# Burner email you can burn in one click > Get a free burner email address in seconds. Use it like a burner phone for sign-ups and one-off deals, then burn it with one click. No account. Start now. Source: https://yelmail.com/burner-email · Last updated: 2026-09-29 A burner email address stands in for your real one. Hand it to a site you do not trust yet, read what comes back, then burn it, along with every message it received. Get an address: open https://yelmail.com/burner-email and the inbox is ready instantly, no sign-up. ## What is a burner email? A burner email is a short-lived email address you use in place of your real one and then discard, much like a prepaid burner phone. It receives mail normally, but because it is not tied to your identity, you can burn it the moment it attracts spam or has done its job. ## How to use Burner email 1. **Get your burner.** A burner address is created as soon as you land here. Copy it with one click. No name, phone number or password needed. 2. **Hand it out.** Give it to the site, giveaway or app you are not ready to trust with your real email. Incoming mail lands here live. 3. **Burn it.** Click Delete to destroy the inbox and every message in it. A new burner appears right away, ready for the next job. ## How does a burner email work, and why is it like a burner phone? A burner email works the way a burner phone does: it gives people a way to reach you that you can cut off at any time, without touching your real number or address. When you are done, you get rid of it, and anything sent to it afterwards goes nowhere near you. The comparison holds up well: - **No contract, no identity.** A prepaid phone does not need your name, and neither does a YelMail burner. There is no account to create. - **Disposable by design.** You expect to throw it away, so you are not bothered when it fills up with junk. - **Your main line stays clean.** Spam and marketing pile up on the burner, not on the number or inbox you actually use. There is one important difference: a YelMail burner is receive-only. People can send to it, but you cannot send or reply from it. That makes it ideal for sign-ups and confirmations, and unsuitable for back-and-forth conversations. For the full background on how temporary inboxes work, read [what temporary email is](https://yelmail.com/blog/what-is-temporary-email). ## When to use a burner email instead of your real one Use a burner email whenever you expect to get something once and do not want an ongoing relationship with the sender. If the honest answer to "do I want to hear from these people next month?" is no, reach for a burner. Good moments for a burner: - **Giveaways and contests** that ask for an email to enter - **Webinar and event registrations** where you only need the join link - **Gated content** like reports, templates or sample chapters - **New apps and sites** you want to try before trusting them with your real address - **Public Wi-Fi** portals at airports, hotels and cafés - **Quote requests** on comparison sites, when you want the price without a flood of follow-up emails Keep your real email for anything tied to money, identity or security. Banks, payment services, government portals, your employer and your main social accounts all need an address you will still control next year. A burner is also not a way around a platform's rules. Using burners to dodge a ban, create accounts in bulk or claim the same offer again and again goes against our [acceptable use policy](https://yelmail.com/acceptable-use). ## When should you burn a burner email? Burn it as soon as it has done its job, or the moment it starts getting mail you did not ask for. There is no benefit to keeping a burner around once the code is in and the download has started. Signs it is time to burn: - You have the verification code, link or file you came for. - Marketing emails start arriving more often than you expected. - Mail shows up from companies you never gave the address to, a clue the list was shared or sold. - You are about to leave a shared or public computer. On YelMail, burning takes one click. **Delete** destroys the inbox and every message in it right away, then creates a fresh address in its place. If you forget, the burner burns itself. Each email is deleted 2 hours after it arrives, and the inbox expires after 2 hours of inactivity. Once it is gone, it cannot be recovered, so there is nothing left for anyone to dig up later. That automatic clean-up is what makes a burner safe to hand out without a second thought. ## Can a burner email last longer than a few hours? Yes, with Premium. The free burner is built to be short-lived, but some jobs take longer, such as a two-week trial, a package in transit or a side project you want to keep apart from your personal inbox. [Premium](https://yelmail.com/pricing) keeps email for 30 days and lets you hold up to 25 addresses at once, saved to your account. You can still delete any of them whenever you like, so you keep the same control, just on a longer fuse. A few other Premium features suit longer-lived burners: - **Forwarding** sends incoming mail to a verified personal address, so a burner can catch something important without you checking it every day. - **Custom names** make it easy to tell your burners apart, for example one for travel bookings and another for a hobby forum. - **Larger attachments**, up to 25 MB instead of 5 MB. For a closer look at keeping an address for weeks instead of hours, see [long term temporary email](https://yelmail.com/long-term-temporary-email). ## Burner email FAQ ### Does burning a burner email delete its messages too? Yes. When you click Delete, the inbox and every message and attachment in it are destroyed, and a new address takes its place. If you just walk away, the same thing happens on its own: messages are deleted 2 hours after they arrive, and the inbox expires after 2 hours of inactivity. ### Can I reply from a burner email address? No. YelMail burners are receive-only, so you cannot send or reply from them. That keeps them focused on sign-ups and confirmations and makes them useless to spammers. If you need to answer someone, reply from an address you are comfortable sharing. ### What is the difference between a burner email and a temporary email? Mostly the attitude. Both are short-lived addresses that receive mail without revealing your real one. "Burner" stresses that you destroy it on purpose, the way you would ditch a burner phone, while "temporary" stresses that it expires on its own. On YelMail you get both: one-click delete and automatic expiry. ### Does a burner email protect me from phishing? It lowers your exposure but does not make you immune. Phishing sent to a burner never reaches your real inbox, and YelMail blocks remote images and never runs scripts or forms inside emails. You should still ignore unexpected links asking for passwords or payment details, wherever they arrive. ### What happens if I close the tab with my burner inbox? Nothing is lost right away. The key to your inbox is stored in the browser that created it, so opening YelMail again in that browser brings the inbox back until it expires. If you clear your browser data or switch devices, the key is gone and the inbox cannot be opened again. ### Will a burner email stop spam? It stops spam from reaching you. Anything sent to the burner stays in the burner and is deleted when it expires, so your personal inbox never sees it. It cannot stop a company from sending spam in the first place, but it makes sure the address they are spamming is one you have already thrown away. ## Related - [Throwaway email: free trash mail, no sign-up](https://yelmail.com/throwaway-email) - [Fake email generator that actually receives mail](https://yelmail.com/fake-email-generator) - [Long term temporary email: keep mail for 30 days](https://yelmail.com/long-term-temporary-email)