---
title: "Destroy an inbox"
description: "Deletes the mail now instead of waiting for the lease to end."
url: "https://openemail.uk/docs/api/temp-mail/destroy"
area: "API"
category: "Disposable inboxes"
---

# Destroy an inbox

Deletes the mail now instead of waiting for the lease to end.

`DELETE /temp-mail/inboxes/{id}`

## DELETE /temp-mail/inboxes/{id}

Deletes the mail now instead of waiting for the lease to end.

## The inbox token

**shell**

```
export OE=https://api.openemail.uk
export INBOX="Authorization: Bearer oe_inbox_kQ8v…"
```

Every call below carries the token `POST /temp-mail/inboxes` returned, in the same `Authorization: Bearer` header an API key uses. The address itself authorises nothing, and that separation is the point of the feature rather than a formality: a disposable address is handed to the party you are keeping at arm’s length the moment it is issued.

> The id in the path has to name the same inbox the token does. The token alone identifies one, so this is belt and braces, but it means a caller that muddles two inboxes gets a 404 instead of quietly reading the wrong mail.

## Example

The messages and their stored bodies go immediately, and the token stops authenticating on the next request.

**curl**

```
curl -X DELETE "$OE/temp-mail/inboxes/tinb_9c2f41ab7d3e4c118a0f5d72" -H "$INBOX"
```

**Response**

```
{ "object": "temp_inbox", "id": "tinb_9c2f41ab7d3e4c118a0f5d72", "destroyed": true }
```

> The ROW survives as a tombstone for a week, holding the address out of circulation so it cannot be re-issued to a stranger while a slow sender is still delivering to it. From your side the inbox is gone.

> A destroyed inbox still counts against the minting ceiling. Throwing one away is not a way to buy another.