# Clay vs Explorium AgentSource

> Clay scores 57.7 (C) to Explorium AgentSource's 48.1 (D) for lead search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-explorium-agentsource
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-explorium-agentsource.md (~2,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-explorium-agentsource.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-explorium-agentsource.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-14

Clay scores 57.7 (C) on agent readiness against Explorium AgentSource's 48.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Explorium AgentSource leads on payments & pricing. Both do lead search.

- Clay: grade C, 57.7/100, rank #633 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/clay.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/clay.json
- Explorium AgentSource: grade D, 48.1/100, rank #880 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/explorium-agentsource.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/explorium-agentsource.json
- Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/lead-data/index.md
- All 171 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:
- Schema & documentation, 84 against 76
- Security & auth, 48 against 37
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 28
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 59

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

### Explorium AgentSource (D)

Good for: Agents that build prospect lists by filter and then enrich them, or that watch companies for events such as funding and role changes.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

Watch for: No status page was found, and no SLA is published


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Clay | Explorium AgentSource | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 42 | Clay +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 76 | Clay +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 63 | Clay +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 48 | 37 | Clay +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Explorium AgentSource +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 28 | Clay +47 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 59 | Clay +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **57.7 · C** | **48.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Clay | Explorium AgentSource |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Clay Labs Inc. | Explorium Ltd. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.clay.com/public/v0` | `https://api.explorium.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Clay Terms of Service. The agent plugin repository carries no licence file | Proprietary service under the Explorium Terms of Use. The `mcp-explorium` repository of connection files is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 11 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-09-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2024-05-23 | 2026-06-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2020-09-11 | 2026-06-28 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |

## Verdicts

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

**Explorium AgentSource.** AgentSource v2 has a public OpenAPI 3.1 file, Markdown docs, a 200 queries a minute limit with `Retry-After`, public credit prices and a 100-credit trial. No status page or published SLA was found, each company shares one API key with no scopes, and the vendor's two published price tables disagree.

## 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. Ask the user before enabling the plugin's auto-approve hook in a shared workspace

### Explorium AgentSource

1. Send the key in the `api_key` header to `https://api.explorium.ai` and use `/v2` paths. v1 is deprecated
2. Point MCP clients at `https://mcp-v2.explorium.ai/mcp`. The site's agent files still name the v1 server at `mcp.explorium.ai`
3. Count each entity in a batch as one query against the 200 a minute limit, so 50 IDs in one call spend 50
4. Call the statistics endpoint first to size an audience for free. Fetch costs 1 credit a result, or 2 with the Bombora intent filter
5. Call `/v2/autocomplete` before filtering on category, tech stack or job title, and never mix two category types in one request

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Clay or Explorium AgentSource?

Clay scores 57.7 (C) on agent readiness against Explorium AgentSource's 48.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Explorium AgentSource leads on payments & pricing.

### Do Clay and Explorium AgentSource need an API key?

Clay takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Explorium AgentSource needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Clay and Explorium AgentSource without installing anything?

Yes. Clay has a hosted endpoint at https://api.clay.com/public/v0 and Explorium AgentSource at https://api.explorium.ai.


## For agents

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

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