8 Free Ways to Find Someone Online

Reconnect with old friends and long-lost family by finding people using completely free internet resources

Updated on September 27, 2022

Want to reconnect with someone? Maybe you're needing to track down a long-lost classmate, a friend you just lost contact with, or even look up your genealogy.

You can do all this and more with the resources below that help you find someone online.

Every source on this page is free. If you need more, there are also paid services for finding people online.

How to Look Up People and Get the Most Out of This Guide

We suggest you do the following:

Have a word processor tool or note-taking program handy to keep track of what you find on the person. You'll likely need multiple sources to gather enough valuable information on him or her, so keeping it all logged in one place is smart.
Search with all the relevant information you have on the person. Do you know their full name? What about their physical address or email address? A date of birth or death can be helpful, too. These tidbits of information, and more, will be helpful in your search.
Feel free to use as many sources as possible. It's virtually impossible to find everything you're looking for on the person from just one place, especially with a free tool.

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Three Ways to Find a Person: TruePeopleSearch

TruePeopleSearch is one of the best people search engines for finding people online. You can find a person using their cell phone or home phone, their name, or a physical address.

After tracking someone down with TruePeopleSearch, there's a ton of information to sift through, like their current and past addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and possible relatives and associates.

Visit TruePeopleSearch

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Track Someone Down All Across the Web: Google

Google search for a person named John Smith

5 Best Tips for Finding People With Google

While a dedicated people finder tool like TruePeopleSearch is helpful, if the information on the person hasn't been gathered by that site, you won't find it. Fortunately, there are also several really great search engines you can use to broaden your search.

Google is a prime example of a handy resource for finding somebody for free because it scours a tremendous number of web pages and has all kinds of advanced search commands you can use to narrow down the results.

For example, while typing John Smith will give a general search for that name, putting the name in quotes and adding relevant information, like where he's from or where he went to school, can help a lot.

"John Smith" Atlanta "Burgess-Peterson Academy"

Visit Google

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Find a Name, Address, and Number From an Email Address: SPYTOX

Best Email Search Sites and Address Directories of 2023

It's hard to find a people finder tool that's free and identifies anything useful from an email address. SPYTOX is the closest we've found.

It's simple: enter an email address and then see a list of possible relevant results. Not everything you see on the site is free (in fact, very little is free), but we were able to search for an email address that returned accurate phone numbers and addresses (past and current). More details are available only if you pay.

You can search by name and phone as well.

Visit SPYTOX

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Research Strangers and Friends of Friends: Facebook

6 Best Ways to Use Facebook to Find People Online

Facebook is one of the largest social media sites on the web, so there's a very good chance that the person you're looking for has a profile there.

If you have the person's full name, you can use that to find them. You can also find someone on Facebook using just their email address, if you have it. Typing the name of the high school, college, or company that the person you're looking for is affiliated with, can help as well.

Visit Facebook

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Find People Online Through Public Records

You can also find a person through public records. Some of the techniques above are considered public records, but there are also criminal records, birth records, family trees, government sites, and more that can help you find someone online.

The Best Free People Search Websites

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Find a Person With Just Their Username: UserSearch

If the person you're looking for has done anything on the web, UserSearch should be able to pick it up. There are several ways to search for people here, and it scans several websites at once for data.

UserSearch is a reverse search tool that finds people using their username or email address. It searches social network sites, dating sites, chat websites, and more. It even specializes in searching for people who are cryptocurrency fans that have a presence on forums.

Visit UserSearch

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Search for Someone Using Business Information: LinkedIn

LinkedIn people search results for John Smith

If you know the person's name that you're looking for, type it into the LinkedIn search box, and you'll get information such as their current job, education history, professional affiliations, interests, and more.

If you're lucky, you'll be able to find lots of information here, and end your search. Or, you can use what you find to search for the person elsewhere online. Every little bit counts.

Visit LinkedIn

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Find a Person's House Information: Zillow

The best way to search for someone when all you have is an address would be a reverse address lookup tool. However, a real estate website like Zillow lets you find other details about the person's home just by typing the address or zip code.

When you look for someone here, you won't find them by name or dig up any history on them like you can with those other methods, but you will find a wealth of home-related details unmatched elsewhere.

Zillow digs up details like a value estimate, square footage, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, possibly pictures of the inside and the yard, the year it was built, various features of the house, and nearby schools they might have attended.

Visit Zillow

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