Which option fits your team?
On small screens, scroll the table sideways.
| Your requirement | Where to start | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Answer custom qualification questions repeatedly | Evaluate Claygent | Require sources, unknown results and consistent output fields. |
| Find email and phone data through provider fallbacks | Evaluate Persana and Clay on the same sample | Measure usable coverage and total lookup cost, not provider count. |
| Send enriched records into a sequencer | Price the handoff tier | Persana lists sequencer integrations on Growth; check Clay’s required destination. |
| Write research into HubSpot or Salesforce | Compare the relevant higher tiers | Clay documents CRM integrations on Growth; Persana lists them on Pro. |
Pricing and scope compared
On small screens, scroll the table sideways.
| Buying criterion | Claygent | Persana AI |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price and allowance | Launch starts at US$185/month in Clay’s docs: 2,500 data credits and 15,000 actions/month. | Starter shows US$85/month and 2,000 credits/month; its annual card shows US$68/month equivalent and 24,000 credits/year. |
| CRM plan gate | Growth starts at US$495/month with 6,000 data credits, 40,000 actions and CRM/HTTP API capabilities in the docs. | Pro lists HubSpot/Salesforce at US$400/month equivalent, billed annually. Growth lists sequencer integrations at US$151/month equivalent, annually. |
| How consumption differs | An action meters workflow execution. A Claygent run uses one action plus model-dependent data credits; your own provider key can move data charges outside Clay. | Email finding is one credit; phone finding is ten. AI and other tasks must be budgeted separately. |
| Research setup | Builder supports reusable prompts, output formats, model selection, web search and version history; up to ten test inputs at a time are free. | Quantum research, waterfall enrichment and reusable playbooks are listed. Test evidence quality on your actual qualification questions. |
| Sending scope | A research agent is one component of the Clay workflow; scope the sending destination separately. | Growth includes sequencer handoffs. Native email sequencing/sending and Autopilot are listed on Unlimited; Enterprise scopes full-service AI SDR work. |
These are named plan observations, not equivalent packages. Persana’s annual equivalents require checking the full annual commitment; its Unlimited label still has credit and fair-use conditions. Clay’s documented starting package must be reconciled with the current checkout configuration. Provider/API charges and implementation time are additional budget questions.
Claygent versus Persana: define the record you need
Our assessment is to start with the question your database cannot answer. For example: does this company sell to manufacturing firms, and what public evidence supports that classification? Specify the output fields, a source URL and an unknown state. If your problem is missing contact details instead, begin with enrichment coverage. A detailed AI summary that cannot be used in your CRM or segmentation rule is less useful than a short, defensible answer.
Worked credit example for email and phone research
Illustration: 500 found emails plus 100 found phone numbers use 1,500 Persana credits at the published lookup rates (500 × 1 + 100 × 10). Against a 2,000-credit monthly allowance that leaves 500 before other paid tasks. This is data-lookup arithmetic, not 600 unique leads or a forecast of research capacity. For Clay, model the same lookup tasks plus one research run and a destination action per record; measure both action usage and data-credit usage in the account instead of treating the two counters as interchangeable.
Compare the plan that can reach your CRM
Map the required objects before selecting a tier: company, contact, owner and the research fields. A CSV export can be enough for a deliberate pilot; continuous write-back is a different requirement. For annual offers, compare total commitment as well as monthly equivalent. For example, Persana Pro’s displayed annual equivalent implies US$4,800 for a year before extras. Ask whether changes to existing records, retries and subsequent refreshes create additional charges or overwrite trusted CRM data.
Test evidence, unknowns and repeatability
Use 30 accounts with a mixture of clear matches, clear non-matches and ambiguous cases. Write expected classifications yourself before seeing vendor results. Check source relevance, unsupported claims and whether unknown information is incorrectly converted to a no. Repeat several records with the same inputs to examine consistency. These are suggested research-quality checks; we have not run this pilot or ranked the tools by accuracy.
What to preserve when switching research platforms
Keep the original account identifier, source URLs, timestamps, field definitions and approval status with your exports. Translate prompt logic and provider fallback rules explicitly rather than copying only the final text. Test duplicate handling and suppression before a new workflow writes to production. Keep a small approved dataset as a regression sample so future prompt or provider changes do not silently alter your targeting.
When a cheaper enrichment plan is enough
An entry plan may be sufficient when you can review a small batch and import it manually. A higher tier earns its cost when it removes a specific recurring bottleneck, such as supported CRM updates or a reliable sequencer handoff. Include the operator’s time in the comparison. Choose after measuring cost per accepted record and maintenance effort rather than choosing the package with the largest headline credit allowance.
Common buying questions
Is Claygent a complete AI SDR?
Claygent performs research and reasoning inside Clay. Define the rest of the workflow—contact sourcing, delivery, replies and CRM updates—before treating the research component as a complete outbound service.
Do Clay actions equal Persana credits?
No. They meter different operations. Compare the cost and accepted output of the same workload, including any external provider bill.
Can I use Persana to send emails natively?
Its pricing page lists native sending on Unlimited and sequencer integrations on Growth. Confirm the selected plan rather than assuming every research subscription includes native campaigns.
Sources and assessment
Prepared by AI Sales Agent Directory. Official sources checked 13 October 2026. Recommendations are editorial assessments of documented scope. We have not tested these products head to head or verified their performance claims. Placement is not sold.
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