Custom Temp Email Address: Choose Your Own Disposable Inbox Name

By Temp Email Team

By default, Temp Email generates an address automatically — something like [email protected]. That works perfectly for most use cases. But if you want an address with a specific name you will recognise, or one that reflects its purpose, you can set a custom prefix instead.

How to create a custom temp email address on Temp Email

1. Open tempinbox.dev.
2. In the address field at the top of the inbox, click the edit icon or the address name itself.
3. Type the prefix you want — for example, qa-signup-test or trial-review-may.
4. Confirm. Your address becomes [email protected].

The inbox works identically to an auto-generated one. All incoming mail to that address appears in real time. The same persistence rules apply — the inbox is stored in your browser via localStorage and stays available until you delete it or clear browser data.

When a custom address name helps

QA and developer testing

When running multiple test scenarios, a descriptive address name makes debugging easier. [email protected] and [email protected] are self-documenting. If a test fails, the address name in the logs tells you which test case was running without needing to cross-reference a UUID.

Sharing an inbox across a small team

If two people on the same team need to access the same temporary inbox — for example, both want to see whether a welcome email arrived correctly — a custom predictable name lets both parties access the same inbox from their respective browsers. Note that this makes the inbox semi-public: anyone who knows the name can access it, since Temp Email inboxes are browser-scoped by default. For a genuinely shared team inbox with controlled access, consider using a password-protected inbox instead.

Remembering the address without looking it up

Auto-generated addresses are random — swift-cloud-7x4 is not something you will remember. If you need to reference the same address in multiple contexts without always having Temp Email open, a custom name you can type from memory is practical.

When auto-generated is the better choice

Privacy

A predictable custom name — your real name, your username, anything guessable — reduces the privacy benefit of a disposable address. If someone can guess your address name, they can read your inbox. Auto-generated names like swift-cloud-7x4 are effectively unguessable and provide proper session-scoped privacy.

If you want a custom name for organisational purposes but still want privacy, use a random-looking custom name rather than something personally identifiable.

Speed

If you just need an inbox quickly and do not care about the name, letting Temp Email generate one automatically is faster. One less decision.

Custom temp email vs custom domain temp email

These are two different things that often get confused:

• Custom address name: you choose the local part before the @, but the domain is still @tempinbox.dev. This is what this post covers — available to any individual user for free.
• Custom domain temp email: a team or organisation uses their own domain for disposable addresses, so addresses look like [email protected]. This is a different feature aimed at teams who need controlled routing under their own domain. See the custom domain temp email guide for that use case.

Related guides

Create a temp email · Custom domain temp email · Password-protected inboxes · What is temp mail?