Data credits
Data credits are the currency a workflow tool like Clay charges per unit of data bought from a provider inside an enrichment step, separate from the Actions currency the same platform charges for running the workflow logic itself.
Data credits are the currency a workflow tool like Clay charges specifically for buying data from a provider inside an enrichment step. They sit alongside a separate currency, usually called Actions, that the same platform charges for running the orchestration logic itself: enrichments, AI calls, sending an email, syncing to a CRM, and, per Clay's own mechanism documentation, HTTP API calls too. There's no separate category or discount tier for API-triggered work. It draws down the same meter a person clicking through the interface would draw down.
The one real lever: bring your own key
Using an external provider's own API key inside a workflow, rather than buying that provider's data through the platform's marketplace, changes which meter gets charged. Clay's own documentation states it in two lines: with your own key, "the AI usage and costs are billed directly by that external provider, not through Clay credits," but "an Action will still be consumed." Bring-your-own-key skips the Data Credits meter. It doesn't skip the Actions meter.
The two currencies also roll over differently. Actions don't roll over month to month and can't be topped up separately, only a plan upgrade adds more, per Clay's own docs. Data Credits do roll over, up to 2x the monthly limit on monthly plans, and can be bought as one-time top-ups. As of July 2026, Clay's Launch plan runs $167 a month for 15,000 Actions and 3,000 Data Credits; Growth runs $446 a month for 40,000 Actions and 6,000 Data Credits.
In practice
Treat credit cost as a tuning parameter, not a fixed cost of doing business. Once a build moves from clicking through a table to running headless, through an API call or an agent loop, routing a high-volume provider through its own key is one more environment variable, not a new workflow, and it's worth doing for whichever provider gets called the most.
What people get wrong
People assume a programmatic, API-driven build is automatically cheaper than clicking through the interface, since "programmatic" reads as efficient and efficient reads as cheaper. Clay's own billing docs list HTTP API calls under the exact same Actions consumption as everything else. The API changed how a team reaches the platform. It didn't change what the platform charges for being reached.
