---
title: "Retrieve an inbox"
description: "The lease, the message count and the extensions left. The state a client draws around the list."
url: "https://openemail.uk/docs/api/temp-mail/get"
area: "API"
category: "Disposable inboxes"
---

# Retrieve an inbox

The lease, the message count and the extensions left. The state a client draws around the list.

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

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

The lease, the message count and the extensions left. The state a client draws around the list.

## 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

Cheap: one indexed row and no object storage. Poll the message list instead if what you want is mail. That call carries the expiry too.

**curl**

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

**Response**

```
{
  "object": "temp_inbox",
  "id": "tinb_9c2f41ab7d3e4c118a0f5d72",
  "address": "octopus-signup@freemailaddress.com",
  "domain": "freemailaddress.com",
  "createdAt": "2026-09-01T10:00:00.000Z",
  "expiresAt": "2026-09-01T12:00:00.000Z",
  "extensionsLeft": 22,
  "messageCount": 3,
  "messageLimit": 50,
  "lastMessageAt": "2026-09-01T10:31:04.000Z"
}
```

> An expired, destroyed or unknown inbox is one answer: 404. "Your lease ran out", "that is not yours" and "that never existed" are indistinguishable from outside on purpose, and the mailbox refuses to distinguish them for the same reason.