> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rippit.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Clay

> Use Clay in a Rippit research table to find people who match your brief, with optional work email and phone lookups.

Clay is one of three **people search** providers in Rippit. It searches Clay's people data for profiles that match your brief, and can look up work emails and phone numbers. For how research tables work overall, see [How research tables work](https://docs.rippit.com/research/overview.md).

## Setup

None. Clay is built into Rippit, so you don't need a Clay account or API key. To use it, pick Clay as the people provider in the table's settings, or ask for it in the table's chat.

## How it works

1. **Describe who you want** in the research brief: roles, seniority, company scope, locations, and exclusions.
2. **Rippit queries Clay** for candidates, then checks each one against your brief and keeps only the people who match.
3. **Contact lookup runs last**, and only for the fields you asked for. Rippit asks before your first sample whether you want work email, phone number, both, or neither.

## What each row holds

Name, role, company, company domain, location, profile link, and why the person matches. Work email and phone are added when you ask for them, each with a lookup status: found, outdated after an employer change, not found, failed, uncertain, or not requested.

## When to pick Clay over Firecrawl

Firecrawl is the default. Try Clay when a sample from Firecrawl comes back thin for your audience. Samples can compare providers on the same brief, so run one of each before your first live run.

The provider is fixed after a table's first live run. To switch later, create a new table.

## Limits and cost

| | |
| - | - |
| People per input | 100 by default, up to 500 |
| Contact lookups | Use Clay credits on top of the AI credits for the research |
| Usage reporting | The table shows the provider credits each run used |


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.