Clay vs RocketReach (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

Clay is the better pick for teams that build enrichment workflows. RocketReach is the better pick for one person looking up contacts one at a time. Neither publishes a price at 1M records a month. This page compares them on data, API, MCP and cost, with the arithmetic shown.

Verdict

• Pick Clay if you want a table that runs a waterfall across 150+ data providers, and you have someone to build it. The Public API and CLI come on every plan, Free included (Clay docs, September 2026).
• Pick RocketReach if you look people up one at a time and want a large index with a plain app. It charges only for emails graded A or A-, and a lookup that finds nothing is free (RocketReach FAQ, September 2026).
• Pick neither if the job is bulk volume through an API at a fixed bill. Both meter by credit and neither prices 1M records. LeadOcean is built for that case. See the last section.

Side by side

Data and coverage

RocketReach claims 700M+ professionals. Clay publishes no record count. Both are vendor claims, and neither gives a count of records with an email or a phone.

The two are different kinds of source. Clay resells data from 150+ partners, so coverage depends on which providers you chain and in what order. RocketReach is one index. RocketReach says 87 percent of lookups return a profile and LinkedIn URLs return data 99 percent of the time (RocketReach FAQ, September 2026). That is its own figure, so test it on your list.

Cost per record moves with the data type. Clay's docs say emails are cheap and phones are expensive, with a cost range of 0.5 to 10+ credits per enrichment (Clay docs, September 2026). An enrichment that returns nothing is charged no credits and no Actions (Clay pricing, September 2026).

Email quality works differently. RocketReach grades each email A, A-, B or F and charges only for A and A-. In Clay the result depends on the provider you call, so you choose the validator and the order of the waterfall yourself.

Size is not the same as reach. A larger index can hold more stale profiles, and a waterfall can find an email a single index misses. Only a test on your own list shows the real match rate.

A fair test takes an afternoon. Pull 500 contacts from your CRM that you know are good, with a spread of regions, seniority levels and company sizes. Run the same list through both tools and count three things: how many return an email, how many of those emails bounce, and how many return a phone number. Check the credit meter after each run, so you know the real cost per match. Clay's Free plan and RocketReach's free lookups are enough to start, though the Free plan has no phone enrichment.

API and developer experience

Clay's API runs routines, not a plain lookup endpoint. You build a function in Clay, then call it by id. RocketReach has a direct lookup endpoint, but a lookup can answer with a status of progress.

Clay's routine run, from its docs, with a placeholder function id and domain (Clay developer docs, September 2026):

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://api.clay.com/public/v0/routines/function:t_abc123/run" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --header "clay-api-key: $CLAY_PUBLIC_API_KEY" \
  --data '{"items":[{"id":"row-1","inputs":{"domain":"acme.com"}}]}'

The call returns a routine_run_id. You then poll GET /routines/run/{id}/results until it returns HTTP 200. Each run takes 1 to 100 items.

RocketReach's person lookup, from its docs (RocketReach docs, September 2026):

curl "https://api.rocketreach.co/api/v2/person/lookup?linkedin_url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe" \
  -H "Api-Key: $ROCKETREACH_API_KEY"

This is a GET and it consumes export credits. If the status is progress, you poll the status endpoint or register a webhook to get the verified emails.

Both have a rate limit that needs handling. Clay publishes no number for the Public API. For the HTTP API column you set the limit yourself, and the docs example is 10 requests per second (Clay docs, September 2026). On search, Clay's developer docs cap paid plans at 500 results per request and 1,000,000 per 30 days, while its university doc says per year (Clay developer docs, September 2026).

Both ship an MCP server. Clay's puts its providers and your team's functions into ChatGPT, Claude and Codex. RocketReach's exposes person and company search plus lookup, with OAuth 2.1.

Pricing

Clay prices Actions and Data Credits in tiers. RocketReach prices plans, and the API spends Universal Credits it puts no dollar price on. The examples below count one work-email lookup as one record.

Clay at 10,000 records a month

An email find costs 0.5 credit in Clay's docs example, and each enrichment uses 1 Action. So 10,000 lookups need 10,000 Actions and 5,000 credits (Clay docs, September 2026).

• Monthly billing, Launch: 15,000 Actions $60 + 6,000 credits $290 = $350 a month.
• Yearly billing, Launch: $54 + $261 = $315 a month equivalent.

Source: Clay pricing, September 2026. A fully enriched record costs 6 to 20 credits in Clay's own docs. At that rate, 10,000 records need 60,000 to 200,000 credits. The largest self-serve credit tier is 50,000 a month, so that job is an Enterprise quote.

Clay at 1M records a month

No public 1M price. A million lookups need 1,000,000 Actions, and Actions cannot be bought as top-ups. The largest self-serve Action tier is 200,000 a month (Clay pricing, September 2026). Above the public tiers, Clay sells Enterprise by quote.

RocketReach at 10,000 records a month

RocketReach monthly list prices are Essentials $69, Pro $119 and Ultimate $209, reported by G2 because rocketreach.co/pricing blocks automated reads (G2, September 2026). Ultimate carries 1,000 exports a month, also as reported by G2.

Seat route, our own arithmetic and not a published price: 10,000 / 1,000 = 10 Ultimate seats x $209 = $2,090 a month. API route: a professional email is 2 credits, so 10,000 emails is 20,000 Universal Credits. RocketReach publishes no dollar price for a credit (RocketReach credits, September 2026).

RocketReach at 1M records a month

No public 1M price. The highest published person lookup cap is 200,000 a month, so 1M lookups is five months of allowance (RocketReach rate limits, September 2026). In credits, 1M professional emails is 2,000,000 Universal Credits. Ask the API team for a quote.

Where Clay wins

• Workflows. Tables, waterfalls across 150+ providers and Claygent, Clay's AI research agent, sit in one tool (Clay pricing, September 2026).
• Cheaper email finds at 10,000 a month. $350 on monthly billing, against about $2,090 for RocketReach seats.
• API and CLI on the Free plan. You can test the developer platform before paying, within a 100-result monthly search cap.
• No charge for a miss. An enrichment with no result costs no credits and no Actions.

Where RocketReach wins

• A simpler tool for one person. An app and a lookup endpoint, with no table to build.
• A published credit price list. Search is 1 credit per page, a professional email 2, a phone 6 (RocketReach credits, September 2026).
• Pay only for good emails. No charge for a B or F grade, and re-lookups of the same profile are free while the plan is active.
• A direct lookup call. One GET with a LinkedIn URL, with no function to build first.

If you need volume through an API

Neither tool publishes a price at 1M records a month. LeadOcean is a data API with one flat price: Free gives 1,000 records, one-off, with no card, and Pro is $499 a month with no credits. You get 693M people and 63M companies over REST and a 12-tool MCP server, with 100 requests per second per key. Bulk export is POST /v1/exports at 50,000 rows per request, up to 500,000 rows a day, so a 1M-row pull takes two days (LeadOcean docs, September 2026). It has no tables, sequences or Chrome extension. See pricing.

If you are also weighing other contact finders, we compared RocketReach against UpLead, SalesIntel and LeadIQ. If Clay is your current tool, read the Clay alternative page or the list of Clay alternatives. More comparisons are in the blog.

FAQ