Email Enrichment Issue: Unexpected Credit Charges Explained

Manav Singh · 2025-03-27 18:31:25.446425+00

just ran an email enrichment on clay for about 1225 contacts, the credits charged for each contact would be 2-3 credits (depending on the vendor, i did not chose the ones that were charging 3 credits and above) even if i assume that it ran for all 1225 contacts and charged 3 credits per contact, i still would have spent 3675 credits. But in this case it did not extract emails for all of my contacts, only did for about 80%, but it still charged around 5k credits, maybe more. This does not make sense to me at all

Email Enrichment Issue: Unexpected Credit Charges Explained | Clay

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The higher credit charge might be due to how our email enrichment process works. Each email finding attempt costs 2 credits, regardless of whether an email is found or not. In waterfall enrichments, we try multiple providers until an email is found or all options are exhausted. If no email is found, credits are refunded, but attempts still cost credits. This process can lead to higher credit usage, especially if multiple attempts were made for each contact. To get a more accurate estimate, we recommend running a test on a smaller sample first. If you need more credits, you can purchase credit top-ups, which cost 50% more than your plan's typical cost per credit. For a detailed breakdown of your credit usage, please request human assistance by clicking on "Talk to a person".
Source: Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Clay 101] - Clay University
Manav Singh
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https://app.clay.com/workspaces/353983/workbooks/wb_oFD286ZiZH2k/tables/t_oRgQGkTsQw6K/views/gv_5ved5EKYZKQP
Manav Singh
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how will it charge me credits if it does not find emails at all?? Lets say if wiza is finding the email and it charges 2 credits, if its not able to get me the email then those credits should be refunded, right? Why did i get charged for providers that were not able to help me for that contact?
Bo (Clay)
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Hey - Can you do this for me: 1. Show All Rows: Follow the steps shown in the screenshot to display all rows. 2. Check Email Validity: Look for the hidden validation column to see if the found emails are valid or not. https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/w28k1kwz/1447828794/7d594889576c0e70fff792989ccc/58ccdf91-b962-46c3-a447-e7288bb13b85?expires=1743255000&signature=41399939cdf8c63669052428fa0748d83534c79c45f2b98a9bd4c3ba91da12e6&req=dSQjEcF8lYZWXfMW1HO4zXgrSuZWxOC7eBfvl3dmVkZJk7yZeJHru5slmMQR%0A7q2s%0A
As you might have noticed, some emails are deemed invalid. Here’s a recap of how our waterfall process works: • Inquiry: When we need to find an email, we ask our providers if they have information on a particular contact. • Response: If they have the details, they send them to us. If not, they send nothing. • Cost: Each successful inquiry costs credits, and we can’t predict what they’ll provide until we receive it. • Validation: We then pass this information to a validation tool that also cost credits and to keep tables clean, validation columns are automatically hidden. If an email is invalid, the next email finder tries to find a new one. However, if it finds the same email as before, it won’t re-validate it since it has already been checked and it won't return it in the final column. If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask! 🌟 Check out this Loom video for more details.
Manav Singh
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Bo (Clay) hey, this is how it looks, SS attached also sending the table link: https://app.clay.com/workspaces/353983/workbooks/wb_oFD286ZiZH2k/tables/t_oRgQGkTsQw6K/views/gv_5ved5EKYZKQP
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Bo (Clay)
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Hey, Quick question—did you remove the email validation step from this waterfall, or did it run without validation from the start? From the screenshot, it looks like validation was initially included and then removed. Just want to confirm.
Manav Singh
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no it was not removed, but i dont know why it was not showing up in the first SS, here's another:
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Bo (Clay)
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To confirm, is this the same table we previously discussed? If so, these records aren't proceeding to the next step because they've been deemed invalid. If you check rules 14 and 13, you'll see that the first email found was marked invalid. This is why it's rolling to other providers to find alternative emails.
Manav Singh
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yes its the same one
Manav Singh
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but in row 14, its still showing the same email and not something else when it goes to other provider, does it still charge?
Bo (Clay)
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Each provider doesn't know what the other provider will return. What's happening is provider one returns an answer, which is marked invalid, then provider two tries to find an answer, but that answer is also invalid.
Manav Singh
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i see, if this happens then i will be using up a lot of credits, i will keep that in mind. will it be possible to receive some credits (1-2k) to help me get through until the next billing period, or maybe i can reset the work email enrichment column and get all the used credits back so i can start afresh?
Bo (Clay)
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Done ! :) ✅
Manav Singh
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thank you! 😄
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