CenturyLink makes no mail app for any device
CenturyLink Email App: a CenturyLink Mail App and CenturyTel Email App for Your Computer, With Every Account in One Inbox
CenturyLink ships no email program, and its Windows guide still points at a Mail app Microsoft shut off. Inboxes opens your centurylink.net, centurytel.net or myctl.net mailbox over IMAP on any computer, beside Gmail and your work mail.
mail.centurylink.net · IMAP 993 · Nothing to install
In short
There is no CenturyLink email app. CenturyLink publishes nothing that reads mail on Windows, the Mac, an iPhone or Android; its My CenturyLink app manages your internet account, not your inbox. The official routes are CenturyLink webmail at centurylink.net in a browser, or adding the mailbox to a mail program, and CenturyLink's own Windows instructions still send you to the Windows Mail app, which Microsoft switched off at the end of 2024. The mailbox itself is easy to reach: IMAP at mail.centurylink.net on port 993 with SSL, SMTP at smtp.centurylink.net on 587, your full address as the user name and your email password, or an app password if you turned on two factor sign in. The same values cover centurytel.net, embarqmail.com, qwest.net and the myctl.net addresses that replaced q.com. What CenturyLink never offers is a way to read that address beside Gmail and work mail in one list, which is the gap a browser based client fills.
What CenturyLink publishes, and what it leaves to you
Which CenturyLink email apps actually exist
Search for a CenturyLink email app and you get the account app, a list of setup guides and a webmail sign in page. This is where a centurylink.net mailbox actually stands.
There is no CenturyLink mail app, on any device. This is unusual even among internet providers. EarthLink has a phone app, AOL sells a Windows program. CenturyLink has neither. Its help library is a set of instructions for adding CenturyLink email to other people's software: the Mail app on an iPhone, the email settings on Android, Apple Mail on a Mac, and Windows.
My CenturyLink is the account app, and people confuse the two. It is a real first party app on the App Store and Google Play, and it is the place CenturyLink sends you to create a new email address. It pays the bill, sets up the modem and runs support. It does not open a single message. Once the address exists, you read it somewhere else.
The Windows instructions point at a dead app. CenturyLink's guide for Windows says to type Mail into the search box, open the Mail app, choose Manage Accounts and add CenturyLink. That is the Windows Mail app, and Microsoft ended it on December 31, 2024. It can no longer send or receive. Anyone following the official steps on a current PC is walking into an app that is not there.
CenturyLink webmail is the official desktop route. You sign in at centurylink.net with your full address and password. It works in any browser, covers every legacy domain, and shows one CenturyLink mailbox. The free version carries advertising; removing it is one of the things CenturyLink sells as Email Plus.
Email Plus is a paid webmail upgrade, not an app. CenturyLink describes it as its premium paid email service: more storage, no ads, priority support, and no account expiry during long inactivity. It is monthly, has no trial, and is non refundable. It makes the one CenturyLink mailbox nicer to use in a browser. It does not put Gmail next to it and it does not give you a program for your desktop.
Your password usually works, and when it does not, CenturyLink tells you why. With ordinary sign in, the email password goes straight into a mail program. If you turn on two factor authentication, CenturyLink says clients such as Outlook and Apple Mail may stop connecting, and you generate an app password under Settings, Security, App Passwords. You can create as many as you need, and each one can be revoked on its own.
Forwarding to Gmail is gone for most people. CenturyLink removed automatic forwarding from free CenturyLink email accounts. Only forwarding set up before December 20, 2022 still runs. On the other side, Google is removing the POP fetch that let Gmail pull in other accounts, with full removal in January 2027. Both of the old ways of reading CenturyLink inside Gmail are closing at the same time.
An unused mailbox gets deleted. CenturyLink states that email accounts unused for a year are deactivated and all their contents deleted, and asks you to sign in at least once a year. For an address you only check occasionally because it is buried in a browser tab you never open, that is a real risk to decades of receipts and records.
Every way to read a CenturyLink mailbox on a computer
Nine routes to CenturyLink email on a desktop, compared
What separates these is where they run, whether they can hold your other addresses at the same time, and whether they still work at all in 2026.
Swipe to see all columns →
| Route to CenturyLink email | Runs on | Holds other accounts too | How it signs in | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inboxes | Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, in a browser tab | Yes, one merged board | Email password, or an app password with 2FA on | 29 dollars a month flat, five mailboxes |
| A CenturyLink email app | Nothing. CenturyLink publishes none | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not distributed |
| My CenturyLink app | iPhone and Android | No, and it does not read mail | Your CenturyLink account | No charge, account management only |
| CenturyLink webmail | Any browser, any machine | No, one CenturyLink address | Email password, plus a code if 2FA is on | Included, with ads |
| CenturyLink Email Plus | The same webmail, upgraded | No, one CenturyLink address | Same as webmail | Monthly, no trial, non refundable |
| Windows Mail app | Shut down by Microsoft, December 31, 2024 | No longer sends or receives | Not applicable | Still named in CenturyLink's Windows guide |
| Apple Mail | macOS only | Yes, All Inboxes | App password needed if 2FA is on | Included with macOS |
| Classic Outlook | Windows | Yes | Manual IMAP setup; app password if 2FA is on | Part of Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365 |
| Thunderbird | Windows, macOS, Linux | Yes, through Unified Folders | Email password or app password | Open source, no license fee |
| eM Client | Windows and macOS only | Yes, one folder tree | Email password or app password | 59.95 dollars once for one device, or 39.95 a year |
CenturyLink details are from CenturyLink's own help pages and its dedicated email support site: the IMAP and SMTP settings page, the Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android setup guides, the create an email account page, the q.com address change FAQ, the Email Plus articles, the two factor authentication and app password articles, and the notice that automatic forwarding is no longer available on free accounts. CenturyLink does not publish the Email Plus price outside the signed in store, so none is quoted here. eM Client prices are from the US version of its pricing page. Apple Mail and Thunderbird both hold several accounts at no license fee, and if one computer with a merged list is the whole problem, either is an honest answer.
CenturyLink email settings for any client
What to type into any mail program
One set of values covers centurylink.net and the long list of legacy domains CenturyLink still runs. The field people get wrong is the user name.
| Setting | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Incoming server (IMAP) | mail.centurylink.net | CenturyLink recommends IMAP so every device sees the same mailbox |
| Incoming port | 993 with SSL | POP is pop.centurylink.net on 995 with SSL, if you must |
| Outgoing server (SMTP) | smtp.centurylink.net | Turn on outgoing authentication with the same credentials |
| Outgoing port | 587 with TLS, or 465 with SSL | CenturyLink filters port 25, so do not use it |
| User name | Your full email address, not just the first part | [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] |
| Password | Your email password | With two factor sign in on, an app password from Settings, Security |
| Domains sharing these values | centurylink.net, centurytel.net, embarqmail.com, qwest.net and more | Also clds.net, coastalnow.net, cochill.net, cswnet.com, elpasotel.net, emadisonriver.com and .net, gallatinriver.net, grics.net, gulftel.com, madisonriver.biz, mebtel.net |
| Server limits | 700 MB mailbox, 10 MB per message | Server side, so no client can raise them |
Values are from CenturyLink's IMAP and SMTP server settings page and the matching article on its email support site. qwestoffice.net is the one exception CenturyLink lists: POP only, on pop.qwestoffice.net port 110, with smtp.qwestoffice.net on 465. If a client rejects the password, sign in at centurylink.net with the same credentials first. If the website accepts them, the problem is the user name or a missing app password, not the password itself.
If your address used to end in q.com
q.com is now myctl.net, and your mail program has to be told
CenturyLink retired the q.com domain. On October 21, 2025 every q.com address became the same name at myctl.net. The mail moved across, nothing was lost, and the password stayed the same unless CenturyLink told you otherwise. q.com kept forwarding to the new address until December 31, 2025, and CenturyLink announced the decommissioning was complete in May 2026.
The part that catches people is the mail program. A client still signing in as [email protected] fails, and it looks exactly like a wrong password. Change the user name to [email protected], keep mail.centurylink.net on 993 and smtp.centurylink.net on 587 or 465, and it connects again. Then update the banks, utilities and logins that still have the old address on file, because q.com no longer receives anything.
Setting it up
CenturyLink email in a desktop app, in four steps
No installer and no CenturyLink software on the machine. The connection lives with us rather than on each device, so every computer you open it on shows the same board.
Step 1
Check your sign in
If you use two factor authentication on CenturyLink webmail, generate an app password under Settings, Security, App Passwords. If you do not, your email password is all you need.
Step 2
Add the CenturyLink mailbox
Enter your full address. Incoming is mail.centurylink.net on 993, outgoing is smtp.centurylink.net on 587. A centurytel.net, embarqmail.com or myctl.net address uses the same servers.
Step 3
Add the rest of them
Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, iCloud, Zoho and anything at your own domain join the same way. Each row shows which account it arrived on, so replies leave from the right address.
Step 4
Let the sorting run
Each message gets a category and a spam verdict as it arrives, across every connected mailbox at once. Rules built inside CenturyLink webmail only ever see the CenturyLink account.
Where a browser client fits
What you actually get here
Not a nicer webmail. The job CenturyLink has no product for, which is holding a CenturyLink address and every other mailbox in one list on a computer.
CenturyLink beside everything else
Your centurylink.net or centurytel.net address in the same stream as Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, iCloud and your own domain, sorted by arrival with the source account on each row. CenturyLink webmail shows CenturyLink and nothing else.
What forwarding used to do
Free CenturyLink accounts can no longer forward to Gmail, and Gmail is closing its own fetch of other accounts. Reading both over IMAP in one place does the same job without depending on either.
Set up once, not once per machine
Thunderbird and Outlook have to be installed and configured on every computer, each with its own copy. Here the mailbox is connected once, and the desktop, the laptop and a Chromebook all open the same board, which is also why it works as a Chromebook mail app.
No webmail ads in the way
The free CenturyLink webmail carries advertising, and CenturyLink charges for Email Plus to remove it. A mail client reads the messages over IMAP and never loads the webmail page, so the ads are simply not there.
It opens on any computer
Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS all load it in whatever browser is already there. No CenturyLink desktop app is needed, which is convenient, since there is not one.
Sorting across all of them at once
An address that has been alive since the DSL days collects statements, order confirmations, renewal notices and newsletters nobody reads. A category and a spam verdict land on every one as it arrives, on every account rather than just the CenturyLink one.
Where this is the wrong answer
What Inboxes does not do
It cannot raise CenturyLink's own ceilings. The 700 MB mailbox and the 10 MB message limit live on CenturyLink's servers. More storage is part of Email Plus, which you buy from CenturyLink, and no mail client can do it for you. If your mailbox is full, that conversation is with CenturyLink first.
It does not replace the once a year sign in. CenturyLink deletes accounts left unused for a year. We have not seen CenturyLink state whether a mail program checking the box counts as use, so do not rely on it: sign in at centurylink.net at least once a year, or keep Email Plus active, if the address matters.
It does not use OAuth anywhere. We connect with a user name and a password or app password over IMAP, which suits CenturyLink and rules out others. An outlook.com, hotmail.com or Microsoft 365 work address will not connect here. CenturyLink, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, iCloud, Zoho and own domain mailboxes all do.
No calendar and no contacts. We are a mail client and nothing else. CenturyLink webmail has its own calendar, contacts and file drive, and we do not import them. If you want those in the same window, Thunderbird, Apple Mail or Outlook covers that and we do not.
There is no offline mode and no permanent tier that costs nothing. It runs in a browser tab and wants a connection, and plans start at 29 dollars a month flat for five mailboxes. CenturyLink webmail is included with your internet service, Apple Mail comes with every Mac, and Thunderbird carries no license fee and merges accounts through Unified Folders. If one combined list on one computer is the entire problem, use one of those. The case for paying starts when you read mail on several machines, or when the volume itself is what you are trying to shrink.
FAQ
Questions people ask about the CenturyLink email app
Does CenturyLink have an email app?
No. CenturyLink publishes no mail app for Windows, macOS, iPhone or Android. The My CenturyLink app manages your internet account and bill and can create an email address, but it does not read mail. CenturyLink email is read at centurylink.net in a browser or added to a mail program over IMAP.
Is there an app for CenturyLink email?
Not one made by CenturyLink. On a phone, CenturyLink tells you to add the account to the Mail app on your iPhone or the email settings on Android. On a computer, any IMAP client works: mail.centurylink.net on port 993 with SSL, smtp.centurylink.net on 587, and your full email address as the user name.
Is there a CenturyTel email app?
No. centurytel.net addresses run on the same CenturyLink mail system as centurylink.net, embarqmail.com, qwest.net and a dozen other legacy domains, and none of them has an app of its own. The same server settings apply: mail.centurylink.net for IMAP and smtp.centurylink.net for outgoing mail.
Is the My CenturyLink app an email app?
No. My CenturyLink is the account app for your internet service. It handles bills, modem setup, speed upgrades and support, and CenturyLink uses it to create a new email address. Once the address exists, you read it somewhere else: centurylink.net in a browser, or a mail program.
What are the CenturyLink email settings?
Incoming IMAP is mail.centurylink.net on port 993 with SSL. Outgoing SMTP is smtp.centurylink.net on port 587 with TLS, or 465 with SSL. POP is pop.centurylink.net on 995 if you really want it. The user name is your full email address and the password is your email password.
What are the CenturyLink IMAP settings?
Server mail.centurylink.net, port 993, SSL on, user name your full address including the domain. CenturyLink recommends IMAP over POP because IMAP keeps mail on the server, so every device you add sees the same folders instead of each downloading its own copy.
What are the CenturyTel email settings?
The same as CenturyLink. CenturyLink lists centurytel.net among the domains that share its settings: mail.centurylink.net on 993 with SSL for IMAP, smtp.centurylink.net on 587 with TLS for outgoing mail, and the full centurytel.net address as the user name.
Do I need an app password for CenturyLink email?
Only if you turned on two factor authentication. Without it, your ordinary email password works in any mail program. With it switched on, CenturyLink says clients such as Outlook and Apple Mail may stop connecting, and you generate an app password under Settings, Security, App Passwords to restore access.
Why did my CenturyLink email stop working in Outlook?
The usual causes are, in order: two factor authentication was switched on and Outlook now needs an app password; the user name is missing the domain; or the account was a q.com address, which was retired and renamed to myctl.net. Check the password at centurylink.net first, then the user name.
Can I use CenturyLink email on Windows 11?
Yes, but not the way CenturyLink describes. Its Windows instructions still walk you through the Windows Mail app, which Microsoft stopped supporting at the end of 2024 and which can no longer send or receive. Use classic Outlook, Thunderbird, eM Client or a browser based client with the IMAP settings instead.
What happened to q.com email?
CenturyLink retired q.com. On October 21, 2025 every q.com address became the same name at myctl.net, with mail moved across and the password unchanged. q.com forwarded to myctl.net until December 31, 2025, and CenturyLink declared the decommissioning complete in May 2026. Mail programs need the new user name.
Can I forward CenturyLink email to Gmail?
Not on a free account set up today. CenturyLink removed automatic forwarding from free CenturyLink email, and only forwarding created before December 20, 2022 survives. Gmail is also removing its own POP fetch for other accounts in January 2027. Reading both mailboxes in one IMAP client is the route that still works.
What is CenturyLink Email Plus?
A paid monthly upgrade to CenturyLink email that adds more storage, removes ads, gives priority support and stops the account from expiring during long inactivity. There is no trial and it is non refundable. It improves the CenturyLink webmail you already have; it does not add an app or put other mailboxes beside it.
How much storage does CenturyLink email have?
CenturyLink lists a 700 MB mailbox storage limit and a 10 MB limit on the size of a single message for centurylink.net and its legacy domains. Email Plus increases the storage. Those limits live on the CenturyLink servers, so they apply the same way from webmail, a phone or a desktop client.
Will my CenturyLink email be deleted?
It can be. CenturyLink states that email accounts unused for a year are deactivated and all their contents deleted, and asks you to sign in at least once a year. Email Plus subscribers are exempt from that expiry while the subscription is active.
Can I read CenturyLink email and Gmail in one app?
Yes, in any IMAP client. CenturyLink connects with your email password, or an app password if you use two factor sign in, and Gmail connects with a Google app password. Both land in one list with the source account marked. CenturyLink webmail itself shows only CenturyLink mail.
What is the best app for CenturyLink email?
It depends on how many mailboxes you read. One CenturyLink address on a Mac: Apple Mail, already installed. One address on a PC: Thunderbird, no license fee. A CenturyLink address plus Gmail and work mail across more than one computer: a client that merges them into one list, set up once.
Related
Keep reading
Your CenturyLink address, and every other one
No app CenturyLink never made, no dead Windows Mail app, and no forwarding that stopped working. Add the mailbox once, then put Gmail, Yahoo and your own domain on the same board.