> Enrich.chat gives AI agents verified work emails and mobiles. To use it from an agent, read https://enrich.chat/agents.md . This is the Markdown version of https://enrich.chat/compare/clay-vs-apollo/

# Clay vs Apollo in 2026: data, workflows, AI and what 1,000 leads really cost

Clay builds enrichment workflows on top of 150+ data providers. Apollo sells its own database, sequences and a dialer by the seat, and this page compares both on data, AI, pricing and a worked 1,000-lead job.

By Enrich.chat Editorial. Updated October 15, 2026.

**Short answer:** Clay is a table-based workflow builder that buys data from 150+ providers, from $185 a month with unlimited seats ([Clay pricing](https://www.clay.com/pricing)). Apollo is one contact database with sequences and a dialer, from $49 a seat a month billed annually ([Apollo pricing](https://www.apollo.io/pricing)). Pick Clay to build custom enrichment, Apollo for all-in-one outbound, or Enrich.chat if your agent only needs work emails and mobiles, on a credit plan from $29 a month.

## Key takeaways

- Clay is a workflow builder over 150+ data providers with unlimited seats. Launch costs $185 a month, or $167 billed annually.
- Apollo is one database with sequences and a dialer, priced per seat: $49, $79 or $119 a month billed annually, or $65 and $99 billed monthly.
- An email costs about 1 Clay data credit plus 3 Actions, or 1 Apollo credit. A phone costs about 5 Clay data credits plus 3 Actions, or 8 Apollo credits.
- For 1,000 leads a month with an email and a phone, list prices come to about $350 on Clay Launch, $260 on four Apollo Basic seats and $90 on the Enrich.chat Scale plan, all billed monthly.
- Clay's Apollo.io integration runs on your own Apollo account: Apollo bills its credits, and Clay counts 1 Action per run.

## Quick verdict

Pick **Clay** to build custom enrichment workflows, **Apollo** to find, email and call prospects in one app, and **Enrich.chat** if your agent or app only needs work emails and mobiles.

- Build custom workflows: Clay (150+ providers, unlimited seats)
- All-in-one outbound: Apollo (Database, sequences and a dialer)
- Contact data in your agent: Enrich.chat (Unlimited seats, credits for matches only)

## Side by side

- **Clay** (Best for workflow builders): A table and workflow builder over 150+ data providers, with waterfalls, Claygent research and an email sequencer. Seats are unlimited, and you build and run the tables.
- **Apollo** (Best for all-in-one outbound): One contact database plus sequences, a dialer and a Chrome extension. Priced per seat, with credits that expire at the end of each billing cycle.

## Clay vs Apollo vs Enrich.chat at a glance

|  | Clay | Apollo | Enrich.chat |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Contact data from many providers | Yes: 150+ in waterfalls | Yes: own data, then 20+ sources | No: one API |
| Built-in sequencing and dialer | Partial: email sequencer, no dialer | Yes | No: bring your own tool |
| Works inside ChatGPT or Claude | Yes: Clay MCP | Yes: Apollo MCP | Yes: MCP server or one prompt |
| No table or app to learn | No: you build tables | Partial: a search app | Yes: MCP tools or plain HTTPS API |
| No seat fees | Yes: unlimited seats | No: priced per seat | Yes: unlimited seats |
| Plan not needed for paid data | No: Launch from $185 a month | No: Basic from $49 a seat | No: Growth from $29 a month |
| Nothing billed for a miss | Yes | Partial: some waterfall vendors bill | Yes: 0 credits |
| Unused credits carry over | Partial: data credits, up to 2x | No: expire each cycle | No: credits renew each month |
| No annual commitment required | Yes: monthly plans | Partial: Organization is annual only | Yes: billed monthly |
| Free tier | Partial: 100 credits a month, no phones | Yes: 75 credits a seat a month | Yes: 10 lookups a day, no signup |

## What is the difference between Clay and Apollo?

Clay is a workflow builder that buys data from many providers, and Apollo is a sales app with its own contact database. In Clay you build a table that enriches each row. In Apollo you search Apollo's records, then email and call people from the same seat.

- **Clay** works like a spreadsheet. Each row is a person or a company, and each column runs an enrichment, an AI prompt or an export. [Clay's pricing page](https://www.clay.com/pricing) lists 150+ data providers, multi-provider waterfalls and Claygent, its AI web research agent, on every plan. Seats and tables are unlimited.
- **Apollo** is one app for prospecting and outreach. [Apollo's data page](https://www.apollo.io/product/data) says its database holds 240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts. A paid seat also buys sequences, a dialer, CRM integrations and a Chrome extension, per [Apollo's pricing page](https://www.apollo.io/pricing).

Clay asks how you want your data built. Apollo asks who your reps should reach today. Teams that only need contact data inside an AI agent or app often need neither, which is where Enrich.chat fits.

**Figure 1: The same job in Clay, Apollo and Enrich.chat.** Three columns show how each tool adds a work email and a phone to a list. In Clay you import rows, add email and phone waterfalls, validate results, watch data credits and Actions, and send to a sequencer, paying a plan fee, data credits and Actions. In Apollo you filter its database, select up to 1,000 rows, reveal emails and phones, add them to a sequence and call from the dialer, paying for seats and credits that expire. With Enrich.chat you paste one prompt, the agent makes one API call per row, and each row comes back with a status such as verified or a line type, paid in plan credits that are spent only on matches, with misses costing 0 credits.

*The same job in each tool: add a work email and a phone to a list, then reach out. Sources: [Clay pricing](https://www.clay.com/pricing), [Apollo pricing](https://www.apollo.io/pricing) and [agents.md](https://enrich.chat/agents.md), checked October 15, 2026.*

## Where do Clay and Apollo get their emails and phone numbers?

Apollo answers from its own database first, while Clay buys each field from providers in its marketplace. That difference decides how each tool bills you for an email or a phone number.

### How Clay finds contact data

A Clay column asks providers in an order you set, called a waterfall, and stops at the first valid result. Clay bills the data in data credits, from $0.05 each, and its own work in Actions, which cost under a cent. [Clay's pricing calculator](https://www.clay.com/pricing-calculator) counts a work email as about 1 data credit and 3 Actions, and a phone number as about 5 data credits and 3 Actions. With your own provider key, each run uses 1 Action and no data credits, per [Clay's pricing FAQ](https://www.clay.com/pricing).

### How Apollo finds contact data

Apollo charges 1 credit for an email and 8 credits for a phone number, per [Apollo's pricing page](https://www.apollo.io/pricing). It charges only for emails it can verify, per its [credits page](https://www.apollo.io/pricing/about-credits). When Apollo's own data has a gap, paid plans can run a waterfall across what [Apollo calls](https://www.apollo.io/product/data) 20+ sources. A phone waterfall typically uses 8 to 25 credits, and some vendors charge even when they find nothing, per [Apollo's API pricing](https://docs.apollo.io/docs/api-pricing).

| What you need | Clay, from its marketplace | Apollo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Find people by title and company | No credits, no Actions | No credits |
| Person or company profile | 0.5 credits and 1 Action | 1 credit |
| Work email | About 1 credit and 3 Actions | 1 credit |
| Phone number | About 5 credits and 3 Actions | 8 credits |
| AI research on one row | About 3 credits and 1 Action | 1 credit per run |
| An enrichment that finds nothing | No credits, no Actions | No credits, except some waterfall vendors |
| One email, in dollars | About $0.06 at Launch rates | $0.020 to $0.026 if you use every credit |
| One phone, in dollars | About $0.26 at Launch rates | $0.16 to $0.21 if you use every credit |

The dollar rows are our arithmetic: $0.05 a data credit plus $0.004 an Action for Clay, and seat price divided by seat credits for Apollo. Enrich.chat charges 10 credits per work email and 250 per mobile found, and 0 for a miss. If you use every credit on a plan, an email costs from $0.0012 on Pro to $0.0029 on Growth, and a mobile from $0.0299 to $0.0725. To see when chaining providers pays off, read our guide to [waterfall enrichment](https://enrich.chat/blog/waterfall-enrichment/).

## How do Clay and Apollo compare on workflows, outreach and AI?

Clay is stronger at custom workflows and research, and Apollo is stronger at outreach, because its paid seats include sequences and a dialer. Clay now has an email sequencer, but you still assemble most of the pipeline yourself.

### Workflows and automation

In Clay, the table is the workflow. You chain enrichments, AI prompts, formulas and exports, and schedule runs from Launch, which also adds job change signals. Growth adds CRM auto-sync, webhooks and web intent signals, per [Clay's plan comparison](https://www.clay.com/pricing). Apollo's automated workflows are simpler rules inside its app: [Apollo's plan table](https://www.apollo.io/pricing) allows 2 per team on Free, 5 on Basic, 50 on Professional and 500 on Organization.

### Outreach

- **Apollo** includes unlimited sequences on paid plans and a US dialer from Basic, billed at 1 credit per 30 seconds. Its Chrome, Gmail and Salesforce extensions come with every plan. A parallel and power dialer add-on costs $119 a team a month billed annually, per [Apollo's pricing page](https://www.apollo.io/pricing).
- **Clay** has the [Clay Sequencer](https://www.clay.com/sequencer) for cold email, with inboxes and domains you buy inside Clay. Clay lists no dialer, and it also connects to outside sequencers, Apollo included.

### AI features and MCP connectors

- **Clay:** [Claygent](https://www.clay.com/claygent) researches the web for each row and returns structured fields that no provider sells. [Sculptor](https://university.clay.com/docs/sculptor) drafts tables and workflows from a chat. [Clay MCP](https://www.clay.com/mcp) lets reps ask ChatGPT, Codex or Claude to run Clay Functions or return up to 1,000 People Search results.
- **Apollo:** the [AI Assistant](https://www.apollo.io/ai/assistant) builds lists, research and sequences inside Apollo. It is free as an introductory offer on paid plans, with 5 chats a month on Free, and the actions it runs can spend credits. [Apollo MCP](https://docs.apollo.io/docs/apollo-mcp) connects your Apollo account to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and other clients, as our [Apollo MCP guide](https://enrich.chat/blog/apollo-mcp-alternative/) explains.

### Integrations

Apollo connects to CRMs from its Basic plan, and its pricing FAQ names Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Salesloft and Marketo. Clay keeps CRM sync, HTTP API calls and data warehouse sync for Growth, at $495 a month. If CRM sync is your main need, Apollo gets you there for less.

## Is Clay harder to learn than Apollo?

Yes. Apollo works like a search app, so a rep can filter, reveal and sequence on day one. Clay asks you to design the pipeline, which takes longer to learn but can do more.

- **Clay** runs two-week live [cohort classes](https://university.clay.com/cohorts) and certifications, and its [experts directory](https://www.clay.com/experts) lists agencies that build and run Clay for you. Clay's docs pitch Sculptor as a way to shorten your learning curve.
- **Apollo** has [Apollo Academy](https://www.apollo.io/academy), with free courses and ready-made plays you can launch inside Apollo.
- **Enrich.chat** has no interface to learn. You paste one prompt, and your agent reads [agents.md](https://enrich.chat/agents.md) and calls the API.

## How much do Clay and Apollo cost for a team of 3?

For three users billed monthly, Clay Launch costs $185 and Apollo Basic costs $195, so the entry plans cost about the same. After that the gap grows, because Clay seats are unlimited and Apollo charges for each one. Prices come from [Clay's pricing page](https://www.clay.com/pricing) and [Apollo's pricing page](https://www.apollo.io/pricing), checked in both billing views on October 15, 2026.

| Plan for 3 users | Billed monthly | Billed annually | Data included |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Clay Launch | $185 | $167 a month ($2,004 a year) | 2,500 data credits and 15,000 Actions a month |
| Clay Growth | $495 | $446 a month ($5,352 a year) | 6,000 data credits and 40,000 Actions a month |
| Apollo Basic, 3 seats | $195 | $147 a month ($1,764 a year) | 7,500 credits a month, pooled |
| Apollo Professional, 3 seats | $297 | $237 a month ($2,844 a year) | 12,000 credits a month, pooled |
| Apollo Organization, 3 seats | Annual only | $357 a month ($4,284 a year) | 216,000 credits a year |
| Enrich.chat Growth | $29 | Monthly billing only | 100,000 credits a month: 10,000 emails or 400 mobiles, unlimited seats |
| Enrich.chat Scale | $90 | Monthly billing only | 500,000 credits a month: 50,000 emails or 2,000 mobiles, unlimited seats |

Of Clay and Apollo, Apollo includes more data per dollar at this size. Three Basic seats pool 7,500 credits a month: 7,500 emails or 937 phone numbers. Clay Launch includes 2,500 data credits, about 2,500 emails or 500 phones at the calculator's rates. Clay wins on headcount: a fourth Apollo Basic seat takes the monthly bill to $260, while Clay Launch stays at $185 for 4 users or 40. Enrich.chat's plans also have unlimited seats, but they sell data only, with no sequencer or dialer.

### Do Clay or Apollo require an annual commitment?

Neither requires one on its entry plans, but both reward it. Clay's Launch and Growth plans bill monthly or annually, with 10% off annual billing, and Clay Enterprise is annual. Apollo's Basic and Professional bill either way, and Organization is annual only with a 3-seat minimum.

- **Switching back.** Apollo lets you move from monthly to annual at any time, but going back means waiting for the annual term to end, per its pricing FAQ. Downgrades are not refunded.
- **Unused credits.** Apollo credits, add-ons included, expire at the end of each billing cycle. Clay data credits roll over on monthly plans until the balance reaches 2x the monthly amount, per [Clay's billing docs](https://university.clay.com/docs/plans-and-billing), while Actions reset. Enrich.chat credits renew with each monthly payment, and unused credits do not roll over.

Enrich.chat plans are billed monthly with unlimited seats and no annual contract, and you can cancel anytime. The [Enrich.chat pricing page](https://enrich.chat/pricing/) has the full rate card.

## What do 1,000 leads with an email and a phone cost on Clay vs Apollo?

At list prices, 1,000 leads a month with a work email and a phone cost about $350 on Clay Launch and $260 on Apollo Basic, billed monthly. The same list needs 260,000 Enrich.chat credits a month, which fits the Scale plan at $90 a month. Each figure is a monthly bill and assumes every row returns both fields.

**Figure 2: Monthly cost of 1,000 leads with a work email and a phone.** Bar chart of the monthly list-price cost to add a work email and a phone number to 1,000 leads, if every row returns both. Enrich.chat's Scale plan costs $90 a month and covers the 260,000 credits the list needs. Four Apollo Basic seats cost $196 a month billed annually or $260 billed monthly. Clay Launch costs $315 a month billed annually or $350 billed monthly. Clay Launch plus four Apollo Basic seats costs $445. Clay Growth costs $495.

*Monthly cost at list prices on October 15, 2026, if every row returns an email and a phone. Clay usage follows its pricing calculator; Apollo uses 9 credits a lead. Enrich.chat shows the monthly price of the plan that covers the list. Sources: [Clay pricing](https://www.clay.com/pricing), [Clay calculator](https://www.clay.com/pricing-calculator), [Apollo pricing](https://www.apollo.io/pricing) and [Enrich.chat pricing](https://enrich.chat/pricing/).*

How each number is worked out:

- **Clay Launch:** at the [calculator's rates](https://www.clay.com/pricing-calculator), the list uses 6,000 data credits and 6,000 Actions. The 6,000-credit tier costs $290 and 15,000 Actions cost $60, so Launch costs $350 a month, or $315 billed annually. [Clay's docs](https://university.clay.com/docs/plans-and-billing) put a fully enriched record at 6 to 20 data credits. At 20, Launch costs $940 a month.
- **Clay Growth:** its base 6,000 data credits cover the list for $495 a month, with CRM sync and the HTTP API included.
- **Apollo Basic:** 1 credit per email and 8 per phone is 9,000 credits. Each seat adds 2,500 credits a month to a shared pool, so 4 seats cover the list for $260. Billed annually, 4 seats cost $196 a month for 120,000 credits up front. Apollo sells add-on credits in the app, but [its pricing page](https://www.apollo.io/pricing) lists no price.
- **Clay plus your Apollo seats:** $185 for Launch plus $260 for 4 Basic seats is $445 a month.
- **Enrich.chat:** 10 credits per work email plus 250 per mobile found is 260,000 credits for 1,000 of each. That fits the Scale plan at $90 a month, and rows with no match use 0 credits. Pro-rated at the plan's credit rate the list is worth $46.80, but the plan price is the bill.

Two things change the picture. If your reps already work in Apollo, the seats also pay for sequences and a dialer. And misses cost no credits on Clay, Enrich.chat or Apollo's own enrichment, but Clay plans, Apollo seats and Enrich.chat plans are billed either way. Our [Clay pricing guide](https://enrich.chat/blog/clay-pricing/) and [Apollo pricing breakdown](https://enrich.chat/blog/apollo-pricing/) work through every plan.

## Can you use Clay and Apollo together?

Yes. Clay has a native Apollo.io integration, but it runs on your own Apollo account, so you pay for both tools. Teams pull Apollo contacts into Clay, fill gaps and score them, then push the best ones back into Apollo sequences.

[Clay's integration page](https://www.clay.com/integrations/data-provider/apollo-io) marks every Apollo action as bring your own account. [Clay's Apollo.io docs](https://university.clay.com/docs/apollo-io-integration-overview) list what you can do:

- **Source:** Find People from Apollo by job title and company domain, up to 1,000 people per search.
- **Enrich:** Enrich Person returns emails and phone numbers. Enrich Company and Find Open Jobs add firmographics and hiring data.
- **Act:** Find or Create Contact and Add Contact to Sequence write back to Apollo, so reps send from Apollo.

On April 15, 2026, [Clay announced](https://www.clay.com/blog/clay-apollo) at least 5x faster rate limits for paid customers and a way to start Apollo sequences through the API. The post says you need active accounts on both platforms. [Apollo's integration page](https://www.apollo.io/product/integrations/clay) describes the split: Clay for data and scoring, Apollo for sending and dialing.

**Figure 3: How Clay and Apollo work together, and who bills what.** A three-step flow. First, Clay sources and enriches contacts from your Apollo account with Find People and Enrich Person, and Apollo bills 1 credit per email and 8 more per mobile. Second, a Clay table fills gaps with waterfalls and Claygent research, and Clay bills 1 Action per run with no data credits. Third, Clay adds the contacts to an Apollo sequence so reps can email and call. You need accounts on both tools: a Clay plan and Apollo seats.

*How joint customers connect the two tools, and who bills what. Sources: [Clay's Apollo.io docs](https://university.clay.com/docs/apollo-io-integration-overview), [Clay's pricing FAQ](https://www.clay.com/pricing) and [Apollo's API pricing](https://docs.apollo.io/docs/api-pricing), checked October 15, 2026.*

The billing follows the data. Apollo charges its usual credits, 1 for an email and 8 more if a mobile comes back, per [Apollo's API pricing](https://docs.apollo.io/docs/api-pricing). Clay counts each run as 1 Action and no data credits. The pairing makes sense when your reps already have Apollo seats and you want Clay's waterfalls and research on top. You can also add an Enrich.chat step to a Clay waterfall through Clay's HTTP API on Growth, as our [waterfall enrichment guide](https://enrich.chat/blog/waterfall-enrichment/) shows.

## Who should pick Clay, and who should pick Apollo?

Pick Clay if someone on your team will build and own the data pipeline. Pick Apollo if your reps need one app to find, email and call prospects.

### When is Clay the better choice?

- **You need more than contact data.** Tech stack, hiring, funding and Claygent research live in one row.
- **You want to control the waterfall.** You pick the providers and their order for each field.
- **Many people need access.** Seats are unlimited on every Clay plan.
- **You already pay for data.** Steps on your own keys use only Actions.
- **You have a GTM engineer or an agency.** Someone has to build the tables and fix failed runs.

### When is Apollo the better choice?

- **Your reps prospect, email and call in one place.** Sequences, a dialer and extensions come with the seat.
- **You want a free plan with phone numbers.** Apollo Free gives 75 credits a seat a month, enough for 9 phones. Clay Free has no phone enrichment.
- **You want low-cost CRM sync.** Apollo includes CRM integrations from Basic.
- **You also handle inbound leads.** Apollo includes website visitor identification and form enrichment.
- **Your team is small.** For one or two users, Apollo Basic costs less than Clay Launch.

## When is Enrich.chat a better fit than Clay or Apollo?

Enrich.chat fits when your AI agent or app only needs verified contact data. You skip the table and the seat fees, and credits are spent only on matches.

- **Credits for matches only.** A work email costs 10 credits and a mobile found costs 250, on plans from $29 a month. A lookup that returns found: false costs 0 credits, and each response reports its credits_used.
- **Free to start.** You get 10 free lookups a day, with no signup. For more, log in on the [account page](https://enrich.chat/account/), pick a plan and pay through checkout, and your API key appears there.
- **An MCP server or one prompt.** Add the keyless MCP server at enrich.chat/mcp to ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, VS Code or Codex (the [install page](https://enrich.chat/install/) has the steps). Or have any agent, n8n or your own code read agents.md and call a plain HTTPS API.
- **A status on every field.** Emails come back verified, catch_all or unknown. Mobiles come back with a line type of mobile or unknown, which describes the number's type, not whether the line is live.
- **A LinkedIn URL is enough.** Send a profile URL as the lookup key. Enrich.chat never logs in to LinkedIn.
- **Built for products.** Apollo's pricing FAQ says its plans are for internal business use, and powering an external product needs a separate agreement. Enrich.chat is an API for agents and apps, with monthly credit plans from $29 and Enterprise from $2,000 a month.

Enrich.chat has two gaps to weigh. It has no visual table builder, sequencer, dialer or Chrome extension, so you bring your own outreach tool. And its SDKs are still planned, so for now you call the plain HTTPS API or the MCP server. Your agent can add the MCP server or read [agents.md](https://enrich.chat/agents.md) and call the [person enrichment API](https://enrich.chat/api/person-enrichment/). Test it on a few rows from your list:

```text
Use www.enrich.chat to find a work email and a mobile for the first 20 rows of my lead list. Mark misses as not found, flag catch_all emails, and tell me how many matched and the total credits_used.
```

For more options, compare [Clay alternatives](https://enrich.chat/alternatives/clay/) and [Apollo alternatives](https://enrich.chat/alternatives/apollo/), or see the [data API for AI agents](https://enrich.chat/agents/). To check one person first, try the free [LinkedIn email and phone finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/linkedin-email-finder/).

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Clay better than Apollo?

Neither is better for every team. Clay is better for building custom enrichment: waterfalls across 150+ providers, Claygent research and unlimited seats, from $185 a month on [Clay's pricing page](https://www.clay.com/pricing). Apollo is better for reps who prospect, email and call in one app, from $49 a seat a month billed annually. If your agent or app only needs work emails and mobiles, Enrich.chat costs less than either for the 1,000-lead job below: its Scale plan is $90 a month with unlimited seats.

### Is Clay cheaper than Apollo?

For one or two users, Apollo costs less. Apollo Basic is $65 a seat billed monthly or $49 billed annually, while Clay Launch is $185 a month or $167 billed annually for any number of seats, per [Apollo](https://www.apollo.io/pricing) and [Clay](https://www.clay.com/pricing) on October 15, 2026. Three monthly Apollo seats cost $195, and four annual seats cost $196 a month, so Clay becomes cheaper as the team grows. Per contact, Apollo is cheaper: a phone costs about $0.16 to $0.21 against about $0.26 on Clay.

### Can Clay pull data from Apollo?

Yes, if you have an Apollo account. Clay's Apollo.io integration can find people, enrich people and companies, find open jobs and add contacts to Apollo sequences. Every action is marked bring your own account on [Clay's integration page](https://www.clay.com/integrations/data-provider/apollo-io). Apollo charges its normal credits for the data. Clay counts each run as 1 Action and uses no data credits, because the data comes from your own account, per the FAQ on [Clay's pricing page](https://www.clay.com/pricing).

### Does Clay have a dialer like Apollo?

No. [Clay's pricing page](https://www.clay.com/pricing) lists an email sequencer, the Clay Sequencer, but no built-in dialer. Apollo includes a US dialer from its Basic plan, with calls billed at 1 credit per 30 seconds. It also sells an Advanced Dialer add-on with parallel and power dialing for $119 a team a month billed annually, per [Apollo's pricing page](https://www.apollo.io/pricing). Enrich.chat has no dialer either. It returns mobile numbers with a line type for the calling tool you already use.

### Do Clay and Apollo charge when no email is found?

Mostly no. [Clay's FAQ](https://www.clay.com/faq/do-unsuccessful-searches-consume-data-credits-what-about-actions) says an enrichment that returns nothing uses no data credits or Actions, though each validation step in a waterfall is billed. [Apollo's API pricing](https://docs.apollo.io/docs/api-pricing) says people enrichment is charged only when data is found, but some waterfall vendors charge per lookup even with no result. A lookup that returns found: false costs Enrich.chat 0 credits. Clay plans, Apollo seats and Enrich.chat plans are billed monthly either way.

### Which is better for an AI agent, Clay or Apollo?

Both have MCP connectors. [Apollo MCP](https://docs.apollo.io/docs/apollo-mcp) works in ChatGPT, Claude and other clients, and [Clay MCP](https://www.clay.com/mcp) lets reps run Clay Functions from ChatGPT, Codex or Claude. Both need an account with that vendor and spend its credits. Enrich.chat has an MCP server at enrich.chat/mcp that needs no account, sign-in or key, with 10 free lookups a day. Your agent can also read enrich.chat/agents.md and call a plain HTTPS API.

## Sources

1. [Clay pricing](https://www.clay.com/pricing)
2. [Clay pricing calculator](https://www.clay.com/pricing-calculator)
3. [Plans & billing](https://university.clay.com/docs/plans-and-billing)
4. [Do unsuccessful searches consume Data Credits? What about Actions?](https://www.clay.com/faq/do-unsuccessful-searches-consume-data-credits-what-about-actions)
5. [Apollo.io integration](https://university.clay.com/docs/apollo-io-integration-overview)
6. [Apollo.io x Clay integration](https://www.clay.com/integrations/data-provider/apollo-io)
7. [Clay and Apollo Integration: Enrichment, Sequencing, and More](https://www.clay.com/blog/clay-apollo)
8. [Claygent](https://www.clay.com/claygent)
9. [Clay MCP](https://www.clay.com/mcp)
10. [Clay Sequencer](https://www.clay.com/sequencer)
11. [Sculptor](https://university.clay.com/docs/sculptor)
12. [Cohorts](https://university.clay.com/cohorts)
13. [Find Clay experts](https://www.clay.com/experts)
14. [Apollo pricing (annual and monthly views)](https://www.apollo.io/pricing)
15. [What are Apollo Credits?](https://www.apollo.io/pricing/about-credits)
16. [API pricing and credits](https://docs.apollo.io/docs/api-pricing)
17. [Apollo MCP](https://docs.apollo.io/docs/apollo-mcp)
18. [Apollo AI Assistant](https://www.apollo.io/ai/assistant)
19. [Apollo Data](https://www.apollo.io/product/data)
20. [Clay in the Apollo integrations marketplace](https://www.apollo.io/product/integrations/clay)
21. [Apollo Academy](https://www.apollo.io/academy)

## Try this prompt

Price your list before you pick a plan

```text
Use www.enrich.chat to find a work email and a mobile for the first 20 rows of my lead list. Keep my columns, mark misses as not found, flag catch_all emails as risky, and tell me how many matched and the total credits_used, so I can pick a plan and compare the cost with Clay and Apollo.
```

## Related

- [Clay pricing](https://enrich.chat/blog/clay-pricing/)
- [Apollo pricing explained: plans, credits and cost per contact](https://enrich.chat/blog/apollo-pricing/)
- [Apollo alternatives (2026): 8 tools priced on 1,000 contacts](https://enrich.chat/alternatives/apollo/)