Clearbit Email Finder: What Happened to Connect and What to Use Now
Clearbit Connect retired in April 2025. Find a business email from a name and company, discover decision-makers and check the address before outreach with GoodInbound.
Clearbit's email finder was Clearbit Connect, a free Gmail and Chrome extension that found business email addresses from a person's name and company. Clearbit retired Connect on April 30, 2025, along with its other free tools, so it no longer finds emails and old install guides won't bring it back. To find a business email now, start with the person's name and company and use an email finder that returns the address together with where it was found.
If you're finding and enriching contacts for inbound leads at volume, GoodInbound Lead Screen is a drop-in fix that spends research only on real leads. It screens how every visitor fills in your form and stops automated list bombing, spam, and non-buyers sending unsolicited pitches from cluttering your pipeline, with five layers of protection:
- Rules: domains you always accept or always block.
- Behavior: how the form was filled in: typing, pasting, fill time, automation tells, and a built-in honeypot.
- Network: data centers, VPNs, proxies, Tor, and bursts from one IP or device.
- Identity: whether the email has a working inbox and isn't disposable or gibberish, and whether the phone number is real.
- Message: the whole submission read for intent, so sales pitches, recruiters, and link offers are caught.
Every submission is classified into five types (lead, review, spam, junk, and bot), and only the real leads, based on your filters, are enriched and sent to your CRM. GoodInbound takes care of the entire flow end to end for you.
Use GoodInbound for free for up to 500 screened submissions a month.
How to find a business email with GoodInbound
Send a name and company to GoodInbound's Lead Enrichment API and it returns the person's business email together with their role, company, LinkedIn profile and the source where each was found.
1. Start with a name and company
Provide the person's name and company. Add the company website or the person's LinkedIn URL when you have it, so the research locks onto the right person.
Set your project ID and API key in server-side environment variables, then send the request:
No email goes in: the name and company are the starting point for finding it. Fresh research is queued; use the returned job identifier to retrieve the research result.
2. Read the email in the results
The returned people records hold each person's email, role, company, website and LinkedIn profile, with the source behind every finding.
For Alex Morgan at Example Company, the result lists Alex as Head of Engineering with alex@example.com, sourced from the company's team page. Keep those four pieces together in your CRM: name, role, email and source.
| Finding | How to use it |
|---|---|
| A business email for the person | Save it with their name, role, company and source |
A shared company inbox such as sales@ or hello@ |
Save it as the company's contact route, separate from the person's address |
3. Check the email, then save it
Run the address through GoodInbound's email validation API to confirm it has a working inbox, then save it in your CRM with the person, role and source. You can also save people as GoodInbound contacts for follow-up.
Start with a company? Find the decision-makers first
When you know the account but not the person, research the company with role filters such as founder or head of engineering. GoodInbound returns the people in those roles with their contact details and sources, ready for outreach.
Already have the email? Enrich the contact
Send the email to GoodInbound to research the person's role, company, LinkedIn profile and the company's recent activity, so your first message speaks to what they're working on.
For API requests and setup, see the Clearbit enrichment API replacement guide and tutorial.
Use the research in your outreach
GoodInbound brings research into your sales or inbound workflow through native integrations, including an MCP for your AI agents to take the automation further. Save people and company details in your existing CRM, or as GoodInbound contacts.
Put the research to work in the message itself: a person's role tells you what to talk about, and recent company activity gives you a reason to reach out now. The sources travel with the record, so the next person on the account has the full context.
To see how GoodInbound compares with other options, read our Clearbit alternatives guide.
What was Clearbit Connect?
Clearbit Connect brought business-contact lookup into Gmail. Sales teams searched for people at a company and found their email addresses without leaving the inbox, which made it a quick way to start a conversation with someone at an account they wanted to reach.
Clearbit's retirement notice lists Connect among the free tools discontinued on April 30, 2025, and new free Clearbit accounts are no longer created. Tutorials that still show how to install the extension describe the former product.
Frequently asked questions
Is Clearbit email finder still free?
No. Clearbit Connect, its free email finder, was retired on April 30, 2025, and Clearbit no longer creates new free accounts. GoodInbound replaces it: send a name and company and get the business email with its source.
Can I still use Clearbit Connect in Gmail?
No. Clearbit Connect was among the retired tools, so installing the old extension doesn't bring the service back.
How do I find someone's business email without Clearbit Connect?
Send their name and company to GoodInbound, adding a website or LinkedIn profile if you have one. GoodInbound returns their business email with their role, company and the source where the address was found.
Can I start with a company if I don't know whom to contact?
Yes. Research the company with role filters to find the decision-makers, then get their contact details from the same research.
How do I know a found email works?
Check it with GoodInbound's email validation API, which confirms the address has a working inbox and isn't disposable, before you send.
