6 Email Extractors That Actually Work (For Lead Generation at Scale)
If you work in lead generation, B2B sales, or cold email outreach, you've probably spent hours manually copying email addresses from Google Maps, LinkedIn, company websites, or industry directories into a spreadsheet. What starts as a quick task to grab 20 contacts turns into hours of clicking through listings and copy-pasting data.
The problem worsens at scale. Collecting email addresses for 1,000 SaaS companies across five industries becomes a multi-week project that could have been accomplished in under an hour.
Email extractors and scrapers automate this entire process. Some extract emails from documents you already have, others scrape fresh data directly from websites, and the most capable tools do both while collecting phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and company data.
This guide covers six different approaches, from free browser extensions to enterprise-grade cloud scrapers that can collect 100,000+ contacts automatically.
Quick Comparison: Email Extraction Tools
Tool Type Best For Pricing Google Maps Scraper Cloud scraper Local business emails at scale Usage-based, $5 free credit monthly Contact Details Scraper Universal website scraper Extracting emails from any website $0.002/page, $5 free credit monthly LinkedIn Scraper Professional network scraper B2B contact discovery $20/1,000 profiles, $5 free credit monthly Email Extractor (Chrome) Browser extension Quick single-page extraction Free Regex tools (EmailExtractor.net) Text parsing tool Extracting from documents Free Email finder APIs (Hunter, Apollo) Database API Pre-verified B2B contacts $500-$5,000+/month
Email Extractors vs. Scrapers (What's the Difference?)
Before we get into specifics, let's clear up some confusion. People use "extractor" and "scraper" interchangeably, but they solve different problems.
Email scrapers go hunting for fresh data. You point them at Google Maps, LinkedIn, or a company website, and they crawl through pages collecting email addresses, phone numbers, and whatever else you're looking for. The data comes straight from live websites, so it's as current as it gets.
Email extractors work with data you already have. Maybe you exported a list from your CRM, or you've got a PDF full of contacts from a conference. An extractor takes that existing text and pulls out anything that looks like an email address.
Top Email Scrapers for Lead Generation and Prospecting
These are the tools that actually go out and collect contact data for you. Set them up once, and they'll keep your databases fresh.
1. Google Maps Scraper
This is the workhorse for anyone who needs local business data. Google Maps Scraper pulls every piece of information Google Maps has about a business—phone numbers, emails, websites, addresses, ratings, reviews, opening hours, you name it. The best part? It completely bypasses Google's usual 120-result limit.
Pricing: Usage-based, pay only for what you scrape. Free plan includes $5 monthly credit (around 2,500 places)
Key Features:
Extracts emails, phone numbers, websites, addresses, and social media profiles (8 platforms)
Business intelligence: ratings, review counts, opening hours, price range, amenities
Bypasses Google Maps' 120-result limit—extract unlimited places per search
Geolocation precision: search by city, coordinates, or custom polygons
Scheduled runs for automatic daily/weekly/monthly collection
Exports to JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, XML
Native integrations with Google Sheets, Airtable, Zapier, Make
Optional add-ons: leads enrichment (employee profiles, LinkedIn, work emails), company contact enrichment
Limitations: Advanced geolocation features have a learning curve. Costs scale with very large extractions (100K+ places). Email quality depends on what businesses publish on their websites—many small businesses don't list public emails.
Use Cases:
Agency lead generation: Collect 5,000 restaurant emails across 10 cities for client outreach campaign
Local SEO audits: Build database of competitor local citations with contact info
Market research: Analyze which industries in specific locations publish email addresses (data quality insights)
Event planning: Extract venue contacts (event spaces, caterers, photographers) for wedding planning service
Try Google Maps Scraper for free → Start here
2. Contact Details Scraper
This tool is more of a generalist—it works on any website. Give it a company website or a list of URLs, and it crawls through looking for contact information. It grabs email addresses from both proper HTML mailto: links and from plain text, finds phone numbers, and discovers social media profiles across 13 different platforms.
Pricing: $0.002 per page. With the $5 free plan, that's around 2,500 pages you can scrape for free each month.
Key Features:
Extracts emails, phone numbers (from links and plain text), social media profiles (13 platforms)
Merge contacts feature consolidates all info from subpages into single rows
Customizable crawling: set link depth, stay within domain, limit total pages
Email validation built-in (syntax check and domain verification)
Optional add-ons: leads enrichment (employee profiles), social media enrichment (follower counts, verification)
Residential proxy option for strict anti-scraping sites
Exports to JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, XML
Limitations: Plain text email extraction may include false positives (like [email protected] in privacy policies). Quality depends on visible website contact info. Enrichment features cost extra. Crawling deep sites can be slow if depth is set high.
Use Cases:
SaaS prospecting: Scrape 200 competitor websites to build a list of similar companies + contact emails
Partnership outreach: Extract contact info from "Partners" or "Careers" pages of target companies
Conference follow-up: Visit exhibitor websites from a trade show and collect all listed email addresses
Investor relations: Scrape portfolio company websites for founder/CEO emails
Example Output:
{ "url": "https://example.com", "emails": ["[email protected]", "[email protected]"], "phones": ["+1-555-123-4567"], "social": { "linkedin": "linkedin.com/company/example", "twitter": "twitter.com/example" }, "domain": "example.com"
}
Try Contact Details Scraper for free → Start here
3. LinkedIn Scraper
This one is the gold standard for B2B lead generation. LinkedIn Scraper extracts professional profiles, company pages, job postings, and crucially—email addresses when they're publicly visible or can be inferred from LinkedIn's contact info sections.
Pricing: $20 per 1,000 profiles. Free plan gives you $5 credit (about 250 profiles)
Key Features:
Extracts email addresses (when publicly visible), phone numbers, company info
Profile data: name, headline, location, industry, current company, job title
Experience history: previous roles, education, skills, certifications
Engagement metrics: connection count, follower count (for public figures)
Company data: size, industry, headquarters location, website
Search-based extraction: scrape results from LinkedIn search filters (job title, location, industry, company size)
Scheduled runs for continuous lead list updates
Exports to JSON, CSV, Excel
Limitations: LinkedIn actively blocks scrapers—success rate depends on account age, proxy quality, and scraping volume. Email addresses only extracted when public. Requires LinkedIn account credentials (use burner accounts). Premium LinkedIn accounts have higher limits.
Use Cases:
Sales prospecting: Build list of 500 "VP of Marketing" contacts at Series B startups in California
Recruiter sourcing: Extract 1,000 "Senior Software Engineer" profiles in specific tech stack
Competitive intelligence: Monitor when competitors hire for new roles (signals expansion)
Event outreach: Scrape attendee lists from LinkedIn Events for conference follow-up
Pro Tip: Combine LinkedIn Scraper with email finder tools (Hunter.io API) to enrich profiles with verified work emails even when not publicly listed on LinkedIn.
Try LinkedIn Scraper for free → Start here
Browser Extensions and Email Extractors
Maybe you don't need 10,000 contacts. Maybe you just need to quickly grab email addresses from a single directory page, or you want to clean up a list you already have. For those situations, these free tools work well.
4. Email Extractor (Chrome Extension)
Install this extension, visit any webpage, click the icon, and it instantly pulls out all the email addresses on that page. You can copy them to your clipboard or export to CSV.
Pricing: Free
Key Features:
One-click extraction from current page
Export to CSV/Excel or copy to clipboard
No setup, account, or API keys required
Works on any website
Handles JavaScript-rendered content
Limitations: Manual operation—you must open each page yourself. No automation or scheduling. Your IP is exposed, risking blocks on protected sites. Not scalable beyond ~50 contacts. No associated business data like names or companies.
When to Use It: Quick research on 1-2 pages, testing data sources before committing to larger extraction, extracting from blog comment sections or forum threads.
When to Avoid It: Google Maps, LinkedIn, or platforms with anti-scraping. Anything over 50 contacts. Situations where you need business context (names, job titles, companies).
5. Regex-Based Tools (EmailExtractor.net, ConvertCSV)
These aren't scrapers—they're text processors. You paste in text or upload a file, and they use pattern matching to find anything that looks like an email address. Useful for one specific thing: extracting emails from data you already have.
Pricing: Free
Key Features:
Text processing: paste text or upload files (PDF, TXT, HTML, CSV, DOCX)
Pattern matching for various email formats
Multiple tools: EmailExtractor.net (most features), ConvertCSV (CSV focus), LambdaTest (cleanest UI)
No account required
Export to TXT, CSV
Deduplication built into some tools
Limitations: No web scraping capability—only processes text you provide. No business context or validation. Can include false positives from example emails in documentation. No verification of email deliverability.
Use Cases:
Conference follow-up: Extract emails from PDF attendee list
CRM cleanup: Parse messy notes fields containing buried email addresses
Document processing: Extract contacts from legal documents, contracts, or proposals
Email signature mining: Pull emails from forwarded email threads or signature blocks
When to Use It: Processing conference PDFs, cleaning CRM exports, extracting from documents you already have, one-time data cleanup tasks.
Contact Data APIs
These are pre-built databases you query through an API instead of scraping data yourself. Companies like Hunter.io, Apollo, and ZoomInfo maintain massive databases of business contacts, and you pay for access.
6. Email Finder APIs (Hunter, ZoomInfo, Apollo)
Pricing: $500-$5,000+/month (often requires annual contracts)
Key Features:
Pre-verified email addresses with deliverability scores
Company matching by name, domain, or industry
Decision-maker filtering by job title, seniority
API access for programmatic lookup
Native CRM integrations for Salesforce, HubSpot
GDPR compliance built in
Data accuracy guarantees with SLAs
Bulk enrichment: upload company list, get back emails
Popular Providers:
Best for: Finding professional emails by domain
Pricing: $49-$399/month (annual), pay-as-you-go options
Accuracy: ~85% deliverability on verified emails
Free tier: 25 searches/month
Best for: B2B sales teams needing integrated prospecting + CRM
Pricing: $49-$149/month (annual)
Database: 265M+ contacts, 73M+ companies
Free tier: 50 emails/month
ZoomInfo
Best for: Enterprise sales teams with massive budgets
Pricing: $15,000-$40,000+/year (custom quotes)
Database: 100M+ professionals, deep firmographic data
Free tier: None (demo only)
Limitations: Very expensive ($500-$5,000+/month typical). Data gets stale quickly (people change jobs every 2-3 years on average). Poor coverage of small businesses and niche markets. Annual contracts create vendor lock-in. Monthly credits expire. Limited to what's in their database—won't find newly hired employees or small company contacts.
When It Makes Sense: Enterprise sales teams with substantial budgets, exclusively targeting Fortune 5000 companies where deep CRM integration justifies the premium, compliance-heavy industries requiring verified GDPR/CCPA data handling.
When It Doesn't: Small teams, local business research, niche markets, startups, or anyone who needs actually current data from sources not covered by database providers.
Why Collect Email Addresses at Scale?
The obvious reason is outreach, but there are plenty of use cases where you're not planning to send cold emails. Market researchers analyze industry distribution. Competitive intelligence teams track competitor hiring and expansion. Recruiters build talent pools.
Use Case How It Helps B2B prospecting Build targeted lists 10x faster than manual research Cold email campaigns Generate fresh leads for outbound sales sequences Partnership development Find partners and vendors at scale Competitive intelligence Monitor competitor hiring (new roles = expansion signals) Event promotion Build attendee lists for webinars, trade shows, conferences Recruiter sourcing Create talent pools segmented by skills, location, experience Press outreach Build journalist/media contact databases by beat Affiliate recruitment Find potential affiliates in target niches
How to Choose the Right Tool
The right email scraper or extractor depends on your data source, budget, and scale.
Choose cloud scrapers (Google Maps Scraper, Contact Details Scraper, LinkedIn Scraper) if you need:
Fresh data from websites
Thousands of contacts
Automation with scheduling
Integration with your tools (Google Sheets, CRM, Zapier)
Best for: Research teams, marketing agencies, business development, competitive intelligence, sales operations.
Choose browser extensions if you need:
Fewer than 50 contacts
Quick one-time extraction
Free solution with zero setup
Ad-hoc research tasks
Best for: Freelancers and ad-hoc research.
Warning: Don't use on Google Maps or LinkedIn—you'll get blocked.
Choose regex tools if you need to:
Extract from documents you already have
Clean existing lists
Process conference PDFs or CRM exports
Best for: Data cleanup and one-time document processing.
Note: These don't collect new data—only parse what you provide.
Choose email finder APIs if you need:
Pre-verified Fortune 5000 contacts
GDPR/CCPA compliance guarantees
Deep CRM integration
Large budget ($10K+/year)
Best for: Enterprise sales teams with substantial budgets.
The Scale Problem
Manual copy-paste gets you about 50 contacts in 2 hours. Chrome extensions improve that to maybe 200-500 contacts with manual clicking. Cloud scrapers collect 10,000-100,000+ contacts automatically while you work on other things. The cost is $5-50, depending on volume—a fraction of what your time is worth.
Time Comparison:
Method Time for 1,000 Emails Cost Cost Per Email Manual copy-paste 40 hours $600 (@ $15/hr) $0.60 Chrome extension 8-10 hours (with clicking) $0 (time = $120-150) $0.12-0.15 Cloud scrapers 15 minutes (setup) + automated $10-20 $0.01-0.02 Email APIs Instant lookup $50-500 $0.05-0.50
The ROI is obvious: even at $20 for 1,000 emails, cloud scrapers pay for themselves immediately if your time is worth more than $30/hour.
How Teams Use Apify to Collect Emails
The real advantage isn't just speed—it's consistency. Teams schedule scrapers to run weekly or monthly, automatically building fresh datasets without manual work.
Real-World Examples:
Marketing Agency: Uses Google Maps Scraper to analyze business density across regions, identifying market gaps for clients. Runs weekly searches for new restaurant openings, automatically adds to Google Sheets with email addresses for client outreach campaigns.
SaaS Company: Combines Contact Details Scraper with target company lists to extract emails and LinkedIn profiles from "About Us" and "Team" pages. Feeds results directly into Salesforce via Zapier.
Recruiting Firm: Schedules LinkedIn Scraper to run monthly searches for "Senior Data Scientist" + "San Francisco" + "Series B startup". Auto-exports to Airtable for recruiter team to review and reach out.
E-commerce Brand: Uses Contact Details Scraper on competitor wholesale directories to find retailer contact info. Builds partnership pipeline with 500+ qualified leads per month.
Business Development Team: Monitors when competitors open new locations using scheduled Google Maps Scraper runs. Email alerts sent via Slack when new competitor listings appear.
The common thread: set it up once, let it run on autopilot.
Advanced Techniques: Email Verification and Enrichment
Scraping emails is step one. Ensuring they're deliverable is step two.
Email Verification Services
After scraping, run emails through verification tools to filter out:
Invalid syntax (typos like "[email protected]")
Non-existent domains
Catch-all servers (accept any email, but don't deliver)
Disposable email addresses (mailinator.com, guerrillamail.com)
Role-based emails (info@, admin@, noreply@)
Recommended Verification Tools:
ZeroBounce ($16/1,000 emails)
NeverBounce ($8/1,000 emails)
Kickbox ($6/1,000 emails)
EmailListVerify ($4/1,000 emails)
Most offer APIs for automated verification immediately after scraping.
Email Pattern Inference
If you scraped a company domain but not specific contact emails, you can infer likely addresses using common patterns:
Tools like Hunter.io's Email Finder and Snov.io specialize in this pattern-matching approach.
Enrichment: Adding Missing Data
If you scraped emails but lack names, job titles, or company info, enrichment APIs fill the gaps:
Clearbit Enrichment API
Input: email address
Output: Full name, job title, company, social profiles, company size, industry
Pricing: $99-$999/month
FullContact
Input: email or domain
Output: 100+ data points including demographics, interests, social profiles
Pricing: $99-$499/month
Lusha
Input: LinkedIn URL or company domain
Output: Email, phone, job title, company info
Pricing: $29-$99/month
Legal and Compliance Considerations
Scraping emails raises legal questions. Here's what you need to know:
GDPR (Europe): Scraping public data is generally legal, but using scraped emails for marketing requires explicit consent. This means cold emailing EU residents using scraped data violates GDPR unless they opted in. Penalties: up to €20M or 4% of global revenue.
CAN-SPAM (US): Allows cold emailing, but requires:
Accurate sender information
Clear subject lines (no deception)
Opt-out mechanism in every email
Honor opt-outs within 10 days
CCPA (California): Gives consumers the right to know what data you've collected and request deletion. Applies if you do business in California and handle CA resident data.
Best Practices:
Only scrape publicly visible emails (not behind login walls)
Add unsubscribe links to every email
Honor opt-outs immediately
Don't scrape private LinkedIn profiles or password-protected sites
Clearly state data source in your privacy policy
Store data securely with encryption
Disclaimer: This is general information, not legal advice. Consult a lawyer familiar with data privacy law in your jurisdiction.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Pitfall 1: Scraping Personal Emails Instead of Business Emails
Problem: Scraping Gmail/Yahoo addresses from directories or social media often yields personal emails, not work contacts.
Solution: Focus on company websites, Google Maps business listings, and LinkedIn. Filter out free email domains (gmail.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com) during post-processing.
Pitfall 2: Not Validating Scraped Emails
Problem: 20-40% of scraped emails are invalid (typos, outdated, fake).
Solution: Run all emails through verification API immediately after scraping. Budget $4-16 per 1,000 emails for verification.
Pitfall 3: Ignoring Anti-Scraping Protections
Problem: LinkedIn, Indeed, and other platforms actively block scrapers. Your IP gets banned after 50-100 requests.
Solution: Use residential proxies (included in Apify scrapers) and rotate user agents. Respect rate limits. Use dedicated scraper tools that handle anti-bot detection automatically.
Pitfall 4: Scraping Too Aggressively
Problem: Sending 10,000 requests in 10 minutes triggers red flags and permanent IP bans.
Solution: Use Apify's built-in delays and concurrency limits. Set realistic result limits (100-200 per run for testing, scale gradually).
Pitfall 5: Not Scheduling Regular Updates
Problem: Email addresses go stale quickly—people change jobs every 2-3 years on average.
Solution: Use Apify's scheduling feature to refresh lists monthly or quarterly. Track bounce rates and re-scrape high-bounce segments.
FAQ
Q: Is it legal to scrape email addresses from websites?
Scraping publicly available email addresses is generally legal under US law (based on precedent like hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn). However, using scraped emails for marketing may violate GDPR (Europe) or CAN-SPAM (US) depending on how you obtained consent. Always include unsubscribe links and consult legal counsel for your specific use case.
Q: Can I scrape emails from LinkedIn without getting blocked?
LinkedIn actively blocks scrapers. Success depends on account age, proxy quality, and volume. Use dedicated LinkedIn scrapers (like those on Apify) that handle anti-detection automatically. Expect 70-85% success rates. Use burner accounts, not your primary LinkedIn profile.
Q: How accurate are scraped email addresses?
Accuracy varies by source:
Google Maps business listings: 60-70% (many businesses don't list emails)
Company websites: 80-90% (if emails are public)
LinkedIn: 40-60% (most professionals don't list public emails)
Always verify with an email validation service before sending cold emails.
Q: Can I use scraped emails for cold email outreach?
Legally? It depends. In the US (CAN-SPAM), yes—with unsubscribe links. In Europe (GDPR), no—you need explicit consent. Practically? Many businesses do it, but expect 1-3% response rates and be prepared for spam complaints.
Q: What's the best way to avoid getting my IP banned?
Use cloud scrapers (Apify) that handle proxy rotation automatically. Don't use Chrome extensions on anti-scraping sites like LinkedIn or Google Maps. Respect rate limits (50-100 requests per hour max). Add random delays between requests.
Q: How do I find someone's work email if it's not publicly listed?
Use email pattern inference tools (Hunter.io, Snov.io) that guess common formats like {first}.{last}@company.com. Or use enrichment APIs (Clearbit, Lusha) that infer emails from LinkedIn profiles.
Start Collecting Emails at Scale
If you're still manually collecting email addresses, you're spending hours on work that can be automated in minutes. Free tools work for small projects, but if you're building contact databases regularly, cloud scrapers give you better data faster.
Google Maps Scraper is the best starting point for local businesses—it bypasses Google's limits and gives you complete contact details including emails when available.
Contact Details Scraper works for any website—perfect for scraping company contact pages, "About Us" sections, and team directories.
LinkedIn Scraper unlocks B2B prospecting at scale—extract professional emails, job titles, and company data from the world's largest professional network.
All three Apify scrapers include $5 in free monthly credits, which gets you around 2,500 places, pages, or profiles to start. Try one, see how much time it saves, and scale from there.
Ready to automate your lead generation? Sign up for Apify here and start collecting emails in minutes. Your competitors are already using these tools—it's time to level the playing field.
