Using Cleanbox as disposable or temporary email

Sometimes you need a throwaway email address — for a one-time signup, a free download, or testing a service you don't fully trust yet. Cleanbox makes this easy with virtual mailboxes, so you never have to expose your real inbox.

What is a virtual mailbox?

A virtual mailbox stores incoming messages directly inside Cleanbox. Unlike a regular mailbox, it does not connect to an external email provider — no IMAP credentials, no syncing. Messages simply arrive and are kept inside Cleanbox for you to read, forward, or delete.

Combined with an alias, this gives you a fully functional disposable email address in seconds.

Step 1: Create a virtual mailbox

1. Go to Mailboxes in the sidebar.
2. Click Add Mailbox.
3. Choose the Virtual type.
4. Give the mailbox a name (e.g. “Throwaway” or “Temp signups”) and save.

That's it — the mailbox is ready to receive messages. No credentials or server settings required.

Step 2: Create an alias

1. Go to Aliases in the sidebar.
2. Click Create Alias.
3. Pick any address you like.
4. Select the virtual mailbox you just created as the destination.
5. Save the alias.

Your disposable email address is now live and ready to use.

Step 3: Use the alias

Enter the alias address wherever you need a throwaway email — sign-up forms, download gates, trials, or anything else. All incoming messages will be caught by Cleanbox and stored in your virtual mailbox.

Step 4: View received messages

Go to the Messages page in the sidebar. You will see all messages received by this alias, including:

• Sender and subject
• Spam score and status
• Date and time of delivery

Click any message to open a preview where you can read the full content, view headers, or see attachments.

Step 5: Forward if needed

If a message turns out to be important — say, a confirmation code you actually need to keep — you can forward it to your real email address directly from the message preview.

Step 6: Clean up when you're done

When you no longer need the disposable address, go to Aliases and either disable or delete it. Disabling keeps the alias on record but stops accepting new messages. Deleting removes it entirely.

Messages in virtual mailboxes are kept according to your plan's retention period: 7 days on Free, up to 365 days on Enterprise. After that, they are automatically removed.

Bonus: use virtual mailboxes for monitoring

Disposable addresses aren't just for throwaway signups. Some users keep a virtual mailbox to monitor what emails a service sends without cluttering their real inbox. This is a great way to see whether a company spams you after signing up, or to track transactional emails during testing.

You can create as many virtual mailboxes and aliases as your plan allows — so feel free to set up separate ones for different purposes.