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Clay vs Copy.ai

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Cheaper paid plan
Copy.ai — $24/mo vs $167/mo for Clay
Free plan
Only Clay (Copy.ai has paid plans only)
Public API
Both have one
Best fit
Clay: Outbound teams that need firmographic, contact and intent data from several vendors in one list · Copy.ai: Sales and marketing teams automating account research and outbound sequences
Trust score
About even — Clay 94, Copy.ai 94

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

Side by side

FactClayCopy.ai
CategorySales Intelligence & EnrichmentCopywriting & Ad Copy
Pricing modelFreemiumPaid
Starts at$167/mo$24/mo
Public APIYesYes
Trust score94 / 10094 / 100
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CompanyClay Labs Inc.CopyAI, Inc.
Launched20172020
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Clay

Clay is the tool to reach for when a prospect list needs more than one data vendor and some judgement per row - the waterfall enrichment and the research agent do in one table what used to take three subscriptions and a VA. It is not a cheap or simple tool: the useful plan starts at a few hundred dollars a month, credits are spent per column per row, and CRM sync and webhooks only arrive on the $446 tier. A one-person outbound effort can live on the free plan; a team that already runs sequences will want Growth and a budget for overages.

Pros

  • Waterfall enrichment tries many providers per field, so coverage is higher than any one vendor
  • Claygent runs open web research per row with a prompt, not just database lookups
  • Free plan has unlimited seats and tables, so a team can trial it without buying seats
  • Large integration and template ecosystem, and the company is well funded

Cons

  • Launch at $167 a month still lacks CRM integrations, HTTP API and webhooks - those start at $446
  • Actions and data credits are two separate meters, and the pricing page itself shows two different credit figures for Launch
  • The spreadsheet metaphor hides real complexity; building a reliable table takes learning time
  • Overage billing makes the monthly bill hard to forecast

Copy.ai

Worth it if you are a go-to-market team that will actually build workflows; if you just want a writing assistant, the free plan is gone and a general chatbot costs less.

Pros

  • Workflows chain research, enrichment and writing instead of one-shot prompts
  • Chat seats are unlimited-word and cover five users at the entry price
  • Now backed by a larger RevOps suite rather than a standalone startup

Cons

  • Entry price climbed as the product moved upmarket away from individuals
  • Nothing exists between the $29 Chat seat and the $1,000/mo Growth tier
  • Workflow credits meter compute, so running cost is hard to predict up front
  • Roadmap now serves Fullcast's revenue-operations story, not writers

Which one fits

Choose Clay if you need

  • Outbound teams that need firmographic, contact and intent data from several vendors in one list
  • GTM engineers automating research and personalisation per account with prompts and agents
  • RevOps groups wiring job-change and funding signals into their CRM

Choose Copy.ai if you need

  • Sales and marketing teams automating account research and outbound sequences
  • RevOps groups already inside the Fullcast planning and compensation stack
  • Companies that want CRM data pulled into generated content automatically

Clay vs Copy.ai: the questions people ask

Is Clay cheaper than Copy.ai?

On published entry prices, Copy.ai starts lower — $24/mo against $167/mo for Clay. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does Clay or Copy.ai have a free tier?

Clay has a free tier; Copy.ai has paid plans only.

Which has a public API, Clay or Copy.ai?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.

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