Free forever · No sign-up · No card

Enrich a spreadsheet
with your own API key.

The free, open-source alternative to Clay. Point it at a CSV, describe what you need in plain English, and every row is researched with AI and live web search. You pay the model provider directly and we take nothing.

Start enriching for freeSee how it works
We charge $0, alwaysNothing storedOpen source4 providers, 28 models
prospect_list.csv, enriched
CompanyDomainDecision makerOpen rolesRecent news
Stripestripe.comPatrick Collison (Co-founder & CEO)~14 engineering openings on their careers pageExpanded Stripe Tax to 12 additional markets
Vercelvercel.comGuillermo Rauch, CEO & Co-founder~8 open positions, mostly engineering and salesAnnounced Next.js 16 with major performance work
Linearlinear.appKarri Saarinen, Co-founder & CEO3 roles (2 engineering, 1 design)Reported Series B at ~$400M valuation
Notionnotion.soIvan Zhao, CEO & Co-founder~22 roles across engineering, product and GTMLaunched Notion Mail and calendar integration
Illustrative example. Real output varies, so always verify.AI-generated columns

What it does

Research for any dataset.

Every row gets its own prompt, its own web search and its own answer, so it works for any kind of list, not just companies. Browse worked examples.

Companies

CEO, funding raised, headcount, tech stack, recent news

People

Current employer, job title, LinkedIn URL, published work

Startups

Latest round, investors, product summary, competitors

Universities

Ranking, acceptance rate, tuition, notable alumni

Products

Pricing, reviews, feature set, competitors, G2 rating

Anything else

Countries, property, restaurants, papers, just describe it

Built for research, not directory lookups

Clay queries 150+ data providers for structured records. OpenClay does the other half of the job: it reads the live web and answers a question you write yourself, per row. That makes it the right tool whenever the answer exists in public and the question is specific to you.

  • Company overviews, funding, leadership, headcount and recent news
  • Custom questions no data-provider schema has a field for
  • Any list at all: products, universities, competitors, countries
  • Live answers, researched at the moment you run them

Pair it with a contact-data provider when you also need verified emails and phone numbers. See the full side-by-side comparison.

How it works

Four steps, about two minutes.

01

Load your spreadsheet

CSV or Excel, parsed entirely in your browser. Nothing reaches a server.

02

Say what you need

Plain English, or start from a preset. New columns are detected for you.

03

Pick a model, add your key

GPT, Gemini, Claude or Grok. See the cost before you commit, and your key stays in memory.

04

Test 5 rows, then run

The test gives you an exact per-row cost and a fill-rate check. Then run the batch.

Pricing

We charge nothing.
Here is what the model costs.

No markup, no credits, no seats. You are billed by OpenAI, Google, Anthropic or xAI at their published rates, and the tool tells you the number before you commit. See every model compared.

What will it cost?

Paid to the provider at their published rates. OpenClay takes nothing.

e.g. CEO, funding, headcount

Strong quality at a fraction of flagship cost, great default

Estimated range
$0.30–$0.51
$0.0006–0.0010 per row
OpenClay fee
$0.00
Input tokens
$0.05–$0.25
Output tokens
$0.26
Web search
$0.00

All 500 searches fit inside the free allowance of 5,000 per month. Search cost: $0.

Start enriching

Why OpenClay

The same AI research,
without the subscription.

Clay (Claygent)
OpenClay
Platform fee
$149 – $800/mo
$0 forever
AI research per row
Uses your Clay credits
Paid to the provider directly
500 rows researched
Eats credit quota
~$1 – $10 in API usage
Model choice
Claygent's model
4 providers, 28 models
Web search
Yes, via Claygent
Yes, built in
Where your data lives
Their servers
Your browser
Rate-limit handling
Managed for you
Backoff + retry + tunable concurrency
Source code
Proprietary
Fully open source
Account required
Yes, plus a card
No

Clay pricing from their public pricing page and subject to change. Comparison covers AI-research features only, not Clay's data-provider integrations.

Privacy & trust

We cannot see your data.

This is an architectural claim, not a policy promise. Files are parsed in your browser. Your key is held in React state. The API route is a stateless proxy that logs nothing.

Your browser
Parses the file, holds the key
Model provider
OpenAI · Google · Anthropic · xAI
Your download
Enriched file, locally built

The proxy exists only because browsers block direct cross-origin calls to these APIs.

No database
No cookies
No localStorage
Key in memory only
Files never uploaded
Nothing logged

Don't take our word for it. read the source.

Your data. Your key.
Zero platform fee.

No account, no card, no catch.

Open OpenClay

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is OpenClay?
OpenClay is the free, open-source alternative to Clay.com for AI-powered spreadsheet data enrichment. It uses AI models (GPT, Gemini, Claude or Grok) combined with live web search to research and enrich each row of your spreadsheet, finding company data, contacts, news, and any custom information you describe.
Is OpenClay really free?
Yes, OpenClay charges no platform fee, ever. The only cost is the AI provider's token usage (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic or xAI), which you pay directly at their published rates. Enriching 500 rows typically costs $1–$10 in API usage depending on the model chosen.
How is OpenClay different from Clay?
Clay connects to 150+ data providers (Apollo, ZoomInfo, etc.) for structured lookups and costs $149–$800/month. OpenClay uses AI + live web search to research each row, similar to Clay's Claygent feature. OpenClay is great for public information, news, company overviews, and custom research. It is not ideal for verified contact emails or data requiring proprietary database access.
What is the best free alternative to Clay?
OpenClay is a free, open-source alternative to Clay for the AI research half of the job: it reads the live web and answers a question you write, once per row. There is no platform fee, no credit system and no account. You bring an API key from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic or xAI and pay that provider directly, which works out at a fraction of a cent per row. For verified emails and phone numbers you would still pair it with a contact-data provider.
Is there an open-source Clay alternative?
Yes. OpenClay is fully open source and can be self-hosted in three commands, or used at openclay.io with no sign-up. Because your spreadsheet is parsed in the browser and your API key is held in memory only, you can verify the privacy claims by reading the source rather than trusting a policy page.
What is a good Claygent alternative?
OpenClay does the same job as Claygent: per-row AI research against the live web, returning structured columns. The difference is billing. Claygent consumes credits inside a Clay subscription; OpenClay sends the request on your own API key with no platform fee. Claygent prompts port over almost directly, since OpenClay uses the same braces syntax for column placeholders.
How much cheaper is OpenClay than Clay?
Clay charges a monthly platform fee, publicly listed from around $149 to $800 depending on tier, plus credits for research. OpenClay charges no platform fee at any volume. A 1,000-row job with four researched columns starts at well under a dollar in API usage on the cheapest capable model. The exact figure for your own prompt is quoted after a five-row test, before you run the batch.
Is my data safe with OpenClay?
Yes. OpenClay is privacy-first by design. Your files are parsed entirely in your browser and never uploaded. Your API key lives in browser memory only (React state) and is never persisted. There is no database, no cookies, and no localStorage. The API routes are stateless proxies that log nothing. The entire codebase is open source so you can verify all of this.
What AI models does OpenClay support?
OpenAI GPT (the GPT-5.6 Luna/Terra/Sol line plus GPT-5 Mini, Nano and earlier flagships), Google Gemini (the 3.x Flash, Flash-Lite and Pro family plus the 2.5 series), Anthropic Claude (Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 5, Opus 5 and previous flagships), and xAI Grok (4.3, 4.5 and the 4.20 variants). Every model listed supports live web search. Pricing is verified against each provider's published rates.
What if I hit rate limits?
OpenClay retries automatically with exponential backoff and honours the provider's Retry-After header. You can also tune how many rows run in parallel, and the run panel reports peak tokens-per-minute so you can size your provider quota correctly. Rows that still fail can be retried on their own without re-running the whole batch.
What file formats does OpenClay support?
CSV (.csv), Excel (.xlsx), and legacy Excel (.xls) up to 10MB. Files are parsed in your browser using PapaParse and SheetJS, nothing is uploaded to any server.
Do I need to create an account?
No. OpenClay requires no account, no sign-up, and no credit card. Open the app, load a spreadsheet, add your AI API key, and start enriching.
What kind of data can I enrich?
Anything you can describe in plain English. Common uses include company research (CEO, funding, headcount), lead enrichment (job title, LinkedIn, recent news), university data (ranking, tuition, acceptance rate), and product research (pricing, reviews, competitors). OpenClay works for any dataset, not just B2B sales.

Feedback

Built in the open by Raghav

OpenClay exists because enrichment shouldn't cost $150 a month. Several features here came straight from users who wrote in: the reset control, the token and rate-limit stats, and exponential backoff. Tell me what's missing.

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