Paperweight

Paperweight is a desktop inbox-auditing tool that maps accounts, mailing lists, and personal information, then guides cleanup and privacy requests. It suits privacy-conscious users who want local processing and an inspectable codebase. Choose it for a broad, locally stored view of inbox relationships; look elsewhere for automatic cleanup rules or data-broker removal.

Overview

Paperweight reconstructs a company inventory from sign-up confirmations, receipts, password resets, and security alerts. It also finds mailing lists and personal details in older messages, including email addresses, phone numbers, postal addresses, payment cards, IBANs, and national identifiers. That scope makes it an inbox intelligence tool as much as an unsubscribe utility.

Analysis and database storage occur on the user's computer. The maker says no server receives email content or credentials. Provider connections use HTTPS/TLS, and OAuth tokens are encrypted in macOS Keychain or Windows Credential Manager. The MIT license allows users to inspect or build the code, a useful transparency measure for software handling sensitive mail.

Key features

Account mapping and mailing-list cleanup

The inventory turns scattered email evidence into a reviewable list of companies and subscriptions. Unsubscribe workflows can use one-click headers, email triggers, or sender links, covering more than a simple sender blacklist. There are no automatic cleanup rules, so people wanting recurring, hands-off filtering should choose another tool.

Personal-data review and requests

Paperweight surfaces sensitive values in past messages so users can see what an inbox contains. It prepares access or deletion requests for review rather than sending them automatically. That approval step reduces accidental requests but makes the process deliberately supervised.

Privacy and MCP controls

Gmail, Outlook, Proton Mail through Proton Bridge, Apple/iCloud, and standard IMAP accounts are supported. Pro adds a local MCP server that is off by default and can be read-only or read-write. The agent can access sender and recipient, subjects, previews, and app classifications, while full bodies and raw headers remain out of scope and known personal data is masked by default. These controls suit cautious automation, but MCP is a paid feature and still requires configuration.

Paperweight focuses on first-party relationships found in the inbox. It does not remove records held by data brokers, limiting its value for people seeking comprehensive people-search removal.

Pricing

Free costs nothing, billed free forever with no payment required. It supports one email account with full-history sync, account and company inventory, mailing-list, breach and risk, and personal-data and privacy overviews, plus local curation and GitHub community support. It omits cleanup actions, privacy requests, multiple accounts, and MCP.

Paperweight Pro costs $60 a year, billed yearly through Polar (equivalent to $5 per month). Crypto costs $55 for one year with manual renewal. Pro adds everything in Free, cleanup actions, privacy requests and follow-ups, multiple email accounts, MCP access, and email support. It is the practical choice for ongoing multi-inbox work.

Lifetime costs 99.00 USD once for permanent full Pro access; the offer is available through October 7, 2026. The crypto price is $90. It favors users who expect long-term use and prefer avoiding renewal.

Cleanup Pass costs 2530.00 USD once, with no subscription or renewal. It includes Free's features plus unsubscribe, trash, mark-as-spam, bulk cleanup, privacy requests and follow-ups, multiple accounts, MCP, and GitHub community support. Its unusually high one-time price makes it sensible only for buyers who specifically want a single comprehensive cleanup engagement.

Platforms

Paperweight runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Supported providers include Gmail, Outlook, Proton Mail via Proton Bridge, Apple/iCloud, and standard IMAP accounts.

Who it's for

Choose Paperweight if you want to audit years of inbox history, understand company relationships, and handle unsubscribe or privacy requests while keeping analysis local. It is particularly suitable for technically minded users who value MIT-licensed software and configurable automation. It is not the right fit for automatic recurring rules or removal from data-broker databases.

Pros and cons

• Pros: local analysis and storage; broad detection of accounts, subscriptions, and sensitive data; support for major providers and IMAP; MIT-licensed code; reviewed, user-approved deletion requests; Pro MCP controls with masked personal data.
• Cons: no automatic cleanup rules; deletion requests are not sent automatically; scope excludes data brokers; Free is limited to one account; MCP requires Pro; Cleanup Pass costs 2530.00 USD once.

Alternatives

Email Cleanup Software is the broader category guide for comparing cleanup tools.

• Clean Email fits users wanting Android, iOS, macOS, or web access and a free trial; its free account cleans up to 1,000 messages but excludes advanced settings and Auto Clean.
• Gmail Bulk Unsubscribe & Cleanup Tool suits users seeking a free, MIT-licensed option across desktop, web, or self-hosted setups.
• InboxSweeper is a free, open-source choice with no account or subscription.
• Cleanfox is a free Android, iOS, and web option for inbox cleaning and newsletter unsubscribing.
• Gmail Unsubscriber is a free Android, iOS, and web alternative with an MIT-licensed open-source project.
• Leave Me Alone offers a free yearly Casual Emailer plan with four accounts and unlimited unsubscribes on Android and web.
• Trimbox is a freemium Android, iOS, web, and extension tool with the first 10 unsubscribes free.
• Unroll.Me is free on Android, iOS, and web but requires access to commercial emails and uses commercial-email data for measurement products.

Verdict

Paperweight is a strong match for privacy-focused users who want a locally stored map of inbox relationships and supervised cleanup requests. Its main reason to choose it is the combination of broad personal-data discovery, open-source transparency, and local processing. Look elsewhere if you need automatic cleanup, a lower-cost bulk-cleanup service, or removal from data brokers.