Email is the preferred way of communication for 73% of customers, making it the smartest way to reach as many people as possible with a single channel. You need to find their emails first, of course – the faster and easier, the better.
If you’re a member of the sales, marketing, recruiting, or PR team looking for ways to quickly expand your contact list, this guide is for you. It contains essential information on how to find someone’s email address with both free and paid approaches.
Key points of the article:
TL;DR: Best ways to find someone’s email address: a quick comparison
Get a quick overview of all email search tools and approaches from this table. Click on each method for a detailed description.
| Intent | Method | Effort required | Cost | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The fastest way to find someone’s email address | Email finder tools | Low | Free with freemiums or during the trial period; then from $39/month | Best for bulk B2B outreach and prospecting. |
| LinkedIn extractors | Medium | Free with some extensions | Ideal for lead generation on LinkedIn. | |
| Free tools and methods to find email addresses | Email lookup on Facebook, X, Snapchat, or Instagram | Medium | Free | Useful for researching specific high-value leads; hardly scalable without specialized tools. |
| Search engines | High | Free | Very time-consuming and not scalable. | |
| WHOIS | Medium | Free or low | Limited by GDPR and only suitable for small websites. | |
| ChatGPT | — | Free or low | Can help with email location. | |
| Company contact form/subscription form | Medium | Free | Effective for personal email lookup. | |
| Crunchbase | Medium | Free or low | Provides a detailed listing of company employees. | |
| Email permutators | Medium | Free or low | Not accurate by itself; works better paired with verification tools. Time-consuming and not very scalable. | |
| Asking directly | High | Free | Effective for warm introductions but rarely scalable. | |
| Finding email addresses for link-building and PR outreach | Ahrefs Content Explorer | Medium | from $229/month | Works great for media outreach. |
| Pressfarm database | Medium | from $280 one-time | Works great for media outreach. | |
| Slideshare | High | Free | Rarely scalable, but good for high-value or niche contacts. |
Now, let’s take a closer look at all methods so you can make an informed decision.
What is the best way to find someone’s email address?
Among the array of email lookup approaches, none is more effective today than these methods:
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Use a dedicated email finder tool
Whether you’re a lead generation specialist, PR professional, or a recruiter, reliable software may help you grab real, valid contacts in high volumes as fast as possible.
For example, with Snov.io’s Email Finder tool, you can streamline both single and bulk email lookup, do instant verification, and run multichannel outreach. You can search emails by name, domain, social URL, grab them on websites, or in Snov’io’s rich database — swiftly, efficiently, and safely.
Available as both an app and a Chrome extension email finder, Snov.io complies with the data protection regulations, so your contact security is always under control.
Additional Snov.io features include:
- Email verification
- Cold email outreach
- Deliverability check
- Mailbox warmup
- Multichannel campaigns with automated LinkedIn actions
- Campaign analytics and reports
- Flawless integration with Pipedrive, Salesforce, and other software
- Free sales CRM
You can use Snov.io as a free tool to find email addresses, as it offers 50 free credits per month. Paid plans start from $39/month for 1,000 credits.
Alternatively, you can use popular solutions such as Hunter.io, Skrapp.io, VoilaNorbert, and FindEmail.com, among others. Most of them are available as both a website app and a Chrome extension email finder.
→ Read our recent review: Which are the best tools to find company email addresses?
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Use a LinkedIn extractor
LinkedIn is one of the best ways to find someone’s email address because this platform is designed for professionals who are naturally ready for business communication.
You can try looking for emails on LinkedIn manually by checking the Contact section of their profile first. High chances they’ve included their email address there.
If not, we recommend using a LinkedIn Email Finder from Snov.io. This easy-to-use Chrome extension is designed specifically for spotting and gathering contact data from the LinkedIn search bar, user profiles, or company pages.
Discovering contacts with this LinkedIn email extractor is very easy:
- Download the extension.
- Visit a person’s profile
- Click the extension icon to activate it.
You’ll get a person’s contact information in a few seconds. Now simply click ‘Save.’
If you want to find addresses in bulk based on a specific job position:
- Type a respective job title in the search bar
- Upon getting the list of profiles, click on the extension icon.
Contacts will be generated instantly. By clicking on advanced lookup options, you can adjust the number of pages from which you want to collect prospects or timeout settings for a safer approach.
Now, click ‘Save’ so all contacts are automatically saved into a new folder in your Snov.io app.
Each address comes already verified, so you can clearly see which ones are valid and which are not.
How to find someone’s email address for free
If you’re interested in a single email lookup and have more time for contact discovery, these methods may be handy:
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Try other social media platforms like Facebook, X (Twitter), Snapchat, or Instagram
I admit that searching for business contact information on these platforms may seem complicated, but it is still worth a try.
How to find someone’s email address on Facebook
Facebook is generally laid-back, but some users do share their contacts there, particularly when using their profiles to promote their services or businesses.
For instance, you can check the “Contact and basic information” section of a person’s profile. If the user has decided to show their email, you’ll see it right at the top of it.
If not, look for any links to their company pages. It’s more likely you’ll find the relevant information there.
Or you can check for links to the prospect’s other social media profiles.
How to find someone’s email address on X (Twitter)
By using the Search option on X (Twitter), you can check whether the person you are looking for has left any tweets that mention their address. For example, I made an effort on my own and found Neil Patel’s contact details in just a couple of minutes.
How to find someone’s email address on Instagram and Snapchat
Since Instagram and Snapchat are more of a photo/video entertainment platform, finding users’ emails there can be tricky — profiles usually don’t display this kind of into. But you can still check a user’s bio for relevant data or any mentions of their company page.
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Use search engines (Google, DuckDuckGo)
Surprisingly, few people know about this method. Yes, it’s not the best way to find someone’s email address, as it’s not that fast and straightforward, but you can try it as well.
Searching for an exact match to “@domainname.com” in DuckDuckGo may give you results for any public addresses associated with this domain.
You can include your prospect’s name in your search to reach out to someone specific, or you can run a domain search.
This trick can work with some other search engines, like Yahoo!, but it likely won’t work on Google and Bing. No worry. Here’s how to find someone’s email address by name and company on Google:
Type the person’s name and add the words “mail,” “contacts,” or “contact me” to it. If you know their website, launch a Google search by typing “site: site_name and name”.
Simple Google queries to try:
- [firstname] [lastname] email
- [firstname] [lastname] contact
- [firstname] [lastname] [company] email/contact
- [firstname] [lastname] email/contact site:[domain.com]
Advanced Google queries to try:
- (“[job title]” OR “[job title]) “[firstname] [lastname]” site: [domain.com] email
- “[firstname] [lastname]” [job title] site: [domain.com] email
- “[firstname] [lastname]” [job title] [company] email
As you can see, this search method can provide results, but it will take up a lot of your time.
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Crawl through WHOIS data
WHOIS data is used in domain registration and is publicly available, giving you information about who owns the domain. By law, anyone who has a website must provide their contact details.
You can find email addresses by going to namecheap.com, who.is, or mxtoolbox.com and searching for owners’ domains. Some of these tools are free, and some offer to exchange vital information about domain ownership for a subscription fee.
❗️Note: This option is not GDPR-compliant, so you can’t use it for EU-based domains. Moreover, it’s only suitable for small websites, such as author blogs.
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Ask ChatGPT for help
Although ChatGPT won’t support a personal email lookup due to privacy concerns, it can explain how to find an email address of a company employee by providing tips and direct links to possible locations.
Just give your AI helper a good prompt:
That’s not the straightforward way of contact discovery, of course, but let’s be honest, it can save much of your time and effort.
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Fill in the contact and subscription forms
If the contacts you want to connect with have a blog site and a subscription form, subscribe.
Welcome newsletters, in this case, usually come from personal accounts. For example, after subscribing to Ahrefs, I have received a message from the personal address of the company’s representative, Joshua Hardwick (Head of Content).
Joshua wasn’t my target person, but I could ask him to redirect me to his colleague, who was the one I needed.
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Do a company search in Crunchbase
That may work if you don’t know how to find an email address of a company employee. Crunchbase will help you reveal data on digital companies and startups, providing a detailed listing of key individuals’ names and positions worldwide. Although you won’t get a list of emails right there, you may find links to their LinkedIn and X (Twitter) profiles.
Just write the company name in the Current Organization field and get a list of key people and info about them.
See a person whom you think you can contact? Click their name, get an overview of them, and find links to their social media accounts.
Now, you can try the email lookup there.
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Use email permutators
Also known as email guessers, these tools often come as free tools to find email addresses. They literally guess a possible email based on the data you provide.
You can try Email Permutator by Mailmeteor, for example. Just enter a person’s first name, last name, and domain, and you’ll get a list of possible contacts for the leads you are interested in.
You may find numerous similar solutions that won’t cost you a single cent.
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Ask directly
The most straightforward way is sometimes the most effective. Check out contacts who are close to the person you’re looking for on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. Try reaching out to these connections with a friendly request to help you get in touch with the person you’re looking for.
If you’re wondering how to find an email address of a company employee, give corporate websites a try. Companies often have a list of contacts for inquiries.
Your incoming messages are usually handled by customer support agents or assistants. As soon as they reply, you can ask them for the contact address of a coworker you’re interested in.
An example of a message requesting someone’s contact information can look like this:
Hi [Recipient’s name],
I’d like to share some valuable information about solving your company’s [Pain point]. It has come to my attention that [Decision-maker’s name] handles cases like this.
Could you point me to the best address to reach them?
Appreciate your help!
[Your name]
The key point here is to be relevant to the company’s real needs and sincere about your intentions.
How to find someone’s email adresses for link-building and PR outreach
All methods described above work fine not only for marketing lead generation and sales prospecting but also for link-building and PR outreach. Moreover, there are specific approaches you can try for discovering contacts of creators, publishers, or other media personalities.
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Use Ahrefs Content Explorer
If you want to improve your website’s credibility and visibility and get quality backlinks from trusted media outlets, you’ll most likely need the contact info of article authors.
Tools like Ahrefs help you spot the journalists and publications covering your niche. They aren’t always cheap (e.g., Ahrefs’ pricing starts at $229 per month), but if your SEO team already has a subscription, why not try it?
Here’s how to find someone’s email address with Ahrefs Content Explorer:
Look for a topic relevant to your business. If the author is listed in the article, their name will be displayed.
What to do next? Use free methods we’ve discussed above (Google search, email permulators) or find their social media profiles first. Then run a search with the help of special email finder tools.
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Search in the Pressfarm database
For publishers’ email lookup, you can try one more way – special PR databases like Pressfarm, which help find contacts of journalists, editors, and bloggers.
Start by searching the database with keywords relevant to your industry, product, or niche, and you’ll receive profiles of those who cover those topics. Each profile typically includes verified email addresses, publication information, and sometimes social media links.
Once you’ve found the right people, you can export their contacts into your outreach list.
The drawback of this approach is that Pressfarm’s database size may be limited compared to larger PR tools, and accuracy may vary depending on the industry or region. Also, for small businesses, the price, which starts from $280, can be rather high.
Nevertheless, it saves you time, offers niche-specific searches, and gives access to updated media lists.
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Look up in Slideshare
Slideshare is a service that companies and public figures use to upload their presentations from webinars and conferences. Very often, if you flip through the presentation, you can find the author’s contact information there.
Always check the last slide first, as it’s usually where such details are located.
Why is it so important to find the right email address?
Contact discovery is only the beginning of the proper outreach process. It’s essential to verify your database, especially if you’ve searched for contact data for free.
Sending messages to outdated or incorrect addresses can harm your sender’s reputation and even result in your domain being flagged or blacklisted.
Meanwhile, reaching the right contacts ensures your messages target people who are genuinely interested in your product or service. In other words, the more verified your database is, the higher the chance that recipients will read your message and become your customers.
Verification doesn’t take long, especially with the right tools at hand. Email verification tools check whether an email address is valid for the outreach. It helps ensure your messages reach real recipients, reduce bounce rates, and protect your reputation.
One of those tools is Snov.io Email Verifier, which has a comprehensive 7-tier verification process:
- Syntax check confirms the address is properly formatted.
- Domain validation ensures the email’s domain is active and legitimate.
- MX record check verifies that the domain can actually receive messages.
- Role-based account detection flags generic addresses like “info@domain.com” or “sales@domain.com” that rarely engage.
- Disposable email detection identifies temporary or one-time-use addresses.
- Catch-all server check identifies domains that accept all messages but may not deliver them to the recipient.
- Spam trap identification detects addresses designed to catch spam.
Thanks to such a bullet-proof process, this Verifier Tool ensures a 98% accuracy and a less than 1% bounce rate. You can try it by yourself for free:
Wrapping up:
As you can see, there are many ways to find email addresses. Each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses, so choose the one that fits your goals:
Want to know how to find someone’s email address by name and company? – Try searching for it in search engines, databases, or social media. Rely on your AI assistants for help or fill in subscription forms and wait for a company employee to contact you.
Interested in testing free tools to find email addresses? – Let permulators do some guesswork for you.
Ready for the best way to find someone’s email address? – Rely on a professional email finder tool with built-in instant verification, like Snov.io. Let its automation features and bulk contact discovery capabilities make your cold email outreach a relief, not a challenge.
