Disposable emails

Disposable email services — also called temporary or throwaway emails — give users an inbox that works for a few minutes to a few hours, then self-destructs. Services like Guerrilla Mail, Tempail, 10MinuteMail, and Mailinator make this easy and free.

People use them to bypass signup forms, claim free trials, avoid marketing emails, or test something without giving out their real address.

• Bounced follow-ups. The address dies within hours. Any onboarding sequence, receipt, or follow-up you send bounces.
• Wasted resources. You acquired a "user" who never intended to stick around. Your activation metrics are polluted.
• Abuse vector. Disposable emails are the go-to tool for creating multiple accounts, abusing free tiers, and gaming referral programs.
• Sender reputation damage. Bounces from expired addresses count against your domain's reputation score with providers like Gmail and Outlook.

We maintain a continuously updated database of disposable email providers. When you verify an email, we check the domain against this list. The database is updated regularly as new providers appear.

The API response includes a clear flag:

"disposable": { "is_disposable": true }

Disposable emails receive a -35 point penalty, which typically puts them in the "invalid" or "risky" range depending on other factors.

For most applications, block disposable emails at signup with a clear message: "Please use a permanent email address." Don't be vague — tell users why. Most people have a real email they can use instead.

If you're running a service where anonymity matters (whistleblowing, security reporting), you might want to allow disposable emails but flag them internally so you know the user may not be reachable later.