---
title: "Look Up User By Email"
method: POST
path: "/api/v1/users/by-email"
tags: ["Team Management"]
---

# Look Up User By Email

`POST /api/v1/users/by-email`

Resolves a user's `user_id` from their email address, scoped to your organization. The email is sent in the request body (not the URL) so it never lands in request logs or analytics. Returns the user only when they belong to your organization — either as an organization member (`access_type: "organization"`) or as an explicit member of at least one non-paused website in your organization (`access_type: "website"`). Any other case, including an email that belongs to a user in a different organization, returns `404` with the same body as a truly unknown email, so the endpoint cannot be used to enumerate accounts across tenants. Requires a global API key. Use the returned `user_id` with the member-management endpoints (e.g. list a user's websites or remove website access) without a discovery round-trip.

## Request body

- object
  - `email` string, email, required — Email address to look up. Matched case-insensitively.

## Response `200`

User found within your organization

- object
  - `user` object, required
    - `user_id` string, required
    - `email` string, required
    - `first_name` string, nullable, required
    - `last_name` string, nullable, required
    - `access_type` 'organization' | 'website', required — `organization` when the user is a member of your organization (implicit access to all its websites); `website` when the user only has explicit membership on one or more websites in your organization.

## Other responses

- `400` — Bad request - Invalid email format
- `401` — Unauthorized - Invalid or missing API key
- `403` — Forbidden - Global API key required
- `404` — Not found - No matching user in your organization
- `429` — Too many requests - Rate limit exceeded. Retry after a short delay.
- `500` — Internal server error

---

[API](https://skmtc.net/athenahq/apis/athenahq-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.net/athenahq/apis/athenahq-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-staging.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/athenahq/athenahq-api/revisions/6c5d71622cb9/schema)