth charges more per action
Data credit tiers cost the same on Launch and Growth. Actions do not. 200,000 actions a month are $540 on Launch and $850 on Growth, so the Growth premium sits in the actions line, not the data.
Top-ups cost 30% more
Run out of data credits halfway through a month on Launch or Growth and Clay sells more at a 30% premium, so a $0.05 credit becomes $0.065. Sizing the tier right at the start is cheaper than topping up.
Seats are free
Every Clay plan, Free included, has unlimited seats and tables. A five person RevOps team pays the same as one analyst. What grows the bill is rows enriched and leads sequenced, not headcount.
ColdMailer against Clay, honestly
Clay and ColdMailer overlap on one job: writing a personalized email for each prospect and sending it. Clay is the much stronger data tool. ColdMailer is a sender with an AI writer, priced on emails rather than credits. Plenty of teams run both.
| Feature | ColdMailer | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| How it bills | Emails a month, flat price | Actions plus data credits, each in tiers |
| Entry paid plan | $49 a month for 1,000 emails | $185 a month (Launch) |
| Annual price | $294 a year on Starter (50% off) | $167 a month on Launch (about 10% off) |
| Lead database and enrichment | Not included, import your own list | 150+ providers, waterfalls, Claygent research |
| AI personalization | One message written per prospect, inside the email allowance | AI columns and snippets, billed in actions and data credits per run |
| Sending | Your own SMTP or Google and Microsoft inboxes | Clay Sequencer, Gmail and Outlook OAuth, SMTP or CSV import of mailboxes |
| Follow-ups and replies | Follow-up sequences, shared reply inbox | Up to 4 follow-ups per campaign, replies tab with categories |
| Warm-up and rotation | Warm-up between customer inboxes, rotation with daily limits | Warm-up on by default through Smartlead's pool |
| Seats | No per-seat charge | Unlimited seats on every plan |
| CRM auto-sync | Not built in | Yes, on Growth and Enterprise |
Clay figures from clay.com/pricing and Clay University's sequencer documentation, October 5, 2026. ColdMailer figures from our own pricing page.
Clay against the tools buyers price it with
Entry price is the cheapest paid plan that can run real outbound, on monthly billing, read from each vendor's own pricing page. Clay sits in the middle: dearer than a sender, far cheaper than an enterprise database.
| Tool | Best for | How it bills | Entry price |
|---|---|---|---|
| ColdMailer | One AI-written email per prospect, sent and followed up from your own inboxes | Emails sent, flat | $49 a month |
| Clay Launch | Waterfall enrichment, Claygent research and a built-in sequencer | Actions plus data credits | $185 a month |
| Apollo | A contact database with sequences in the same seat | Per user, with credits | $49 a user a month |
| Saleshandy Starter | A sender with 1,500 lead finder credits a month included | Flat plan, seats included | $41 a month |
| Instantly | High volume sending, with lead credits sold as a separate plan | Outreach and credits plans | $47 a month each |
| Hunter | Finding and verifying emails by company domain | Credits | $49 a month |
| ZoomInfo | Enterprise contact data and intent signals | Annual contract | Quote only |
Swipe the table sideways for more
Apollo, Saleshandy, Instantly and Hunter prices were read from their own pricing pages in August and September 2026. ZoomInfo publishes no prices.
Run this with ColdMailer
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How to size a Clay plan before the trial ends
Count the rows you enrich each month
Clay's trial runs 14 days. Run one real list through your waterfall during it and note the data credits each row burned. Multiply by the rows you expect a month, then add 20% for retries and new columns.
Pick the data credit tier first
Data credits are the expensive meter. Match your monthly estimate to the tier ladder (2,500, 6,000, 10,000, 20,000 or 50,000) so you are not buying top-ups at a 30% premium in week three.
Then count actions, including sequencing
Every lead you sequence in Clay is one action, and every AI snippet run adds another. Launch gives 15,000 a month, Growth 40,000. Actions do not roll over, so size them for an average month, not your biggest.
Decide whether Clay should also send
If Clay only enriches, export the list and send from a flat-priced tool. If you want Clay's sequencer, check the Growth features you need, such as buying domains and inboxes inside Clay, before you commit to a year.
How much does Clay cost per month?
Clay costs $185 a month on the Launch plan and $495 a month on Growth with monthly billing. Billed annually the same plans are $167 and $446 a month, a saving of about 10%. Enterprise is a custom annual contract. There is also a Free plan with 500 actions and 100 data credits a month, capped at 200 rows per table.
Both paid prices are base tiers. Launch is 15,000 actions plus 2,500 data credits; Growth is 40,000 actions plus 6,000 data credits. Move either slider and the monthly price changes, which is why two teams on the same Clay plan can pay very different amounts.
How much do Clay credits cost?
Clay data credits start at $0.05 each and drop to roughly $0.043 at the largest self-serve tier. The monthly ladder is identical on Launch and Growth.
| Data credits a month | Monthly price | Per credit |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 | $125 | $0.050 |
| 6,000 | $290 | $0.048 |
| 10,000 | $460 | $0.046 |
| 20,000 | $880 | $0.044 |
| 50,000 | $2,125 | $0.043 |
Per credit figures are our division of Clay's listed prices. Annual billing trims each tier further: 600,000 credits a year is $1,913 a month, about $0.038 a credit.
Clay Launch vs Growth and where the extra money goes
The data is priced the same on both plans. Actions are not. On monthly billing Clay lists these action tiers:
| Actions a month | Launch | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 40,000 | $150 | $205 |
| 60,000 | $200 | $290 |
| 100,000 | $290 | $450 |
| 200,000 | $540 | $850 |
Our arithmetic: Launch with 40,000 actions and 6,000 data credits comes to $440 a month, the same capacity as Growth's $495 base. So the Growth features (CRM auto-sync, HTTP API, webhooks, web intent signals, buying domains and inboxes for the sequencer, priority support) cost about $55 a month at that size, and $310 a month at 200,000 actions.
Do Clay credits roll over?
Clay data credits roll over, actions do not. On Launch and Growth, unused data credits bank up to 2x your monthly amount, so a 10,000 credit plan can hold 20,000 at most. Anything above that cap is lost. Actions reset every billing cycle.
Enterprise works differently: up to 15% of the prior year's purchased credits carry forward, and only if you renew at an equal or higher commitment.
Two practical rules follow. Do not overbuy actions, because they expire. And if you run big enrichment jobs every other month, a banked credit balance on a smaller tier can be cheaper than a larger tier you only use half the time.
What it costs to send cold email from Clay
Clay now sends email itself through the Clay Sequencer, and each lead you sequence uses one action. AI snippets inside an email add one action per run plus data credits that depend on the model. Clay's docs list the sequencer on Launch, Growth and Enterprise.
You connect Gmail or Outlook by OAuth, add SMTP mailboxes one at a time, or upload them by CSV. Warm-up is on by default and runs through Smartlead's warm-up pool. Campaigns carry up to 4 follow-up emails and stop when a lead replies. Buying domains and inboxes inside Clay is listed on Growth.
The mailboxes themselves are not in the Clay price. Budget Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 seats, or a mailbox provider, on top.
Is Clay worth the money for cold email?
Clay is worth it when your problem is data: finding the right accounts, filling gaps across providers, and researching each prospect. No sender matches its waterfalls or Claygent research at $185 a month.
It is poor value when you already have a clean list and only need a good first line and a send. Then you are paying for an enrichment engine you do not use, and AI personalization burns actions and credits per row.
That is the gap ColdMailer fills. AI email personalization writes one message per prospect inside a flat allowance: 1,000 emails for $49, 5,000 for $99, 25,000 for $249 a month. Many teams enrich in Clay, export the CSV, and write and send from a cold email platform priced on volume.
Which Clay plan, or which alternative, fits
A founder testing outbound with a bought list
Skip Clay for now. Your list already has emails, so the data meter adds cost without adding much. ColdMailer Starter writes and sends 1,000 personalized emails for $49 a month, and you can add Clay later for a second segment.
A RevOps lead building lists every week
Clay Launch is the right start. Size the data credit tier to your weekly volume and keep the 2x rollover in mind, so a quiet week banks credits instead of wasting them.
A team that needs CRM sync and webhooks
That is Growth territory at $495 a month. Compare it against Launch at the same capacity first; at 40,000 actions and 6,000 credits the difference is about $55 a month.
An agency running many client lists
Unlimited seats help, but credits are shared across every table. Track credits per client, and consider enriching in Clay while sending from a flat-priced tool so one client's campaign does not drain another's enrichment budget.
A sales team sending 25,000 emails a month
Sequencing 25,000 leads in Clay uses 25,000 actions before any AI runs, which pushes Launch past its base tier. Sending the same volume from ColdMailer Enterprise is $249 a month flat, with the list enriched wherever you like.
Clay pricing, frequently asked questions
Clay costs $185 a month on Launch and $495 a month on Growth with monthly billing, or $167 and $446 a month billed annually. Enterprise is a custom annual contract. Each price combines an actions tier and a data credit tier, so it rises as you raise either one.
Yes. Clay's Free plan includes 500 actions and 100 data credits a month, unlimited seats, and up to 200 rows per table, without phone number enrichment. Paid plans also come with a 14 day trial. For real outbound volume the Free limits run out within a single list.
Clay data credits start at $0.05 each on the 2,500 credit tier and fall to about $0.043 at 50,000 credits a month on monthly billing. Annual billing lowers that to roughly $0.038 at the top tier. Credits bought mid-period as a top-up cost 30% more.
Data credits roll over on Launch and Growth, up to 2x your monthly amount in total. Actions never roll over; they reset each billing cycle. Enterprise customers can carry forward up to 15% of the prior year's credits if they renew at the same or a higher commitment.
No. Every Clay plan, including Free, has unlimited seats and tables. You pay for usage, meaning actions and data credits, so adding teammates does not raise the bill but running more rows does.
Yes. The Clay Sequencer sends campaigns with up to 4 follow-up emails from Gmail, Outlook or SMTP mailboxes you connect, with warm-up on by default and a replies tab. Each lead sequenced costs one action. Mailboxes are paid separately. Our guide on sending cold emails from Clay covers the setup.
In March 2026 Clay replaced its older Starter, Explorer and Pro tiers with Launch and Growth, and split usage into two meters: actions for platform work and data credits for enrichment. Seats stayed unlimited. Legacy plans still appear in Clay's docs for existing customers.
If you already have your list, yes. ColdMailer writes one personalized email per prospect and sends it from your own inboxes for $49 a month (1,000 emails), $99 (5,000) or $249 (25,000), with follow-ups and warm-up included. It has no lead database, so keep Clay or another source for data. See our Clay alternatives comparison.
Send personalized cold email without a credit meter
Import the list you enriched anywhere, approve one AI-written email per prospect and send it from your own inboxes, with follow-ups, rotation and warm-up included. A new account gets 25 free emails to try.
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