Yes, Ethereal Email has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans. The free plan includes Public accounts can send up to 200 messages per hour and Each address includes 100MB of message storage. FreeTier.co estimates the free tier at about $3.00/mo, and no credit card is required to sign up.
About
Ethereal Email is a fake SMTP service for testing outbound email. Developers can create a throwaway SMTP account with Nodemailer or manually, send messages to smtp.ethereal.email, and preview the captured mail through a public message URL or by reading it back over IMAP/POP3.
The service stores test messages for a few hours, keeps them in the INBOX folder, and gives each address a 100MB mailbox quota. Public accounts can send up to 200 messages per hour, while inbound email is enabled only for accounts created by EmailEngine subscribers.
- Fake SMTP message capture
- IMAP and POP3 mailbox access
- 100MB mailbox quota
- 200 messages per hour
- Few-hour message retention
- Public preview URLs
Free Tier Value
This free tier is genuinely usable for development: it includes instant account creation, SMTP/IMAP access, public message previews, and enough storage and throughput for small test workloads. The main limits are the 200 messages/hour cap, 100MB per address, and automatic deletion after a few hours, so it feels like a small but practical sandbox rather than a full paid-grade mailbox; that puts it at about $3/month in buyer value, with no credit card friction and no expiration.
What's included in the free tier
Verified
- Free email-catching service that stores test emails for review instead of delivering them.
- Instant SMTP credentials with no signup or verification.
- Create as many test accounts as needed.
- Public accounts can send up to 200 messages per hour.
- Messages are stored for a few hours before automatic deletion.
- Each address includes 100MB of message storage.
- Message preview URLs are public and do not require authentication.
- IMAP access to view sent messages in the inbox folder.
- Public accounts do not support inbound email; messages to them bounce.
See Ethereal Email pricing for current limits.
Common questions
Is Ethereal Email free forever?
Yes. Ethereal Email has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans, though the allowance typically resets each month.
Does Ethereal Email require a credit card?
No. You can start on Ethereal Email's free tier without entering card details.
What is Ethereal Email's free tier worth?
Ethereal Email's free tier is worth about $3.00 per month. That maps to an FTV score of 54/100. The FTV score is explained at freetier.co/ftv.
