Clado vs Clay: AI People Search vs Enrichment Workflow Platform (2026)

Clado charges $0.01 per credit for AI-agent people search across 800M+ profiles. Clay starts at $185/month for 2,500 data credits and 15,000 actions to run enrichment workflows across 100+ providers. If you need a one-time list for a cold email push, Clado is cheaper. If you need repeatable outbound infrastructure, Clay is the one worth the higher bill.

Clado vs Clay: Head-to-Head Comparison Table

Clado is an AI-native people search engine. Clay is a data enrichment and workflow automation platform. They overlap on "find people and their emails" but solve different problems past that point, per each platform's own docs.

Axis	Clado	Clay	Winner
Pricing model	Pay-per-credit, $0.01/credit, no monthly floor	Tiers from $185/mo (Launch) to $495/mo (Growth)	Clado
Data coverage	800M+ profiles via 105 AI agents	100+ providers via waterfall enrichment	Tie
Core mechanism	Natural-language search + deep research agents	Visual workflow builder + Claygent AI agent	Clay
Enrichment cost	4 credits per found email, 10 per found phone	Bundled into Data Credits, varies by provider	Clado
Best for	Sourcing a specific list once	Always-on, multi-step GTM workflows	Depends

What is Clado and who is it built for?

Clado is a YC-backed people search engine that runs 105 AI agents against 800M+ profiles to answer queries like "software engineers at Meta in SF who've published on GitHub," per Clado's product page. It returns unified profiles pulling from LinkedIn, GitHub, and Google Scholar, plus email and phone enrichment on demand.

There's no subscription tier. You pay for what you use: 1 credit per AI-filtered result, a flat 5 credits for a standard search, and 4 to 10 credits per successful contact match, per Clado's API pricing page. Failed lookups aren't charged. For a team that needs 500 names for one campaign, that beats paying $185 to sit mostly idle.

What is Clay and where does it actually win?

Clay isn't a search tool first, it's a workflow canvas. You build a table, pipe in a list from Apollo, LinkedIn exports, or your CRM, then run it through a waterfall of enrichment providers until every row has a verified email, per Clay's documentation. Claygent, its built-in AI agent, researches each row individually, similar in spirit to Clado but bolted onto an automation engine.

That engine is the point. Clay connects to your CRM, sending tool, and Slack, so a new lead can trigger enrichment and scoring without anyone touching a spreadsheet. Clado has no equivalent. It's a search box, not a pipeline.

Which one should you actually use for cold outbound?

Most teams don't need both, but plenty pay for both anyway because they solve different problems. If your bottleneck is finding the right people, use Clado. If your bottleneck is what happens after you find them, Clay's waterfall and automation layer is the only one built for that.

Here's the part most comparison posts won't say: Clay's $185/mo Launch plan is overkill for a team that needs 2,000 verified contacts once a quarter. You'll burn the monthly floor on credits you don't use. Clado's usage-based pricing fits that pattern better, even without Clay's automation muscle.

• Pick Clado if you need a clean list fast and don't want a recurring bill.
• Pick Clay if you're running weekly or always-on outbound and need enrichment tied to CRM triggers.
• Pick neither if you'd rather have a team handle sourcing, verification, and sending end to end.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Clado used for?

Clado is used for AI-powered people search, mainly by recruiters sourcing candidates and sales teams building prospect lists. It searches 800M+ profiles with natural-language queries and returns enriched contact details on a pay-per-credit basis, per Clado's documentation.

What is Clay used for?

Clay is used to build and automate GTM workflows: pulling lead lists, running them through a waterfall of enrichment providers, and pushing results into a CRM or sending tool, all inside one visual canvas, per Clay's product documentation.

Is Clado cheaper than Clay?

For one-off list building, yes. Clado has no monthly minimum and charges $0.01 per credit. Clay's cheapest self-serve plan starts at $185/month for 2,500 data credits, which only pays off if you're running enrichment regularly enough to use the allocation.

Can you use Clado and Clay together?

Yes. Some teams source hard-to-find profiles in Clado, then pipe the list into Clay to run verification and CRM sync. They're not mutually exclusive since one is a search engine and the other is a workflow platform.

If building and maintaining either of these stacks isn't where you want to spend your week, that's what Modern Inbound does. Modern Inbound has booked 3,000+ qualified B2B meetings running the sourcing, verification, and sending layer so clients just show up to replies. See how the setup works or talk to us directly.

By Rishabh Ambasta, Founder, Modern Inbound.