Temp email services like Guerrilla Mail, 10 Minute Mail, and temp-mail.org are useful when you are browsing the web and want to avoid giving your real email to a site. But they are designed for human use, not for code.

Why Temp Email Websites Don't Work for Automation

  • No API: you have to scrape an HTML page to read emails
  • Rate limits: anti-scraping measures block automation
  • No isolation: addresses are sometimes shared or guessable
  • No send capability: you can only receive
  • No webhooks: no way to get notified when an email arrives

What a Temp Email API Gives You

A temp email API exposes all the same functionality over REST:

# Create a disposable inbox instantly
POST /v1/inboxes → { "address": "abc@agentmailr.com", "id": "inb_abc" }

# Read emails
GET /v1/inboxes/{id}/emails

# Get OTP immediately when it arrives
GET /v1/inboxes/{id}/otp?timeout=60

# Delete when done
DELETE /v1/inboxes/{id}

Persistence Options

Unlike websites that delete inboxes after 10 minutes, an API lets you control the lifecycle. Create an inbox, use it, and delete it when your script is done. Or keep it indefinitely for persistent agents.

Privacy

API-based inboxes are private to your API key. Nobody else can read your agent's emails by guessing the address. Temp email websites have public inboxes that anyone can access.

When to Use AgentMailr vs a Temp Email Website

  • Manual browsing and quick registrations: use a temp email website
  • Scripts, agents, automation, and testing: use an API