What is Reusable.Email?

Reusable.Email is a disposable email service that lets you create temporary email addresses instantly — no signup, no forms, no verification required. Unlike traditional temp mail services that auto-delete after minutes, Reusable.Email offers reusable addresses with retention from 90 to 365 days. Use public inboxes for quick verifications, private inboxes with password protection for sensitive signups, or managed inboxes with full IMAP/SMTP support for a permanent disposable address that works with any email client.

Is Reusable.Email free?

Public and private inboxes are completely free with no limits on usage. You can create unlimited free inboxes without any account or payment. For advanced features, managed inboxes cost a one-time $3 payment (not a subscription) and include IMAP/SMTP access, send capability, and 365-day retention. Custom domains are free to add with DNS verification — $10/year unlocks unlimited aliases and catch-all routing. Whitelabel plans at $30/month are available for businesses needing their own branded email infrastructure. There are no hidden fees, ads, or subscription traps.

How long are emails retained?

Email retention depends on your inbox type. Public inboxes retain emails for 90 days from receipt — enough for most verification and signup workflows. Private (password-protected) inboxes extend retention to 180 days, giving you more time to access important emails. Managed inboxes offer the longest retention at 365 days with unlimited storage, plus the ability to organize emails into custom folders. All inbox types allow you to export your data at any time. Emails are automatically and permanently deleted after the retention period expires.

Can I send emails from Reusable.Email?

Yes — sending is available with managed inboxes ($3 one-time payment). Managed inboxes include full SMTP access via smtp.reusable.email on port 587 with STARTTLS encryption, allowing you to send email to any address worldwide from any standard email client including Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Outlook, and Gmail. Free public and private inboxes support sending only to other Reusable.Email addresses. Custom domain users can also send as their domain aliases, with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication configured automatically.

How does custom domain support work?

Adding a custom domain to Reusable.Email is free — you configure the DNS records we provide (MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) and we verify your domain automatically. Once verified, all email sent to any address at your domain is routed to your managed inbox. Subscribe for $10/year to unlock unlimited aliases (sales@, support@, info@ etc.), catch-all routing that captures email to any address at your domain, and send-as capability from any alias. Custom domains eliminate blocklist issues entirely since you control the domain reputation.

What is a managed inbox?

A managed inbox is a permanent, full-featured email address on Reusable.Email. For a one-time $3 payment (no subscription), you get IMAP access via imap.reusable.email:993 and SMTP access via smtp.reusable.email:587, enabling use with any standard email client — Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Outlook, or any app that supports email account setup. Managed inboxes include the ability to send email to any address worldwide, 365-day email retention, unlimited storage, spam filtering, custom folder organization, and the ability to toggle between public and private visibility modes.

Privacy depends on your inbox type. Public inboxes are visible to anyone who knows the address — they are designed for non-sensitive use like quick verifications. Private inboxes add password protection so only people with the password can access the emails. Managed inboxes are password-protected and offer additional security through standard email authentication protocols. Reusable.Email does not sell user data, does not serve advertisements, and does not track users across websites. Analytics are privacy-focused with IP tracking disabled and email addresses sanitized from all tracking data. Payments are processed securely through Stripe.

Can I use my own email client?

Yes. Managed inboxes support standard IMAP and SMTP protocols, making them compatible with virtually any email client. Connect using imap.reusable.email on port 993 for receiving and smtp.reusable.email on port 587 for sending, both with STARTTLS encryption. This works with Apple Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, Gmail (via 'add account'), K-9 Mail on Android, and any other application that supports standard email account setup. Your managed inbox credentials are generated automatically when you upgrade.

How to Set Up Unlimited Email Aliases on Your Own Domain

Name: Reusable.Email
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Most email providers advertise aliases as a feature but cap them at a low number. ProtonMail gives you 10-15 depending on your plan. Fastmail caps at 600. Apple's Hide My Email works but generates random strings you can't remember. Gmail's plus addressing ([email protected]) is widely rejected by signup forms and trivially easy to strip — anyone who wants your real address just removes everything after the plus sign.

Truly unlimited aliases means no cap, no approval process, and no need to create each one in advance. The only way to get that is with your own domain and catch-all routing.

This isn't a workaround or a hack. It's how email was designed to work. The SMTP specification (RFC 5321) doesn't impose any limit on the number of valid addresses a domain can have. The artificial caps come from providers trying to segment their pricing tiers. When you run your own domain, those caps disappear.

What "Unlimited" Actually Means

With catch-all on your domain, every possible address works by default. There's no alias list to manage. You don't configure [email protected] before using it — you type it into a signup form and it works immediately.

This is unlimited in the literal sense. Not "up to 600" or "unlimited on the enterprise plan." Every string before the @ is a valid, working address. You can create new ones on the fly, in any context, without touching a dashboard.

The difference matters. Capped alias systems force you to plan ahead, prioritize which services get aliases, and sometimes delete old aliases to make room. With catch-all, none of that applies. You never run out of addresses, and you never need to decide whether a service "deserves" an alias.

The Math of Unlimited

Consider how many online accounts the average person has. According to NordPass research, the average internet user has around 168 online accounts. For privacy-conscious users who also sign up for trials, download gated content, and test new services, that number can easily exceed 300.

With a capped alias system (say, 15 aliases on ProtonMail's free tier), you can cover less than 10% of your accounts. The other 90% still use your real email address. Unlimited aliases mean 100% coverage — every single account gets its own address.

How Catch-All Routing Works

When someone sends an email to any address at your domain, the sending server looks up the MX (Mail Exchange) record for your domain. That record points to the mail server responsible for handling your domain's email — in this case, Reusable.Email's servers.

The server receives the incoming message and checks the recipient address. In a traditional setup, if the address doesn't match a pre-configured mailbox, the message bounces back with a "user not found" error. With catch-all enabled, the server accepts the message regardless of what the local part (the portion before the @) says.

This means [email protected] works. [email protected] works. [email protected] works. The server accepts everything and routes it to your account.

For a deeper technical explanation, see What Is a Catch-All Email Address?.

Step-by-Step Setup

Getting unlimited aliases running on your domain takes four steps:

1. Get a Domain

If you don't already own a domain, register one from any registrar (Cloudflare, Namecheap, Porkbun, etc.). Domains cost around $10-15/year depending on the TLD.

Choose something short and memorable. You'll be typing it regularly when signing up for services. A two-word domain or a short personal domain works best. Avoid hyphens and unusual TLDs that might look suspicious to some services.

2. Add the Domain to Reusable.Email

In the Reusable.Email dashboard, add your domain. The system generates the DNS records you need: MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

The $10/year catch-all subscription activates unlimited alias receiving for that domain. This is a flat fee — there's no per-alias charge, no per-message charge, and no usage tiers. Whether you use 5 aliases or 5,000, the cost is the same.

3. Configure DNS

Add the auto-generated records to your registrar's DNS settings. The Reusable.Email dashboard includes step-by-step guides for every major registrar — Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy, and more.

The four records you'll configure:

MX record — tells the internet where to deliver mail for your domain
SPF record — declares which servers are authorized to send email from your domain
DKIM record — adds cryptographic signatures to outgoing messages
DMARC record — sets the policy for handling authentication failures

Don't let the acronyms intimidate you. Reusable.Email generates the exact values — you just copy and paste them into your registrar's DNS panel. The process typically takes 5-10 minutes. For a complete DNS walkthrough, see the custom domain email setup guide.

Once the records propagate (usually within minutes), the system verifies your domain automatically.

4. Start Using Aliases Immediately

That's it. Every address at your domain now works. Open a signup form, type [email protected], and the confirmation email arrives in your inbox.

Alias Naming Strategies

A good naming convention keeps your aliases organized as the number grows. Here are three approaches that scale well over time.

By Service

The simplest pattern. Name the alias after the service:

Pros: Immediately obvious who has each address. Easy to trace spam. Cons: Predictable — if someone knows your domain and convention, they could guess your addresses.

By Category

Group aliases by type rather than individual service:

Pros: Natural grouping for filtering. Easy to block an entire category. Cons: Slightly longer to type.

By Time Period

Use dates to create temporal separation:

[email protected]
[email protected]

Pros: Useful for trials and one-time signups. Easy to ignore everything from a past period. Cons: Not as useful for long-term accounts.

Hybrid Approach

Combine elements for maximum flexibility:

[email protected] — clear service, category, and temporal context
[email protected] — purpose, service, and rough timing

Mix and match based on context. There's no wrong answer when you have unlimited addresses to work with. For more structured approaches, see our guide to reusable email templates.

Managing Spam on Specific Aliases

When an alias starts receiving unwanted email, you have options:

Filter it. Set up a rule to automatically archive or delete email to the compromised address. Your other aliases remain unaffected.

Trace the source. Since only one service had that address, you know exactly who leaked it. You can report the breach or simply stop using that service.

Abandon it. Stop checking that alias entirely. Unlike a primary email address, losing a single alias has no impact on your other accounts.

Replace it. Create a new alias for the same service (e.g., switch from [email protected] to [email protected]), update your account email, and leave the old alias to collect spam in isolation.

This is the fundamental advantage over a single email address. When your one address gets leaked, spam hits everything. When one of your hundreds of aliases gets leaked, you isolate and move on. This containment principle is the foundation of email compartmentalization.

Why This Beats Plus Addressing

Gmail's plus addressing ([email protected]) is often suggested as an alias solution. It works for some services, but it has three critical problems:

Easy to strip. Your real address is [email protected]. Anyone who receives [email protected] can trivially extract your real address by removing everything after the plus sign. This provides zero privacy benefit against data brokers or breach databases.

Widely rejected. According to various user reports and testing, a significant percentage of websites reject plus signs in email addresses. Some validate against them explicitly; others have form validation that treats the plus sign as an invalid character.

Single point of failure. All plus-addressed mail goes to the same Gmail inbox. You can filter by the tag, but you can't truly isolate addresses. If your Gmail account is compromised, every plus address is compromised with it.

Custom domain aliases avoid all three problems. Each alias is a completely independent address with no visible connection to any other address. No one can guess your real email from an alias, services accept them universally, and compromising one alias reveals nothing about your others.

Why This Beats Shared-Domain Disposable Email

Shared disposable services (Mailinator, YOPmail, Guerrilla Mail) give you temporary addresses on their domains. The problem: those domains are on every blocklist. Most services reject them at signup.

Your own domain won't be on any blocklist. It looks like any other personal or business domain. Services have no reason to block it. You get the same throwaway flexibility without the constant rejection.

For a deeper comparison, see our guide on how to stop using shared email domains.

The Privacy Multiplier Effect

Unlimited aliases don't just provide privacy through obscurity — they create a structural privacy advantage that grows over time.

With a single email address, every data breach exposes the same identifier. An attacker who finds your email in one breach can search for it across every other breach database. Your email becomes a universal key that unlocks your entire online history.

With unique aliases, that key doesn't exist. A breach at LinkedIn exposes [email protected]. A breach at Adobe exposes [email protected]. There's no common identifier linking the two. An attacker would need to know that both addresses belong to the same person — and there's nothing in the addresses themselves that reveals that connection.

This is the same principle behind protecting your identity online — reducing the number of cross-referenceable data points that exist about you.

Sending From Your Aliases

Receiving unlimited aliases is half the picture. If you want to reply from those addresses, you need a managed inbox ($3 one-time from Reusable.Email) linked to your custom domain.

With a managed inbox, you can send email that appears to come from any address at your domain, with proper SPF and DKIM authentication. This works through standard IMAP/SMTP, so any email client supports it.

Connection details:

IMAP: imap.reusable.email:993 (SSL/TLS)
SMTP: smtp.reusable.email:587 (STARTTLS)

This transforms your domain from a receive-only alias system into a full email solution. You can receive at unlimited addresses and send from any of them — all through the email client you already use.

For more on email alias strategies and when to use different types of addresses, check out the complete email alias guide.

Cost Comparison

The economics of unlimited aliases are surprisingly favorable compared to traditional email providers and alias services.

Solution	Annual Cost	Alias Limit	Catch-All	Send Support
Your domain + Reusable.Email	~$20-25/yr	Unlimited	Yes	Yes ($3 one-time)
ProtonMail Plus	$48/yr	10	No	Yes
Fastmail Standard	$60/yr	600	Yes	Yes
SimpleLogin Premium	$48/yr	Unlimited (forwarding)	No	Via forwarding
Apple iCloud+	$12/yr	Unlimited (forwarding)	No	No
Google Workspace	$84/yr	Limited	Paid plans	Yes

The key differentiator: Reusable.Email charges per domain, not per user or per alias. One flat fee covers every address on that domain. And the managed inbox that enables sending is a one-time $3 purchase, not a recurring subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many aliases can I actually create?

There is no limit. With catch-all routing on your domain, every possible address works automatically. You don't create aliases — they exist by default. Whether you use 10 or 10,000, the cost is the same $10/year.

Do I need to create each alias before I use it?

No. That's the entire point of catch-all routing. You type a new address into a signup form and it works immediately. No dashboard configuration, no pre-registration, no setup per alias.

Will my aliases work with services that block disposable email?

Yes. Your custom domain is indistinguishable from any other personal or business domain. It won't appear on disposable email blocklists. Services accept it like any other email address.

Can someone guess my other aliases if they know one?

If you use predictable naming (service name as alias), then theoretically yes — someone who knows your domain could guess that you use [email protected] for Netflix. In practice, this is rarely a concern for individual users. If it concerns you, use random strings as aliases instead.

What happens if I stop paying the $10/year catch-all fee?

Your domain's MX records still point to Reusable.Email's servers, but catch-all routing is disabled. You would need to manually create individual inboxes for any addresses you want to continue receiving mail at, or point your DNS elsewhere.

The Bottom Line

Unlimited email aliases aren't a premium feature. They're the natural result of owning a domain with catch-all routing. No artificial caps, no per-alias pricing, no advance setup.

One domain. One flat fee. Every address works. And with a managed inbox for $3, you can send from any of them too. The total cost is roughly $25 in the first year and $10/year after that — less than one month of most competing email services.

If you care about privacy, hate spam, or just want to know exactly which service leaked your data, unlimited aliases on your own domain are the most practical solution available.