Unexpected Email Waterfall Cost Exceeds Estimate – Urgent Help Needed

Alexis L. · 2025-11-14T10:27:43.179Z

Hi team! Quick issue to flag: I ran an email waterfall on 955 contacts. Estimated cost was 2 credits/contact (1,910 total). I had ~3,250 credits beforehand, but once completed, it consumed all my credits instead of the expected amount, and the emails are not even found all yet ! Not sure why the actual usage exceeded the estimate. It’s so frustrating bc I actually have a demo in a few hours with a potential client. Can you look into it? Thanks!

Unexpected Email Waterfall Cost Exceeds Estimate – Urgent Help Needed | Clay

12 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Clay Support
APP
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The estimate shows the cost for finding emails (2 credits per contact), but the waterfall also charges credits for validation separately.
Here's what likely happened:
Email finding: 2 credits per attempt (refunded if no email found)
Email validation: Additional credits charged when emails are found and validated
Failed validations: Credits are consumed even if emails are deemed invalid
The estimate doesn't include validation costs, which explains why you used ~3,038 credits instead of the estimated 1,910.
To check what happened:
Open the Columns Panel and unhide the validation columns to see detailed validation steps for each contact. [1]
If you need further help investigating this specific table, just ask to speak to a human.
Clay Support
APP
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Is that what you were looking for?
Alexis L.
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No it’s not, please connect me to a human.
Clay Support
APP
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I understand your frustration, and I’m connecting you to a human agent who can assist you further.
Clay Support
APP
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Our support team has got your message and we'll get back to you soon! We're currently outside of our standard office hours (9 AM to 9 PM EST, Monday through Friday), so it may take a little longer for us to respond.
If you’re dealing with a specific table, drop the URL below so we can help you quicker. Otherwise, someone from our team will be in touch soon!
image.png(93 kB)
Alexis L.
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Up 🙂
Andrew Q.
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Hey Alexis! Thanks for reaching out, let me look into this
Andrew Q.
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I see you have a few tables up, could you please share the table link for me?
Loading attachments
Alexis L.
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here it is : Thank you
Alexis L.
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https://app.clay.com/workspaces/772329/workbooks/wb_0t5oshpKpmxtMGyevDB/tables/t_0t5ot2mPcSXZMi38FnC/views/gv_0t5ot2nsSkBQp23acpM
Andrew Q.
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Hey Alexis! Took a look at it and though it is representative of an estimate, it is rather large than expected. I'm able to give you a refund this time but just wanted to give you a heads up that this may not always be the case. I am able to offer you a refund of 1,350 back to your workspace, does that work?
Clay Support
APP
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We haven't heard back from you here, so we're going to go ahead and close this thread out.
Still need help here? Reply back and someone will jump back in.
Have a question thats not related to this thread? We recommend kicking off a new ticket in the support channel!

Clay Support
APP
·
·
The estimate shows the cost for finding emails (2 credits per contact), but the waterfall also charges credits for validation separately.
Here's what likely happened:
Email finding: 2 credits per attempt (refunded if no email found)
Email validation: Additional credits charged when emails are found and validated
Failed validations: Credits are consumed even if emails are deemed invalid
The estimate doesn't include validation costs, which explains why you used ~3,038 credits instead of the estimated 1,910.
To check what happened:
Open the Columns Panel and unhide the validation columns to see detailed validation steps for each contact. [1]
If you need further help investigating this specific table, just ask to speak to a human.
Clay Support
APP
·
·
Is that what you were looking for?
Alexis L.
·
·
No it’s not, please connect me to a human.
Clay Support
APP
·
·
I understand your frustration, and I’m connecting you to a human agent who can assist you further.
Clay Support
APP
·
·
Our support team has got your message and we'll get back to you soon! We're currently outside of our standard office hours (9 AM to 9 PM EST, Monday through Friday), so it may take a little longer for us to respond.
If you’re dealing with a specific table, drop the URL below so we can help you quicker. Otherwise, someone from our team will be in touch soon!
image.png(93 kB)
Alexis L.
·
·
Up 🙂
Andrew Q.
·
·
Hey Alexis! Thanks for reaching out, let me look into this
Andrew Q.
·
·
I see you have a few tables up, could you please share the table link for me?
Loading attachments
Alexis L.
·
·
here it is : Thank you
Alexis L.
·
·
https://app.clay.com/workspaces/772329/workbooks/wb_0t5oshpKpmxtMGyevDB/tables/t_0t5ot2mPcSXZMi38FnC/views/gv_0t5ot2nsSkBQp23acpM
Andrew Q.
·
·
Hey Alexis! Took a look at it and though it is representative of an estimate, it is rather large than expected. I'm able to give you a refund this time but just wanted to give you a heads up that this may not always be the case. I am able to offer you a refund of 1,350 back to your workspace, does that work?
Clay Support
APP
·
·
We haven't heard back from you here, so we're going to go ahead and close this thread out.
Still need help here? Reply back and someone will jump back in.
Have a question thats not related to this thread? We recommend kicking off a new ticket in the support channel!