REST + MCP. Free tier. No credit card.

Email Finder API

POST a first name, last name, and company domain. Get back a verified email. Hardened-domain aware. MCP-ready for Claude, Cursor, and any agent. Built on the same engine that powers our free tool — but reachable from your code.

curl
POST /api/v1/email/discover
curl -X POST https://www.startuphub.ai/api/v1/email/discover \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "firstName": "Daniel",
    "lastName":  "Singer",
    "domain":    "startuphub.ai"
  }'
5Free credits/day
Hits onlyCharged on
<3sMedian latency
Real mailboxVerification

How it works

Three calls. JSON in, JSON out. No SDK to install.

1

Send name + domain

POST { firstName, lastName, domain } to /api/v1/email/discover with your Bearer key. JSON in, JSON out.

2

Find the real address

Returns the verified working address for that person at that company, not a guess. Hardened corporate domains where pattern-only finders return false positives are handled out of the box. Only addresses corroborated by independent signals are surfaced.

3

Get the verified email back

Response: { found, email, all_emails, matches }. Each match has confidence + a human-readable note. No probability scores, no guesses — every email returned is independently corroborated.

Drop into any stack

Plain HTTPS + JSON. No SDK required.

Node.js / TypeScript
const r = await fetch('https://www.startuphub.ai/api/v1/email/discover', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer sk_live_...',
    'Content-Type':  'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    firstName: 'Daniel',
    lastName:  'Singer',
    domain:    'startuphub.ai',
  }),
});
const { found, email, matches } = await r.json();
Python
import requests

r = requests.post(
    'https://www.startuphub.ai/api/v1/email/discover',
    headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer sk_live_...'},
    json={'firstName': 'Daniel', 'lastName': 'Singer', 'domain': 'startuphub.ai'},
)
data = r.json()
print(data['email'] if data['found'] else 'not found')
Response
{
  "found": true,
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "all_emails": [
    "[email protected]",
    "[email protected]"
  ],
  "matches": [
    {
      "email":      "[email protected]",
      "confidence": "high",
      "note":       "Very likely the correct person — safe to use."
    }
  ]
}

What’s in the box

Every endpoint, every edge case, every channel — included.

REST API: POST + JSON

POST /api/v1/email/discover with firstName, lastName, domain. Bearer auth. Charges 3 credits per successful find — credits only debit when found:true.

MCP server for Claude / Cursor

Same endpoint exposed as the discover_email MCP tool. Drop one URL into Claude.ai or Cursor and your agent can find emails in any chat.

Hardened-domain awareness

Tools that only pattern-match and DNS-check return false positives at firms running enterprise mail security. We don't. If we can't corroborate the address, we say not_found — never a guess.

Bulk discovery

Discover for arrays of {firstName, lastName, domain} in one call. Pro Lite and above. Per-row credit billing — you pay for hits, not misses.

LinkedIn → email

Pass a LinkedIn URL to the discover_email_by_linkedin variant — we extract the name + current company and run the standard discovery pipeline against the company domain.

Built-in validation

Every returned email is verified at the recipient mailbox before being returned. No need to chain a separate validation step — discovery already includes it.

Built for these workflows

Real production patterns from teams using the API today.

CRM auto-enrichment

Trigger on lead-created webhook. POST name + company. Drop the verified email back into the CRM. Skip the BDR research step.

Outbound automation

Generate target lists in your sales tool. Loop through and discover emails. Skip Hunter's monthly cap and credit-pack price gouging.

AI agent workflows

Connect via MCP to Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf. "Find me the emails for the founders of these 5 startups." One natural-language query, verified inboxes back.

Recruiter sourcing

Find candidate emails from LinkedIn URLs. Reach passive candidates directly without InMail credit fees.

vs. the incumbents

Same workflow. Lower cost. Better recall on hard targets.

ProviderTheir offeringStartupHub.ai Email Finder API
Hunter API$49/mo for 500 monthly credits
Free tier 5/day, $30/mo for 50/day
Apollo APIRequires sales-triggered upgrade for API access
Self-serve API key in 30 seconds
RocketReach API$59/mo for 80 lookups, 8x cost per email
Volume credit packs, no expiry
NeverBounce / ZeroBounceValidation only — no discovery
Discovery + validation in one endpoint
Snov.io APINo MCP server, no agent integration
MCP-native, works in Claude / Cursor / Windsurf out of the box
MCP Server

Use it inside Claude. Or Cursor. Or any agent.

The same Email Finder API ships as a Model Context Protocol server. One URL into your AI client and your assistant gains the discover_email tool — natural-language email lookup without leaving the chat.

Claude DesktopClaude.ai webCursorWindsurfClaude CodeCodex CLI
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "startuphub": {
      "url": "https://www.startuphub.ai/api/v1/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer sk_live_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Pricing

Daily caps reset at midnight UTC. Volume credit packs available — never expire.

Free
$0
5/day discover
50/day validate
Pro Lite
$30/mo
50/day discover
500/day validate
Pro
$50/mo
200/day discover
2,000/day validate
Pro+
$90/mo
1000/day discover
10,000/day validate

Try it free. No credit card.

5 discoveries/day on the free tier. Generate a key in 30 seconds.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find an email by name and domain programmatically?
POST to https://www.startuphub.ai/api/v1/email/discover with a JSON body like { "firstName": "Daniel", "lastName": "Singer", "domain": "startuphub.ai" } and an Authorization: Bearer sk_live_... header. The response includes the verified email or { found: false } if we couldn't corroborate one. Costs 3 credits per success — never charged for misses.
Is there a free email finder API?
Yes. The free tier on StartupHub.ai includes 5 email discoveries per day (50 validate / 5 discover), no credit card required. Paid tiers scale up to 1,000/day.
How accurate is your email finder API?
Every returned email is corroborated by at least two independent signals before we surface it. We don't return probability scores — if we return an email, it's verified. We'd rather report not_found than an unverified guess.
How fast is the API?
Median 1–3 seconds end-to-end for a single discovery. P95 under 8 seconds. Bulk endpoints stream results so you can start processing before all rows finish.
Does it work with Claude, Cursor, or other AI agents?
Yes — we ship a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server at https://www.startuphub.ai/api/v1/mcp that exposes the same email finder as a discover_email tool. Drop the URL into Claude.ai's connector settings (with your API key as a query param) and your agent gains the ability to find emails inline.
Can I find emails from LinkedIn profile URLs?
Yes. POST a LinkedIn URL to /api/v1/email/discover-from-linkedin and we extract the name + current company, then run the standard discovery pipeline against the company's domain. Useful for recruiters and sourcers automating LinkedIn-to-email lookups.
How are credits billed?
Credits only debit when found:true. A miss is free. Volume packs (one-off, never expire) are available at /credits/buy. Plan credits reset daily at midnight UTC; pack balance carries forever.
How do you handle catch-all domains and hardened tenants?
Both get flagged in the response. Hardened domains where naïve checks return false positives are routed through alternate corroboration paths — if none of them confirm the address, we return not_found rather than guessing. By design: this lifts precision well above pattern-only competitors at the cost of a few honest "we couldn't confirm" answers.
Is there a Python / Node SDK?
The API is plain JSON over HTTPS — any HTTP client works. Python: requests. Node: fetch. Ruby: Net::HTTP. We don't maintain a thick SDK because the surface is small enough that the documentation doubles as the SDK.
How does this compare to Hunter.io API?
Hunter charges $49/mo for 500 credits. We give 5/day free (150/mo) and $30/mo for 50/day (1500/mo). We also include MCP for AI agents and verify hardened corporate domains where Hunter returns false positives. Same workflow, lower cost, better recall on hard targets.