Is Clay profitable in 2026?

Clay has not disclosed profitability. It reported reaching $100M ARR in December 2025 (company blog) and an analyst estimate from Sacra put ARR near $150M by May 2026, but no net income or profitability figures have been made public as of mid 2026.

Could AI replace Clay?

Clay runs on GPT-5 and Claude models via its Claygent agents, and both ChatGPT and Claude added Clay as a connector/MCP integration by May 2026. Basic data lookups are commoditizing, but Clay's 150+ provider marketplace and CRM workflow integrations are not yet replicated natively by any frontier lab.

Who owns Clay, and is it public?

Clay Labs, Inc. is privately held and venture-backed, headquartered in New York City. It has no parent company. As of a January 2026 employee tender offer led by DST, it was valued at approximately $5 billion, up from a $3.1 billion Series C valuation in August 2025 led by CapitalG.

Is Clay's biggest competitor ZoomInfo?

ZoomInfo is Clay's most-cited incumbent rival, having shipped a competing 'GTM Workspace' product, though ZoomInfo's own data business creates structural conflicts with a neutral aggregation model. Apollo.io and Default.com are also named as cheaper challengers as of 2026.

How much funding has Clay raised?

Clay raised a $100M Series C at a $3.1 billion post-money valuation on August 5, 2025, led by CapitalG, bringing total funding to roughly $204M. It followed with a January 2026 employee tender offer of about $55M led by DST at a $5 billion valuation.

Did Clay change its pricing in 2026?

Yes. In March 2026, Clay restructured its single credit system into a dual-meter model: 'Data Credits' for third-party enrichment and 'Actions' for workflow execution, aiming to shift revenue toward higher-margin orchestration and away from low-margin data pass-through, per Sacra's research.

AI companies and labs · United States

Clay

clay.com ↗

Clay is an AI-driven platform that enriches sales data and automates outreach across 150+ providers.

Defensible for now

Assessed 21 July 2026 · Evidence as of 21 July 2026

Real protection, with named pressure against it.

On the recordSince 21 July 2026 · Checkable from Q4 2026 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: Post-pricing-split churn and growth data expected after March 2026 Data Credits vs Actions split

The call

Clay sits between data providers and AI labs as an orchestration layer, holding share for now while pricing changes and rivals' shipped products test whether that position survives.

Clay is a tool that pulls information from 150+ data sources and uses AI to help sales teams find and organize customer data. It is fairly hard to replace because it sits between many different data companies and AI systems, and ZoomInfo (its main competitor) sells its own data so it cannot easily copy Clay without hurting its own business. However, ChatGPT and Claude are starting to do some of what Clay does directly, and if they build their own connections to CRM systems, Clay could become unnecessary. The real test is whether Clay can make enough money from its premium services after it stopped selling cheap data access in March 2026, and whether it can keep its customers locked in before the big AI companies decide to build this themselves.

Why

AI pressure: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google (native GTM agents). Labs now route through Clay via MCP and ChatGPT connectors, but could build native prospecting-to-CRM agents and cut Clay out entirely. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.

Bigger players: ZoomInfo. ZoomInfo shipped its own GTM Workspace, using owned data to compete directly with the orchestration layer Clay built on top of it. Could a giant copy it? Probably.

What protects it. Neutral access to 150+ data providers plus workflow lock-in and a GTM-Engineer community that ZoomInfo can't copy without hurting its own data sales.

What would change this call

Clay's growth rate or ARR trajectory reported after Q3-Q4 2026, post pricing-split. Shows whether the March 2026 Data Credits vs Actions pricing change caused churn or slowed growth.
ZoomInfo discloses GTM Workspace customer adoption numbers or wins in earnings calls. Shows whether the incumbent is pulling customers away from Clay.
OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google ships a native GTM workflow agent with direct CRM connectors. Shows model makers moving from routing through Clay to replacing its last-mile function.

Key numbers

$100M ARR reached (Dec 2025)
$3.1B valuation, $100M Series C (Aug 2025)
10,000+ customers (Jun 2026)

Named risks

March 2026 pricing restructure into Data Credits and Actions could trigger customer churn. Severity: medium
Frontier labs (OpenAI, Anthropic) could absorb last-mile CRM/agent workflow, bypassing Clay. Severity: high
Low-margin data pass-through business faces continued commoditization pressure. Severity: medium
Large fixed-cost NYC office build-out (~$30M, 11 Madison Ave) commits capital amid uncertain growth. Severity: medium
Cheaper challengers (Apollo, Default.com) and ZoomInfo's GTM Workspace could erode share. Severity: medium

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
ZoomInfo	contesting	Shipped competing 'GTM Workspace' product while remaining structurally conflicted as a data owner, 2025 to 2026
Apollo.io	contesting	Cheaper per-seat contact/sequencing alternative pressuring Clay on price, per 2026 comparison sources
Default.com	gaining on	Positioned as simpler inbound-focused alternative to Clay's complexity, 2026
OpenAI and Anthropic	contesting	Feed Clay via MCP/ChatGPT/Claude connectors (2026-05) but could build native last-mile GTM agents

Questions people ask

Is Clay profitable in 2026?: Clay has not disclosed profitability. It reported reaching $100M ARR in December 2025 (company blog) and an analyst estimate from Sacra put ARR near $150M by May 2026, but no net income or profitability figures have been made public as of mid 2026.
Could AI replace Clay?: Clay runs on GPT-5 and Claude models via its Claygent agents, and both ChatGPT and Claude added Clay as a connector/MCP integration by May 2026. Basic data lookups are commoditizing, but Clay's 150+ provider marketplace and CRM workflow integrations are not yet replicated natively by any frontier lab.
Who owns Clay, and is it public?: Clay Labs, Inc. is privately held and venture-backed, headquartered in New York City. It has no parent company. As of a January 2026 employee tender offer led by DST, it was valued at approximately $5 billion, up from a $3.1 billion Series C valuation in August 2025 led by CapitalG.
Is Clay's biggest competitor ZoomInfo?: ZoomInfo is Clay's most-cited incumbent rival, having shipped a competing 'GTM Workspace' product, though ZoomInfo's own data business creates structural conflicts with a neutral aggregation model. Apollo.io and Default.com are also named as cheaper challengers as of 2026.
How much funding has Clay raised?: Clay raised a $100M Series C at a $3.1 billion post-money valuation on August 5, 2025, led by CapitalG, bringing total funding to roughly $204M. It followed with a January 2026 employee tender offer of about $55M led by DST at a $5 billion valuation.
Did Clay change its pricing in 2026?: Yes. In March 2026, Clay restructured its single credit system into a dual-meter model: 'Data Credits' for third-party enrichment and 'Actions' for workflow execution, aiming to shift revenue toward higher-margin orchestration and away from low-margin data pass-through, per Sacra's research.

Timeline

2026-05-26Clay MCP announced live in Claude and ChatGPT (event dated 2026-04-22)
2026-03Pricing restructured into Data Credits and Actions dual-meter model
2026-01Employee tender offer ~$55M at $5B valuation, led by DST
2025-12Clay reaches $100M ARR milestone per company blog
2025-08-05Series C $100M closed at $3.1B post-money valuation, led by CapitalG
2025-01-23Series B expansion $40M at $1.25B valuation, led by Meritech
2024-06Series B $46M raised at $500M valuation
2019-01Series A $13.5M raised, led by Sequoia Capital
2017Clay founded by Kareem Amin (Varun Anand joined as co-founder in 2021)

Revision history

21 July 2026

First assessed. Defensible for now. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

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