TempMaily.co
Free disposable inbox

Burner email

by TempMaily

Like a burner phone, but for your inbox: an address you use for one job and destroy. No signup, no phone number, nothing that traces back to you — it self-destructs in 24 hours.

Inbox0 messages

What makes an email a burner

Three properties. It's not tied to your identity — no name, no password, no phone number, so there's no account connecting it to you. It's disposable by design — you spin it up for a single signup and expect to walk away. And it does its own cleanup: the inbox and every message in it delete themselves 24 hours after creation, so there's nothing left to leak.

Compare that with the "throwaway" Gmail people create for the same purpose. It costs ten minutes of signup, demands a phone number, then lives forever with a Google profile attached to your name. That isn't a burner — it's a second permanent inbox you now have to remember and secure. A real burner takes zero setup and cleans up after itself.

Burn it or keep it?

A burner is right when losing the address costs you nothing. If you'd ever need to recover the account, use a real inbox instead.

Burn itKeep it on a real address
Newsletter for a one-time giveaway
Your bank and payment accounts
Gated download or whitepaper
Work email and anything an employer owns
Public WiFi captive portal
Anything with account recovery attached
Forum or app you'll try once
Subscriptions you intend to keep paying for
Free trial you won't renew
Anything holding receipts you'll need later

The full breakdown lives in temporary vs permanent email.

Burner email vs email alias

An alias — the kind SimpleLogin or Apple's Hide My Email hands you — forwards to your real inbox and lives as long as you let it. You can revoke a leaky one, which is genuinely useful, but the provider still holds a record mapping every alias back to your real account. It's privacy from the sender, not from the service.

A burner works the other way. It receives mail in isolation, has no real inbox behind it to forward to, and evaporates on its own. There is no permanent map linking it to you because there is no permanent account. If you want the alias-style convenience of mail landing in your real inbox, that's a Premium feature — see temp mail vs Gmail plus-addressing for how the aliasing tricks compare.

Light it, use it, let it burn out

  1. Step 1

    Light it — copy the free burner address generated at the top of this page.

  2. Step 2

    Use it — paste it into the signup, download, or WiFi form asking for an email.

  3. Step 3

    Let it burn out — read the code here, then the inbox self-destructs in 24 hours.

A burner is for privacy, not for dodging bans or harassing anyone. Sites that reject disposable domains are within their rights — here's why some block temp mail.

Want the same burner tomorrow?

If you keep reaching for the same address, it isn't really a burner anymore. Premium turns it into a permanent address with custom domains off public blocklists and forwarding to your real inbox — $9.90/mo or $90/year.

Go Premium

Custom domain, up to 10 addresses, 2GB storage, no ads — from $7.50/mo billed yearly.

View plans

Not sure which you need? Compare on the pricing page.

Burner email FAQ

What is a burner email?

A burner email is a disposable address you create for a single purpose and then throw away, the same way a burner phone is a number you use once and drop. It receives real mail — verification codes, download links, confirmations — but it isn't tied to your identity and it deletes itself, so nothing traces back to your real inbox.

Is a burner email the same as temp mail?

Yes. Burner email, throwaway email, disposable email, and temp mail all describe the same thing: a short-lived address that catches incoming mail and is then abandoned. The wording is just slang. A free TempMaily inbox is exactly that kind of address, live instantly with no account.

Is it legal to use a burner email?

Yes. Using a burner email to keep your real address private during signups, downloads, or trials is legal and a normal privacy practice. What can break rules is what you do with it — a burner doesn't make fraud, ban-evasion, or harassment legal. It's a privacy tool, not a shield for abuse.

Can a burner email be traced back to me?

A burner receives mail in isolation and needs no name, password, or phone number, so there's no account linking it to you. It isn't perfect anonymity: your connection still carries an IP address, and anything you type into a form can still identify you. For casual privacy it keeps your real inbox out of it; for evading law enforcement it does not.

Do burner emails work for verification codes?

Usually, yes. The inbox receives confirmation links and one-time codes in real time, so you can complete most signups and downloads. A free inbox lasts 24 hours, which covers slow mail and a second code at first login. Some services block known disposable domains; a Premium custom domain avoids that because the domain is yours.

How do I get a burner email without a phone number?

The address at the top of this page is already live — no phone number, no signup, no password. That's the difference from creating a spare Gmail, which demands a phone number and leaves a permanent account behind. Copy the burner address and paste it wherever a signup form asks for an email.