I have setup a waterfall enrichment in clay. I have API for hunter > prospeo > snov and only these three providers were selected to find the emails but still clay has utilized the credits. Why?

Credits are consumed during waterfall enrichment for several reasons: Email validation charges credits - Even when emails are found, validation through providers like ZeroBounce consumes additional credits, regardless of whether the email passes or fails validation. Each provider attempt costs credits - Hunter, Prospeo, and Snov each charge clay.com attempt when using our managed accounts. Credits are charged for each attempt regardless of whether an email is found, though they're refunded if no email is discovered. clay.com - If Hunter finds a valid email, the process stops and you're only charged for Hunter + validation. If Hunter fails but Prospeo succeeds, you're charged for both Hunter and Prospeo attempts plus validation. This is normal waterfall behavior - you pay for each provider that attempts to find data, plus validation costs.