Understanding How Credits Work in Clay
hello...is there someone here who can explain to me how credits in clay work?
hello...is there someone here who can explain to me how credits in clay work?
Clay credits are the currency used to purchase data points and actions in our platform. Most actions are free or cost 1-2 credits, though costs vary by provider. For example, finding an email costs 2 credits with providers like Hunter.io, but 5 credits with People Data Labs. More difficult data points like mobile numbers can cost between 2-25 credits depending on the provider. You don't pay credits for prospecting - only for data enrichment. You can calculate needed credits using our credits calculator on our website.
So, if all I'm looking for is an email list, then I don't pay when I search. I only pay when the email is provided.
That's not quite right. You don't pay for list building or prospecting (finding people), but you do pay for each email finding attempt regardless of whether an email is found. Each email finding attempt costs 2 credits when using our managed Hunter.io account. If no email is found, those credits are refunded. List building from LinkedIn, Google Maps, GitHub, CRMs, and websites is completely free - you only pay when you try to enrich that data with contact information.
Are we able to upload a list that we already have and only search for emails for those specific leads?
Yes, you can upload your existing lead list to Clay and search for emails only for those specific contacts. You can import your list via CSV, then use email finding columns to enrich just those records. The process involves: 1. Importing your list into a Clay table 2. Adding email finding columns like "Find Work Email" to your table 3. Running the enrichment only on your imported leads
So are you saying that we only use a credit if the initial search doesn't produce an email?
No, credits are charged for each email finding attempt regardless of whether an email is found. Each attempt costs 2 credits when using Clay's managed Hunter.io account. However, if no email is found, those credits are refunded to your account. You only pay for data enrichment like finding emails - prospecting and list building are free.
Okay, so for example, I find a list with a thousand electricians. If 300 of those have an email associated with it, does that mean I'm paying 600 credits?
Or are there some lists that already have emails that don't require me to spend credits?
No, Clay doesn't provide pre-built lists with emails. You can build lists from LinkedIn, Google Maps, GitHub, CRMs, and websites for free, but finding emails always costs credits. When using our managed Hunter.io account, each email finding attempt costs 2 credits, regardless of whether an email is found. You only pay for data enrichment (finding contact information) - the prospecting and list building parts are completely free.
Absolutely you can upload your existing lead list and just get emails for those specific contacts. ApolloScrape, you don’t need to search from scratch. Just drop in names, domains, or LinkedIn URLs, and it’ll return emails only for the leads you provided. No extras, just clean enrichment.
Yes, you can upload your existing lead list to Clay and only use credits to enrich those specific contacts with emails. List building/prospecting is completely free - you only pay credits for data enrichment like finding emails. To save credits, you can also use the "Lookup" feature if you already have some of this data in another Clay table or your CRM, which helps avoid duplicate enrichments.