Does Clay still charge for failed lookups?

No. Clay's pricing page says that if an enrichment returns no result, you are not charged data credits or actions. Older reviews that say otherwise describe the model before its March 2026 repricing.

What is the cheapest Clay alternative?

For a small team, Sluice starts at $9 a month and Lemlist's enrichment add-on is $16 to $20 a month on top of a Lemlist plan. Which is cheaper for you depends on whether you also need sending and how many contacts you reveal.

Is there a Clay alternative with a waterfall?

Yes. Lemlist's enrichment add-on queries 25+ providers and is billed per success. Apollo has an optional waterfall. Sluice asks the chosen supplier, then the cheapest usable runners-up, and does not bill a miss. None matches Clay's 150+ providers.

Who should stay on Clay?

Teams with someone who enjoys building table workflows, who need many niche data providers or the Claygent research agent, and who are happy to spend the 20 to 40 hours third-party reviewers say it takes to learn.

The best Clay alternatives in 2026

Why do people look for a Clay alternative?

Clay is not a bad product. It is a very flexible one, and flexibility has a cost. The reasons people give for leaving fall into three groups.

Two currencies. Clay bills in actions and data credits. Launch is $167 a month for 15,000 actions and 2,500 data credits; Growth is $446 a month for 40,000 actions and 6,000 credits (as of October 2026). A table that runs several enrichment columns per row spends both, at different rates per provider, so the cost of a list is hard to know before you run it.
The learning curve. Third-party reviews put it at 20 to 40 hours to become comfortable. For a founder who wants 200 good leads this week, that is the whole week.
The 2026 repricing. Third-party analyses report that the March 2026 change raised mid-tier cost by about 28% and cut included credits by about 40%. That is reported, not Clay's own figure, but it is why many renewals turned into evaluations.

One reason you will still see in older reviews no longer holds. Clay's pricing page now says that an enrichment returning no result costs no data credits or actions. If a failed lookup is your complaint, it was fixed.

So before choosing, name the job. Most people used Clay for one of four things, and each has a different best replacement.

If you mainly used Clay to get contacts and then send

Many Clay tables end in an export to a sequencer. If that is you, a tool that holds both the database and the sending removes a step.

Apollo.io

Suits: small sales teams who want a large database, sequences and a dialer in one login.
Price: Basic $49 per seat a month billed annually, with 30,000 credits a year; Professional $79; Organization $119 with a 3-seat minimum (as of October 2026). A verified email costs 1 credit, a phone number 8 (third-party).
Weakness: data quality outside the US. Third-party tests report around 88% accuracy in the US and 60 to 73% internationally, and bounce rates of 15 to 35%.

Instantly

Suits: cold email teams who care most about sending and warmup.
Price: lead credits from $47 a month for 1,500 credits, from a 450M+ contact database (as of October 2026). No credit is charged when no verified email is found.
Weakness: it is a sending tool first. There is nothing like Clay's custom research columns.

If you used Clay for its waterfall

The waterfall (ask one provider, then the next, until one has the email) is Clay's best feature. Two tools give you a smaller version without building a table.

Lemlist

Suits: teams already sending from Lemlist.
Price: the email plan is $55 a month annually or $69 monthly; the enrichment add-on is $16 to $20 a month for 2,000 credits (about 400 emails), billed per success across 25+ providers (as of October 2026).
Weakness: 25 providers against Clay's 100+, and you buy it inside Lemlist, not on its own.

Sluice

Suits: founders and agencies who want each job priced before it runs.
Price: Starter $9 a month (900 credits), Working $39 (3,900 credits), Agency $149 (14,900 credits). A credit is one cent. Lookups are billed at supplier cost plus 60%, 50% or 40% depending on plan; Agency can bring its own data key and pay no markup. See pricing.
How it differs: every pass shows its worst-case price first, a miss is not billed, and a bounced email is refunded exactly what it cost.
Weakness: far fewer providers than Clay, no AI research agent, HubSpot is the only CRM integration, and it is new, with no public reviews yet.

If you used Clay for signals

On Launch, Clay offers job-change and company-news signals; web intent needs Growth.

Common Room

Suits: funded teams that want intent, job changes, community engagement and website de-anonymisation in one account view.
Price: Essential $2,500 a month billed annually, with 5 seats and 100,000 contacts (as of October 2026).
Weakness: price. That is $30,000 a year before you send anything, and it has no sequencer.

Sluice also sits here, from the other direction: it starts from people who engaged with public posts or reviewed a competitor, then finds who they are. It does not have "raised money" signals yet. Our comparison with Clay covers that trade in detail.

If you just need a reliable contact lookup

Lusha

Suits: reps who look up one person at a time from a browser.
Price: free with 40 credits; Starter $49.90 a month (400 credits), Pro $69.90 (600), Premium $399.90 (3,400). Email 1 credit, phone 5 (as of October 2026).
Weakness: no workflow at all. It answers "what is this person's email", nothing more.

What does 500 contacts cost on each?

Say you want 500 people with a work email, from a list you already trust.

Tool	What 500 emails costs	Notes
Clay	Depends on columns and providers	The problem many leave over
Apollo	Inside Basic's 30,000 yearly credits	$49 per seat a month, annual
Instantly	Inside the $47 plan's 1,500 credits	Own data 1 credit, partner data 2
Lemlist	About $20 add-on covers ~400	Plus the $55 email plan
Lusha	500 credits, so Pro at $69.90	Misses free in the platform
Sluice	$25 if all 500 score 70+ in the directory	5 cents per revealed person

The Sluice row assumes directory reveals; lookups through the waterfall are priced at supplier cost plus your plan's markup, shown before the run. Our breakdown of what a lead actually costs walks through the full calculation, and why Clay credits disappear explains where Clay budgets go.

Which should you pick?

If you love building workflows and have the hours, stay on Clay. If you want contacts and sending in one place, try Apollo. If your list comes from conversations (Reddit threads, LinkedIn posts, competitor reviews) rather than filters, Sluice is built for exactly that, with the gaps above. For other replacements in the same space, see our Apollo alternatives.