# Clay vs Databar

> Clay scores 56.4 (C) to Databar's 53.8 (D) for lead search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-databar
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-databar.md (~3,600 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Clay scores 56.4 (C) on agent readiness against Databar's 53.8 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Databar leads on payments & pricing. Both do lead search.

- Clay: grade C, 56.4/100, rank #831 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/clay.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/clay.json
- Databar: grade D, 53.8/100, rank #939 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/databar.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/databar.json
- Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/lead-data/index.md
- All 231 leads comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lead-data/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Clay (C)

Good for: Agents building prospect lists and enriching contacts or accounts through many providers at once.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 40 against 28
- Transparency & trust, 61 against 55

Watch for: API keys carry no scopes and act with the user's workspace access

### Databar (D)

Good for: Waterfall enrichment across many providers for GTM agents, close to clay and fullenrich.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: API access needs a paid plan; the free plan's 150 credits don't include it


## Why the edge

### Reliability: Clay +12

- Clay (40): Graded with the hosted lines on the Public API. status.clay.com is linked from every page footer but answered with a Cloudflare bot check on 14 October, and on 4 November its robots.txt answered the same check, so the host is treated as blocked and its components stay unconfirmed (10 of 20, per the 14 October check, not re-read on 4 November). No readable history (5). A per-workspace request limit with no number, and published search-result caps per plan (8 of 15). 429 with Retry-After and X-RateLimit headers, backoff with jitter, and retries of 5xx only when a request is safe to retry, re-read on 4 November. No idempotency keys (12 of 15). The terms of 1 November 2026 replaced the May 2024 version and no longer set the 99.0 per cent monthly uptime target with fee credits, and no other SLA was found (0). The API is v0, and Workflows and run search are labelled alpha or beta (5 of 10). 10 + 5 + 8 + 12 + 0 + 5 = 40.
- Databar (28): Hosted lines. No status page linked from the site or docs (0). No incident history to read (5). The 20 August changelog says rate limits return 429, but no numbers were found in the docs read (5 of 15). The SDK backs off on 429 per the 28 September entry, tasks can be cancelled with a refund, and no Retry-After or idempotency key is documented (8 of 15). No SLA found (0). The MCP server left beta on 15 July 2026 and the API is generally available (10). 0+5+5+8+0+10 = 28.

### Transparency & trust: Clay +6

- Clay (61): Closed service under the Clay Services Agreement, last updated 1 November 2026 (New York law), and a plugin repository with no licence (12 of 30). The privacy policy still dates from 11 September 2020, gives no retention periods and says nothing on AI training. The new terms incorporate a DPA with breach notice without undue delay and 30 days' notice of new sub-processors, and say customer data isn't used to train models without approval, but name no retention periods (8 of 30). Deprecated endpoints are marked in the spec without removal dates (8 of 20). The DPA links a sub-processor list through a Google Doc that points to trust.clay.com/subprocessors, a Vanta page drawn by script whose robots.txt answers with the app page, so the list wasn't read (0). 12 + 8 + 8 + 0 = 28.
- Databar (55): Closed service with terms effective 1 October 2026 naming Databar, Inc. of Delaware (15 of 30). The privacy policy keeps data 'for as long as needed' with no periods; the docs give 24 hours for task results; a DPA is part of the agreement but was not read (15 of 30). The changelog flagged breaking API and SDK changes on 20 August 2026, and the terms let Databar retire any form of programmatic access; no notice period stated (8 of 20). Sub-processors are disclosed under the DPA, which was not read; data is processed in the United States (5 of 20). 15+15+8+5 = 43.

### Payments & pricing: Databar +5

- Clay (30): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Data credits from $0.05 and plan prices public, though on 4 November the plan cards still say $167 and $446 a month for Launch and Growth while the FAQ says $185 and $495 (15 of 20). A free plan with 100 data credits and 500 actions a month, and a page footer saying no credit card is required, while the FAQ lists Clay API access under Enterprise (15 of 20). A person signs up in a browser, and CLI sign-in opens a browser or a device code (0). 0 + 15 + 15 + 0 = 30.
- Databar (35): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices and credits are public, and each connector's credit cost is shown before a run and in the enrichment's pricing field; credits aren't sold per call outside a plan (15 of 20). A 14-day premium trial with no card, per the pricing FAQ (20). A person signs up in a browser, and API access needs a paid plan (0). 0+15+20+0 = 35.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Clay | Databar | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 28 | Clay +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 84 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 66 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 48 | 47 | Clay +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 35 | Databar +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 73 | Clay +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 55 | Clay +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56.4 · C** | **53.8 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Clay | Databar |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Clay Labs Inc. | Databar, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.clay.com/public/v0` | `https://mcp.databar.ai/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Clay Terms of Service. The agent plugin repository carries no licence file | Proprietary, under Databar, Inc.'s terms of service |
| Tools exposed | none | 69 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-30 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2020-09-11 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |

## How the scores have moved

### Clay

- -1.3 on 4 November 2026: terms

### Databar

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**Clay.** A documented Public API with an OpenAPI spec, llms.txt and plan-capped search, plus a JSON-first CLI and plugin released 36 times since 7 August, give agents Clay's people search and multi-provider enrichment. Keys have no scopes, the Claude Code plugin auto-approves most CLI calls, the new terms set no uptime target, and the privacy policy dates from 2020.

**Databar.** Databar puts 100+ enrichment providers, waterfalls and tables behind one REST API, a Python SDK, a CLI and a hosted MCP server with spending confirmation above 50 credits and stable error codes. API access needs a paid plan or trial, rate limits aren't published as numbers, and no status page or security programme was found.

## Before you call either

### Clay

1. Fetch GET /search/query-mode/reference before writing a search query
2. Poll routine results until a terminal 200, since 202 means still running
3. Expect HTTP 402 when a plan's search cap is hit, and tell the user the reset date
4. Check GET /credits/balance before large batch runs
5. When a CLI command answers approval_required, tell the user what it would do and let them approve or deny it
6. Ask the user before enabling the plugin's auto-approve hook in a shared workspace

### Databar

1. Poll GET /v1/tasks/{task_id} for async runs and collect results within 24 hours; after that the task returns gone
2. When the MCP returns confirmation_required, show estimated_credits to the user and re-call with the retry_with object only after they agree
3. Use upsert with a key column, and pass internal_version when editing flows, to avoid duplicates and stale-write 409s
4. Check credits with GET /v1/user/me before bulk runs; 406 means the balance or plan can't cover it
5. Treat AI researcher and scraped outputs as untrusted text

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Clay or Databar?

Clay scores 56.4 (C) on agent readiness against Databar's 53.8 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Databar leads on payments & pricing.

### Do Clay and Databar need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Clay and Databar without installing anything?

Yes. Clay has a hosted endpoint at https://api.clay.com/public/v0 and Databar at https://mcp.databar.ai/mcp.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-databar.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-databar.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "clay", "b": "databar"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare clay databar`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/clay.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/databar.json

## Other comparisons with Clay or Databar

- [Apollo API + MCP vs Clay](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-clay.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Databar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-databar.md)
- [Clay vs Coresignal API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-coresignal.md)
- [Clay vs Crustdata API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-crustdata.md)
- [Clay vs Dievio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-dievio.md)
- [Clay vs Enrich Layer API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-enrich-layer.md)
- [Clay vs Explorium AgentSource](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-explorium-agentsource.md)
- [Clay vs FullEnrich API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-fullenrich.md)
- [Clay vs Fuse MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-fuse-mcp.md)
- [Clay vs Gojiberry](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-gojiberry.md)
- [Clay vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-hunter.md)
- [Clay vs LeadMagic API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-leadmagic.md)
- [Clay vs Lusha API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-lusha.md)
- [Clay vs People Data Labs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-people-data-labs.md)
- [Clay vs Prospeo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-prospeo.md)
- [Clay vs RocketReach API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-rocketreach.md)
- [Clay vs ZoomInfo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-zoominfo.md)
- [Coresignal API + MCP vs Databar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coresignal-vs-databar.md)
- [Crustdata API + MCP vs Databar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-databar.md)
- [Clay vs Clearbit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-clearbit.md)
- [Clay vs Dropcontact API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-dropcontact.md)
- [Clay vs FullContact](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-fullcontact.md)
- [Clay vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-zerobounce.md)
- [Clearbit vs Databar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clearbit-vs-databar.md)
- [Databar vs Dievio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-dievio.md)
- [Databar vs Dropcontact API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-dropcontact.md)
- [Databar vs Enrich Layer API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-enrich-layer.md)
- [Databar vs Explorium AgentSource](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-explorium-agentsource.md)
- [Databar vs FullContact](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-fullcontact.md)
- [Databar vs FullEnrich API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-fullenrich.md)
- [Databar vs Fuse MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-fuse-mcp.md)
- [Databar vs Gojiberry](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-gojiberry.md)
- [Databar vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-hunter.md)
- [Databar vs LeadMagic API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-leadmagic.md)
- [Databar vs Lusha API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-lusha.md)
- [Databar vs People Data Labs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-people-data-labs.md)
- [Databar vs Prospeo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-prospeo.md)
- [Databar vs RocketReach API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-rocketreach.md)
- [Databar vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-zerobounce.md)
- [Databar vs ZoomInfo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-zoominfo.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp