Le Répertoire des AgentsFR · EN · ES · JA · HI
Home › Small business

“I don't have time to look for new clients”

Freelancers, salespeople, and small agencies that live off prospecting but hate the research part. If finding prospects takes you longer than convincing them, read on.

Recommended agent: Clay
💰 $0 to $150/month depending on prospect volume. Level: Intermediate 🌍 United States Permanent Free plan (500 Actions + 100 Data Credits/month) + 14-day trial of paid features, no credit card required

Clay (clay.com), a prospecting agent: you describe your ideal client, it finds matching companies, enriches their contact details, and prepares personalized outreach messages.

How it works

Trigger: You describe your ideal client — finds the companies, enriches the contacts, and prepares the outreach, and you get a list of qualified prospects with messages to review.

Step-by-step setup

  1. Create a Clay account and describe your ideal client (industry, size, geographic area).
  2. The agent builds your list and enriches each record (name, role, email).
  3. It writes a first personalized message per prospect.
  4. Review, approve, then launch your campaign from your email tool.
⚠️ Guardrails: Reread every message before sending: a prospect can quickly smell copy-paste. Follow anti-spam rules (GDPR in Europe, unsubscribe link mandatory).
🔧 Technical details
Installation
hybrid — cloud SaaS platform (tables and enrichment in the browser), complemented by a Public API and a “clay” CLI installed locally via a plugin for code agents (Claude Code, Codex).
Prerequisites
A Clay account and workspace; for the Public API and CLI, an API key created in Clay (developer platform available on all plans, including free and trial).
Hardware
non_applicable
Self-hosting
no — service hosted by Clay; Headless CRM mode (Enterprise) removes data storage at Clay but is not self-hosting of the platform.
API & integrations
API: yes — REST Public API (read-only tables; structured queries with joins and pagination beyond 100 rows fall under the Enterprise “API table sync” feature; no table creation via the API). Not to be confused with the outbound HTTP action, which calls external APIs from Clay. · SDK: Not documented · CLI: yes — “clay” CLI installed by the official plugin, with key management (clay api-keys create). · Webhooks: Not documented · MCP: yes — MCP support documented when using your own provider keys; the MCP connection is separate from the CLI plugin, which does not include it.
Models
Third-party provider models accessible in Clay, notably OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google; personal keys (BYOK) possible for supported providers. Local models: non_documente.
Data
Only the chosen columns are sent to the models; contractual agreements prohibit AI providers from training their models on client data, and Clay neither trains nor fine-tunes on this data except solely for the benefit of the client's workspace. Encryption at rest and in transit (TLS 1.2/1.3), data processed mainly in the United States (AWS US-East), credentials and API keys never sent to AI providers; workspace deletion = data erased after 30 days.
Documented limits
Public API search limits per plan (free: 100 results per 30 days; self-serve paid plans: 1,000,000 per 30 days; Enterprise: 10,000,000 per 30 days, with a per-request cap); source import via the HTTP action up to 50,000 rows. No universal call rate is published: the limit is per workspace, with 429 responses, a Retry-After header, and X-RateLimit-* headers.
Operations
Admin, Editor, and Viewer roles; SCIM provisioning of members and roles; SSO on the Enterprise plan. On Enterprise, “Headless CRM” mode where no data is stored in Clay, and personal AI keys possible.

Not documented in the official sources: License.

Official sources: university.clay.com · university.clay.com · university.clay.com · developers.clay.com · university.clay.com · www.clay.com — verified on November 1, 2026.

Find your agent with the quiz →

Frequently asked questions

How much does Clay cost?

$0 to $150/month depending on prospect volume. Permanent Free plan (500 Actions + 100 Data Credits/month) plus a 14-day trial of the paid features, no credit card required.

Is Clay free?

Yes, partly. Permanent Free plan (500 Actions + 100 Data Credits/month) plus a 14-day trial of the paid features, no credit card required.

Is Clay hard to get started with?

Level: Moderate. Setup takes 4 steps; the first one: Create a Clay account and describe your ideal customer (industry, size, geographic area).

What limits and guardrails should you know about with Clay?

Re-read every message before sending: a prospect can spot copy-paste a mile away. Follow anti-spam rules (GDPR in Europe, a mandatory unsubscribe link).

Other agents for this problem

Tidio — Lyro

Nobody answers my website visitors in the evening, and I'm losing customers

$0 to $29/month at entry level (Starter; Growth from $59 depending on volume, Lyro billed separately).

Pennylane

Bookkeeping is eating my weekends

€14 to €40/month before tax, depending on the plan.

Chatbase

I keep getting asked the same questions, I spend my days repeating myself

$0 to $99/month depending on the number of conversations (free plan to try it out).

HubSpot — Breeze

My customer contacts are scattered between sticky notes and Excel files

$0 to $25/month (the basic CRM is free).

Mention

I never know what's being said about my business online

$30 to $100/month depending on mention volume.

See also

“Nobody answers my website visitors in the evening, and I'm losing customers” — Tidio — Lyro“Bookkeeping is eating my weekends” — Pennylane“I keep getting asked the same questions, I spend my days repeating myself” — Chatbase

Profile updated on November 1, 2026 — see what's new at the Directory.