Creating an Email Account without a Phone Number

Trying to create an email account without a phone number is very challenging, and yet, many businesses/employment opportunities want to communicate electronically. How do you create an email address without a phone number?

The resources listed below:

  • do not require a phone number or additional email to create an account
  • have a free version
  • can be used to send and receive email messages
  1. Gmail – Google will let you create an account, and skip the part about entering a phone number, although you must provide birthday and gender.
    • gmail.com
    • Click “Create account“
    • Follow steps (and skip phone number)
    • Then, agree to Google’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
  2. Tutanota – https://mail.tutanota.com/signup
    • Choose free subscription
    • Provides recovery key
    • Must be 16 years of age or older
    • Note – By default, every message is password secured, and a password must be known to both the user and sender. To turn this feature off and send messages that do not require a password:
      • Temporarily turn off: when sending an email, click the little red “lock” icon
      • Always turn off: Settings>Email>Default delivery>set to “Not confidential”
  3. ProtonMail – https://proton.me/mail
    • Choose free plan
    • Recovery email is optional

Please guard your email address and password carefully. Consider writing them down and keeping them in two safe spots. If you forget your email address or password, or someone logs in with your information, it is nearly impossible for you to get back into the account. That means you may be locked out of other accounts that rely on that email address such as your smart phone, bank accounts, streaming subscriptions, job application websites, or someone may use your account to steal and use your personal/financial information.

Some email accounts use two factor authentication which means you must use the same phone number that you did when creating/signing up for the account, in order to log-in/recover/get in to the email account. If you change phones/numbers make sure to keep your phone number up to date in your email settings to guarantee you are not permanently locked out.

For more information on this and other related topics, call 211.

Sources:

Disclaimer: This HelpSheet is developed by the Helpline Center. Helpsheets provide a brief overview of the designated topic. For more information, call 211 or text your zip code to 898211.

Updated: April 2023