Find and verify emails for HubSpot prospects using Apollo and Hunter in n8n

Prerequisites

Step 1: Schedule the workflow

Add a Schedule Trigger node:

• Trigger interval: Days
• Days between triggers: 1
• Hour: 6
• Timezone: Your team's timezone

Running daily catches new prospects imported the previous day.

Step 2: Search HubSpot for contacts without emails

Add an HTTP Request node to find contacts that have a name and company but no email:

• Method: POST
• URL: https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/contacts/search
• Authentication: HubSpot credential
• Body:

{
  "filterGroups": [
    {
      "filters": [
        {
          "propertyName": "email",
          "operator": "NOT_HAS_PROPERTY"
        },
        {
          "propertyName": "firstname",
          "operator": "HAS_PROPERTY"
        },
        {
          "propertyName": "company",
          "operator": "HAS_PROPERTY"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "properties": ["firstname", "lastname", "company", "domain", "email"],
  "limit": 50
}

Step 3: Loop through contacts and call Apollo

Add a Split In Batches node to iterate over the search results (set batch size to 1).

Add an HTTP Request node to find the email via Apollo:

• Method: POST
• URL: https://api.apollo.io/api/v1/people/match
• Headers:
  • x-api-key: Your Apollo API key
  • Content-Type: application/json
• Body:

{
  "first_name": "{{ $json.properties.firstname }}",
  "last_name": "{{ $json.properties.lastname }}",
  "organization_name": "{{ $json.properties.company }}"
}

Apollo returns the person's email in person.email along with a confidence indicator. If no match is found, person will be null.

Step 4: Check confidence and decide whether to verify

Add an IF node to evaluate the Apollo result:

• Condition: {{ $json.person.email }} is not empty

On the true branch, add a second IF node to check confidence:

• High confidence (skip verification): Check if {{ $json.person.email_status }} equals verified
• Lower confidence (needs verification): Everything else goes to Hunter

Step 5: Verify with Hunter

On the "needs verification" branch, add an HTTP Request node:

• Method: GET
• URL: https://api.hunter.io/v2/email-verifier
• Query Parameters:
  • email: {{ $json.person.email }}
  • api_key: Your Hunter API key

Hunter returns a data.result field with one of these values:

• deliverable — safe to use
• risky — might bounce
• undeliverable — definitely bad
• unknown — Hunter couldn't determine

Add an IF node:

• Condition: {{ $json.data.result }} equals deliverable

Step 6: Update HubSpot with the verified email

On the verified branch, add an HTTP Request node:

• Method: PATCH
• URL: https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/contacts/{{ $('Search Contacts').item.json.id }}
• Authentication: HubSpot credential
• Body:

{
  "properties": {
    "email": "{{ $json.person.email }}",
    "email_verification_status": "verified",
    "email_source": "apollo+hunter"
  }
}

For contacts where the email was risky or undeliverable, route to a separate update that sets a flag:

{
  "properties": {
    "email_verification_status": "unverified",
    "email_source": "apollo"
  }
}

Step 7: Add a Wait node for rate limiting

Add a Wait node (set to 1 second) after the Apollo HTTP Request to stay within Apollo's rate limits (5 req/sec on Basic plans).

Step 8: Test and activate

1. Click Execute Workflow to run against your prospect list
2. Check each node — verify Apollo returns emails and Hunter verifies them
3. Open a few contacts in HubSpot to confirm the email was written
4. Toggle the workflow to Active

Cost

• n8n cloud: Starts at $24/mo. Each prospect uses ~5-7 executions depending on branch.
• Apollo: 1 credit per people match lookup. Basic plan ($49/mo) = 900 credits.
• Hunter: 1 credit per verification. Starter plan ($49/mo) = 1,000 verifications. Free plan = 25/month.
• Per prospect (typical): 1 Apollo credit + 0-1 Hunter credit = 1-2 credits total. High-confidence Apollo results skip Hunter entirely.

Next steps

• Add company domain resolution — if contacts only have a company name, add a step to find the domain first using Hunter's Domain Search endpoint
• Flag for manual review — route contacts with risky emails to a HubSpot list for a human to decide
• Add a completion notification — send a Slack summary with counts: found, verified, failed