Clay Interactive Demo
Explore a demo of Clay, a GTM data enrichment platform that pulls from 75+ sources and uses AI to help sales and marketing teams build targeted, research-backed prospect lists.
What is Clay?
Clay is a data enrichment and outreach automation platform founded in 2017 and relaunched to its current form around 2022. It sits at the top of the GTM stack, helping sales, growth, and revenue operations teams build highly enriched prospect lists without manually cross-referencing data providers. The platform became a fixture in modern outbound motion as go-to-market teams began demanding more precision from their lead data.
The architecture is built around a spreadsheet-style interface where each row is a record and each column is an enrichment action. Clay connects to 75+ data sources including LinkedIn, Apollo, Clearbit, Hunter, PDL, and BuiltWith. Its waterfall enrichment logic runs sources in sequence, stopping when it finds valid data, which keeps costs controlled while maximizing fill rates. Claygent, Clay's AI web browsing agent, can visit websites and extract custom information that no structured data provider offers.
Clay integrates directly with Salesforce, HubSpot, Instantly, and Smartlead, so enriched records can feed directly into CRM updates or email sequences. The free plan includes 100 credits per month. Starter plans begin at $149/month.
How to get started with Clay
- 1
Create a table and add your records
Sign up at clay.com and create your first table. Bring in records from a CSV, pull from a CRM integration, or use Clay's built-in prospecting to search for companies or people matching a criteria. Each row becomes a record you'll enrich.
- 2
Add enrichment columns
Click to add a column and choose an enrichment action from Clay's library of 75+ integrations. Each action calls a specific data source or runs a logic step. You can add email finders, LinkedIn scrapers, technographic lookups, and Claygent prompts side by side in the same table.
- 3
Configure waterfall logic for key fields
For fields like email or phone where coverage matters most, set up a waterfall: tell Clay to try source A first, then B, then C, stopping when it finds a valid result. The waterfall builder shows estimated costs and expected fill rates for each configuration.
- 4
Write personalization prompts
Add an AI column that uses GPT-4 to write a custom message for each record based on enriched fields. You can reference any column in your prompt, so the output varies based on the actual data Clay found rather than generic templates.
- 5
Export to your CRM or sending tool
Push completed records to HubSpot, Salesforce, Instantly, or Smartlead using Clay's native integrations. Set up field mappings once and run the export manually or trigger it automatically when enrichment completes.
Who is Clay most useful for?
Revenue operations and growth teams that need to enrich large prospect lists without buying full-year contracts from every data provider separately. Clay's waterfall logic means you only use a more expensive source when cheaper ones come up empty, which reduces spend while hitting the same enrichment coverage.
Outbound sales teams at B2B companies building highly targeted sequences. A rep can bring a list of target accounts into Clay, enrich with firmographic and technographic data, run Claygent to pull custom signals from each company's website, then push the completed records directly into a sending tool like Instantly or Smartlead with personalized fields already populated.
Agencies and consultants running outbound campaigns for multiple clients. Clay's table structure makes it practical to manage separate workflows for different client ICPs in one place. If you want to show clients how a Clay-powered enrichment workflow actually runs before they commit, Supademo lets you build an interactive walkthrough of the process that clients can step through on their own time.
Alternatives to Clay
Clay competes with data enrichment platforms and sales intelligence tools, though its waterfall architecture sets it apart from traditional single-source providers.
Combines a contact database with built-in email sequencing, so you can prospect and send from the same tool. Doesn't offer the same multi-source waterfall flexibility as Clay, but requires less configuration for teams that want to move quickly.
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One of the largest B2B contact databases, with strong intent data and org chart information. Typically sold at enterprise price points with annual contracts, making it a different kind of investment than Clay's credit-based model.
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Strong for enriching inbound traffic and form fills in real time via API. Now part of HubSpot, which changes how it's packaged and sold. Less suited to the outbound prospecting workflows where Clay is most commonly used.
Browser extension and API focused on pulling verified phone numbers and emails for individual contacts. Simpler than Clay and faster for a single-source lookup, but without waterfall logic or the ability to combine multiple enrichment providers.
FAQs on Clay
Commonly asked questions about Clay. Have more? Reach out and our team will be happy to help.
How much does Clay cost?
Clay's free plan includes 100 credits per month, enough for testing small workflows. The Starter plan is $149/month and includes 2,000 credits. Higher tiers scale from there, with Explorer, Pro, and custom Enterprise plans available.
What is waterfall enrichment in Clay?
Clay's waterfall enrichment runs multiple data sources in a sequence you define, stopping as soon as one returns valid data for a given field. This means you use your cheapest or most reliable source first and only fall through to more expensive providers when necessary, keeping credit usage efficient while maximizing how many records get filled in.
What is Claygent?
Claygent is Clay's AI web browsing agent that visits websites and extracts information that structured databases don't provide. You can prompt it with a question like 'Does this company mention a specific compliance use case on their website?' and it returns a text answer for each record, which you can use to filter or personalize outreach.
Does Clay replace tools like Apollo or ZoomInfo?
Can Clay push data into my CRM automatically?
Clay integrates with Salesforce and HubSpot for both reading and writing records. You can set up a Clay table to update CRM fields automatically when enrichment runs, keeping contact and company records fresh without manual intervention.
Is Clay only for outbound sales?
Clay is most commonly used for outbound prospecting, but growth teams use it for other enrichment workflows too, including enriching inbound signups with firmographic data before routing them, building account-based marketing lists, and researching companies for partnership or investor outreach.