Clay vs Apollo: what a contact costs and what it costs to send to it

Apollo sells its own database by the seat: 1 credit per verified email, 2,500 credits a month on a $65 Basic seat. Clay buys data from 150+ providers for you: 0.5 data credit per work email found, from $185 a month on Launch. For 5,000 contacts the data costs $130 in Apollo and $185 in Clay; sending to them takes 28 mailboxes, which is $70 a month with Outreach2day.

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  • Warmup and sending included
  • $2.50 a mailbox, 12 minimum
  • Month-to-month billing

Clay

Apollo

Entry price
$185 a month (Launch); free plan with 100 data credits$65 per seat a month (Basic); free plan with 75 credits
Priced by
Actions (platform work) plus data credits (data bought from providers) a month; unlimited seats; data credits from $0.05 eachPer seat a month plus a credit allowance per seat; credits pay for data, warmup, domains and mailboxes
Lead data
Work email 0.5 data credit per email found; validation 0 credits with select validators; no charge when a lookup finds nothing240M contacts and 30M companies, enrichment and verification on credits
5,000 contacts, data for a month
$185 (Launch)$130 (2 Basic seats)

Clay vs Apollo, line by line

Each cell links to the vendor's page it comes from.

Clay and Apollo prices

Clay

Apollo

List prices from Clay's pricing page and Apollo's pricing page, checked . Taxes and card fees excluded.

What 5,000 and 20,000 contacts cost, and what it costs to send to them

Data, a verification step and the mailboxes to send each contact 3 emails within a month. Monthly billing, list prices.

  • Apollo data

    5,000 contacts
    $130: 2 Basic seats, 5,000 credits
    20,000 contacts
    $495: 5 Professional seats, 20,000 credits

  • Clay data

    5,000 contacts
    $185: Launch, 15,000 actions and 2,500 data credits
    20,000 contacts
    $660: Launch, 60,000 actions and 10,000 data credits

  • Verification

    5,000 contacts
    Apollo list: $35 at Bouncer; Clay: 0 credits with its validators
    20,000 contacts
    Apollo list: $120 at Bouncer; Clay: 0 credits

  • Sending: Outreach2day

    5,000 contacts
    28 mailboxes on 6 domains: $70 a month + $78 a year for domains
    20,000 contacts
    110 mailboxes on 22 domains: $275 a month + $286 a year for domains

  • First month, Apollo list

    5,000 contacts
    $313
    20,000 contacts
    $1,176

  • First month, Clay list

    5,000 contacts
    $333
    20,000 contacts
    $1,221

3 emails per contact over 22 sending days: 682 and 2,728 emails a day at 25 per mailbox. Mailboxes include warmup and the sequencer; warmup takes 14 days before the first send.

Apollo charges 1 credit for each net-new contact with a verified email, and credits are pooled across seats, so 5,000 contacts need two Basic seats at $65. At 20,000, five Professional seats at $99 hold the credits for less than eight Basic seats. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle.

Clay's Launch price is two tiers added together: actions for the platform work and data credits for the data. Following Clay's own example, finding a work email costs 0.5 data credit when one is found, and validating it costs no data credits with select validators; finding, validating and exporting each take 1 action. Enrich phone numbers or LinkedIn profiles as well and both counts grow.

The sending line is the same for both lists. Our capacity calculator sizes it for other volumes, and the cost calculator puts it next to Instantly and Smartlead.

Where they differ

One database, or many providers

Apollo answers from its own database of 240M contacts and 30M companies, with search, list building and sequences in the same seat. A contact costs the same credit whichever seat reveals it.

Clay sources contacts and runs waterfalls across 150+ providers, stopping at the first that returns a valid email. With your own API key for a provider, the lookup uses an action and no data credits.

Sending from them

Apollo Basic sends up to 250 emails a day and links 1 mailbox per user; Professional sends without a daily cap and links unlimited Google and Microsoft mailboxes plus 5 IMAP/SMTP per user. Instantly vs Apollo prices that at volume.

Clay's Sequencer charges 1 action per lead added to a campaign and connects Google, Microsoft or any SMTP/IMAP mailbox; Clay sells domains and mailboxes for it on Growth. Exporting to another sequencer is 1 action per record.

Before the first send

A list from either tool gets old: people change jobs and addresses stop working. Verify it right before the campaign, drop unknown addresses, and stop sending when bounces climb: what to do when the bounce rate is too high.

Which one to pick

Pick Clay if

  • You combine several data providers in one table and want the first valid email
  • You already pay for some providers and can bring their API keys
  • You build lists from signals: job changes, hiring, web intent

Pick Apollo if

  • You want one database with search, lists and sequences in the same seat
  • Your team prospects by hand and needs phone numbers next to emails
  • You want a flat credit per verified email and seats your team already uses

Where Outreach2day fits

Outreach2day is a third option: mailboxes, warmup and a sequencer in one subscription. It is ours, so it has its own section.

Outreach2day is where the list goes next: mailboxes on your domains with warmup and a sequencer at $2.50 a mailbox. Import the Apollo or Clay CSV into a campaign, or export the mailboxes to Instantly or Smartlead. Steps: Apollo and Clay.

We do not sell or verify contact data; Apollo, Clay or a validator does that part.

From 1,000 mailboxes Outreach2day quotes a volume price below the per-mailbox list price of every vendor in our comparisons, including Maildoso's $0.49, with warmup and sending in the price. Book a call and we quote your volume.

Outreach2day

  • Warmup and sending included
  • $2.50 a mailbox, 12 minimum
  • Month-to-month billing

Clay vs Apollo: questions

Is Clay or Apollo cheaper for a cold email list?

For emails alone at small volume, Apollo: 5,000 verified emails take two Basic seats, $130 a month, against $185 for Clay Launch. Clay gets cheaper when you bring your own provider keys, and it can try several providers for each contact.

How many credits does an email cost in Apollo and in Clay?

Apollo: 1 credit per verified email, 8 per phone number. Clay: 0.5 data credit per work email found in its example, plus 1 action per enrichment.

Can I use Apollo inside Clay?

Yes. Clay takes your own API keys for providers such as Apollo; the lookup then uses an action and no Clay data credits.

Do Apollo and Clay send cold email?

Both do. Apollo has sequences on every plan, with 250 emails a day on Free and Basic. Clay has its own Sequencer and integrations with other sequencers.

How many mailboxes do I need for 5,000 contacts?

At 3 emails per contact within a month, 682 emails a sending day: 28 mailboxes on 6 domains at 25 emails per mailbox a day. With Outreach2day that is $70 a month plus $78 a year for domains.

Deliverability call

Talk to our deliverability team

Book a call with the people who run our mailbox infrastructure. We look at your current setup and tell you what to change. Running 1,000+ mailboxes? We also quote a volume price below every vendor list price in our comparisons, warmup and sending included.

  • Review your domains, DNS records and current inbox placement
  • Size the setup: domains, mailboxes per domain and daily volume per mailbox
  • Plan warmup and the move from your current provider or sequencer
  • 1,000+ mailboxes: a volume price per mailbox for your setup

Free call

See open times in your time zone and book on this page.

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More on Clay and Apollo

Sources

Each vendor's own pages. Vendors change prices and plans; if something here is out of date, write to support@outreach2day.com and we will fix it.

Clay

Apollo

Outreach2day

First cold emails on day 14, full volume on day 21

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