7 Best Clay Alternatives in 2026 (Compared)

People leave Clay when it stops being a workspace and becomes a data source they pay for twice. Clay charges Data Credits for data, from $0.05 each, and Actions for every run (Clay pricing, September 2026). Growth costs $495 a month billed monthly, or $446 billed yearly and includes 6,000 Data Credits. The Public API is on every plan, Free included. The HTTP API column starts on Growth, and the pricing FAQ lists Clay API access under Enterprise, which Clay's docs tie to table queries (Clay docs, September 2026). Tables hold 50,000 rows (Clay docs, September 2026). That suits a rep building a list. It is a poor fit for a pipeline that pulls millions of records in code or through an agent.

This page ranks seven alternatives for API and volume buyers. LeadOcean is first because it has one flat price, no credits and an MCP server that returns records. For a two-column view, see LeadOcean vs Clay. If credits are the main pain, read Clay credits alternatives.

TL;DR

"1M records" here means 1M work-email lookups that return a result, one credit each where the vendor uses credits. Figures are list-price arithmetic. Enterprise quotes are lower, so ask each vendor at your volume.

What we evaluated

• API access: which plan opens it, the endpoints that return people and companies, and the default rate limit.
• MCP: whether an agent can search and enrich through the server, or only read documentation.
• Price model: flat, credits or seats, and what 1M records a month costs at list price.
• Data: stated coverage, email and phone fields, and search filters.
• Limits that bite: row caps, plan gates, expiring credits and fair-use clauses.

We read each vendor's pricing page and docs in September 2026. We ran no find-rate or accuracy test for this page, so we quote no quality numbers.

1. LeadOcean: best for API, agent and volume buyers

LeadOcean is one dataset behind one REST API and one MCP server. It holds 693M people, 366M with an email and 166M with a phone number, plus 63M companies. You search with 50 people filters and 34 company filters. Counts are free. Enrichment is POST /v1/people/enrich, phones are GET /v2/people/phone, and exports run up to 50,000 rows per request.

The price does not move with volume. Pro is $499 a month with unlimited searches, enrichments and lookups, 5 API keys and 100 requests per second per key. There are no credits and no overage invoice. A very large month is paced down to one request a minute until the reset, not cut off. More headroom is one email to support.

curl -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/enrich" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe","reveal_email":true}'

The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp signs in with OAuth 2.1 and exposes 12 tools, from search_leads to find_phone and export_leads. Claude, Cursor or your own agent can pull records directly. Every person or company returned counts as one record, and count_leads is free, so you can size an audience before you pull it.

Pros

• Flat $499 a month at any volume, with no credit meter.
• REST and MCP on every plan, including Free.
• Email status on every record, from verified to spam_trap.
• Free counts, and a miss on POST /v1/people/enrich is a free 404.

Cons

• No table workflow builder. You work in the app's export page, the API or MCP.
• No waterfall across other providers and no AI research column.
• One dataset, so a niche source needs another tool.

Best for: engineers, RevOps and agents that need volume and a fixed bill.

Pricing: Free is 1,000 records, one-off, no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

2. BlitzAPI: best for flat-price search and enrichment by API

BlitzAPI sells B2B data as an API on flat monthly plans. Its homepage lists people and company search, email and phone enrichment, jobs data and domain to LinkedIn matching, over 1B+ records (BlitzAPI, September 2026). It is the closest rival to LeadOcean on price model.

The plan ladder is where it gets fiddly. Core is $399 a month and leaves out emails and phones. Plus is $499 and adds verified work emails. Full is $599 and adds US phone numbers (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026). If you enrich for contact data, you buy Plus or Full.

Two details to check before you commit. The 50 requests per second and 15,000,000 monthly results are tied to accounts opened by September 30, 2026, against a standard 5 per second. Limits also apply per endpoint (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). And its MCP server gives an assistant the API documentation, not the data (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Flat monthly price, with a stated limit of 15,000,000 results a month for accounts opened by September 30, 2026. Limits for later accounts are not published (BlitzAPI terms, September 2026).
• Jobs data and identity resolution sit next to people and company search.
• A free trial of 1,000 credits with no card.

Cons

• Three paid tiers, and phones need the top one.
• Phone numbers are US only on Full.
• The MCP server reads docs. An agent cannot search or enrich through it.
• The fast rate limit depends on when the account opened.

Best for: teams that want a flat-price search and enrichment API and run their own code.

Pricing: Core $399, Plus $499, Full $599 a month (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).

3. FullEnrich: best for waterfall emails and mobiles behind an API

FullEnrich is the nearest thing to Clay's waterfall with the spreadsheet removed. It queries 25+ sources for each contact, and you pay only for data it finds (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026). Its pricing page lists API access, people and company search and an MCP server on Pro.

Credits are the meter. A work email costs 1 credit, a personal email 3 and a mobile 10. Pro starts at $29 a month for 500 credits ($0.058 each). The 1,000-credit tier is $55 a month ($0.055 each). Search costs 0.25 credits per person returned (FullEnrich docs, September 2026). A mobile at the entry rate costs $0.55.

The API allows 60 calls a minute, with up to 100 contacts in a bulk request. Higher limits are an Enterprise feature (FullEnrich docs, September 2026). The MCP server can search, enrich and export, and it asks you before it spends credits (FullEnrich help, September 2026).

Pros

• Waterfall across 25+ sources, so one call can cover several vendors.
• Search, enrichment and export in the MCP server.
• SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and CCPA listed on the pricing page.
• Credits roll over for 3 months on monthly plans.

Cons

• Mobiles cost 10 credits each, so phone-heavy pulls get expensive fast.
• The default API limit is 60 calls a minute.
• A credit meter at volume. There is no public price at 1M work emails. The top monthly tier is 100,000 credits for $3,500 a month ($0.035 a credit), and above that you contact sales.

Best for: teams that want waterfall contact data, mostly emails and mobiles, through an API or an agent.

Pricing: Pro $55 a month for 1,000 credits, Enterprise custom (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026).

4. LeadMagic: best for a low per-credit price on valid emails

LeadMagic is a credit-based enrichment API. It lists 400M+ people profiles and 25M+ companies, and reaches them through REST, CSV, a command-line tool and a hosted MCP server (LeadMagic, September 2026). Failed lookups cost nothing.

The credit price falls as you climb the plans. Essential is $99 a month for 5,000 credits. Professional is $499 for 50,000. Ultimate is $849 for 100,000, or $0.00849 a credit (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). A valid email costs 1 credit and a mobile costs 5.

The Email Finder endpoint allows 600 requests a minute. LeadMagic also states that a sustained find rate below 10% can lead to throttling or suspension (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). Bad input lists carry a real risk. The MCP server uses OAuth, and a preview_cost call shows the price of a large job first (LeadMagic docs, September 2026).

Pros

• The lowest per-credit list price in this group.
• No charge when an email is not found.
• Hosted MCP with a cost preview before large operations.

Cons

• The top self-serve plan is 100,000 credits, so 1M a month needs an Enterprise quote.
• A smaller stated database: 400M+ people profiles.
• A minimum find-rate policy can throttle lists with poor match rates.

Best for: teams that enrich a few hundred thousand valid emails a month and want the cheapest credits.

Pricing: Essential $99, Growth $249, Professional $499, Ultimate $849 a month (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).

5. Crustdata: best for live company and people data in agents

Crustdata sells real-time company and people data through APIs for search, enrichment, jobs, posts and watchers. It lists 1 billion+ people and describes its data as continuously re-verified (Crustdata, September 2026). It fits signal-driven work, such as hiring spikes and funding events, better than bulk list building.

Pricing is credit based and the public page shows no dollar price per credit (Crustdata pricing, September 2026). The docs list costs per call. Person search is 0.03 credits per result, person enrichment 1 to 7 credits, and contact enrichment 1 to 5.5 credits (Crustdata docs, September 2026). Purchased credits expire after 12 months.

Volume is the catch. Standard search and enrich endpoints default to 15 to 30 requests a minute, and higher limits go through support (Crustdata docs, September 2026). At 30 a minute, one key makes about 1.3M single-record calls in 30 days. The MCP server at install.crustdata.com/mcp signs in with OAuth (Crustdata docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Live data and change watchers that a static database lacks.
• Cheap search at 0.03 credits per result, so you narrow before you enrich.
• MCP server that returns company, people and job data.

Cons

• No public price per credit, so you cannot price 1M records from the site.
• Low default rate limits on standard endpoints.
• Contact data costs more credits than a base profile.

Best for: AI SDR and signal workflows that need fresh data more than raw volume.

Pricing: Credit based, with no public price list. Per-call credit costs are in the docs (Crustdata docs, September 2026).

6. People Data Labs: best for data licences and per-match enrichment

People Data Labs (PDL) is a long-running person and company data API with bulk licences. It is ISO and SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, which matters for procurement (PDL pricing, September 2026). It charges per match: a request that returns a person costs one credit, and a miss costs none.

The entry price is high per record. Pro starts at $98 a month for 350 credits, which is $0.28 each, and PDL puts it at about $0.20 to $0.28 a profile. The Free plan gives up to 100 records a month with contact data hidden. Above about 100,000 profiles a year it is quote only (PDL docs, September 2026).

Enrichment allows 1,000 calls a minute on paid plans. The bulk endpoint multiplies that with up to 100 records per request (PDL docs, September 2026). We found no official MCP server in PDL's docs.

none listed in PDL's docs index (PDL docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A fast API with a stated 1,000 calls a minute on paid plans.
• Bulk person enrichment and dataset licences for your own warehouse.
• ISO and SOC 2 Type 2 shown on the pricing page.

Cons

• No public 1M price. Pro runs about $0.20 to $0.28 a profile and volume above about 100,000 profiles a year is quote only.
• Contact data is hidden on the Free plan.
• No official MCP server found, so agents need a wrapper you host.

Best for: teams that license data or need compliance paperwork and accept per-record pricing.

Pricing: Free up to 100 records a month. Pro from $98 a month for 350 credits. Enterprise custom (PDL pricing, September 2026).

7. Apollo: best for reps who want a database and a sequencer in one

Apollo is a sales platform with a contact database attached. It lists 240M+ contacts and 30M+ companies, sequences, a dialer and a Chrome extension (Apollo MCP page, September 2026). It ranks last here because the pricing is built around seats, not volume.

Basic is $49 per seat a month with 30,000 credits a year. Professional is $79 with 48,000. Organization is $119 with 72,000 and a three-seat minimum, all billed annually (Apollo pricing, September 2026). An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 8. Unused credits expire each cycle.

For code, the limits are workable. Enrichment endpoints allow 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans, and search allows 200 a minute and 50,000 a day (Apollo docs, September 2026). The MCP server works on any plan, including Free. Apollo also says its plans are for internal business use only.

Pros

• Database, sequences, dialer and CRM sync in one tool.
• MCP server on every plan, with OAuth sign-in.
• A free plan and a 14-day trial of paid plans.

Cons

• Seats and credits both scale your bill, and credits expire each cycle.
• Record selection caps of 25, 1,000, 2,500 and 10,000 by plan.
• Internal use only, so you cannot build a product on it.

Best for: sales reps who prospect and send from one workspace.

Pricing: Free. Basic $49, Professional $79, Organization $119 per seat a month, billed annually (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

Sources are linked in each tool section, all checked in September 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm on the pricing page before you buy. The 1M column is list-price arithmetic on email lookups where a public plan sells that volume. Apollo is 250 Professional seats at $99 on monthly billing, or 400 Basic seats at $49 on yearly billing. PDL sells no public plan at 1M. FullEnrich and LeadMagic have no public 1M price. FullEnrich tops out at 100,000 credits a month for $3,500. LeadMagic tops out at Ultimate, $849 a month for 100,000 credits.

How to choose

• You pull data in code or with an agent, at volume: LeadOcean. One flat price, REST and MCP on every plan, 100 requests per second.
• You want a flat-price API from a second vendor: BlitzAPI Plus, if you can live with a docs-only MCP server.
• You need waterfall emails and mobiles: FullEnrich, and budget 10 credits per mobile.
• You buy valid emails by the hundred thousand: LeadMagic, at $0.00849 a credit on Ultimate.
• You need fresh signals and company events: Crustdata, with a rate-limit conversation first.
• You need compliance paperwork or a licensed dataset: People Data Labs.
• Your reps live in the tool: Apollo, or stay in Clay.
• You like Clay's tables but hate the credit bill: keep Clay and call a flat-price API from an HTTP column. See LeadOcean in Clay.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for API, agent and volume buyers. It has a flat price, emails and phones in one plan, and an MCP server that returns records. BlitzAPI is the flat-price runner-up if you run your own code. FullEnrich wins for waterfall mobiles and LeadMagic for cheap valid emails. Crustdata wins for live signals, PDL for licensed datasets and Apollo for reps who want a sequencer. Stay on Clay if you need its tables and research columns. Otherwise start on the free plan and compare the same lookups.

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