Clay pricing in 2026: plans, credits and what one email costs

Updated October 19, 2026. Kairon now finds work emails and mobile numbers itself: $0.02 per email found and $0.20 per mobile found, and a search that finds nothing is free. The Kairon figures below use these prices. Clay’s are as we read them on October 4.

Clay Launch costs $185 a month ($167 billed yearly) with 2,500 Data Credits, and Growth costs $495 ($446) with 6,000. Clay’s frequently asked questions (FAQ) put a work email from Prospeo or Hunter at 2 credits, about $0.10, though Clay says its common enrichments now cost fewer credits. We read every price on October 4, 2026.

Clay’s plans and what each one includes

Every Clay plan sells two things. Data Credits pay for data from Clay’s providers, and Actions pay for the work Clay runs on your table. The plan price is the sum of both. These are the plans on Clay’s pricing page:

Launch’s $185 is $60 for Actions plus $125 for Data Credits. On yearly billing, it’s $54 plus $113. Clay lists phone number enrichment among the features Launch adds to Free.

What one Data Credit costs

A credit costs less as you buy more of them each month. These are the Data Credit tiers in the Launch plan’s menu, on monthly billing:

Yearly billing lowers the price to between $0.045 a credit (30,000 credits a year) and $0.038 (600,000 a year). Three more rules on the same page change what you pay:

• Top-ups: credits you buy in the middle of a billing cycle cost 30% more, which is $0.065 at the Launch rate.
• Rollover: on monthly billing, unused Data Credits carry over until your balance reaches twice your monthly amount. On yearly billing, up to 15% of the year’s credits carry over.
• Empty results: “If an enrichment returns no result, you’re not charged Data Credits or Actions”

What one email or phone number costs in Clay

Each provider in Clay charges a different number of credits. Clay’s credits FAQ lists seven providers, and Clay’s Icypeas guide puts an Icypeas email at 1 credit. Neither page shows a date.

$0.05 is the Launch rate on monthly billing, and $0.045 is the Launch rate on yearly billing. Clay’s pricing page also says “the most-used enrichments cost 50% fewer credits on average”, so these counts can be higher than today’s. Check the credit cost on the column before you run a large table.

Clay compared with Kairon’s price per find

Kairon doesn’t sell data credits. It finds work emails and mobile numbers itself. It charges each one it finds to your usage balance: $0.02 per email and $0.20 per mobile. A search that finds nothing is free. The Starter plan ($49 a month) includes $10 of that balance. Kairon’s data pricing page lists every price.

Finding data needs a Kairon plan. So the next tables show two Kairon columns: the finds alone, and the finds with Starter. Starter runs LinkedIn campaigns from Claude, ChatGPT or another agent. Email needs one of three: your Instantly at no extra cost, your Gmail or Outlook at $10 a mailbox a month, or managed email.

The plan price matters more than the price per credit at low volume. In both products a search that finds nothing costs nothing, so this table counts found emails only. It uses monthly billing and picks the cheapest Clay credit tier that covers each volume:

Read the table this way:

• Up to 100 emails a month: Clay’s Free plan covers them at $0 with its 100 credits through Icypeas. With a 2-credit provider, it covers 50.
• Past Clay’s Free plan: Kairon costs less than Clay Launch at every volume in the table, with either provider, Starter included.

A mobile number found costs $0.20 in Kairon, against $0.75 through ContactOut in Clay:

Clay’s cheapest mobile provider costs 2 credits ($0.10), half of Kairon’s $0.20. Launch’s 2,500 credits cover 1,250 of those a month, and a top-up past that costs $0.13 a number. So Clay costs less from about 925 found numbers a month, or from about 730 if you count Kairon’s Starter.

When Clay is the better buy

Clay is a workflow tool, and its plan price pays for more than data. Clay costs less, or does more for the money, when:

• You look up 100 emails a month or fewer through Icypeas, or 50 with a 2-credit provider. The Free plan’s 100 credits cover them.
• You build tables that mix several providers and artificial intelligence (AI) columns. The Actions in each plan pay for that work, and this comparison leaves it out. Syncing your customer relationship management (CRM) system needs Growth, at $495 a month.
• You find more than about 925 mobile numbers a month through the cheapest provider Clay lists, or more than about 730 counting Kairon’s Starter.
• Your usage changes from month to month. Clay carries unused credits over, while Kairon’s included $10 resets every month.

Past the Free plan’s 100 credits, Kairon costs less for work emails at every volume in the tables, with either Clay provider. For mobile numbers, it costs less than ContactOut in Clay at every volume, and less than Clay’s cheapest mobile provider below about 925 a month. If you pay for Clay, HeyReach and Instantly, Kairon’s pricing page adds up what they cost together, with Sales Navigator.

How we calculated these numbers

Every number on this page comes from these sources and rules:

• Clay’s prices: Clay’s pricing page, its credits FAQ and its Icypeas guide, read on October 4, 2026. The credit tiers are the options in the Launch plan’s menus on that page.
• Price per credit: the tier price divided by its credits, rounded to three decimals ($0.0425 is exact)
• Kairon’s prices: Kairon’s pricing and data pricing pages, as of October 19, 2026. An email found costs $0.02 and a mobile found $0.20. A search that finds nothing is free. Starter costs $49 a month with $10 of balance.
• Volume tables: monthly billing, found results only, and the cheapest Clay credit tier that covers the credits needed. Every volume fits inside Launch’s 15,000 Actions a month. The Starter columns assume the whole $10 balance goes to finding data; if your campaigns spend part of it on AI, Kairon costs more.