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

ZoomInfo and Clay both put B2B contact data behind an API, but they sell different things. ZoomInfo owns a contact database and sells it by the credit. Clay resells many providers and charges for the work on top.

ZoomInfo has two ways in. The platform is the sales suite, with plan prices behind a human check on its pricing page. GTM AI is the newer pay-as-you-go API and MCP product. This page compares GTM AI with Clay, because that is where prices are public.

Verdict

• Pick ZoomInfo if you want one first-party contact database with direct dials, a published rate limit and a price you can read up to 100,000 credits. A record is charged once per 12 months, so repeat lookups are free.
• Pick Clay if a GTM engineer will build waterfalls across 150+ providers and research columns. Seats are unlimited, and an empty result costs nothing.
• Pick neither if you need volume through an API at a price you can read. Neither publishes a 1M price. LeadOcean is one option: Pro is $499 a month, flat.

Side by side

Data and coverage

ZoomInfo sells its own database. Clay sells access to many. The record counts above are ZoomInfo's marketing claims, and two of its own pages disagree on the totals.

That changes what coverage means. With ZoomInfo, a record is whatever ZoomInfo holds. With Clay, a waterfall asks providers in turn until one answers. Clay's pricing page lists 150+ providers, and it also runs Searches over its own GTM database.

Clay publishes no size for that database. It publishes no email or phone counts either. ZoomInfo publishes counts, but gives no accuracy rate for phones on the page we read.

Phones are the costly part on both. ZoomInfo calls direct dials a core feature. Clay has no phone enrichment on Free, and its credit cost per phone is not on the pricing page or the credits doc (Clay docs, September 2026).

Match rate depends on your input. A LinkedIn URL or work email matches far more often than a name alone. You cannot settle coverage on paper, so run the same 500 people through both free plans.

API and developer experience

Both have an API and an MCP server. The difference is shape. ZoomInfo is search first, then enrich by ID. Clay creates a search, then pages it, or runs a routine you build first.

ZoomInfo authenticates with an OAuth bearer token and sends JSON:API content types (ZoomInfo API conventions, September 2026). Search is free. This is the contact search call from its docs, with a placeholder company:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.zoominfo.com/gtm/data/v1/contacts/search \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $ZOOMINFO_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --header "accept: application/vnd.api+json" \
  --header "content-type: application/vnd.api+json" \
  --data '{"data":{"attributes":{"companyName":"Acme"},"type":"ContactSearch"}}'

The response carries IDs and flags such as hasEmail and hasDirectPhone. You then enrich the IDs you want, at most 25 per call, and each new record costs one credit (ZoomInfo docs, September 2026).

Clay uses a clay-api-key header. Advanced search takes a query string, returns a search_id, and you page it with a run call (Clay developer docs, October 2026):

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.clay.com/public/v0/search/query-mode \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --header "clay-api-key: $CLAY_PUBLIC_API_KEY" \
  --data '{"query":"select from people where experiences.any(is_current = true and job_title is_similar_to (\"software engineer\"))"}'

Then POST /search/query-mode/{search_id}/run returns the next page. Enrichment runs as a routine you start and poll for results, 1 to 100 items a run.

Limits differ in kind. ZoomInfo publishes three windows per package: per second, per hour and per day. Builder gets 5 requests a second and 129,600 a day. Scaling gets 35 a second and 907,200 a day (ZoomInfo rate limits, September 2026). A second ZoomInfo page lists 25 a second as the default, so check which applies to you.

Clay's Public API limit is per workspace, with no number. You get a 429 with a Retry-After header when you pass it. For the HTTP API column you set your own limit, for example 10 requests per second (Clay docs, September 2026).

Clay also caps API search by plan. Free allows 50 results per request and 100 per 30 days. Current paid plans allow 500 per request and 1,000,000 per 30 days (Clay developer docs, October 2026).

On MCP, ZoomInfo's server works in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Copilot. Clay MCP covers Claude, ChatGPT and Codex. Clay's separate agent plugin installs a CLI, not an MCP server (Clay docs, September 2026).

Pricing

ZoomInfo GTM AI charges by the data credit. Clay charges a plan fee built from an Action tier plus a Data Credit tier. To compare, convert both to cost per record.

At 10,000 records a month

For ZoomInfo, take 10,000 new contacts. That is 10,000 data credits at 1 credit each. List price at the 2,500 to 10,000 credit tier is $0.38, so 10,000 x $0.38 = $3,800 (GTM AI pricing, September 2026). There is no yearly price, because credits are pay as you go.

A record is charged once per 12 months. If 3,000 of those contacts were enriched earlier in the year, you pay for 7,000. Search, lookup and find similar cost nothing (ZoomInfo credit docs, September 2026).

For Clay, take the same 10,000 emails at its worked example of 0.5 credit per email find. That is 5,000 Data Credits and 10,000 Actions. On monthly billing, the 15,000 Action tier is $60 and the 6,000 credit tier is $290, so $60 + $290 = $350 a month. Billed yearly it is $54 + $261 = $315 (Clay pricing, September 2026).

The 0.5 credit is an example, and real cost varies by provider. Clay says a fully enriched record typically costs 6 to 20 Data Credits (Clay docs, September 2026). So 10,000 full records need 60,000 to 200,000 credits, and the top self-serve tier is 50,000 a month.

So the answer depends on the record. Plain email finds are cheaper on Clay at this size. Full records at 6 to 20 credits run past Clay's largest self-serve credit tier, while ZoomInfo charges one credit per contact record.

At 1M records a month

ZoomInfo has no public 1M price. The GTM AI slider stops at 100,000 credits for $25,000, which is $0.25 a credit. Past that it is Enterprise, by quote (GTM AI pricing, September 2026). Do not multiply $0.25 by 10 and call it a quote.

Platform pricing is a separate question. zoominfo.com/pricing sits behind a human check, so this page leaves platform plan prices out.

Clay has no public 1M price either. One million lookups need 1,000,000 Actions, and Actions cannot be bought as top-ups. The largest self-serve tier is 200,000 Actions and 50,000 Data Credits a month. Above that, Clay sells Enterprise by quote (Clay pricing, September 2026).

The top Growth tier costs $850 + $2,125 = $2,975 a month on monthly billing. At 0.5 credit per email, its 50,000 credits cover 100,000 lookups, not 1M. That is arithmetic, not a quote.

Where ZoomInfo wins

• Its own database. One first-party source with direct dials and intent data, not a stitch of providers. Intent enrichment is a listed GTM AI operation (ZoomInfo credit docs, September 2026).
• Published limits. Rate limits by package, in writing, per second, hour and day.
• Free search, charged once. Search and lookup cost nothing, and a record costs one credit per 12 months.
• A readable ladder. Credit prices from $0.45 down to $0.25 are on the page, up to 100,000 credits.

Where Clay wins

• Many providers in one flow. A waterfall tries one source after another, so a miss on one does not end the search.
• Unlimited seats. The whole team works in one workspace for one plan fee.
• Research beyond a database. Claygent, Clay's research agent, is on every plan including Free (Clay pricing, September 2026).
• No charge for a miss. An enrichment with no result uses no credits and no Actions.

If you need volume through an API

We build LeadOcean, so weigh this section accordingly. LeadOcean holds 693M people and 63M companies, and you reach them over REST and MCP. Free is 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with unlimited searches and lookups and 100 requests per second per key (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

For bulk work, POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request. The app has an Exports page with a filter builder and CSV download (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). A very large month is paced down past the fair-usage line, so email support before you plan 1M. LeadOcean has no sequencer, dialer or table builder. See the ZoomInfo alternative page and the Clay alternative page for line-by-line versions.

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