5 Minute Mail for quick sign-ups

An email address for five minutes

Sometimes you need an email address for one small job: confirm a sign-up, open a download link, or get a code. A 5 minute email gives you an address for that job and nothing else.

This inbox has no five-minute countdown. You decide when it ends. Press Delete after five minutes, or after one, and the inbox and its messages are removed from our servers straight away. If you do nothing, it ends by itself after 24 hours.

A five-minute routine

1. Copy the address at the top of this page.
2. Paste it into the form and submit it.
3. Stay on this page. It checks for new mail every 12 seconds, so there is nothing to refresh.
4. Use the code or link in the message.
5. Press Delete if you won’t need the inbox again.

Why a fixed five-minute timer is risky

A short timer sounds tidy, but the timer belongs to the inbox, not to the sender. A site that takes six minutes to send its code would be writing to an address that no longer exists. You would have to start the sign-up again with a new address. Keeping the inbox open for longer and ending it yourself avoids that.

If the email hasn’t arrived after five minutes

Check that you pasted the whole address, then ask the site to resend the email. If nothing comes after that, the site may be blocking temporary email domains. Waiting longer rarely helps in that case. Our guide to temp mail not receiving emails goes through the common causes.

Not for accounts you want to keep

If you may need to log back in, use your real address. A deleted inbox can’t receive a password reset, and neither can an expired one. It also can’t send or reply, and attachments are removed.