Email permutator: how to find anyone's business email address

You've got a prospect's name and their company domain. You need their email address. An email permutator generates every possible combination of that name and domain until you find the one that works.

It sounds like a hack. And honestly, it kind of is. Email permutators were built for a world where finding someone's business email required detective work. You'd type a first name, last name, and domain into a tool, get 30+ possible email formats, and then run them through a verifier to find the live one.

The approach still works. But in 2026, there are faster ways to get the same result without guessing.

What is an email permutator?

An email permutator takes a person's name and their company's domain and generates every plausible email format. Most businesses use one of a handful of standard patterns:

• firstname.lastname@company.com
• firstname@company.com
• firstinitiallastname@company.com
• firstname_lastname@company.com
• lastname.firstname@company.com

According to UpLead's analysis, most organizations stick to two or three common formats. The email permutator generates all possible combinations, and then you verify which one is actually active.

The process looks like this: enter the prospect's first name, last name, and company domain. The tool spits out 20-40 possible email addresses. You run those through an email verification tool to find which ones are valid and deliverable.

Simple enough. But there's a gap between "the email exists" and "the email reaches the right person." Verification confirms the address doesn't bounce. It doesn't confirm the person still works there, checks that inbox regularly, or will ever see your message.

The best email permutator tools

Metric Sparrow Email Permutator+

Metric Sparrow is the original email permutator that most other tools are based on. It's free, web-based, and generates cross-domain combinations when you enter multiple domains. No account required. The limitation is that it only generates combinations. You still need a separate verification tool.

Mailmeteor

Mailmeteor's email permutator is free and privacy-focused. The tool generates email combinations without saving or sharing your data with third parties. It's clean and simple, but like Metric Sparrow, it's a generator only. Verification is on you.

SalesBlink

SalesBlink pairs its free email permutator with a built-in verification tool. Generate combinations, then verify them in the same interface. It's more convenient than running two separate tools, though the verification accuracy depends on SalesBlink's database.

PlusVibe

PlusVibe offers unlimited permutations with bulk export capability. You can generate lists across multiple prospects and export them as CSV for batch verification. Good for teams that need to process high volumes.

Getinbox

Getinbox focuses specifically on business email formats and generates professional variations. The interface is straightforward and the tool is free to use.

Do you actually know which email format your target company uses? If you've emailed anyone at that company before, check your sent folder. That single data point eliminates 90% of the guessing.

Most sales teams skip that step entirely.

The problem with email permutators in 2026

Email permutators solve a real problem, but they solve it the hard way. Here's what the permutation approach doesn't handle.

Verification isn't foolproof. An email address can pass verification (meaning it exists and accepts mail) but still be a shared inbox, an old address that forwards somewhere, or an account the person never checks. Verification tells you the address is technically live. It doesn't tell you someone reads it.

You're still guessing. Even with verification, you're working from probability. The permutator generates 20-40 combinations and you're hoping one of them is correct. For common names at large companies with multiple email formats, the margin for error grows.

Compliance risks are real. GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy regulations require legitimate basis for contacting someone with their personal data. Guessing someone's email address and cold emailing them sits in a gray area that's getting grayer every year. Using a verified contact data provider that handles compliance gives you cleaner legal footing.

Bounce rate damage. If you send to multiple permutations hoping one sticks, you're guaranteed bounces. Even sending to one wrong guess damages your sender reputation. 68% of marketers cite data quality as their biggest barrier, and bad email addresses are a primary driver of that quality problem.

It doesn't scale. An email permutator works fine when you need one or two email addresses. When your team needs 100+ verified contacts per day, the generate-and-verify workflow becomes a bottleneck. Your reps spend more time finding emails than actually selling.

Better alternatives to email permutators

If you're using an email permutator regularly, you're probably ready for a tool that gives you verified email addresses directly.

LeadIQ captures verified email addresses and phone numbers in one click from LinkedIn profiles. The platform verifies contact data in real time and pushes enriched records directly into your CRM. SDRs prospect from LinkedIn or through AI assistants like Claude, while RevOps teams run continuous data enrichment to keep existing records fresh. Starting at $15/user/month.

Hunter.io specializes in email discovery and verification. Enter a domain name and Hunter.io shows you the email format that company uses, plus specific addresses it has found. The Domain Search feature eliminates the guessing game by showing you confirmed patterns. Plans range from free (25 searches/month) to $199/month.

Apollo.io includes email discovery as part of its broader sales platform. The database approach means you're searching for confirmed addresses rather than generating guesses. The free plan includes 10,000 email credits, making it accessible for testing. Paid plans start at $49/user/month.

RocketReach offers 700 million profiles with verified email addresses and direct dials. The platform uses multiple data sources to confirm email accuracy. Plans range from $49-$299/month.

The trade-off is straightforward. Email permutators are free but require manual verification and introduce accuracy risk. Sales intelligence tools cost money but deliver verified data directly into your workflow.

How much time is your team spending on the generate-and-verify cycle that could be spent actually selling?

When an email permutator still makes sense

Email permutators aren't obsolete. They fill specific gaps.

When your data provider comes up empty. Even the best contact databases have coverage gaps. If LeadIQ, ZoomInfo, or another tool can't find a specific contact's email, a permutator gives you a fallback option for that individual record.

When you're targeting a very small niche. If you're prospecting into a micro-vertical where your data provider has limited coverage, permutators let you manually build a contact list that wouldn't exist otherwise.

When budget is zero. If you're a solo founder or early-stage startup with no budget for sales tools, free email permutators combined with free verification tools get you started. Just understand the accuracy and compliance limitations.

For everyone else, the math favors verified data. A $15/month subscription that gives you confirmed email addresses saves more time than free tools that require manual verification and still produce bounces.

Stop guessing, start verifying

Email permutators were essential tools five years ago. The concept is still sound: take what you know about a person and their company to find their email address. But the execution has evolved.

Modern data enrichment providers do the same thing that permutators do, just faster, at scale, and with built-in verification. LeadIQ verifies emails in real time as your reps capture contacts from LinkedIn, Claude, or your CRM. No permutation step. No separate verification tool. Just clean data flowing into your pipeline.

Try LeadIQ free and replace the guessing game with verified contact data your team can actually trust.

FAQ

What is an email permutator?‍

An email permutator is a tool that generates all possible email address combinations based on a person's first name, last name, and company domain. For example, entering "Jane Smith" and "company.com" might produce jane.smith@company.com, jsmith@company.com, jane@company.com, and 20+ other variations. You then use a verification tool to find which one is active.

Are email permutators free?‍

Most email permutators are completely free to use. Tools like Metric Sparrow, Mailmeteor, PlusVibe, and Getinbox generate permutations at no cost. The caveat is that you'll typically need a separate (often paid) email verification tool to confirm which generated address is actually valid.

Is it legal to use an email permutator?

Using a permutator to generate email combinations is legal. The compliance question comes when you send emails to those addresses. GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy regulations require legitimate basis for outreach. Using verified data from a compliant B2B data provider gives you stronger legal footing than guessing email addresses.

What's better than an email permutator?‍

Sales intelligence platforms like LeadIQ, Hunter.io, or Apollo.io give you verified email addresses directly without the generate-and-verify cycle. LeadIQ captures verified emails from LinkedIn in one click and enriches records in real time. Hunter.io specializes in email discovery and shows you confirmed email patterns for any domain.

‍How accurate are email permutators?‍

Email permutators themselves are just generators. They don't verify anything. Accuracy depends entirely on the verification tool you pair them with. Even with verification, you may get technically valid addresses that the person doesn't actively use. Direct contact data providers typically deliver higher accuracy because they maintain verified databases rather than relying on pattern matching.