Temporary mailbox lifetimes and deletion
Choose 10 minutes, 1 hour, 24 hours or 3 days. Learn the difference between expiry, manual destruction and scheduled cleanup in TempMail.
Maintained by TempMail · Updated
Choose the lifetime when creating the inbox
TempMail offers 10 minutes, 1 hour, 24 hours and 3 days. The default is 1 hour. Select the duration before creating your address, and allow enough time for the sender and your own task.
The public interface does not offer permanent mailboxes or a lifetime extension. Choose a longer initial duration if a short one is unlikely to be sufficient; a longer duration still does not make this a durable account email.
Expiry stops access
The countdown shows the remaining lifetime. Once an inbox expires, its access link no longer lets you read it. Refreshing the website or returning with the same link does not renew the mailbox.
A verification email sent before expiry might arrive later. Selecting a lifetime cannot guarantee when a third party will send or deliver a message. Do not start a task close to the end of the countdown if it depends on receiving another email.
Cleanup and manual destruction
Expired records are removed by scheduled cleanup after access has ended. This is distinct from the moment the inbox stops being available. TempMail does not provide a recovery feature for expired or destroyed mailboxes.
You can instead choose Destroy now and confirm when you have finished. Do this only after completing any steps that depend on the inbox. A browser refresh, a new tab or an identical address prefix is not a way to restore deleted messages.
Plan for messages you may need later
Before expiry, finish the task and keep any non-sensitive information you are entitled to retain. Do not rely on a temporary inbox for future password resets, important long-term accounts or your only recovery channel.
If a website may need to contact you again, consider using a durable mailbox or an appropriate alias service. Their retention and account requirements differ; check the particular provider rather than assuming all email addresses work like TempMail.