Ceramic clay is a phrase buyers use and suppliers do not. No price list has a ceramic clay row, because every fireable body on it is ceramic clay. What the phrase usually means is a clay that will actually become ceramic in a kiln, as opposed to an air drying body that never will, and that is a useful distinction worth making precisely.
What the phrase is doing
Someone searching for ceramic clay is nearly always trying to separate the real thing from the craft-shop material, having discovered that not everything sold as clay can be fired. That instinct is right. The word that suppliers use for the real thing is the firing range: any body printed with a temperature range is a ceramic body, and any body without one probably is not.
What to ask for instead
Name the family and the texture. A smooth white stoneware for throwing, a grogged buff for hand building, a red earthenware for low firing. Suppliers organise their listings that way and every one of those phrases produces a shortlist immediately, where ceramic clay produces either everything or nothing.
How to check a body is fireable
Look for two temperatures printed together, such as 1120 to 1280 degrees. That range is the body's working window and its presence is the clearest signal that a supplier expects it to go in a kiln. Air drying bodies carry no range, because they have no kiln behaviour to describe.
Buying it once you know what to ask for
With a family and a texture in hand, price per kilogram becomes the only remaining variable, and it varies more than most buyers expect. The same body can differ by a fifth between the manufacturer and a stockist, which is what the index on this site measures and why it converts everything to one unit before comparing.
Questions people ask about ceramic clay
What is ceramic clay?
Any clay body that becomes ceramic when fired, which is every fireable body a pottery supplier sells. Suppliers list them by family and firing range rather than under this phrase.
How do I know a clay can be fired?
It will have a firing range printed with it, such as 1120 to 1280 degrees. No range usually means an air drying body.
Is ceramic clay different from pottery clay?
No. They are two names people use for the same shelf; the useful distinctions are family, texture and firing range.