How to Make a Burner Email in 2026
Reviewed · Updated
Quick answer: You can make a burner email for free in two ways. A temp mail site gives you a public inbox, and Guerrilla Mail deletes its mail after an hour. A free alias service, like Proton Pass with 10 aliases, forwards to your real inbox until you switch it off.
- Temp mail: no sign-up, but anyone who knows the inbox name can read it. Fine for a one-off code, wrong for an account you keep.
- Plus addresses (you+shop@gmail.com) sort mail but don't hide you. Anyone can strip the plus part.
- An alias service makes sense once you want a separate address per site and a way to cut one off when it leaks.
People mean two different things by “burner email.” One is a throwaway inbox that disappears. The other is a forwarding address that hides your real one and keeps working. I checked both on 10/23/2026, from the sites’ own pages, and tested a free alias in our Proton run on 10/09/2026.
Step 1: Do it yourself for free
A temp mail inbox, for mail anyone could read
Temp mail sites give you an address with no sign-up. The catch is in their own words. Guerrilla Mail’s help tooltip says “anyone can access it if they know this Inbox ID” and that messages “are held for one hour before they are deleted.”
Mailinator is just as plain about it. Its home page offers a “100% free, public” disposable address, and anyone can open any inbox @mailinator.com by typing its name. Temp Mail describes its addresses as having “a predetermined lifetime.” Its FAQ answers on how long that is stayed collapsed for us, so I can’t give a number.
That makes temp mail fine for one thing: a one-time code or a download link from a site you’ll never visit again. Don’t use it for an account you plan to keep. Whoever controls an address can request that account’s password reset.
Plus addressing: sorting, not hiding
If you use Gmail, you already have a quick variation. Google’s help page says to add a plus sign and any word before the @, and the mail still lands in your inbox. You can then filter by the variation.
It shows you who leaked or sold your address. It doesn’t hide you. Proton’s alias FAQ puts it bluntly: “Anyone can remove the plus sign and the following text and get your real email address.” It also notes that some websites refuse addresses with a plus sign.
Free alias services
An alias is a random address that forwards to your inbox. Several are free up to a limit:
- Firefox Relay says “Everyone gets 50 email masks for free” (10/23/2026). You need a Mozilla account and, for quick use, its extension.
- DuckDuckGo Email Protection gives unlimited Duck Addresses, but only through its browser or extension (help pages, 10/09/2026).
- Apple Hide My Email is free when an app offers Sign in with Apple. Making addresses for any site needs iCloud+, from $0.99 a month in the U.S. (10/09/2026).
If the option isn’t there
Some sign-up forms reject addresses from known throwaway domains. On r/privacy in January 2025, one poster said “a lot of websites are now able to detect burner emails.” The top reply said such sites keep “a list of domains associated with burners.” For an account you’ll keep, a forwarding alias or your own address is the right tool anyway.
Step 2: When a free burner isn’t enough
Each free option runs out somewhere. Here’s where, by each company’s pages:
- Temp mail is public and short-lived. Guerrilla Mail deletes every message after an hour, read or not. Anyone who guesses the inbox name can read what arrives.
- Plus addresses leave your real address in plain view.
- Free aliases have caps or strings. Proton Pass stops at 10 and Firefox Relay at 50. DuckDuckGo works only inside its own browser or extension, and Apple’s needs an Apple device for anything past Sign in with Apple.
If you give a different address to every store, newsletter and app, 10 goes fast. That’s the point where one service with unlimited aliases is simpler than juggling three free ones.
Step 3: Use one alias service: Proton Pass
I’d start with Proton Pass. Its free plan covers the job with 10 aliases and no card, and Proton’s help says replies to forwarded mail go out from the alias. Unlimited aliases cost $35.88 a year on Pass Plus (10/23/2026).
Create a free account
The free sign-up asks for an email address, or a new Proton address, plus a password. The features panel on the same page lists “10 aliases for email protection from breaches.” I opened the form on 10/23/2026 and entered nothing.
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Make one alias per sign-up
On a computer, Proton says you need its browser extension to create aliases. You can manage existing ones in the web app too. In our Proton run on 10/09/2026, I made one alias on the free plan, named it for an online store sign-up, and sent it a test email from another provider. It arrived in the Proton inbox, and the alias logged “1 forward.”
Know the free limits
Proton’s help article is specific. You get up to 10 aliases on Proton Free and Mail Plus, and unlimited on Pass Plus or Proton Unlimited. Paid plans add starting a new email from an alias, extra forwarding mailboxes and aliases on your own domain.
Our connection wasn’t in the U.S., so I switched the pricing page to USD. Pass Plus showed $2.99 a month, billed as $35.88 every 12 months, against a $4.99 monthly price. The page lists a 30-day money-back guarantee. Canceling goes through Settings and then Subscription in your Proton account, per Proton’s help, which I didn’t test.
Switch it off when it leaks
This is the burner part. When an alias starts getting spam, you switch it off, and the rest of your mail carries on. Since each site got its own address, you also learn which one leaked it. Proton’s page says “the unique alias lets you know which company sold your email.”
Proton also says its aliases are relays that “never store any of your emails.” A deleted alias can be restored for 30 days through the linked SimpleLogin account.
If you’d rather use another service
- Cloaked gives unlimited email and phone aliases on every plan. It has no free plan. Individual was billed at $119.99 a year on its plans page (10/23/2026), and our checkout on 10/16/2026 showed $99.99 for the first year. See the Cloaked review and Cloaked alternatives.
- SimpleLogin, Firefox Relay and DuckDuckGo are compared side by side in our email alias services guide, with their free limits.
Which burner fits your situation
| What you need | Free option | Who can read the mail | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| One code from a site you’ll never revisit | Guerrilla Mail, Mailinator | Anyone with the inbox name | Guerrilla Mail: about one hour |
| Sorting mail in your own Gmail | Plus addressing | You | As long as your Gmail |
| A separate address per account | Proton Pass (10), Firefox Relay (50) | You | Until you switch it off |
| Unlimited addresses, own domain | Proton Pass Plus, $35.88/year | You | Until you switch it off |
| Email and phone aliases together | Cloaked, $119.99/year (no free plan) | You | Not stated for after you stop paying |
Sources: each company’s pages on 10/23/2026. Cloaked’s terms say the agreement stays in effect while your account is up to date. The pages we read don’t say what happens to its aliases after you stop paying.
What owners report
Reddit blocked our connection, so I read r/privacy threads through the Arctic Shift archive. On a 2024 thread about whether temp mail companies can get into accounts made with their addresses, the top reply was blunt. “They control the address,” it said, so “assume they can request a password reset link.” On a July 2026 thread about main and burner addresses, the most upvoted short answer was “aliases everywhere.”
The January 2025 thread on sites that reject burner addresses had a useful warning too. One reply noted that aliases on your own domain fix the blocking but can “be directly tied to You and only you.” Shared alias domains, like Proton’s or Firefox’s, don’t carry that link.
Mistakes to avoid with a burner email
- Using temp mail for anything with a login. If you lose the inbox, you lose the password reset with it. At Guerrilla Mail, a stranger who types the same inbox name gets it too.
- Putting a burner on a bank, tax or health account. Those send mail you can’t afford to miss. Use your real address, or an alias you’ll never switch off.
- Deleting instead of switching off. A switched-off alias can be turned back on with its toggle. A deleted Proton alias is gone after 30 days.
- Expecting anonymity. A burner hides your inbox, nothing else. Your name, card and whatever else you type into a form still reach the site.
Is it worth paying? See what’s actually free
For most people, no. Ten free Proton Pass aliases, or 50 at Firefox Relay, cover a lot of sign-ups. Pay once you hit the cap or want aliases on your own domain.
Proton Mail’s free plan comes with the same 10 aliases, covered in our Proton Mail review. For a whole second inbox instead, see our secure email providers.
See also
- Best email alias services
- Best secure email providers
- Proton Mail review
- Cloaked review
- Cloaked alternatives
What we checked
- Temp mail sites on 10/23/2026: Guerrilla Mail home page with its help tooltip, Mailinator home and pricing pages, Temp Mail home and FAQ. 10minutemail.com showed a Cloudflare block. No address was used for anything
- Built-in options: Google's plus addressing help page and Firefox Relay's plans page (10/23/2026). DuckDuckGo and Apple facts are from our alias hub run on 10/09/2026
- Proton Pass on 10/23/2026: pricing page switched to USD, the hide-my-email help article, the aliases page and FAQ, and the free sign-up form (opened, nothing entered)
- Proton Pass alias test from 10/09/2026: one free-plan alias created during our Proton Mail run, a test email sent to it, and 1 forward logged
- Cloaked plans page (10/23/2026) and our Cloaked checkout notes from 10/16/2026
- Owners: three r/privacy threads read through the Arctic Shift archive, because Reddit blocked our connection
- Where the run stopped: no new account on 10/23/2026: the Proton Pass free sign-up page was opened and nothing entered; the alias test is from our Proton run on 10/09/2026; temp mail sites were only read, no address used
FAQ
What is a burner email?
It's an address you hand out instead of your real one. There are two kinds. A temp mail inbox is a throwaway mailbox on a public site that empties itself. An alias is a forwarding address that sends mail to your real inbox until you switch it off.
Are temp mail sites private?
Not the big free ones. Guerrilla Mail's own help text says anyone who knows the inbox name can open it and that mail is deleted after one hour. Mailinator calls its free inboxes public. Don't use them for anything with a password reset or personal details.
Is a Gmail plus address a burner email?
Not really. Google's help page says mail to you+anything@ lands in your own inbox. But Proton notes that anyone can delete the plus part and see your real address, and some sites refuse addresses with a plus sign.
How many free aliases do I get?
On 10/23/2026, Proton Pass gave 10 on its free plan and Firefox Relay 50. DuckDuckGo's are unlimited but only inside its browser or extension (10/09/2026). Apple's Hide My Email is free through Sign in with Apple.
Can I reply from a burner email?
From most temp mail inboxes, no, or not in a way you'd want. With a Proton Pass alias, Proton's help says replies to forwarded mail go out from the alias, which hides your real address. Starting a new email from an alias needs a paid plan.
What happens when I delete an alias?
Mail to it stops reaching you. Proton's help says a deleted alias can be restored for 30 days through the linked SimpleLogin account, and after that it's gone. If you only want a break from spam, switching the alias off is the safer move.