FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
What sift.mx is, how covers work, what is encrypted, and what stays free.
A sift handle for email and chat: trusted contacts get through free; unknown people pay a cover you set before they reach you.
What is sift.mx?
sift.mx is a private forwarding and paid-attention service. You claim a sift handle (name@sift.mx), connect a private inbox, and set a cover price. Trusted contacts get through free. Unknown senders pay that cover to reach you by email or chat.
Is sift.mx free?
Creating a sift handle and receiving mail from trusted (whitelisted) contacts is free. Unknown senders pay your cover to get delivered. One credit costs $0.10. The platform fee is taken only when you withdraw credits—not when a cover payment is delivered.
How does paid email work?
Share your @sift.mx address instead of your real inbox. Authenticated messages from whitelisted senders forward privately. Other senders are prompted to pay your cover for that message. After payment, the message is forwarded to your verified destination inbox; senders never see that address.
Is email end-to-end encrypted?
No. Email forwarding is private forwarding with encrypted quarantine storage, not end-to-end encryption. Member-to-member sift chat is end-to-end encrypted separately from email.
How does sift chat work?
Sift chat is end-to-end encrypted messaging between members. Whitelisted contacts message free. Others pay your chat cover per message. The server cannot read message contents.
What is a credit?
One displayed credit equals $0.10 USD ($1 = 10 credits). You set your cover in credits. Cover payments transfer to the recipient; platform fees apply on withdrawal.
Can I hide my real email address?
Yes. You share only your @sift.mx handle. Messages that pass your rules are forwarded to a verified private inbox. Replies use opaque sift.mx addresses so your destination inbox stays hidden.
Who is sift.mx for?
Creators and influencers filtering pitches, founders and executives protecting focus time, sales and support teams qualifying inbound volume, and anyone who wants strangers to prove intent before taking their attention.
What happens to messages that are not paid?
Unauthenticated or blocked traffic is sifted out. Messages held behind a cover stay in encrypted quarantine until the sender pays, the challenge expires, or retention ends—then they are removed.
How do withdrawals work?
Credits earned from cover payments can be withdrawn via Stripe Connect when withdrawals are enabled. A platform fee applies at withdrawal time (typically 10%, with a minimum fee). There is no platform fee on the cover transfer itself.
Keep reading
Claim your sift handle.
Free to create. Trusted contacts stay free. Unknowns pay for your attention.