Mail.cx provides temporary inboxes for receiving email in developer workflows; it does not send messages. Developers, QA teams, and product teams can use it to check account verification, transactional messages, notification pipelines, and application integrations. A web inbox is available without signup, with a choice of username or a randomly generated one. Server-sent events can deliver new mail to the browser as it arrives. The REST API supports long-polling, retrieval of parsed or raw email, attachment downloads, and event delivery. It allows 10 requests per second per token; long-polling is limited to one concurrent wait per token and 10 per address. Mail is deleted automatically after one hour on Free and 72 hours on Pro. Free costs 0.00 USD per free; Pro is listed at 9.90 USD per year, while the pricing note also says paid from $4/mo. The service says connections use TLS, passwords are hashed with bcrypt, and API tokens are stored as SHA-256 hashes. Its terms say retention and recovery are not guaranteed and caution against using it for critical, sensitive, or business-essential communications.
Who it is for
Mail.cx suits developers, QA teams, and product teams checking incoming messages in tests and application workflows. It is not for sending email or for communications that must be retained or recovered.
What is good
- Web inbox available without signup
- Supports parsed or raw email retrieval
- API can download attachments
- New messages can appear through server-sent events
What to know first
- Cannot send email
- Free mail is retained for only one hour
- Message retention and recovery are not guaranteed
- Not intended for critical or sensitive communications
Verdict
Mail.cx provides temporary receiving inboxes and API tools for email testing. Its short retention and no-send design make it unsuitable for messages that need dependable storage or delivery.
Mail.cx plans and pricing
All plansCompared on temporary email services
- Free plan
- Yes
- Paid from
- $4/mo
- Inbox lifespan
- hours
- Retention period
- 1 days
- Custom domains
- Yes
- API access
- Yes
- Attachments
- Yes
- Inbox protection
- none
