Clay MCP Server: Setup in Claude, Credits and Safety (Nov 2026)

Clay MCP is the official hosted MCP server from Clay, the sales data and enrichment platform at clay.com. It lets Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and other AI tools find and enrich people and companies in your Clay workspace. Connect it at https://api.clay.com/v3/mcp with OAuth sign-in. TrustedMCP grades it B.

The B comes from sign-in. OAuth gives you no choice of permissions: one grant lets the AI do anything your Clay role allows, and an admin can't cut off a single connection. It's also closed source, so we can't check its update pace beyond Clay's changelog.

If you searched "clay mcp" for the personal CRM (clay.earth), that product is now called Mesh, and its MCP server moved with it. See which Clay MCP you mean.

How we checked: on 2026-11-07 we read Clay's MCP docs (connect to Clay MCP, MCP settings, MCP security and privacy, using Clay in Claude), Clay's changelog and its April 2026 MCP post, the Clay listing in Claude's connector directory, the OAuth metadata and the 401 answer at api.clay.com, Anthropic's sales plugin config, and the old clay-inc/clay-mcp repo (now mesh/mesh-mcp). We didn't sign in or call any tool.

Which Clay MCP do you mean?

Two different companies have used the name Clay, and both have had an MCP server.

	Clay (clay.com)	Mesh, formerly Clay (clay.earth)
What it is	Sales data, enrichment and outbound platform	Personal CRM for your own network
MCP server	Hosted at https://api.clay.com/v3/mcp	Hosted at https://mcp.me.sh/mcp
Sign-in	OAuth, one Clay workspace per connection	OAuth with your Mesh account
What the AI can do	Find and enrich contacts and companies, check credits, run Functions	Search contacts and past interactions, add contacts and notes, manage groups, read events
Status	Active: MCP changes in Clay's changelog through 2026-11-02	Old clay-inc/clay-mcp repo now redirects to mesh/mesh-mcp, marked deprecated in Feb 2026, README last edited Jul 2026
On TrustedMCP	Graded B	Not listed

Most people searching "clay mcp" mean clay.com, which is the one we graded. If you use the personal CRM, the old mcp.clay.earth address no longer works (it returned a 502 when we checked), and clay.earth now redirects to me.sh. Connect from Mesh's Settings > Integrations > MCP Server instead.

There's also a community npm package, @clayhq/clay-mcp (last release 1.0.4 in September 2025), that wrapped the personal CRM's API with an API key. It isn't from either company's current docs, so skip it.

What the Clay MCP server can do

Claude's connector directory lists seven tools (the names are Clay's; the descriptions are ours, going by the names and Clay's docs):

Tool	What it does
find-and-enrich-company	Looks up a company and adds data such as headcount, funding, tech stack or news
find-and-enrich-contacts-at-company	Finds and enriches people who work at a company
find-and-enrich-list-of-contacts	Enriches a list of people you give it
add-company-data-points	Adds more fields to a company it already found
add-contact-data-points	Adds more fields, such as email or work history, to a contact
get-credits-available	Shows how many Clay credits you have left
get-existing-search	Reopens an earlier search

On top of these, your workspace can expose:

• Functions: enrichment workflows your ops team builds in Clay, such as an account score or an outreach draft. Each one stays hidden from the AI until an admin turns it on for MCP.
• Advanced Search: searches across people, company and job data, on by default for Claude and ChatGPT users since Clay's 2026-08-31 changelog. If new tools don't show up, Clay says to reconnect, because the AI app may have cached the old tool list.
• Audiences (Enterprise): lets reps ask about the accounts and deals they own, synced from the CRM.

What it can't do: Clay's docs say reps "cannot view, edit, or create tables directly in Clay" through MCP. Clicking "Open in Clay" on a result does create a table in your workspace. It doesn't send email either: outreach goes through a Function set up for it, or through a separate email connector such as Gmail.

How to set up the Clay MCP server

Before you start, accept your company's Clay workspace invite if you have one. Clay warns that otherwise you may connect a personal workspace instead.

Claude (web and desktop)

1. Open Clay in Claude's connector directory and choose to add it.
2. Sign in to Clay and pick your workspace. New users get a Clay account created during setup.
3. Ask Claude something like "Find the VP of Sales at Acme and enrich their work history." You don't need to say "Clay"; Claude picks the connector when you ask about finding people or researching accounts.

On a Claude Enterprise plan, an admin has to add the Clay connector first. Clay says a free Claude account is enough to search and enrich.

Claude Code

Clay's docs say it works in Claude Code (results show as text rather than the interactive view) but give no command. The standard way to add a remote server is:

claude mcp add --transport http clay https://api.clay.com/v3/mcp

Then run /mcp in a session to sign in. Anthropic's own sales plugin uses the same URL. See Claude Code MCP setup for scopes and permissions.

If sign-in fails, ask your Clay admin. Under "Allowed MCP clients", admins switch each known AI app on or off, and one "Unknown" switch covers apps Clay doesn't recognize. Turning "Unknown" off also stops existing tokens from refreshing.

ChatGPT, Codex, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Glean

Clay has a setup page for each in Clay's MCP settings docs. Clay has been in OpenAI's Codex since its 2026-05-25 changelog.

Other MCP clients

Any client that supports remote servers with OAuth can use https://api.clay.com/v3/mcp. Clay supports self-registration of clients (dynamic client registration) with PKCE, and the only scope is mcp.

What Clay MCP costs

The connection is free. The work isn't:

• Each enrichment spends your workspace's Clay credits at the same rate as inside Clay. Clay says there's no extra charge for using MCP.
• Your first connection through Claude includes 500 free credits.
• Clay's April 2026 post says company and contact lookups stay free for free and trial users. Functions, MCP permissions and credit budgets need a paid plan (Launch, Growth or Enterprise).
• When a rep hits their credit limit, enrichments are blocked until the limit resets on the 1st of the month at midnight UTC. Searches still work.
• Results load 20 at a time, up to 100.

Clay doesn't publish a credit cost per tool, so check get-credits-available before and after a big request the first few times.

Is Clay MCP safe?

It's one of the cleaner sales setups: hosted, OAuth only, no API key to leak, and no advisories on record. The weak spot is how much one connection can do.

• One scope for everything. The OAuth metadata offers a single mcp scope, so you can't connect read-only. A token can do whatever your workspace role allows.
• Role names don't limit MCP. A Viewer in the Clay web app "can still trigger runs via MCP", and changing someone's role doesn't stop their MCP use. Only the Sales Rep role (beta, on request) is limited to MCP access.
• No per-connection revoke. Admins "cannot directly revoke a rep's MCP connection." To cut someone off, remove them from the workspace or set their credit limit to 0.
• Tokens are narrow in one way. Each is tied to one user and one workspace, Clay stores only a hash of it, and access tokens last an hour.
• Data handling. Clay says it doesn't use your customer data to train AI models, and data is encrypted in transit and at rest. What you type into Claude or ChatGPT is handled by that AI company, not Clay.
• Results are outside text. Enrichment pulls in web pages, news and third-party data the AI then reads. Treat it as untrusted input, especially if the same chat can send email. See MCP prompt injection.

Clay also can't tell whether a rep connects from a company AI account or a personal one. If that matters, enforce it on the AI side.

Lock down Clay MCP in 5 steps

1. Give reps the Sales Rep role

It's the only role limited to MCP. Viewer is not read-only through MCP.

2. Set a default credit limit

In MCP users settings, set a workspace default, then raise it for the people who need more. A rep without a limit shows "No limit".

3. Turn on only the Functions reps need

Functions are off for MCP until you enable each one, so leave sensitive workflows off.

4. Allow only the AI apps you use

Under "Allowed MCP clients", switch off apps you don't use, and decide whether "Unknown" clients like Claude Code should connect. Since Clay's 2026-11-02 changelog you can also allowlist clients by domain.

5. Keep approval on for anything that sends or spends

Leave tool approval on in your AI app for Functions and for any email connector in the same chat, so a bad result can't trigger a send or a large enrichment run.

Clay MCP vs other CRM and sales MCP servers

Server	Grade	Sign-in	Main caveat
HubSpot	A	OAuth with scopes you grant at install	Closed source
Clay	B	OAuth, one all-access scope	No read-only option, no per-connection revoke
Attio	B	OAuth, no scopes	Full access to everything your user can do
Salesforce	B	OAuth with PKCE, runs as your user	Closed source, last datable change Jul 2026

Clay is a data source rather than a CRM: it finds and enriches people, and your CRM keeps the records. Many teams connect both. Everything we've graded is in CRM and sales.

Need an MCP server that ties your enrichment data and CRM together with the limits built in? We build custom MCP servers.

Why Clay MCP grades B

We graded the hosted server at api.clay.com/v3/mcp.

Check	Points	Why
Authentication	18 of 30	OAuth with PKCE and no API key, but one scope covers everything, and admins can't revoke a single connection.
Maintenance	18 of 25	MCP changes in Clay's dated changelog through 2026-11-02; closed source, so one band lower.
Known CVEs	25 of 25	No advisories on record.
Transport	20 of 20	HTTPS only, and it refuses requests without a token.

If Clay adds a read-only scope or lets admins revoke one connection, the authentication points go up, and so likely does the grade. See the Clay MCP listing and how TrustedMCP scores servers.

Frequently asked questions

What is Clay MCP?

Clay's official hosted MCP server. It connects an AI tool such as Claude, ChatGPT or Codex to your Clay workspace so it can find and enrich people and companies, check your credits and run Functions your admin has enabled. It lives at https://api.clay.com/v3/mcp and uses OAuth sign-in.

Is Clay MCP free?

Connecting is free, and Claude users get 500 free credits on their first connection. After that, every enrichment spends Clay credits at the same rate as inside Clay, with no MCP surcharge. Functions, MCP permissions and credit budgets need a paid Clay plan.

What is the Clay MCP server URL?

https://api.clay.com/v3/mcp. In Claude you don't need it: add Clay from the connector directory. Other clients use the URL and sign in with OAuth.

Does Clay MCP work in Claude Code?

Yes. Clay's docs say results show as text in Claude Code. Add it with claude mcp add --transport http clay https://api.clay.com/v3/mcp, then run /mcp to sign in. If your admin has switched off "Unknown" clients, it may not connect.

Is Clay MCP the same as the Clay personal CRM?

No. The personal CRM at clay.earth is now called Mesh, and its MCP server is at https://mcp.me.sh/mcp. The old mcp.clay.earth address no longer works. Clay at clay.com is a separate sales data company.

Can Clay MCP edit my Clay tables?

No. Clay's docs say reps can't view, edit or create tables through MCP. It can spend credits on enrichments and run Functions, and "Open in Clay" on a result creates a new table in your workspace.

How do admins limit what reps do with Clay MCP?

Give reps the Sales Rep role, set a credit limit per user or a workspace default, enable only the Functions they need, and choose which AI apps may connect. To cut someone off, remove them from the workspace or set their credit limit to 0.

Is the Clay MCP server safe to use?

Mostly. It's hosted, uses OAuth with no API key to leak, and has no advisories on record. The catch is reach: one mcp scope covers everything your Clay role allows, there's no read-only option, and admins can't revoke a single connection. Give reps the Sales Rep role and a credit limit.

Is there a Clay MCP server on GitHub?

Not for clay.com: Clay's server is hosted and closed source. The old clay-inc/clay-mcp repo was for the personal CRM. It now redirects to mesh/mesh-mcp and was marked deprecated in Feb 2026. The community npm package @clayhq/clay-mcp also wrapped the personal CRM, and it isn't from either company's current docs.