In this article you will learn in detail how you send an anonymous email. We will cover all the aspects involved while sending an anonymous email, starting with your IP address, going all the way up to email encryption & decryption.
We will share both free and paid ways to send anonymous emails in 2025, allowing you to make your pick depending on your requirements.
This guide is for everyone, even if you’ve zero tech skills or previous experiences with encryption, anonymity or even emails. We will explain in detail the safest way possible to send anonymous emails, for free.
Table of Contents
First, hide your IP address, here’s why.
You can never send a truly, 100% anonymous email without hiding your IP address first. That is because any service or tool we mention below may hide your e-mail but none hide your IP address.
Also, if you do not hide your IP address first, you’ve already exposed your identity to the e-mail provider even before you start. We need to prevent any e-mail provider from getting access to your identity during signup. This is why we’re mentioning this at the top here. I will recommend first employing a VPN and then moving on with the other steps on this guide. Let me explain why.
The IP address is like your phone number on the internet. You can not connect to the internet without an IP address. This IP address is assigned uniquely to you by your internet service provider, mobile company or anyone whose internet you’re using.
The IP address can be used to track your exact location, browser history, and even real-life identity. This is why it’s of utmost importance to hide it first.
The VPN will simply act as an intermediary between you, and the internet. It hides your real IP address, and allows you to browse the internet using one of its own IP addresses. When tracked, the trace leads to this VPN-injected IP for all your activities. If the VPN is a good VPN (a truly “no-log” VPN) it will not have access to your original IP address and hence you stay protected.
VPN recommendation: Veepn is a good VPN that I’ve used in the past and would recommend it because of their 20-device access, no-logs policy, 60+ country options, e-mail breach alert, low entry-point ($2.49/month), 30-day refund policy and many other features.
If you’d like to skip the VPN and need a free option, read the Tor section (at the very bottom) on this guide.
Use An Encrypted And Anonymous Email Service
These are services that function like regular email. At least, as far as you using them as a user/consumer goes. You do not have to learn advanced encryption strategies, or anything new to encrypt or send anonymous emails.
These services are massively different from regular providers at the back-end though.
At the back-end, they’re generally End-to-End encrypted. What this means is, no third-party, not even the email provider, law enforcement, hackers or anyone else can actually access your e-mails. Your emails can only be accessed by the person you sent the e-mail to. This isn’t a moral choice, but a technical restriction, it’s just technically impossible to intercept E2E emails (or anything else).
Technically, the e-mail is encrypted using the receiver’s “public key” (the lock) and can only be accessed using the receiver’s private key (the key to the lock). All of this happens automatically, without requiring additional changes from your end.
Free anonymous email recommendation: Protonmail and Tuta Mail (not sponsored or affiliated with us in any way) are two of the best free anonymous email services in 2025. Their code has been verified multiple times by multiple independent agencies.
Use A “Burner” Email
It resembles the way in films; protagonists use prepaid phones, which are untraceable; after they use the phones, they later dispose of them. Similarly, burner emails enable you to send messages without registering; the emails usually expire after a fixed period. The account can never trace the account or emails back to you.
Anonymous email has a temporary send-only account which you can take advantage of and use. The anonymous email will also come in handy for avoiding spam when you are registering for service on shady websites.
The only disadvantage is that accessing these disposable e-mails at a later time may be hard. At times, your e-mail may also be granted to other users as they aren’t really tied to “you”.
The best solution is to ensure you only use these burner/disposable emails when you aren’t expecting replies for your mails or when you do not need to retain the email for later use.
Free burner/one-time email recommendation: Temp-Mail (https://temp-mail.org/en/) \
Remove The Metadata From The Files
Metadata is basically any data, that’s automatically attached to your documents, photos or any other files. These may be used to identify you or at least gather some information about the source.
Common metadata information may include the date of capture for a photo or creation of the file, who took the photo, location (coordinates of the photo), camera settings etc. This information will depend on the source used to capture/create a photo. The same is true for documents and other files.
You should try removing metadata from files before including them in your e-mails. To remove Metadata from Docx, Excel, Powerpoint and other Microsoft files, you may use the in-built tool called “document inspector”.
How to access document inspector: Open the file > go to “file” > info > check for issues > Inspect document.
If it’s not a Microsoft document, you can still remove Metadata from photos and other files on free websites such as www.adarsus.com (not affiliated with us or promoted by us in any way, it’s an example. You’re free to use any other Metadata remover as well).
Create a new anonymous e-mail account
By this point, you must have your VPN employed, and should have chosen an anonymous email provider.
You now need a new e-mail account. Here’s how to create one to retain your anonymity:
- Ensure you’re connected to a VPN or at least Tor browser before accessing your email provider. Not doing so is a major privacy risk as they will have access to the original IP address that created your account.
- When creating the e-mail, do not use your real-name. Do not use your pets name. Your girlfriend, mother, father or any name related to you in real life in any way isn’t the best idea either. Use something entirely random. “Stonebox@xyz.com” is a good example.
- Do not enter your contact number or any other alternative e-mail ID when signing up. It’s okay to risk losing the e-mail rather than risk losing your anonymity. Storing your password in a secure environment is a better idea.
- When sending e-mails from this ID, try not to include your real-name or any other identifiable data in the contents of this e-mail. The email provider can not protect you if you divulge information on your own.
Send PGP-encrypted emails, without an email ID
This is the hardcore, hacker-level encryption you can go for. It requires a few additional steps but will encrypt your email with an extra layer of encryption. This ensures if by some weird chance of luck the provider betrays you, or your e-mail is accessed by a third-party, your email still stays hidden.
Note that you’ll still need a VPN and an email provider to send the email. We’re just making your email more private and secure.
You simply need to download the Gpg4Win tool. It’s entirely free (simply choose $0 on the donation page).
Once done, simply go to the “Notepad” tab, and type your email.
Next, click the “Encrypt notepad” button. You’ll need to enter a password to encrypt your email.
Finally, copy the encrypted message.
You need to send this encrypted message to your recipient using whatever email provider you’re using.
The trick is to send the “passphrase” separately. You can send it via one-time messages, SMS, Whatsapp or anything else.
What you’ve just done is render your email inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t have access to this email, plus the passphrase. Even with access to your, or the receiver’s email ID, the intruder must be able to match the email with the exact which it encrypts to decrypt it!
This method also adds an extra assurance layer on top of the email provider’s E2E encryption promise.
Use TOR browser
The VPN is not the only way to hide your IP address. You can also simply use Tor browser. It’s a free browser that hides your IP address as well, however, it’s less secure than a VPN.
Tor browser can be downloaded for free from the official website- https://www.torproject.org/download/.
Tor uses decentralized “nodes” to hide your identity. When you connect to Tor browser, your request is routed via a number of nodes (normal users like you and me run these nodes). No node knows the identify of all the nodes connected in a chain.
Hence, by the time your request is submitted from your browser, to your destination website, multiple nodes get involved. The website (or in this case, anonymous email provider) sees the IP address of the “final” node as the user and doesn’t see you.
The reason I said it’s less secure is because Tor has been hacked by the FBI in the past and does not provide as secure an environment as a VPN.
Final words-How to send an anonymous email in 2025
I’m sure you’ve learnt how to send an anonymous email in 2025. Here’s a recap, use a VPN or Tor browser > sign up on an anonymous email provider > do not share identifiable details > (optional) encrypt the email independently > send email.
I’ll recommend using the email providers mentioned here for most security. I say this because the internet has tons of honeypots. These are fake websites built with the intent to look & feel “anonymous and secure” trapping you later with tactics such as blackmail at the least.
You’re free to use any other VPN or email provider as well, simply do your research and ensure they truly offer what they claim to offer. The best test is to pick VPNs and anonymous email providers that have been “independently verified”.
