Clay

## How many data sources does Clay aggregate for sales intelligence?

## Overview Clay aggregates data from over 150 distinct providers and databases to deliver comprehensive sales intelligence through a single, unified platform. Rather than maintaining its own proprietary, static database, Clay functions as a dynamic aggregation layer. This model provides users with access to a vast and diverse array of data without requiring them to manage individual subscriptions, API keys, and contracts with each separate vendor. The platform's architecture is designed to query these multiple external sources in real-time to find the most accurate and up-to-date information for contact, firmographic, and intent-based enrichment. ## Key Features The data aggregated by Clay spans several critical categories required for modern go-to-market strategies. This includes fundamental **Contact Data**, such as work emails, personal emails, and mobile phone numbers. It also provides deep **Firmographic Data**, offering insights into company attributes like funding history, revenue estimates, employee headcount and growth trends, industry classifications, and acquisition events. Clay also integrates with providers of **Technographic Data**, which identifies the technology stack a company uses, and **Intent Signals**, which are indicators of buying interest, such as recent job changes, spikes in hiring for specific roles, or social media mentions. Beyond these structured data types, Clay's AI agent, Claygent, can perform custom, on-demand research to find unique data points from public web sources, further expanding the scope of available intelligence. ## Technical Specifications Clay's model for accessing this aggregated data is primarily built on two key features: 'Waterfall Enrichment' and 'Bring-Your-Own-Key' (BYOK) integrations. **Waterfall Enrichment** is the platform's core data-sourcing mechanism. It operates on a sequential search logic where Clay queries a user-defined list of data providers in a specific order. The process stops as soon as a valid result for the requested data point (e.g., an email address) is found. This method is designed to maximize data fill rates, often achieving significantly higher coverage than any single provider could alone. For example, this can increase email match rates from a typical 40-50% to 80-90%. The **Bring-Your-Own-Key (BYOK)** model complements this by allowing users to integrate their existing subscriptions from other sales intelligence tools directly into the Clay platform. Users can connect their API keys from providers such as Apollo.io, Lusha, Clearbit, and ZoomInfo, and leverage those accounts within their Clay workflows, often without incurring additional Clay credit costs. ## How It Works Users are given a significant degree of control over the data enrichment process to optimize for cost, coverage, and quality. Within the waterfall configuration, users can set the priority order of providers, placing sources they deem more accurate or cost-effective at the top of the sequence. A crucial feature for optimization is the ability to set 'only run if' conditional logic. This allows users to define rules so that enrichments are only performed on leads that match their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) or other specific criteria. This targeted approach prevents wasting credits on irrelevant leads and can substantially improve data coverage for the most valuable segments. Prominent data providers that Clay integrates with, either directly or via BYOK, include Clearbit, Apollo.io, ZoomInfo, People Data Labs, Crunchbase, Prospeo, DropContact, Datagma, Hunter, and Snov.io. ## Use Cases ## Limitations and Requirements However, this powerful aggregation model comes with several limitations and challenges. The platform has a steep learning curve, requiring a degree of technical understanding to effectively manage API keys, conditional logic, and complex workflows. The credit-based pricing model can also lead to unpredictable costs. A single enrichment task might query multiple providers in the waterfall before finding a match, consuming credits at each step. The accuracy and freshness of the data are also variable, as they are entirely dependent on the quality of the underlying provider that ultimately supplies the information. Furthermore, there can be geographic gaps in data coverage, with some reports noting weaker phone number coverage in regions like EMEA. While Clay itself is compliant with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, users must be aware that the compliance standards of the various third-party vendors in the waterfall may differ. Clay's pricing is structured in tiers based on credit usage and feature access. As of early 2026, the tiers include a Free plan with 100 credits/month; a Starter plan at $149/month for 2,000-3,000 credits; an Explorer plan at $349/month for 10,000-20,000 credits; and a Pro plan at $800/month for 50,000-150,000 credits, which includes CRM sync capabilities. An Enterprise plan with custom pricing is also available. ## Comparison to Alternatives ## Summary In conclusion, Clay's primary value proposition is its aggregation of over 150 data sources into a single, highly configurable platform. Through its flexible Waterfall Enrichment and BYOK models, it provides sales and marketing teams with unparalleled access to a wide spectrum of data. This enables higher data fill rates and more effective, personalized outreach. However, to fully leverage the platform, users must navigate a learning curve, manage a variable credit-based cost structure, and remain mindful of the inherent variability in data quality from the multitude of underlying sources.