Lusha vs Clay: Reveal a Number or Build a Table

The short answer: if reps reveal direct dials one person at a time from LinkedIn or the CRM, Lusha Pro at $69.90 a month covers two seats and 600 credits, with a phone at 5 credits, and Clay adds nothing to that job, per the Lusha pricing page and its credits article, checked on 26 October 2026. If the job is a scored list drawn from several providers, Clay's Launch plan at $185 a month is the tool, on its pricing page, and Lusha can be one of its columns. One catch: Clay's Lusha doc says the person enrichment needs your own Lusha account, and Lusha lists API access from Pro.

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Before you add a second data tool:

1. Do the phone sum in both. For example, 200 direct dials a month use 200 x 5 = 1,000 Lusha credits, more than Pro's 600 and inside Premium's 3,400 at $399.90, per the pricing page. Run the same 200 through Lusha inside Clay and the 1,000 Lusha credits still leave your Lusha account, plus 200 Clay actions, one per enrichment, per Clay's credits guide.
2. Check what Lusha already falls back to. When its own data has no match, Lusha's Data Waterfall tries DataLegion, Prospeo, Techsalerator, Bytemine and Wiza, in an order Lusha decides, per its Data Waterfall doc. If that fills your gaps, a second tool is not needed for phones.
3. Measure on the phone. Connected calls per 100 dials, by the column each number came from. Coverage claims do not answer the phone.

Lusha is a contact and company data platform organised around the reveal: one person, one email, one direct dial, in the extension, the CRM, the API or an AI assistant. Clay sits a level above the providers, as a table that calls whichever of them you choose, Lusha included, and adds logic and research around each call.

The decision points

Three differences

One reveal or a whole list

Lusha is fastest when a rep is already looking at the person: a profile on LinkedIn, a record in HubSpot, a name from a call. Searching and filtering cost nothing, and a revealed contact stays revealed, per the credits article. Clay is built for the other shape of work: a thousand rows, the same steps on each, and a score at the end. Lusha has bulk and CSV enrichment too, but no logic between steps; Clay can enrich one person, but a table is a heavy way to do it.

Whose waterfall it is

Lusha's waterfall is a fallback it runs for you, with the order of providers set by Lusha, per its Data Waterfall doc. Clay's is a column you design: which providers, in which order, under which conditions, per its credits guide. If you have no view on provider order, Lusha's version is enough. If your market has a provider that finds phones others miss, Clay lets you put it first.

What Lusha costs inside Clay

This is the Clay fact that decides the pair. Clay's Lusha doc says every Lusha action except Enrich person can run on Clay credits without a Lusha key; Enrich person needs your own Lusha account and, with email and phone switched on, uses 1 and 5 Lusha credits from it. Signals bought through Clay carry their own rate, for example 8 credits per headcount growth signal found, per Clay's Lusha integration page. So the phone reveals that matter most still run on a Lusha subscription with API access, which starts at Pro.

One agent step: titles first, phones second

Lusha's MCP prompt examples include a target-account request: give it three domains and ask for director-level and above contacts in Sales or Marketing, with their titles. That search spends nothing. The account owner reads the titles, marks the five people per account worth a call, and only then asks the assistant to reveal phones for those, at 5 credits each, per the credits article. The agent shortlists. The person decides who costs money.

What each costs, checked on 26 October 2026

• Lusha, per month on its pricing page: Free at $0 for 40 credits and one seat; Starter at $49.90 billed monthly for 400 credits, or $37.45 billed yearly; Pro at $69.90 for 600 credits and two seats, or $52.45 yearly; Premium at $399.90 for 3,400 credits and five seats, or $299.95 yearly. Yearly billing takes 25% off and grants the year's credits upfront.
• Clay, per workspace on its pricing page: Free at $0; Launch at $185 billed monthly, $167 billed annually; Growth at $495 or $446, with HTTP API calls and CRM auto-sync.

Lusha's MCP puts a starter prompt on the consent screen of every new connection, one that finds a person and pulls their verified contact details, per its MCP overview, so the first query a new connection is offered is one that spends credits. Paste your own search-only prompt instead.

Free before paid

Lusha's Free plan gives 40 credits a month with no card, and Clay's Free plan gives 500 actions and 100 data credits, on the Lusha and Clay pricing pages. For example, 40 Lusha credits buy 40 / 5 = 8 direct dials: reveal eight people whose numbers you already know are right, and count matches. In Clay Free, build a table of the same accounts and see whether the logic around the data, the scoring and the research, changes who you would call first.

Choose Lusha if

• Your job is revealing direct dials for a small sales team inside LinkedIn and the CRM.
• Two to five people share one subscription and call the people they look up.
• You want a waterfall that runs without anyone designing it.

Choose Clay if

• Your job is producing researched, scored lists from several providers for campaigns.
• Someone will own the tables and decide the provider order.
• Lusha is one source among several, and you hold a Lusha plan with API access for the person enrichment.

Each tool on its own: the Lusha entry and the Clay entry. Lusha against a seat-priced database: Lusha vs Apollo.io.

FAQ

Can Clay use Lusha without a Lusha account?

Partly. Clay's Lusha doc says every Lusha action except Enrich person, the one that returns emails and phones, can run on Clay credits, lookalike sources and signals included. Clay's integration page marks company enrichment as needing your own account, so check the action in the app before you plan around it.

Does Lusha have its own waterfall?

Yes. Data Waterfall falls through to DataLegion, Prospeo, Techsalerator, Bytemine and Wiza for missing emails and phones, with Lusha choosing the order, per the Data Waterfall doc.

Which Lusha plan includes the API?

Pro and Premium list API access, Premium as API Advanced; Free and Starter do not, per the Lusha pricing page.