10 minute mail: a little time, a fresh inbox
Understand the ten-minute timer, how extensions work, and what happens when an inbox expires.
Why ten minutes?
Many one-time confirmation messages arrive within a few minutes. A short default lifetime limits how long messages remain accessible while giving you time to finish a straightforward task.
This is a service policy, not a promise that every sender will deliver within ten minutes. Check the sender’s delivery status and confirm the address before requesting another message.
Extend before the deadline
The +10 min control adds ten minutes to the current deadline. You can repeat this until the maximum lifetime of one hour from creation. The extension is an atomic server update, so simultaneous requests cannot extend beyond that limit.
An expired inbox cannot be extended. The displayed countdown is informational; authorization always checks the server’s stored deadline.
When the timer reaches zero
The API stops authorizing access, and incoming email is rejected. The scheduled cleanup removes indexed message data and objects in bounded batches. Objects left by a processing crash are also swept.
Do not rely on an expired address for a later reset, receipt, or identity check. Use a permanent address when future access matters.