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Neomail

NeoMail^® Web Messaging (colloquially known as Neomail or NM) is Neopia's one and only electronic mail system that lets you send, receive, and organize direct messages to and from your fellow Neopians.

Inbox

Any messages you receive are delivered to your Inbox, which is the homepage of the Neomail portal. The inbox lists relevant metadata for each message, with most recent messages at the top. To view a message, simply click on its subject. On this page you can also do the following:

• Delete messages
• Update the statuses of messages
• Move messages to other folders

To perform any of these actions, simply select the checkboxes on the left of the messages you'd like to update; then choose the desired action in the "Select an Action" dropdown at the bottom of the page.

A message's status can one of the following:

• Read
• Unread
• Replied

Limit

There is a limit on the number of messages that can be stored in your inbox. If your inbox is full, you will NOT be able to receive any new messages, except for official messages from TNT, so it's encouraged to delete old messages as you approach this limit. Some users may send you a junk item if your inbox is full to let you know (a common item choice is Foal in Box, a pun on "full inbox").

Messages in folders do not count toward this limit; the limit applies only to the inbox.

New accounts start with an inbox storage limit of 100 messages. As your account ages, you receive the Loyal User Perk of additional inbox space:

Note: Your inbox will always show the disclaimer "when you have more than 100 messages in your Inbox, you cannot receive Neomail!", even when your storage is expanded.

Sending Messages

There are two ways of sending a message: creating an original message and replying to an existing message.

To create an original message (that is, one that is not a reply to an existing message), click the Send link in the top navigation. You can also click the "Neomail" button on the recipient's User Lookup or the envelope icon under "Action" in your list of NeoFriends.

To reply to a message, view the message from the inbox, and click » Reply to this message at the bottom of the page.

Composing a Message

Creating either type of message will take you to the message editor.

There are three components required to send a message:

• the recipient (if you're composing a reply, this field will be filled out automatically and cannot be edited)
• the subject (a short title describing the contents of the message)
• the message itself

If your intended recipient is unable to receive your message (for example, because their inbox is full or they have blocked you), a warning will appear below their username explaining why they are unreachable. In most cases, attempting to send the message will result in an error, and the message will not be delivered.

The editor supports a number of formatting effects, such as font, size, and colour. Unlike the Neoboards, you cannot format your message using NeoHTML and must use the tools provided by the editor.

Character Limits

Message subjects have a 30 character limit. Sending a message with a subject length that exceeds this limit will not fail, but all characters after the 30th will be removed in the final message.

Message bodies have a 1400 character limit, and any applied formatting effects add toward this limit. Attempting to send a message with a length that exceeds this limit will result in an error, and the message will not be delivered.

Filters/Censors

Certain words are not allowed to be sent in a Neomail. Doing so will give you a generic error:

Do not send messages containing profanity, sexual terms, or other inappropriate content (including religion, politics, cheats, hacks, and password scams) on Neopets!

Unfortunately, the error will not tell you what word(s) may have triggered the censor. One way to figure it out is using one of your pet's petpage. To do this, first go to Quick Ref. From there, select "Edit Homepage" from the dropdown of one of your pets. Finally, paste the text of the Neomail you were trying to send into the box, then click the "Preview Changes" button. This will produce an angry Meerca telling you which word triggered the filter.

The angry Meerca will only tell you one word at a time, so if there is more than one you will need to keep editing and retrying to find them all.

Known Formatting Issues

Many of the formatting features offered by the editor do not work as intended. We are aware of the following issues:

• The following effects are NOT rendered in the final message viewed by your recipient, even though they are visible in the editor:
  • Bold type
  • Italic type
  • Center, right, and justify alignment
• Two line breaks must be inserted in the editor for a line break to appear in the final message.
• Hyperlinked text appears with correct text and link URL, but with incorrect formatting in the final message.

Plain Text Neomail

To disable formatting in Neomail messages, enable "Plain Text Neomail" in your site settings (General > Neomail > Plain Text Neomail). Doing so will hide formatting tools and show a live character counter in the message editor, and remove all formatting in received messages.

Restricting Neomail permissions

There are two ways to prevent users from sending you Neomail.

Blocking

Blocking a user prevents that user from engaging in most forms of direct interaction with you, which includes sending Neomail. A blocked user will also be unable to send you any Neofriend requests, guild invites, trade offers, or gifts.

You can manage your blocked users by clicking the Block link in the top navigation.

Neofriend Only

It is possible to allow only Neofriends to send you Neomail. You can enable this restriction on the same page for managing blocked users (under "Neomail Permissions") or in your site settings (General > Neomail > Friends Only Neomail).

Folders

Folders are a system for categorising received messages. A folder is simply a label applied to a group of messages. All messages are contained in either the inbox or a folder, and a message can only be contained in one folder at a time. When a message is moved to a folder, it is removed from the inbox and no longer displayed there; however, a message can be moved back to the inbox at any time, at which point it would no longer be in its previous folder.

On the main page, you can create, delete, and view the contents of a folder. Deleting a folder does not delete the messages it contains; rather, the newly-folderless messages simply return to your inbox.

Clicking on a folder's name will take you to an interface similar to that of the inbox, which lists the messages contained in that folder. Through this interface, you can perform the same actions supported by the inbox (such as moving messages to a different folder).

Clicking the » Save link beside any folder takes you to a simple page listing the complete details (including body) of all messages contained in that folder. This is handy if you'd like to read all your messages in one place or if you'd like to save your messages to your device.

Automatic Deletion

The site's official policy is to delete any messages in a folder that are >90 days old. Inbox messages do not automatically delete, as users are forced to manually delete them in once they hit the storage limits listed above.

When Neopets transitioned to the Jumpstart servers in late 2014, this feature appears to have broken or been disabled. As such, messages would remain in your folders until manually deleted.

In early September of 2024, users began noticing that Neomails were being deleted en-masse. Over the course of 2 days, September 7-8, most Neomails were purged from the site. Most inbox messages >30 days old (prior to early August 2024), and most folder messages >90 days old (prior to early June 2024), appear to have been deleted, with some seemingly random exceptions.

TNT released an official statement on September 9, 2024, stating they were "investigating the cause" of the mass-deletion. Automatic deletions appeared to have been halted at this point.

Messages from TNT

From time to time, you will receive official messages from TNT's user account, theneopetsteam. These messages are either notifications related to different parts of the site (such as a closed auction or winning a creative competition) or official warnings for breaking site rules.

Even if your inbox is full, you will always be able to receive messages from TNT; however, these messages still count toward the limit and can prevent receipt of messages from regular users.

These messages are automated, and any replies to them will not be delivered. To contact TNT directly, create a ticket in the Help Center.

Avatar

It's no surprise that such a fundamental part of the site has its own avatar.

Neomail Addict

Randomly awarded when sending or reading a Neomail, or when viewing your inbox. Was previously awarded when you signed up for the 15-day Premium Neopets trial. This trial is no longer available.

Released: June 25, 2004

This page was written by Scar and last updated on October 24, 2025.