Free
$0
Free
75 credits per seat a month (900 a year on annual).
API included
Plan details
People search over the API returned 403 on a Free account on 25 Oct 2026.
Comparison
Apollo vs Clay: one database or a workflow over many?
Apollo is a sales platform with a database of over 240 million contacts, plus CRM and sequences, from $49 a seat a month billed annually. Clay is a table-based workflow tool pulling from 150+ data providers, Apollo among them, and bills by actions and data credits with unlimited seats, from $185 a month billed monthly. Pick Apollo for one low-cost database; pick Clay to combine many sources.
Pick Apollo if
- You want prospect data, a CRM and email sequences in one app, priced per seat
- Most of your spend is work emails: Apollo charges 1 credit per verified email and nothing on a miss
Pick Clay if
- You want to try several email or phone providers in a row on each record
- Several people use the tool: Clay has unlimited seats on every plan
Apollo
Sourcing, Enrichment
Clay
Data platform, Enrichment
At a glance
Apollo
- From
- $49/seat/moannual, $65 monthly
- Free plan
- Yes$0, 75 credits/seat/mo
- Cost per unit
- 1 credit/email, 8 per mobile, about 2.6 cents
- MCP server
- Official
Clay
- From
- $185/momonthly, $167 annual, per workspace
- Free plan
- Yes500 actions, 100 data credits/mo
- Cost per unit
- Varies by provider; 5 cents a credit
- MCP server
- Official
Where they differ
16 points side by side. Open a value for the full detail.
| What | Apollo | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| Single-vendor database plus CRM and sequencesOne vendor's database of over 240 million contacts and 30 million companies, with people search, enrichment, job postings and news, plus a CRM and email sequences in the same app and API. | Spreadsheet-style workflow over 150+ providersA spreadsheet-style workflow tool. Each column can call a data provider from a marketplace of 150+, an AI step or any HTTP API. It also has its own email Sequencer and an Audiences search. | |
| $49/seat/mo annual, $65 monthlyBasic is $49 per seat a month billed annually, or $65 per seat billed monthly. Verified 2026-10-25. | $185/mo monthly, $167 annual, per workspaceLaunch is $185 a month billed monthly, or $167 a month billed annually, for the whole workspace. Verified 2026-10-25. | |
| Credits per seat, no rolloverPer seat, with a credit allowance per seat. Credits reset each billing cycle and do not roll over, including purchased add-on credits. | Actions plus data credits, unlimited seatsTwo meters with unlimited seats: actions for platform work and data credits for marketplace data. Actions reset each cycle; data credits roll over up to 1 month's credits on monthly billing or 15% of annual credits on renewal. Extra data credits cost a 30% premium. | |
| 1 credit/email, 8 per mobile, about 2.6 cents1 credit for a verified email or person data and 8 more if a mobile number comes back. No charge when nothing is found. Basic billed monthly is $65 for 2,500 credits, about 2.6 cents a credit. | Varies by provider; 5 cents a creditVaries by provider. On 25 Oct 2026 the app listed single email providers at 0.2 to 6 data credits a row, the work email waterfall at about 1.1, and the phone waterfall at about 10, plus actions. Launch billed monthly prices 2,500 data credits at $125, 5 cents a credit. | |
| 0 credits on paid plans, 50,000/queryPeople search costs 0 credits on paid plans and returns ids and titles, not emails. Up to 100 per page and 50,000 records per query. Organization search costs 1 credit per page. | 0 credits, 1,000,000 results per 30 daysSearch through the Public API costs 0 credits and 0 actions but counts against a result quota: 500 per request and 1,000,000 per 30 days on paid plans, 100 per 30 days on Free. Going over returns HTTP 402. | |
| $0, 75 credits/seat/mo$0 with 75 credits per seat a month. On a Free account on 25 Oct 2026, organization enrichment worked over the API but people search returned 403, "not included in your Free plan". | 500 actions, 100 data credits/moFree plan with 500 actions and 100 data credits a month, up to 200 rows per table and no phone enrichment. New workspaces start on a 14-day Growth trial with 5,000 actions and 1,000 data credits, no card. | |
| Free lists API; people search needs paidThe Free plan card lists API Access and paid plans list API Enrichment. People search over the API needs a paid plan, where it costs 0 credits. Create, update and list calls cost 0 credits. | Public API, CLI and MCP on every planThe Public API, CLI and MCP work on every plan, with search result caps by plan. The HTTP API column and webhook automation are Growth and up. On reading table data by API, Clay's pages differ: the developer docs list Tables on Enterprise plans, while Clay University says basic row reads work on any plan and structured queries need Enterprise. | |
| x-api-key header, OAuth 2.0 for partnersx-api-key header. A key is either scoped to chosen endpoints or set as a master key. Partner apps use OAuth 2.0. | clay-api-key header, OAuth for MCPclay-api-key header for the Public API. Keys carry scopes (Public API, Account prioritization) and are shown once. The MCP server uses OAuth. | |
| Enrichment 1,000/min, search 200/minPer team, shared by all keys. On paid plans, enrichment allows 1,000 requests a minute with no hourly or daily cap, and search allows 200 a minute, 6,000 an hour and 50,000 a day. Free is 50 a minute, 200 an hour and 600 a day. | Not publishedA per-workspace request limit with a 429 and Retry-After header; the docs publish no number. | |
| 10 per bulk call, webhook URLBulk people and company enrichment take up to 10 records per call. Phone and waterfall results arrive at a webhook URL you pass, or by polling. No event subscriptions are documented. | JSONL batch runs, signed webhooksA batch routine run takes an uploaded JSONL file. Inbound webhook tables accept up to 50,000 submissions per source. Outbound webhooks are signed with HMAC-SHA256. | |
YesOfficial server at https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp over Streamable HTTP and OAuth, plus Claude and ChatGPT connectors. It covers search, enrichment, CRM records and sequences. | YesOfficial server at https://api.clay.com/v3/mcp with OAuth. It runs find-and-enrich tools and your published functions on the same actions and data credits as the app, with no MCP surcharge. | |
| Email, mobile, firmographics, job postings, newsPerson records with work email and email status, mobile phone on request, employment history; company firmographics, funding, technologies, job postings and news. People search returns ids and titles only, so contact data needs an enrichment call. | Whatever chosen providers returnWhatever the chosen providers return, written into table columns: emails, phones, firmographics, and signals such as job changes, company news and social posts on Launch and up. | |
| Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft, MarketoSalesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft, Marketo, Sendgrid, LinkedIn and the major email providers. | CRMs, data warehouses, any HTTP APICRM integrations, data warehouses (Snowflake, Fivetran, Postgres, Databricks, BigQuery) and any HTTP API on Growth. Apollo itself appears in Clay as 17 actions. | |
| ISO 27001 and SOC 2Certified under ISO 27001 and SOC 2, per its privacy policy. | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 42001SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 listed on the pricing page. SSO, SCIM and IP allowlists are Enterprise only. | |
| No resale, no LinkedIn automationsIts terms bar reselling the data, using any API with LinkedIn automations, and training AI models on contact data except your own internal models. The MCP docs bar model training entirely. | Own keys: provider terms applyWith your own provider API keys you skip data credits and pay only actions, so each provider's own terms apply to that data. | |
| Data, CRM and sequences in one seatA sales team that wants prospect data, a CRM and sequences in one seat-priced app, with low-cost email enrichment by API. | Many data sources and AI in one tableA team that wants several data sources, AI steps and its own APIs in one table, and that pays for usage rather than seats. |
No row matches in this view.
Pricing, plan by plan
US dollars as each vendor's page showed them on 25 Oct 2026. One panel per tool; switch each between monthly and annual billing (an annual price is the monthly rate when you pay for the year up front).
Apollo
4 plans · API reviewBasic
$65/mo
billed monthly
$49/mo
billed annually
Per seat. 2,500 credits per seat a month on monthly billing, 30,000 per seat a year on annual. API enrichment, waterfall enrichment, unlimited sequences.
API included
Professional
$99/mo
billed monthly
$79/mo
billed annually
Per seat. 4,000 credits per seat a month on monthly billing, 48,000 per seat a year on annual.
API included
Organization
$119/mo
annual billing only
$119/mo
billed annually
Per seat, minimum 3 seats, annual billing only.
API included
Plan details
72,000 credits per seat a year.
Clay
4 plans · API reviewFree
$0
Free
500 actions and 100 data credits a month, unlimited seats, up to 200 rows per table, no phone enrichment.
API included
Launch
$185/mo
billed monthly
$167/mo
billed annually
From 15,000 actions and 2,500 data credits a month on monthly billing.
API included
Plan details
Phone enrichment, signals, up to 50,000 rows per table. Larger action and data credit tiers cost more.
Growth
$495/mo
billed monthly
$446/mo
billed annually
From 40,000 actions and 6,000 data credits a month on monthly billing.
API included
Plan details
Adds CRM auto-sync, HTTP API integrations and webhook automation.
Enterprise
Custom quote
Custom price with an annual commitment.
API included
Plan details
Tables API, bulk enrichment, SSO, SCIM, credit budgeting.
Which one to pick
Choose Apollo if
- You want prospect data, a CRM and email sequences in one app, priced per seat.
- Most of your spend is work emails: Apollo charges 1 credit per verified email and nothing on a miss.
- You want people search at 0 credits on a paid plan, then enrich only the people you keep.
- You want enrichment at up to 1,000 requests a minute on a paid plan, with no daily cap.
Choose Clay if
- You want to try several email or phone providers in a row on each record.
- Several people use the tool: Clay has unlimited seats on every plan.
- You need AI research steps or calls to your own APIs inside the same table (HTTP API on Growth and up).
- You already hold API keys for data providers: with your own keys Clay charges actions only.
- You want unused data credits to carry over, which Clay allows within limits.
If neither fits: If all you need is a work email for a known list of people, a single email finder API may cost less than either. Compare finders by cost per found email and keep only verified results.
How to find a person's work email addressWant us to build it for you?
Choosing between Apollo and Clay, or moving from one to the other? Tell us your setup. We will show you how we would run it, and what we would check first.
Questions people ask
Is Clay better than Apollo?
They do different jobs. Apollo is one database with a CRM and sequences, priced per seat from $49 a month billed annually. Clay is a workflow table that calls 150+ data providers, Apollo included, and bills by actions and data credits from $185 a month billed monthly. Apollo fits when one source covers your market; Clay fits when you want several sources on each record.
Is Apollo software free?
Apollo has a $0 Free plan with 75 credits per seat a month. Its plan card lists API access, but on a Free account on 25 Oct 2026 the people search API returned 403 and said it needs a paid plan. Paid plans start at $49 per seat a month billed annually.
How much does Clay cost?
Clay has a Free plan with 500 actions and 100 data credits a month. Launch costs $185 a month billed monthly or $167 billed annually, and Growth costs $495 monthly or $446 annually. Larger action and data credit tiers cost more, and Enterprise is custom. Prices verified 2026-10-25.
Can you use Apollo inside Clay?
Yes. Clay's enrichment panel listed 17 Apollo.io actions on 25 Oct 2026, including enrich person, enrich company, find people by title and add contact to sequence. Many teams run Apollo as one source in a Clay waterfall.
Do Apollo and Clay credits roll over?
Apollo credits do not roll over, including add-on credits. Clay actions reset each cycle, but data credits roll over: up to 1 month's credits on monthly billing, or 15% of annual credits on renewal.
Do Apollo and Clay have MCP servers?
Both do. Apollo's is at https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp and covers search, enrichment, CRM records and sequences. Clay's is at https://api.clay.com/v3/mcp and runs find-and-enrich tools on the same credits as the app. Both sign in with OAuth.
Related
Read from apollo.io/pricing, clay.com/pricing and each tool's API docs. Verified 25 Oct 2026.
