At a glance
Fourteen rows. Every temp-mail.io cell is what its home page, help centre, subscription page, API page and documentation said on 2 September 2026; every GrabMail cell is read from the constants the service enforces. “Partly” means a paid tier, a cap, or a caveat the row cannot hold — the sections below say which.
| Feature | GrabMail | temp-mail.io |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes: Everything: public domains, your own domain, the API and the MCP server. No account, no card. | Yes: A random address, two at a time, mail stored one day, fifty history records, with ads. |
| No account, no API key | Yes: Nothing to create. A GET with the address in the query string reads the mailbox. | Partly: The free web inbox, yes. The API and the MCP server need a Premium account and a key. |
| REST API | Yes: Three endpoints over HTTPS, OpenAPI 3.1, one read per second per address. | Partly: Premium only: create an address, list and read messages, attachments, domains, rate-limit status; 1,000 requests a month included. |
| Choose your own address | Yes: Any name on 8 public domains, grabmail.io and mixozia.com among them, free. | Partly: Not documented for the public domains; addresses are generated and can be changed. Custom domains on Premium. |
| Your own domain | Yes: Free and unlimited: one MX record at smtp.grabmail.io, no registration step. | Partly: Premium only: up to 10 custom domains, root domains or subdomains. |
| Message retention | 5 days, fixed. Not a tier, not a setting. | 1 day free, up to 30 days on Premium; a 10-minute mode exists too. |
| Attachments | Yes: Up to 5 MB per message, downloadable from the inbox and the API. | Yes: Yes, viewable and downloadable, with an API endpoint; size limit not published. |
| No ads, no tracking | Yes: No ads, no analytics, no third-party script. | Partly: Ads on the free site; “No ads” is a Premium feature. |
| Private inbox | No: Public: anyone who knows the address can read it. Each mailbox has an alias to hand out instead. | No: Public by address on the free tier; no password documented. Premium adds an account with saved messages and sync. |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes: Free MCP server at https://grabmail.io/mcp: create an inbox, wait up to 25 seconds for a message, read it. | Partly: A hosted MCP server at api.temp-mail.io/v1/mcp, streamable HTTP behind OAuth — a Premium feature. |
| Sending mail | No: None, by design. Receive only. | No: None documented; forwarding to another address on Premium. |
| Webhooks or push | No: None. Poll once a second, or let the MCP wait hold the call open. | No: None published; the API is polled. |
| Official SDKs | No: None. An OpenAPI document and three endpoints instead. | Yes: Node.js, Python, PHP, Go and .NET. |
| Apps and extensions | Partly: A Chrome extension, loaded by hand; not on the store yet. | Yes: iOS and Android apps, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Edge extensions, a Telegram bot. |
Checked 2 September 2026. temp-mail.io’s Premium price is drawn in by script after the page loads and does not appear in the page itself; the table therefore lists what Premium includes and says the price is shown at checkout, with a 30-day refund. Its public domains rotate; seven were listed on the day.
What temp-mail.io does well
temp-mail.io has more than four thousand paying subscribers since 2020, by its own count, and the product shows why. Four things it does that GrabMail does not:
- It is on every screen. iOS, Android, four browser extensions and a Telegram bot, with the inbox inside the extension on Premium. GrabMail is a website and a Chrome extension you load by hand.
- A real API product. SDKs in five languages, rate-limit headers, a documented endpoint list, a published response-time figure and an uptime figure. GrabMail has an OpenAPI document and guides.
- A mailbox with memory. Saved messages, five hundred history records, cloud sync across devices and thirty days of storage on Premium. GrabMail forgets everything after 5 days and syncs nothing, because there is no account to sync to.
- An MCP server with OAuth. A hosted, streamable-HTTP MCP server that a Premium subscriber connects with a browser login. For a person driving an assistant from their own account, that is the right shape. GrabMail’s server is for the opposite case.
Where GrabMail is different
GrabMail is what temp-mail.io’s Premium tier offers, without the tier — and with the trade-offs that makes possible.
- The API is free and keyless. temp-mail.io’s API needs a Premium subscription, an
X-API-Keyheader and lives inside 1,000 requests a month; a test polling every second uses that in seventeen minutes. GrabMail’s is a GET with the address in it, no key, no monthly count. - Your own domain is free. Ten custom domains come with Premium there; here any domain you point at smtp.grabmail.io is a catch-all inbox, unlimited, with no account. The catch-all guide shows the setup.
- The MCP server needs nothing. No OAuth screen, no subscription: an agent points at https://grabmail.io/mcp, opens an inbox and blocks on
wait_for_messagefor up to 25 seconds. That is the version an unattended agent can use, because it has no browser to log in with. - 5 days and no ads, free. temp-mail.io stores free mail for one day and shows ads until you pay. GrabMail keeps mail 5 days on the free tier and has no ads, analytics or third-party script on any page.
Price, side by side
temp-mail.io sells one Premium subscription, web-only, with a 30-day refund and no trial; its price is shown at checkout rather than in the page. GrabMail’s only paid plan buys access to a pool of domains kept off the disposable-mail blocklists; everything in the table above stays free.
| Tier | GrabMail | temp-mail.io |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Public domains, your own domain, API, MCP. No account, no cap. | Two addresses at a time, one day of storage, fifty history records, ads. |
| Cheapest paid | Premium, $24 a month: API access to the off-blocklist domain pool, paid in crypto. | Premium, price shown at checkout: 1,000 API requests a month, premium domains, 10 custom domains, ten addresses at a time, saved messages, unlimited forwarding, 30 days of storage, cloud sync, no ads, MCP. |
| Above that | Pro $78 and Scale $148 a month: more messages and keys on the same pool. | API quotas depend on the plan; figures beyond the included 1,000 are not published. |
| Trial and refunds | No trial needed: the free tier is the product. No SLA. | No trial; a refund within 30 days. Subscriptions are sold on the web version only. |
As published on 2 September 2026. GrabMail’s pricing page has the full grid.
For developers: reading a mailbox
The whole difference in one command. This reads a GrabMail mailbox with no header, no key and no account:
$ curl -sG https://grabmail.io/api/v1/mailbox --data-urlencode "address=anything@grabmail.io" | jq '{count, alias}'The temp-mail.io equivalent is POST /v1/emails to create an address, then GET /v1/emails/{email}/messages, each call carrying X-API-Key and each counted against the month. The API is clean — rate-limit headers, a /v1/rate-limit endpoint, SDKs in five languages — and it is paid. GrabMail’s reference is three endpoints; the Python and Node.js guides show the wait loop.
One habit differs: on temp-mail.io an address is created and has a time to live; on GrabMail an address is a name you typed and it lives as long as mail keeps arriving. A suite that builds run-{id}@ addresses drops the create call and keeps everything else.
For AI agents
This is the one row where both services have a real answer. temp-mail.io runs a hosted MCP server, streamable HTTP behind OAuth, for Premium subscribers; GrabMail runs one at https://grabmail.io/mcp for anyone, with no login. The tools overlap — create an address, list, read — and GrabMail adds a blocking wait_for_message of up to 25 seconds.
The choice is about who the agent is. An assistant you drive from your own paid account fits temp-mail.io’s OAuth model. An agent running on its own, which cannot get through a login screen, needs the keyless one. Email for AI agents covers the loop; the client guide has the configuration.
Switching from temp-mail.io
For a person, the switch is a bookmark; for an API or MCP subscriber, four steps:
- Drop the create call.
POST /v1/emailsdisappears; any name on grabmail.io, mixozia.com or another of the 8 public domains is an inbox already. Keep your naming scheme. - Replace the reads.
GET /v1/emails/{email}/messageswithX-API-KeybecomesGET grabmail.io/api/v1/mailbox?address=…with nothing; a message is one more GET. Remove the key from the environment and the SDK from the lockfile. - Move your custom domains. Change each MX record to
smtp.grabmail.io, priority 10. There is no dashboard to add them to; the first message connects them. They become public catch-all inboxes, free. - Repoint the MCP client. Replace the OAuth-secured URL with https://grabmail.io/mcp in Claude, Cursor or whichever client; there is no login step to configure. If the assistant is yours and you like the saved-messages history, stay.
Which one, for what
The honest split:
Pick GrabMail when
- the API must be free, keyless and unmetered;
- you want your own domain as a catch-all inbox without a subscription;
- an agent with no account has to open an inbox and wait for a message.
Pick temp-mail.io when
- you want a native app, a browser extension on the store, or a Telegram bot;
- you want saved messages, thirty days of storage and sync across devices;
- you drive an assistant from your own paid account and prefer OAuth in front of it.
When to stay with temp-mail.io
Three situations where switching would cost you something real:
- You live in the app. The apps, extensions and bot are the product for a person; GrabMail has a website and a hand-loaded extension.
- You keep mail for a month. Thirty days of storage with saved messages beats 5 days on a public address for anything you might want to find again.
- You want the login in front of the MCP server. OAuth means only you can attach an assistant to your inboxes. GrabMail’s keyless server means anyone can attach one to any address they know — which is the feature, and also the trade.
Questions
Is GrabMail a free alternative to temp-mail.io?
For the address, the inbox, the API, your own domain and the MCP server, yes — all free with no account, where temp-mail.io puts the last three behind Premium. It has no apps, no bot, no saved-messages history and no OAuth.
Does temp-mail.io have a free API?
No: its help centre says the API is available to Premium subscribers, with 1,000 requests a month included and quotas that depend on the plan. GrabMail’s API is free with no key and no monthly count.
How long does temp-mail.io keep messages?
One day on the free tier, up to thirty days on Premium, with a ten-minute mode for addresses meant to vanish fast. GrabMail keeps every message 5 days, enforced by a job.
Which MCP server should an agent use?
temp-mail.io’s if the agent is an assistant you drive from your own Premium account and you want OAuth in front of your inboxes; GrabMail’s if the agent has no account, or must block on wait_for_message for a code. The client guide has GrabMail’s configuration.
How much does temp-mail.io Premium cost?
Its subscription page lists what Premium includes and offers a 30-day refund, but the price itself is filled in by script at checkout and did not appear in the page on 2 September 2026, so this comparison does not quote one. GrabMail’s paid plans start at $24 a month and buy only the off-blocklist domain pool.
