Domain Search
Why doesn't the Domain Search return any results?
Why doesn't the Domain Search return any results?
No search credits are used when Hunter can't provide a result. There are three main reasons:
Not enough public data exists for that domain — more common for smaller companies, or the company may send email from a different domain than its website.
The data exists, but Hunter's crawler couldn't access it (blocked by robots.txt, obfuscated emails, or JavaScript-rendered pages).
The results are hidden because the contact asked to be removed from Hunter's services.
Confirm you're using the domain the company actually sends email from, and try the techniques in this guide. Hunter will also automatically retry that domain later.
How does Hunter find the email addresses returned in the Domain Search?
How does Hunter find the email addresses returned in the Domain Search?
Hunter crawls over 30M public web pages every day to find, update, and remove email addresses — using only publicly available information, never private or purchased data.
For every email shown, you can expand the sources below it to see whether it was found publicly or inferred, and when that source was last reviewed. The database updates continuously, so results stay current.
Learn more at hunter.io/our-data.
Can I find the email pattern for a specific domain?
Can I find the email pattern for a specific domain?
Yes, the email pattern or a specific company will show up when at least a few personal emails have been found for a domain.
The pattern appears in Domain Search after you reveal at least one email, or as a column in your downloaded Bulk Domain Search CSV.
How do I reveal, save, and export leads from Domain Search?
How do I reveal, save, and export leads from Domain Search?
Click Reveal on any contact (1 credit) — it's automatically saved to your Leads.
Select multiple contacts and click Reveal in the action menu to reveal in bulk.
Use the Generic tab to reveal all generic addresses (info@, contact@, etc.) for 1 credit total, regardless of how many there are.
Exporting as CSV costs 0 credits — credits are only used when revealing emails that haven't been revealed yet.
See How to reveal, save, and export leads from Domain Search for the full walkthrough.
Can I filter and search for a specific person?
Can I filter and search for a specific person?
Yes, you can find specific contacts in a company in two ways:
Use Find by name inside the Domain Search results to search a specific first and last name at that company.
Use the dedicated Email Finder tool directly with the person's name and company domain.
How can I find decision makers using Hunter?
How can I find decision makers using Hunter?
In Domain Search or Discover, use the Decision Makers tab to prioritize senior roles like CEOs, VPs, and Directors.
You can refine further by Department, Job Title, Verification Status, Email Source, Location, or excluding already-saved leads.
See How can I find decision makers using Hunter? for the full walkthrough.
Does Hunter allow finding webmail addresses like Gmail or Outlook?
Does Hunter allow finding webmail addresses like Gmail or Outlook?
No — Hunter only finds professional email addresses, so personal webmail domains (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) are intentionally excluded. This keeps Hunter focused on business contacts and compliant with GDPR/CCPA.
No credits are used for these searches.
Can I find leads by job title using the Domain Search?
Can I find leads by job title using the Domain Search?
Yes — in the Domain Search, you can use the Job Title filter to narrow results down to specific roles (e.g. "Marketing Manager," "Sales Director").
You can combine it with other filters like Department, Type of email source, Verification Status, or Location to get more targeted results.
What filters can I use to filter and target my leads in the Domain Search?
What filters can I use to filter and target my leads in the Domain Search?
You can narrow down results with:
Job Title — one or multiple titles
Department — Executive, IT, Finance, Management, Sales, Legal, Support, HR, Marketing, Communication, Education, Design, Health, Operations
Verification Status — Valid, Accept-all, or Unknown
Email Type — Personal (a specific person's address) or Generic (info@, support@, etc.)
Email Source — Public or Inferred
Location — city, state, country, region, continent, or economic area
Show only results with — Full Name, Job Title, or Phone Number
Saved Leads — hide contacts you've already saved to your Leads list
You can also switch to the Decision Makers tab to jump straight to senior roles (CEOs, VPs, Directors, etc.) and combine it with any of the filters above or use the Generic tab to filter by Generic emails only.
Email Finder
Why doesn't the Email Finder return any results?
Why doesn't the Email Finder return any results?
This usually comes down to one of two things: Hunter doesn't have any public data on that domain yet, or its algorithm couldn't confirm a reliable verified match.
No credits are used when no result is found. Before trying again:
Double-check the person's full name (no initials or middle names).
Confirm the domain is the one the company actually sends email from — test it in Domain Search.
See Why doesn't the Email Finder return any result? for the full breakdown and alternative techniques.
Are the emails found in the Email Finder publicly sourced?
Are the emails found in the Email Finder publicly sourced?
Yes, when an email is publicly sourced from the web, Hunter shows you exactly where it was found, including the URL and the date the source was last reviewed.
When using the Email Finder or Bulk Email Finder, if there's no public source for a contact, Hunter may provide an "Inferred" email based on public patterns at that domain by verifying the email address.
If we can't find or infer a result at all, we'll let you know and suggest other contacts at the same company when available.
💡 Every email returned by the Email Finder or Bulk Email Finder is verified for deliverability.
Can I find emails from social media profiles?
Can I find emails from social media profiles?
No — Hunter can't find emails from Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or TikTok profiles.
Emails used to register social accounts are kept private by those platforms and aren't publicly available. Hunter only finds emails from domains, companies, or professionals on the public web.
What do I need to find emails using the Email Finder functionality?
What do I need to find emails using the Email Finder functionality?
To use the Email Finder and find a specific person’s email address, you need the person’s full name and either the company name or the company domain.
For best results, we recommend using the company domain + full name.
In some cases, first-name initials can also work, especially for smaller companies where there are no other people with the same name.
Hunter will then return the person’s valid professional email address, ready to contact.
If you only have domains or company names use the Domain Search functionality instead.
Finding emails in bulk
Can I find emails from a list of domains or companies?
Can I find emails from a list of domains or companies?
Yes, to find emails in bulk from domains or company names, you can use the Bulk Domain Search — upload a .txt or .csv file (one domain or company name per line), or paste them directly into the text box.
Domains usually return better results than company names.
Can I find emails in bulk?
Can I find emails in bulk?
Yes — use the Bulk Email Finder to find emails from a list of names and companies, or the Bulk Domain Search to find multiple emails per domain across a list of companies.
Can I find email addresses from a list of names and companies?
Can I find email addresses from a list of names and companies?
Yes, you can find the email of a specific person, using our Bulk Email Finder.
Upload a CSV with full names and companies or domains, and get it back enriched with email addresses.
What are the accepted formats for the domains in the bulk functionalities?
What are the accepted formats for the domains in the bulk functionalities?
Accepted formats: domain.com, www.domain.com, http(s)://www.domain.com, or domain.com/any-subpage — all are automatically cleaned to domain.com.
💡 A subdomain like app.domain.com is processed as-is. In Bulk Domain Search, if a subdomain has no results, Hunter automatically falls back to the root domain.
Can I filter to see bulks created by a specific team member?
Can I filter to see bulks created by a specific team member?
Yes — go to the Bulks section, open the relevant bulk type (Domain Search, Email Finder, or Email Verifier), and use the Team member filter (top left) to select one or more teammates.
Why aren't my characters displaying correctly in the uploaded file?
Why aren't my characters displaying correctly in the uploaded file?
This usually means the file wasn't exported as UTF-8. You can fix it by re-exporting.
Learn how to do so here: Why aren’t my characters displaying correctly in the uploaded file?
Why is my CSV file using commas instead of displaying columns?
Why is my CSV file using commas instead of displaying columns?
When this happens typically your spreadsheet's delimiters aren't configured.
You can fix this by following the instructions here: Why is my CSV file using commas instead of displaying columns?
Do I get charged to download my bulk results again?
Do I get charged to download my bulk results again?
No — once you've downloaded a bulk (Domain Search, Email Finder, or Verifier) for the first time, you can re-download or re-export it as many times as you want at no extra cost. Credits are only charged on the first download; after that, the bulk is marked "Downloaded" and stays freely accessible from your Bulks section going forward.
Why are my bulk results so low?
Why are my bulk results so low?
If a search or bulk upload returns far fewer results than expected, or none at all, it's usually one of these causes.
No credits are used when Hunter can't find or reveal an email, so it's worth checking these before assuming something's wrong.
Using the wrong tool for your data — The Email Finder needs a full first and last name plus a domain or company; it's built to find one specific person. If your list only has company names with no individual contacts, use the Domain Search (or Bulk Domain Search) instead — it returns several emails Hunter has for that company without needing a name to match.
Company names instead of domains — Company names are harder to match than domains, especially with:
Legal suffixes (Ltd, LLC, Inc, GmbH)
Extra punctuation or brackets
Informal names that differ from the official registered name
Use domain names whenever you have them. If you only have company names, clean the list first: strip legal suffixes and extra characters, and keep names close to how the company is publicly known.
Full names with initials or middle names — Hunter matches first and last names as they appear publicly online, so a name with a middle name, initial, or nickname won't match. For example, "Robert J. Smith" will not return anything. Try searching with just the simplest form of the first and last name.
Small companies with low web presence — Hunter's data comes from what's publicly available online, so very small companies naturally have less to find. For these, the Bulk Domain Search is usually more effective than trying to match one specific contact — it surfaces whatever public emails Hunter does have instead of requiring an exact name match.
CEOs and senior executives — Senior leaders often have less contact info published online, sometimes intentionally. The Decision Makers filter in Domain Search or Discover is usually more effective than a direct named search, since it surfaces whatever senior contacts Hunter has data for.
Leads that no longer return a match — People change jobs, and Hunter's data reflects the current public web. If a contact has left the company since your list was built, Hunter may no longer return a result for them at that domain since it's no longer a real match. Worth checking whether the person still works there before assuming the search is broken.
Credits & usage
How many credits does finding an email use?
How many credits does finding an email use?
All-in-One Outreach plans:
Domain Search: 1 credit per email revealed
Email Finder: 1 credit per email found (includes verification at no extra cost)
Bulk Domain Search: 1 credit for up to 10 emails returned per domain
Bulk Email Finder: same rate as the single Email Finder
API: When finding emails using the API, requests are counted as follows:
Domain Search endpoint: 1 credit per 1–10 emails per domain
Email Finder endpoint: 1 credit per email found
Data Platform plans:
Domain Search: 1 Search credit per email revealed
Email Finder: 1 Search credit per email found (includes verification at no extra cost)
Bulk Domain Search: 1 Search credit for up to 10 emails returned per domain
Bulk Email Finder: same rate as the single Email Finder
API: When finding emails using the API, requests are counted as follows:
Domain Search endpoint: 1 Search credit per 1–10 emails per domain
Email Finder endpoint: 1 Search credit per email found
No credits are used, on either plan, if Hunter can't find a result
For the full breakdown across all Hunter tools, see How do credits work in Hunter?
Does verification cost extra when finding emails?
Does verification cost extra when finding emails?
It depends on the tool you use.
For the Email Finder and Bulk Email Finder, verification is already included in the same credit used to find the email. You’re not charged twice.
For Domain Search and Discover, most results already include the last verification status at no extra cost. If an email has not been verified recently, you may see the option to verify it manually. This uses a separate verification credit because it’s a new check.
For Bulk Domain Search, emails are not automatically verified by default but include the last verification status. You can choose to verify all emails during the bulk search and then download only the valid emails, or all results. In this case, verification credits are counted when you launch the bulk search, while credits for revealing emails are only counted when you download and reveal the email addresses.
✉️ Any questions?
Contact our Support team at contact@hunter.io, we are happy to help!