Note: The term "aliases" is no longer used in Fastmail's interface. Where we previously offered "aliases" (for receiving mail) and "sending identities" (for sending mail), we now simply offer "email addresses" that are able to both send and receive. Per user feedback, we made these changes to simplify the user experience. For more information on setting up an email address, please see our My email addresses help page.
To help ease the transition from aliases to email addresses, we've updated the instructions on this page to match our current interface.
- What is an alias?
- Create an alias
- Disable an alias
- Delete an alias
- Alias delivery
- Catch-all alias
- External targets and SRS rewriting
- How many aliases can I have?
- Masked Email
What is an alias?
"Alias" is a commonly used term for an additional email address. Aliases are helpful if you want to have different email addresses without creating multiple users. For example, you could have a sales@mydomain.com address for sales inquiries, and a press@mydomain.com address for news inquiries.
In our current interface, email addresses are used instead of aliases.
How to create an alias
You can create an email address by going to the Settings → My email addresses screen. For more information, please see the Creating an email address section of our My email addresses help page.
If you are an admin looking to create an email address for another user in your account, this can be done by going to Settings → Team & Sharing.
How to disable an alias
If you no longer wish to receive mail at an address, but you do not want to free up the address by deleting it, you can disable the address instead. (This is also helpful if you have a catch-all address set up in your account that is receiving unwanted mail at a certain address.)
You can disable an address by following these steps:
- Go to Settings → Team & Sharing.
- Click the Edit button for the address.
- Select Reject (bounce) all mail to this address.
- Click Save.
Once the address has been disabled, any further email sent to that address will bounce and return to the sender as undeliverable.
How to delete an alias
You can delete an email address by going to the Settings → My email addresses screen. For more information, please see the Deleting an email address section of our My email addresses help page.
If you are an admin looking to delete an email address for another user in your account, this can be done by going to Settings → Team & Sharing.
Once the address has been deleted, any further email sent to that address will bounce. Another user could potentially create the address in the future if it is at a Fastmail domain.
Alias delivery
All email addresses set up in Fastmail must have a target address. Messages sent to a certain email address will be delivered to the target address. By default, an email address's target is your Fastmail username address.
An email address's target can be changed to deliver mail to any other user, including other Fastmail users or a completely external email address. An email address is also able to target more than one address.
You can change an email address's target by following these steps:
- Go to Settings → Team & Sharing.
- Click the Edit button for the address.
- Click Show advanced preferences.
- In the Deliver to section, enter the email address you wish to add as a target, then click Add.
- Click Save.
If your address targets more than one email address, each recipient will count as one email sent for your account limits. This means that if you have one address that points to three different email accounts, each email you send to this address will count as three emails sent.
Catch-all/Wildcard aliases
If you have a custom domain set up in your account, you can set up a catch-all address at Settings → My email addresses, which allows you to receive mail at any address at your domain. Please see our Catch-all/Wildcard addresses help page for more information.
External targets and SRS rewriting
You can enable SRS rewriting for email sent to a particular address by going to Settings → Team & Sharing and enabling the SRS checkbox on that address. We don't recommend enabling SRS unless you need to (for instance, if emails aren't being forwarded correctly).
How many aliases can I have?
Accounts can have up to 600 addresses, plus 15 for every user in the account. More details on limits can be found at our Account limits help page.
Note: Accounts on our legacy plans have different alias limits. Please see our Legacy plan details help page for more information.
Masked Email
If you want to create a new email address to use when subscribing to services online, consider Masked Email. You can automatically generate a unique masked email address to receive and send messages, so your real email address remains hidden.