# Clay vs Cleanlist: which do AI models recommend for enrichment, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, Data enrichment. One of twelve models named Clay first on the direct prompt; two named Cleanlist. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/gtm-data/data-enrichment/clay-vs-cleanlist/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clay | 9% | #2 of 10 | 20% | 41 | 11 of 12 |
| Cleanlist | 4% | #5 of 10 | 0% | 20 | 8 of 12 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: clay first (first choices: Apollo.io, Clay) (alternatives: Cognism, HubSpot Breeze Intelligence)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: cleanlist first (first choices: Cleanlist) (alternatives: Apollo.io, Clay, Snov.io, UpLead)
- MiniMax M2.5: cleanlist first (first choices: Apollo.io, Cleanlist) (alternatives: Amplemarket, Cognism, ZoomInfo)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither first, one named (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Clay, Cognism, UpLead, ZoomInfo)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Clay, Cleanlist, UpLead)
- Mistral Small: neither first, one named (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Cleanlist, UpLead)
- Kimi K2: neither first, one named (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Cleanlist, Cognism, UpLead)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither first, one named (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Clay, Cognism, Lusha, UpLead)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither named (first choices: Amplemarket, Apollo.io, Cognism)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither named (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Clearbit/HubSpot-native enrichment, Cognism)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither named (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Cognism, HubSpot Breeze Intelligence, UpLead)

## What the models said about Clay

- "Clay provides maximum enrichment flexibility across 100+ data providers but requires a dedicated RevOps engineer to manage it." (Llama 4 Maverick, comparative prompt, soft negative)
- "Accuracy varies because it inherits each underlying provider's quality, and costs can escalate quickly" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "It has a steep learning curve... you can burn through your monthly credits very quickly." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt, soft negative)
- "an orchestrator (like Clay) that lets you stack databases... Tools like Clay and Amplemarket excel at this "AI-agent" level of custom enrichment." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt, first choice)
- "Clay chains together over 150 different data providers... Tools like Clay have shifted the market toward "waterfall" routing" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "1. Clay — Best for: Tech-forward teams who want the highest data accuracy via "Waterfall" Enrichment" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.