Origami vs Clay: Which AI Prospecting Tool Is Right for You?
A detailed comparison of Origami and Clay for sales prospecting. We break down features, pricing, use cases, and which tool fits different team types.
Founding AI Engineer @ Origami
Origami vs Clay: Which AI Prospecting Tool Is Right for You?
Origami and Clay represent two different philosophies for AI-powered prospecting. Origami prioritizes conversational simplicity—describe what you want and get results. Clay prioritizes flexibility—build complex workflows with granular control.
Both are excellent tools. The right choice depends on your team.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Origami | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Conversational AI agent | Spreadsheet + Workflows |
| Learning Curve | Low (minutes) | High (hours to days) |
| Best For | Speed, simplicity | Complex enrichment |
| Data Sources | 15+ built-in sources | 75+ integrations |
| Pricing | From $80/mo (5,500 credits) | From $149/mo |
| Free Tier | 7-day trial (1,000 credits) | Limited |
| Parallel Processing | 1-5+ agents simultaneously | Depends on plan |
How They Work
Origami: Conversational AI Agent
With Origami, you chat with an AI agent that builds prospect lists for you:
"Find Series B SaaS companies in the US with 100-500 employees that are hiring for sales roles"
The AI agent autonomously searches across 15+ data sources (LinkedIn companies, job postings, tech stack data, web scraping, local business directories), creates a table with your prospects, enriches with verified emails and phone numbers, and returns results ready for outreach. You can also import CSVs to enrich existing lists.
The experience: Like having a research assistant who builds spreadsheets for you and has access to every B2B database.
Data sources include:
- 69M+ LinkedIn company profiles
- Job posting data
- Tech stack identification
- LinkedIn posts & engagement
- Twitter/X data
- Shopify/WooCommerce stores
- Google Maps local businesses
- Email verification
- Phone number lookup
Clay: Workflow-Based Enrichment
Clay gives you a spreadsheet interface where you build enrichment workflows. You start with a list of companies or contacts, then chain together "enrichment steps" that pull data from different sources.
Example workflow:
- Import company list
- Find CEO using Apollo
- Get email from Hunter
- Verify with NeverBounce
- Enrich with LinkedIn data
- Score based on custom criteria
The experience: Like building a powerful automation in Zapier, but specifically for sales data.
Feature Deep Dive
Data Quality
Origami:
- Unified data layer that combines multiple sources
- Real-time verification as part of the query
- AI judges data quality and surfaces the best match
- Less transparent about underlying sources
Clay:
- You choose which sources to use
- Waterfall logic tries sources in order
- Full visibility into where data came from
- Quality depends on your workflow design
Winner: Tie. Origami is easier; Clay gives more control.
Ease of Use
Origami:
- Functional within minutes
- No technical setup required
- Natural language removes learning curve
- Limited customization (by design)
Clay:
- Hours to build first workflow
- Requires understanding of enrichment logic
- Extensive documentation needed
- Unlimited customization possible
Winner: Origami for speed; Clay for power users.
Integrations
Origami:
- Direct CRM push (Salesforce, HubSpot)
- CSV import & export
- Google Sheets export
- Slack notifications
- API access
- 15+ built-in data sources (no external API keys needed)
Clay:
- 75+ data providers (requires separate API keys)
- Zapier/Make connections
- Webhooks
- Full API
Winner: Clay has more integrations, but Origami's sources are built-in (no external setup required).
Pricing
Origami:
- Trial: Free 7 days (1,000 credits)
- Starter: $80/month (5,500 credits, 1 concurrent agent)
- Pro: $200/month (16,000 credits, 5 concurrent agents)
- Scale: $500/month (50,000 credits, unlimited concurrent agents)
- Additional credits: $15/$12.50/$10 per 1,000 credits
Clay:
- Free: 100 credits/month
- Starter: $149/month (2,000 credits)
- Explorer: $349/month (10,000 credits)
- Pro: $800/month (50,000 credits)
Winner: Origami Starter is cheaper ($80 vs $149) with more credits (5,500 vs 2,000). Pro plan allows running 5 searches simultaneously—Clay doesn't offer parallel processing in the same way.
Use Case Comparison
Use Case 1: Quick Prospect List
Scenario: You need 50 qualified leads for a new campaign by end of day.
Origami approach: Type your criteria, get results in minutes, push to CRM.
Clay approach: Import a base list, build enrichment workflow, run it, export results.
Better choice: Origami. Speed matters here.
Use Case 2: Complex Enrichment
Scenario: You have 5,000 leads and need to enrich with 10 different data points, scoring each one.
Origami approach: Run queries to enrich in batches, limited to Origami's data model.
Clay approach: Build a custom workflow with exactly the data points you need, run at scale.
Better choice: Clay. Flexibility matters here.
Use Case 3: Ongoing Signal Monitoring
Scenario: You want to know whenever a target account raises funding or hires a new VP.
Origami approach: Set up monitoring queries that alert you to changes.
Clay approach: Build a workflow that runs periodically and compares against previous data.
Better choice: Origami. Built-in monitoring is simpler.
Use Case 4: Data Cleanup
Scenario: Your CRM has 50,000 contacts with decaying data that needs verification.
Origami approach: Not the primary use case, but can verify in batches.
Clay approach: Import all contacts, run verification workflow, export updated records.
Better choice: Clay. Bulk data operations are its strength.
Who Should Use Origami?
- SDRs who need to prospect quickly without technical setup
- Founders doing their own sales outreach
- Small teams without dedicated ops resources
- Anyone frustrated by the complexity of traditional prospecting tools
Who Should Use Clay?
- RevOps teams building complex data workflows
- Agencies managing multiple client prospecting systems
- Technical users who want granular control
- Teams with specific enrichment requirements that need customization
Can You Use Both?
Yes, and many teams do.
A common pattern:
- Use Origami for day-to-day prospecting and quick queries
- Use Clay for complex enrichment projects and bulk data operations
They solve different problems and can complement each other.
The Verdict
Choose Origami if:
- You value speed and simplicity
- You want to prospect without building workflows
- You're a small team without technical ops
- You hate switching between tools
Choose Clay if:
- You need complex, multi-step enrichment
- You have specific data sources you must use
- You have ops resources to build and maintain workflows
- You're doing large-scale data operations
Both are excellent tools. The best choice is the one that matches how your team actually works.
Ready to try conversational prospecting?