---
schema_version: "1"
id: aef95c163be7039ed0a03a41d7fd2015257f45e77be66d6bdff8c5addd997663
title: POST /contacts/v1/addresses/email/search
collection: developer
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/developer/current/en-us/marketing-cloud/guides/mc-apis/retrieveContactKey.md
canonical_url: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/marketing/marketing-cloud/references/mc_rest_contacts/retrieveContactKey.html
source_site: developer.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: f8220774d3b97557bc6c67d6a2ab64ff17e888e006bc5cccc9bdec16bd4c9dd2
products:
  - Marketing Cloud Engagement APIs and Programmatic Languages
  - Marketing Cloud
---
# POST /contacts/v1/addresses/email/search

Retrieve the contact key for one or more email addresses. This resource is helpful for situations where you need to find a contact key that’s different from the channel address.

## Properties

The JSON request body contains these properties.

| Name                 | Type    | Description                                                                                              |
| -------------------- | ------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `channelAddressList` | Array   | Required. An array of strings. Each string in the array is an email address to find the contact key for. |
| `maximumCount`       | Integer | The maximum number of contact keys to return for each email address. The default value is `1`.           |

## Response Properties

A successful request returns a `200 OK` result. The response contains the properties described in this table.

| Name                             | Type     | Description                                                                                                                              |
| -------------------------------- | -------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `channelAddressResponseEntities` | Array    | An array of objects that contain contact key details for an email address.                                                               |
| `requestServiceMessageID`        | String   | A unique ID for the request.                                                                                                             |
| `responseDateTime`               | Datetime | The date and time when the API generated the response.                                                                                   |
| `resultMessages`                 | Array    | An array of objects that contains messages generated while processing the request. The array is typically empty in a successful request. |
| `serviceMessageID`               | String   | A unique ID for the response.                                                                                                            |

### Objects in the channelAddressResponseEntities Array

Each object in the `channelAddressResponseEntities` array has the properties described in this table.

| Name                | Type   | Description                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ------------------- | ------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `channelAddress`    | String | The email address specified in the request.                                                                                                                                  |
| `contactKeyDetails` | Array  | An array of objects that contain information about a contact key. If there aren’t any contact key matches for a specified email address, the array contains an empty object. |

### Objects in the contactKeyDetails Array

Each object in the `contactKeyDetails` array has the properties described in this table.

| Name         | Type     | Description                                         |
| ------------ | -------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| `contactKey` | String   | The contact key associated with the email address.  |
| `createDate` | Datetime | The date and time when the contact key was created. |

### Objects in the resultMessages Array

In a successful request, the `resultMessages` array is typically empty. If an error occurs, the objects in the array have the properties described in this table.

| Name          | Type   | Description                                                            |
| ------------- | ------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `message`     | String | A message that explains the error that occurred.                       |
| `resultClass` | String | A description of the result. If an error occurs, the value is `Error`. |
| `resultCode`  | String | An error code.                                                         |
| `resultType`  | String | A description of the type of result.                                   |

## Usage

To retrieve contact keys for an email address, issue a POST request to the `/contacts/v1/addresses/email/search` endpoint. In the JSON request body, specify the email addresses to retrieve contact keys for.

```
Host: https://YOUR_SUBDOMAIN.rest.marketingcloudapis.com
POST /contacts/v1/addresses/email/search
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN

{
  "ChannelAddressList": [
    "dangelo.cunningham@example.com"
  ],
  "MaximumCount": 1
}
```

The response includes the contact keys for the specified email address.

```json
{
  "channelAddressResponseEntities": [
    {
      "contactKeyDetails": [
        {
          "contactKey": "5cdc4716-c273-4eec-aacf-8e668a01ecbf",
          "createDate": "2025-11-15T11:51:00"
        }
      ],
      "channelAddress": "dangelo.cunningham@example.com"
    }
  ],
  "requestServiceMessageID": "35921326-7074-4cf9-8233-f61e76de0054",
  "responseDateTime": "2025-06-13T16:55:21.2506991-06:00",
  "resultMessages": [],
  "serviceMessageID": "cba1b474-6868-4611-99c3-ea0211e7bc36"
}
```