How to make an anonymous email account: 5 links to cut

To make an anonymous email account, cut the five things that link an inbox to you: a phone number, recovery details, a payment in your name, your home IP address, and clues in what you write. Sign up through Tor Browser with a provider that asks for no phone, skip recovery details, and never sign in any other way.

Most guides on this topic are lists of providers. The provider matters less than you think. What gives people away is almost always one of the five links below, usually added later by accident.

What makes an email account anonymous?

Private and anonymous are different goals. A private account keeps the content of your mail away from other people. An anonymous account keeps the account itself from being tied to you. You can have one without the other: an encrypted inbox in your own name is private but not anonymous, and a throwaway inbox with your phone number on it is neither.

"Tied to you" also depends on who is looking. Hiding your name from the person you write to is easy. Hiding it from the provider takes more care. Hiding it from a police investigation with a court order is the hardest, because the provider will hand over whatever it has. The steps below aim at the provider level: if the provider holds nothing that points to you, there is nothing to hand over.

The five things that link an email to you

Link	How it identifies you	Source	How to cut it
Phone number	Numbers are tied to a carrier account, usually in your name. Google limits "the number of accounts each phone number can create," which makes the number the real identity	Google Account Help	Pick a provider with no phone step
Recovery email or phone	Points straight at your real accounts	Common to every provider's recovery flow	Leave them blank, save a recovery code offline
Payment	Microsoft lists "credit card or other billing information" among the data it can disclose	Microsoft	Use a free plan
Network	Providers keep IP addresses, and mail servers record the sending host in each message	Google, RFC 5321	Use Tor Browser for sign-up and every sign-in
Content	Writing style, file details and timing can point to one person	Narayanan et al., 2012	Write plainly, clean attachments

Each row is a separate leak. Fixing four of them and leaving one open is the same as fixing none, because one link is enough.

How to make an anonymous email account, step by step

1. Use a separate browser that hides your network

Install Tor Browser from torproject.org and use it only for this account. Tor sends your traffic through volunteer-run relays so the sites you visit see the address of a Tor relay instead of yours. In the Tor Project's words, Tor "prevents websites and other services from learning your location."

Two limits from Tor's own help pages matter here. First, Tor Browser "cannot guarantee perfect anonymity," and if you sign in to a website, "they still don't know your location but they know who you are." So never sign in to a real account in the same Tor session. Second, "Tor does not protect all of your computer's Internet traffic when you run it," so don't open the inbox in a separate mail app.

EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense guide adds the same warning from the other side: if you "fill out forms with personally identifying information, that website will be able to identify you and may know that you're using Tor."

2. Pick a provider that does not ask for a phone number

This is the step most people get stuck on, because several of the biggest providers ask for a number at sign-up, either always or "sometimes." Look at the sign-up form before you commit. If it insists on a phone number or a second email address, it is the wrong provider for this.

Secria Mail's sign-up has no phone step: the form asks for a name, the address you want and a password, with no SMS code, no second email and no card. We compare which providers ask on our page about email without a phone number. The steps below apply whichever provider you choose.

3. Choose a name and address that say nothing

Use a name that is not yours and an address with no initials, birth year, pet name or username you have used elsewhere. People search old usernames, and the same handle on a forum from 2014 undoes everything else here.

4. Skip recovery details, but keep a way back in

Leave the recovery phone and recovery email empty. Both point at accounts in your name. Instead, if the provider gives you a recovery code or recovery phrase, write it on paper and keep it somewhere safe. Without any recovery method, a forgotten password means the account is gone, which may be fine for a short-lived address but not for one you rely on.

5. Don't pay for it, or think hard before you do

A card payment ties the account to your bank. Microsoft's report on law enforcement requests lists "credit card or other billing information" among the non-content data it can disclose. A free plan avoids the question entirely.

6. Only ever sign in the same way

This is where most anonymous accounts fail: not at sign-up but months later, when someone checks the inbox once from their phone on home Wi-Fi. Google says it can be compelled to disclose "basic subscriber registration information and certain IP addresses." One sign-in from your own connection puts your IP next to the account. Every visit goes through Tor Browser, with no exceptions.

Keep the browser separate from your real life too. EFF's Cover Your Tracks describes a fingerprint as "a list of characteristics that are unique to a single user, their browser, and their particular hardware setup." Tor Browser is built to make users look alike; your everyday browser is not.

7. Watch what you write and attach

Your writing style is a fingerprint too. In a 2012 study, researchers could name the right author from a pool of 100,000 "in over 20% of cases," and up to "over 80%" when the classifier was allowed to skip low-confidence guesses. They concluded that an anonymous blogger or whistleblower "may be unmasked unless they take steps to obfuscate their writing style."

So keep messages short and plain, and drop phrases and sign-offs you use elsewhere. Before attaching a file, check its properties: office documents often carry an author name, and photos taken on a phone can carry the location where they were taken. Don't mention details only you would know, and vary the time of day you write.

How to check that it worked

You can test the network link yourself in about five minutes.

Send a short message from the new account to another address you control.
Open it in that second inbox and view the full headers. In Gmail, open the message, click More, then "Show original."
Look at the Received: lines. The email standard, RFC 5321, says the receiving server "SHOULD" record "an address literal containing the IP address of the source, determined from the TCP connection." Some providers add the IP address of the device you wrote from; others don't. Check, rather than assume.
Compare any IP addresses you see with your home IP address (search "what is my IP" on your normal connection). If your home address appears, the account is not anonymous.

Paste the headers into our email header analyzer if the lines are hard to read, or use our walkthrough on how to read email headers. Then open the account settings and confirm there is no phone number or recovery email on file, including one a provider may have prompted you to add later.

What police and providers can still see

Anonymous does not mean invisible. Here is what Google says each type of US legal request can get, from its information requests policy:

Legal request	What it can get, in Google's words
Subpoena	"basic subscriber registration information and certain IP addresses"
Court order	"non-content records, such as the To, From, CC, BCC, and Timestamp fields in emails"
Search warrant	"the content of communications, such as email messages, documents, and photos"

Notice that the To, From and timestamp fields come out without a warrant. Even with the five links cut, who you write to and when can say a lot. Our guide on metadata privacy covers why. If you write to one person in a small office every Tuesday, the pattern alone can narrow it down.

If you only need to report something anonymously

Many people searching for this want to report a crime, fraud or abuse without being named. You may not need an email account at all. Official channels often accept anonymous tips directly:

The FBI at tips.fbi.gov: "You are not required to provide your name or other personal information; however, your failure to supply requested information may impede or preclude the investigation of your tip."
The SEC, for securities fraud: "Yes, you may submit anonymously. To be eligible for an award you must have an attorney represent you in connection with your submission" (SEC whistleblower FAQ).

If you report to an employer or a company, check whether it runs its own anonymous hotline before you write from a new inbox. Using Tor Browser to reach these forms still applies.

Frequently asked questions

Can an anonymous email be traced?

Yes, if any of the five links is left open. A phone number, recovery address, card payment or a single sign-in from your home connection can tie the account to you, and providers hand that data over when legally required. With all five cut, there is much less to trace.

Can I make an anonymous Gmail account?

You can use a made-up name, since Google's policies allow "pseudonyms or pen names." The harder parts are the phone check, which Google says is "sometimes" required at sign-up, and the fact that Google can disclose IP addresses tied to the account. Treat any account you made with your own number as linked to you.

Is a VPN enough to make my email anonymous?

No. A VPN changes the IP address your email provider sees, which covers one of the five links. It does nothing about a phone number, recovery details, payment or what you write. Tor Browser also makes your browser look like other Tor users', which a normal browser does not.

Are anonymous email accounts legal?

Using a pseudonym is generally allowed, and some providers' rules say so explicitly. What you send is what matters: threats, fraud and harassment are crimes whether or not your name is on the account. If you are unsure about a specific situation, ask a lawyer where you live.

Anonymity is mostly habit: the account takes minutes, and the discipline lasts as long as the account does. If the first hurdle is a phone number, a free Secria mailbox signs you up without one.