Clay vs Apollo: a workflow tool against a database, compared

Clay vs Apollo is not a like-for-like choice. Apollo.io is a contact database with email sequences and a dialer, sold per seat from 49 USD a month. Clay is a workflow tool that buys data from 150+ providers, runs AI research and pushes results to your CRM or sequencer, billed on two usage meters from 167 USD a month with unlimited seats.

So the real question is whether you want to buy contacts or build the system that finds them. Below: the same 11 fields for each tool, from their own pricing pages on 27 September 2026, what each costs as a team grows, and where each one falls short.

Why Clay vs Apollo is a different kind of comparison

Clay and Apollo sit at different layers of the outbound stack: Apollo is a source of contacts with tools to work them, and Clay is where you combine sources into a workflow.

• Apollo says it gives you access to “240M contacts & 30M companies”. You search that database, reveal an email for 1 credit or a phone number for 8, then send a sequence or dial from the same app.
• Clay says you can “Find and enrich data from 150+ providers”. You import a list or search Clay’s Audiences, then add enrichment columns. Clay tries the providers you pick, in the order you set, until one returns data. We call this multi-source enrichment.
• The overlap is real but narrow. Both find emails and phones, both can send email (Clay has its own sequencer), and both offer an MCP server. Only Apollo sells its own contact database and a dialer.

Clay vs Apollo at a glance

Clay is a usage-billed workflow platform and Apollo is a per-seat database with sending built in. Here are the same 11 fields for each, in the same order.

Field	Clay	Apollo.io
What it is	GTM data and workflow platform: 150+ providers, AI research, signals, syncs	All-in-one sales platform: database, sequences, dialer, deal tools
Best for	GTM engineers building multi-provider enrichment and signal workflows	SMB and mid-market teams that want data and sending per seat
Entry price	167 USD a month yearly, 185 monthly (Launch). Free: 500 actions, 100 data credits a month	49 USD per seat a month yearly, 65 monthly (Basic). Free: 75 credits a month
Pricing model	Two usage meters (Actions and Data Credits), unlimited seats	Per seat plus credits (2,500 a month per Basic seat)
Contracts	Monthly or yearly (10% off); Enterprise needs an annual commitment	Monthly or yearly; Organization is annual only, 3 seats minimum
Email data	Price depends on the provider; Clay’s docs example: 0.5 data credits per email	1 credit per email
Mobile numbers and cost	From Launch up, through providers; fixed price not published	Yes, 8 credits each (0.16 to 0.21 USD at list price)
Charged on a miss	No: “you’re not charged Data Credits or Actions”	No on Apollo’s own data; multi-source enrichment can charge
Integrations	Sequencers, data warehouses, MCP; CRM sync, HTTP API and webhooks from Growth	Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Salesloft, Marketo, API, MCP
Compliance	SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, GDPR, CCPA	GDPR (processor and controller), ISO 27001, SOC 2
Where it falls short	Two meters to budget, CRM sync from 495 USD a month, top-ups at a 30% premium	Phones cost 8x an email, no refunds on mobiles, every user is a seat

Our Apollo.io review covers Apollo’s data, sequences and dialer in more depth.

How do Clay and Apollo differ in practice?

In practice, Clay and Apollo differ in who runs them, where the data comes from and what drives the bill. Six differences matter most.

1. Who runs it. Apollo is built around the rep: search, reveal, add to a sequence. Clay pitches its Launch plan at “small teams building and automating prospecting workflows”, so someone has to design the table.
2. Where the data comes from. Apollo sells its own contacts. Clay routes each lookup to the providers you choose, or to your own API keys, in which case you pay 1 Action per run and no Data Credits.
3. What a contact costs. Apollo is fixed: 1 credit per email, 8 per phone. On Clay it depends on the provider. Its docs put a fully enriched record at roughly 6 to 20 data credits, and warn that “emails are cheap, phone numbers are expensive.”
4. Seats against usage. Every Apollo user is a paid seat. Clay includes unlimited seats on every plan and charges for what the team runs.
5. Sending and calling. Both send email: Apollo includes sequences on every plan, and Clay lets you “Use Clay’s email sequencer or a sequencing integration”. Only Apollo has a dialer, a US dialer on Basic at 2 credits a minute.
6. Where the plans stop. Clay’s CRM auto-sync, HTTP API and webhooks start on Growth, at 495 USD a month billed monthly. Apollo includes CRM integrations from Basic.

Clay vs Apollo pricing

Both publish their prices, but they meter different things: Clay charges for the work and data your workflows use, and Apollo charges for each person who logs in.

Clay pricing

Clay plan	Billed yearly	Billed monthly	Included each month
Free	0 USD	0 USD	500 actions, 100 data credits, no phone enrichment
Launch	from 167 USD	from 185 USD	15,000 actions, 2,500 data credits
Growth	from 446 USD	from 495 USD	40,000 actions, 6,000 data credits
Enterprise	custom, annual	custom	200,000+ actions, 100,000+ data credits

Actions “reset each billing cycle and don’t roll over”. Data credits roll over up to 2x the monthly amount on Launch and Growth, and top-ups cost a 30% premium. Our Clay pricing breakdown shows the higher tiers.

Apollo pricing

• Free: 75 credits per seat a month and 2 sequences.
• Basic: 49 USD per seat a month billed yearly, or 65 monthly, with 2,500 credits per seat a month.
• Professional: 79 or 99 USD per seat a month, with 4,000 credits.
• Organization: 119 USD per seat a month, annual only, 3 seats minimum.

At Basic list price a phone number costs 0.16 to 0.21 USD (8 credits). Our Apollo pricing guide walks through each plan and add-on.

What a team pays each month

Seats drive the Apollo bill and usage drives the Clay bill, so the cheaper tool flips as the team grows.

The chart compares entry list prices, not equal value. Ten Apollo Basic seats billed yearly come with 300,000 credits a year. Clay’s Launch entry tier includes 2,500 data credits a month for the whole team, and each phone lookup uses more of them than an email.

Which gives you better contact coverage?

Apollo’s coverage can be measured, and Clay’s depends on which providers you connect. Clay was not in our benchmark; Apollo was.

We ran the same list of founders per region through 8 data providers and published the raw data in our B2B data provider comparison. Apollo found an email for 77% of the North America list, 77% in EMEA and 74% in APAC. It found a phone number for 50%, 63% and 8%. It was not tested in Latin America.

A Clay table is only as good as the providers in your enrichment order. If you build one, test each provider on 100 of your own contacts before you put it first. Our provider test method shows how.

A third option: Scalelist, if you need mobiles without building a workflow

If you are comparing Clay and Apollo mainly to get phone numbers, a pay-per-result tool may be simpler than either. Scalelist is an AI Lead Finder: you describe the people you want in one sentence and get them back with verified work emails and mobile numbers.

• How you pay: 1 credit per lead found, 1 per email found, 20 per mobile found, and nothing when nothing is found. Plans run from 29 USD a month for 500 credits to 649 USD for 20,000, with no seats (Scalelist plans and credits).
• Measured: in the same benchmark, Scalelist found a phone number for 87% of the North America list, 73% in EMEA, 75% in APAC and 85% in Latin America.
• Inside Clay: Scalelist has no app in Clay, but an HTTP API column (a feature of Clay’s Growth plan) can call it as one step of a table. Our Clay API guide shows the setup.
• Where it is not the better buy: a mobile costs 0.65 to 1.16 USD at list price, more than Apollo’s phone credit. There is no sequencer, dialer or workflow builder, and HubSpot is the only native CRM.

For the direct matchups, read Scalelist vs Clay and Scalelist vs Apollo.io.

How to choose between Clay and Apollo

Choose between Clay and Apollo by who will run the tool every day, then by how many people need access.

1. Name the owner. If nobody will own the Clay table, pick Apollo or a simpler tool. Clay pays off when someone builds and maintains the workflow.
2. Count the users. At 49 USD a seat, Apollo Basic costs more than Clay Launch’s entry tier from 4 users up. Check whether every user really needs access.
3. Price your phone volume. Apollo is fixed at 8 credits a phone. On Clay, check the provider cost shown in the product before you commit a plan.
4. Check the plan floor. If you need CRM sync or webhooks, Clay starts at Growth, 495 USD a month billed monthly.
5. Test coverage in your regions. Run 100 of your own contacts through each option and count connected calls.

Not sold on either? Compare Clay alternatives or Apollo alternatives, or see how Apollo stacks up in ZoomInfo vs Apollo and Apollo vs Lusha. More matchups are on the Scalelist blog.

FAQ

Is Clay better than Apollo?

Not better, different. Clay is better if you want to build workflows that combine 150+ data providers, AI research and signals, with unlimited seats. Apollo is better if you want reps to search one database, reveal emails and phones at a fixed credit price, and send sequences or call from the same tool. Many teams only need one of those jobs.

Apollo vs Clay: which is cheaper?

It depends on team size and volume. Apollo Basic costs 49 USD per seat a month billed yearly, so one to three users pay less than Clay’s Launch entry tier at 167 USD a month. From four users up, Clay’s entry tier costs less, because seats are unlimited. Clay’s bill then grows with the data credits and actions your workflows use.

Can Clay replace Apollo?

Partly. Clay can find emails and phone numbers through its providers and send email through its own sequencer, so it can cover Apollo’s data and sending. It has no dialer, and phone lookups cost more data credits than emails. Teams that want reps to prospect without building tables usually find Apollo, or a simpler finder, easier to run.

Does Clay charge when an enrichment finds nothing?

No. Clay’s pricing page says “If an enrichment returns no result, you’re not charged Data Credits or Actions.” Apollo also does not charge when its own data has nothing, but its multi-source enrichment can charge credits for unverified results returned by connected providers. Check the provider cost shown in Clay before running a large table.

Clay or Apollo: which is better for phone numbers?

For a fixed, known price, Apollo: 8 credits per phone, about 0.16 to 0.21 USD at Basic list price. In our benchmark Apollo found phones for 50% of a North America list, 63% in EMEA and 8% in APAC. Clay’s phone coverage and cost depend on the providers you connect, and it was not in our test.

Is there a simpler alternative to Clay and Apollo?

Yes, if you mainly need contact data. Scalelist, an AI Lead Finder, returns verified work emails and mobile numbers from a one-sentence description, charges 20 credits per mobile found and nothing for a miss, and has no seats. It can also be called from a Clay table through its API. It does not send email or dial.

Sources

• Clay: Pricing
• Clay University: Actions and data credits
• Apollo.io: Pricing
• Apollo.io: B2B data
• Apollo.io: Security
• Apollo.io: How data requests work
• Apollo.io: API pricing