Address lifetime and message retention are separate
An email address determines where mail can be delivered. Message retention determines how long mail already received remains available. These are different rules: keeping an address does not mean keeping its entire inbox indefinitely.
On Free, the primary address has no automatic address-expiry timer, but each new incoming message is retained for 24 hours. The optional second address lasts four hours, after which that address and its contents expire. Reopening the app, checking mail or reading a message does not restart these timers.
What happens when a paid plan expires
After Pro or Ultra expires, the chosen primary address works under Free rules. The remaining paid addresses are locked and reserved for 31 days. A reserved address is kept for your account, but it does not continue receiving new mail while locked.
Renewing within the reserve can restore eligible addresses and messages that have not been purged, within the new plan's limits. Mail rejected while an address was locked cannot be recreated. The reserve is a chance to restore service, not a promise that all mail keeps arriving in the background.
Deletion and expiry need different decisions
Manual address deletion stops new delivery and offers a 24-hour undo window. Restoring an address requires a free active slot under the current plan. Automatic expiry of a four-hour temporary address is a different lifecycle, so do not rely on the manual undo window to extend it.
Keep important receipts, reference numbers and recovery information somewhere appropriate before their message-retention period ends. Choose your primary address before a paid plan expires and check the plan status in the app. Contact support if a lifetime or status is unclear rather than assuming that a missing message can be recovered.