> Enrich.chat gives AI agents verified work emails and mobiles. To use it from an agent, read https://enrich.chat/agents.md . This is the Markdown version of https://enrich.chat/tools/email-finder/

> **Note for agents:** this tool is a web form that people use in a browser, so you cannot submit it. Use the Enrich.chat API instead, as described in https://enrich.chat/agents.md .

# Free email finder: get anyone's work email from a name and company

Type a full name and the company website. You get the work email, its status, the company's email pattern and the person's title.

By Enrich.chat Editorial. Updated October 15, 2026.

## What you get

- The work email, labelled verified, catch-all or unknown
- The company's email pattern, such as first.last@acme.com
- The person's name and job title, when available

Your 10 free lookups are shared across Enrich.chat's free tools. A search with no match does not use one.

**Short answer:** An email finder turns a full name and a company website into a work email. It applies the company's address pattern, then asks the company's mail server whether that mailbox exists, using the SMTP commands in [RFC 5321](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5321.html). Enrich.chat's free finder gives you 10 lookups with no signup and labels each email verified, catch-all or unknown.

## Key takeaways

- An email finder applies the company's address pattern, then checks the mailbox over SMTP without sending any mail.
- Verified means the mailbox exists. Catch-all means the domain accepts every address. Unknown means the server gave no clear answer.
- Gmail and Yahoo require every sender to keep spam complaints under 0.3% and to use SPF or DKIM, so never send to unchecked guesses.

## Three steps, a few seconds

1. **Enter a name and website.** Type the person's first and last name and the company's website, such as acme.com.
2. **We find the email.** Enrich.chat looks the name and company up in its contact data and returns the work email with a status.
3. **Act on the status.** Send to verified emails. Treat catch-all as likely, not certain. Hold unknown ones until you can confirm them.

## How does an email finder work?

An email finder takes a full name and a company website, works out the likely address, and asks the company's mail server whether that mailbox exists. No email is sent. Most finders follow four steps.

1. **Find the company's pattern.** Most companies build every address the same way, such as first.last@ or first initial plus last name. One known address usually gives the format away. The [email format finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-format-finder/) shows the pattern for a domain, and our guide to [business email formats](https://enrich.chat/blog/email-address-formats/) explains the common ones.
2. **Rank the likely addresses.** The finder applies the pattern to the name. If the pattern is unknown, it ranks the common permutations instead. The [email permutator](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-permutator/) lists them for free in your browser.
3. **Ask the mail server.** The finder looks up the domain's mail server and opens an SMTP session, the protocol that moves email between servers. It names each address with the RCPT TO command and stops before sending anything. Under [RFC 5321](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5321.html#section-3.3), a server replies 250 when it accepts a recipient and 550 when the mailbox does not exist.
4. **Label the result.** The replies become a status: verified, catch-all or unknown. A good finder shows you that status instead of hiding it behind a single score.

SMTP also has a VRFY command that asks about an address directly. [Section 7.3 of RFC 5321](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5321.html#section-7.3) lets sites turn it off for security reasons, and notes that RCPT commands can often give the same answer. That is why finders use RCPT.

**Figure 1: How an email finder decides.** A name and company website go through four steps: find the company's email pattern, rank the likely addresses, and ask the mail server about each one. The server's answer becomes one of three statuses: verified, catch-all or unknown.

*How an email finder turns a name and a website into a status. The server check uses the SMTP RCPT TO command. Source: [IETF RFC 5321](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5321.html#section-3.3).*

Enrich.chat's email finder returns the work email on file with its status, the company's pattern, and the person's name and title when available. The status comes from our records, so recheck an email right before you send.

## What do verified, catch-all and unknown mean?

The status tells you how much the mail server confirmed. Verified is a yes, catch-all is a yes to everything, and unknown is no answer at all. Each one calls for a different next step.

### Verified: the mailbox exists

The server accepted the address. To make sure the server is not saying yes to all mail, good verifiers also ask about an address that cannot exist. A verified result means the real address passed and the fake one was rejected. Send as normal, but recheck a list that has sat for months, because people change jobs.

### Catch-all: the domain accepts everything

A catch-all domain accepts mail for any address, real or not. [Google Workspace](https://support.google.com/a/answer/12943537), for example, lets admins send mail for addresses that do not exist into one catch-all mailbox. [Hunter's verification guide](https://hunter.io/email-verification-guide/how-email-verification-works/) explains the problem: the server answers yes whether or not the address exists. Treat these emails as likely, not certain. Send a small batch first and watch your bounces. The [catch-all checker](https://enrich.chat/tools/catch-all-checker/) tells you if a domain works this way.

### Unknown: no clear answer

The server did not give a usable reply. Some servers greylist: they send a temporary 4xx error to senders they do not know and wait for a retry, as described in [RFC 6647](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6647.html). Others time out or block checks. Hold unknown addresses. Hunter's guide suggests trying again after a couple of days. You can also reach the person another way, for example with the [LinkedIn email and phone finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/linkedin-email-finder/).

**Figure 2: What the mail server says behind each status.** For each status, the figure shows how the mail server answers for the real address and for a made-up address at the same domain, and what to do. Verified: 250 OK and 550 no such user, so send as normal. Catch-all: 250 OK for both, so send a small batch and watch bounces. Unknown: a temporary 4xx error or a timeout, so hold and retry in a couple of days.

*What the mail server says behind each status, and what to do next. Sources: reply codes from [IETF RFC 5321](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5321.html#section-4.2.3), greylisting from [RFC 6647](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6647.html), retry advice from [Hunter](https://hunter.io/email-verification-guide/how-email-verification-works/).*

## Why do guessed email addresses hurt deliverability?

Wrong guesses bounce, and mailbox providers judge senders on bounces and spam complaints. Sending to five permutations to reach one person can mean four hard bounces on a normal domain.

Gmail and Yahoo publish firm rules. [Google's email sender guidelines](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) require every sender to set up SPF or DKIM and to keep the spam rate in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%. Anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail must also set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC and offer one-click unsubscribe. Google also tells senders to unsubscribe recipients after multiple bounces and to slow down when SMTP errors rise.

[Yahoo's sender best practices](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/) set the same 0.3% ceiling on spam complaints and require SPF or DKIM from all senders. They also tell you to remove invalid recipients from your list promptly.

The safe habit is simple. Send to verified addresses, test catch-all ones in small batches, and never send to an unknown guess.

## Which free email finders have the best free tier?

Hunter, Snov.io and Skrapp each start you on 50 free credits, and Apollo grants 900 credits a year. All four need an account. Enrich.chat and Mailmeteor work without signup. We checked each vendor's own pricing page on October 15, 2026.

*Free tiers as listed on each vendor's pricing page, checked October 15, 2026. Plans change often, so check before you sign up.*

| Email finder | Free allowance | Signup | A credit is used when | Good to know |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Enrich.chat** | 10 lookups on the website tools, plus 10 a day through your AI agent | No | A match is found. No match, no lookup used | Every email shows verified, catch-all or unknown. Paid plans from $29 a month |
| [Hunter](https://hunter.io/pricing) | 50 credits a month, shared by Email Finder, Email Verifier and Domain Search | Yes, free account | An email is found. Searches with no result are free | Paid plans from $49 a month, or $34 a month billed yearly |
| [Snov.io](https://snov.io/pricing) | 50 credits, renewed every 30 days | Yes | 1 credit per prospect or verification | No API, bulk search or export on the trial |
| [Apollo](https://www.apollo.io/pricing) | 900 credits per seat a year, granted monthly | Yes | 1 credit per email | Select up to 25 records at a time on Free |
| [Skrapp](https://skrapp.io/pricing) | 50 credits, 1 user | Yes | The email is marked valid or catch-all | The page does not say how often free credits renew |
| [Mailmeteor](https://mailmeteor.com/tools/email-finder) | Manual lookups under fair-use limits, no fixed number | No | Free | Labels results valid, risky or not found; bulk needs its API |

Enrich.chat is the best fit if you want no signup, a clear status on every email, and the same lookups inside your AI agent. Mailmeteor is a fair choice for a quick manual check. Hunter's free plan covers finding and verifying from one pool of credits. For more on Apollo's credits, see our [Apollo pricing guide](https://enrich.chat/blog/apollo-pricing/) or the list of [Apollo alternatives](https://enrich.chat/alternatives/apollo/).

### When is another email finder the better choice?

- **You want emails while you browse.** [Hunter for Chrome](https://hunter.io/chrome) lists the addresses behind any website. Skrapp's free plan works with LinkedIn and Sales Navigator, and Apollo's Free plan includes its browser extensions. Enrich.chat has no browser extension.
- **You want to send from the same tool.** Hunter's free plan includes sequences with one connected email account. Apollo's Free plan includes 2 sequences, and Snov.io's trial includes 100 recipients. Enrich.chat has no built-in sequencing.
- **You want a point-and-click database.** Apollo's Free plan includes its contact and account data with basic search filters. Enrich.chat has no visual table builder. You describe the people you want in plain English to the [lead list builder](https://enrich.chat/tools/lead-list-builder/) or to your agent.

Two more limits to know about Enrich.chat. The web tool runs one lookup at a time, so lists go through your agent or the API. And SDKs are still planned, so for now you call the plain HTTPS API or the MCP server.

## Is it legal to use an email finder?

Finding a business email address is generally lawful. What you send to it is regulated, and you are responsible for following the rules where you and your recipients are. This is a summary, not legal advice.

- **United States.** The [FTC's CAN-SPAM guide](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business) says the law makes no exception for business-to-business email. Each commercial email needs honest headers and subject lines, a valid postal address and a working opt-out. You must honor opt-outs within 10 business days, and each email that breaks the law can cost up to $53,088.
- **Guessed addresses.** Under [15 U.S.C. 7704(b)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704), it is an aggravated violation to knowingly send an unlawful commercial email to an address generated by software that combines names, letters or numbers into many permutations. That is one more reason to verify an address instead of sending to every pattern.
- **United Kingdom.** The ICO's [guide to electronic mail marketing](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/guide-to-pecr/electronic-and-telephone-marketing/electronic-mail-marketing/) says you can email any corporate body without prior consent. Sole traders and some partnerships count as individuals, though. You must not hide who you are, and you must give a valid address for opt-outs. The ICO adds that emailing named employees can raise data protection issues, so UK GDPR applies too.
- **Legitimate interests.** B2B outreach in the UK and EU usually relies on legitimate interests. The ICO says direct marketing [may be a legitimate interest](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/legitimate-interests/what-is-the-legitimate-interests-basis/) and sets a three-part test: a real purpose, a real need for the data, and a balance against the person's rights.

People can remove their details from Enrich.chat on the [opt-out page](https://enrich.chat/opt-out/). Requests are processed within 15 days.

## How do you find work emails in bulk with an AI agent?

Add the MCP server at enrich.chat/mcp to ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor or VS Code (the [install page](https://enrich.chat/install/) has one-click links), or paste one prompt into any agent that can make web requests. Without MCP, the agent reads enrich.chat/agents.md and calls the Enrich.chat API for each person. There is no SDK to install and no signup. For more than the free lookups, log in on the [account page](https://enrich.chat/account/) with your email and a one-time code, pick a plan and pay through checkout. Your API key appears there.

```text
Use www.enrich.chat to find the verified work email for each person in this list of names and company websites. Add the status to each row and flag catch-all emails as risky.
```

Behind the prompt, the agent makes one request per row:

```
GET https://enrich.chat/v1/email?name=Jane%20Doe&domain=acme.com
```

Each IP address gets 10 free lookups a day. After that, monthly plans start at $29 for 100,000 credits. A work email found uses 10 credits, and a lookup that finds nothing uses 0. Results carry the same verified, catch-all or unknown status as this tool.

Have LinkedIn URLs instead of names? The [people enrichment API](https://enrich.chat/api/person-enrichment/) takes those too. See [pricing](https://enrich.chat/pricing/) for mobiles and profiles, the guide to [Enrich.chat for AI agents](https://enrich.chat/agents/) for setup, and our [lead generation prompts](https://enrich.chat/blog/chatgpt-lead-generation-prompts/) for more ideas.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a free email finder with no signup?

Yes. Enrich.chat's email finder gives each visitor 10 free lookups with no account, and a search with no match does not use one. [Mailmeteor's finder](https://mailmeteor.com/tools/email-finder) is also free without signup, under fair-use limits. Hunter, Snov.io, Skrapp and Apollo have free plans, but each one needs an account. For more volume, paste the prompt on this page into your AI agent, which gets 10 free lookups a day.

### How accurate are email finders?

It depends on the domain, and any accuracy figure a vendor publishes is its own claim. What you can check is the status. Verified means a mail-server check found the mailbox. In Enrich.chat it means our records mark the mailbox as verified, not that it was checked as you searched. Catch-all means the server accepts every address, so no finder can confirm the person. Unknown means the server gave no clear answer. Send to verified emails, test catch-all ones in small batches, and hold unknown ones.

### Is it legal to find someone's work email address?

Finding a business email is generally lawful, but what you send to it is regulated. In the US, the [FTC's CAN-SPAM guide](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business) says the law makes no exception for B2B email. You need honest headers and subject lines, a postal address and an opt-out you honor within 10 business days. In the UK, the [ICO](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/guide-to-pecr/electronic-and-telephone-marketing/electronic-mail-marketing/) lets you email corporate addresses without prior consent, but data protection law still applies. This is not legal advice.

### What is a catch-all email address?

A catch-all, or accept-all, domain accepts mail sent to any address at that domain, even ones that do not exist. [Google Workspace](https://support.google.com/a/answer/12943537) lets admins route misaddressed mail into one mailbox this way. Because the server says yes to everything, a verifier cannot tell whether jane.doe@ is a real person. Treat catch-all emails as likely, not certain, and test a domain with the [catch-all checker](https://enrich.chat/tools/catch-all-checker/).

### How do I find someone's email address by name and company?

Enter the person's full name and the company website into the email finder on this page. It returns the likely address with its status. To do it by hand, look up the company's pattern with the [email format finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-format-finder/), list the options with the [email permutator](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-permutator/), then verify one before you send. Our guide on [how to find anyone's work email](https://enrich.chat/blog/how-to-find-someones-email/) covers other methods.

### Can I find emails in bulk with ChatGPT or Claude?

Yes. Add the Enrich.chat MCP server at enrich.chat/mcp to ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor, or paste one prompt into any agent that can make web requests. The agent calls the Enrich.chat API once per name. It gets 10 free lookups a day per IP address with no signup, then monthly plans start at $29 for 100,000 credits, and a work email found uses 10 credits. Lookups with no match use 0 credits, and each result keeps its verified, catch-all or unknown status.

## Sources

1. [RFC 5321: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5321.html)
2. [RFC 6647: Email Greylisting, an Applicability Statement for SMTP](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6647.html)
3. [Email sender guidelines](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126)
4. [Sender best practices](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/)
5. [Get misaddressed email in a catch-all mailbox](https://support.google.com/a/answer/12943537)
6. [How to verify an email address without sending an email](https://hunter.io/email-verification-guide/how-email-verification-works/)
7. [15 U.S. Code 7704: Other protections for users of commercial electronic mail](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704)
8. [Electronic mail marketing (guide to PECR)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/guide-to-pecr/electronic-and-telephone-marketing/electronic-mail-marketing/)
9. [What is the legitimate interests basis?](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/legitimate-interests/what-is-the-legitimate-interests-basis/)
10. [Hunter pricing](https://hunter.io/pricing)
11. [Hunter for Chrome](https://hunter.io/chrome)
12. [Snov.io pricing](https://snov.io/pricing)
13. [Apollo pricing](https://www.apollo.io/pricing)
14. [Skrapp pricing](https://skrapp.io/pricing)
15. [Mailmeteor Email Finder](https://mailmeteor.com/tools/email-finder)

## Find emails from your agent

Your AI agent gets 10 free lookups a day through the same API, then monthly plans from $29, where a work email found uses 10 credits. Misses use 0.

```bash
curl "https://enrich.chat/v1/email?name=Jane%20Doe&domain=acme.com"
```

## Try this prompt

Find verified work emails from your agent

```text
Use www.enrich.chat to find the verified work email for Jane Doe at acme.com, and tell me if the domain is catch-all
```

## Related

- [Email permutator](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-permutator/)
- [Catch-all email checker](https://enrich.chat/tools/catch-all-checker/)
- [How to find anyone's work email](https://enrich.chat/blog/how-to-find-someones-email/)