A list, not a model.
Your guest list is a list of senders you can see and edit. Anyone you email, reply to, star, or add to contacts walks in at no extra cost. No probability score, no hidden classifier.
The standard play.
The standard model for inbox protection is the spam filter: a content classifier that reads each incoming message and assigns a probability that it is unwanted. Above some threshold, the filter quarantines or moves to spam. Below it, the message reaches the inbox. Every major email provider (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) ships a version of this. Third parties layer on top with their own classifiers (SaneBox for importance, Proofpoint for security). All of these are guessing, with the model trained on yesterday's data.
Where it falls short.
- A classifier guesses. When it guesses wrong, real email vanishes into the spam folder. You only notice when you go looking.
- AI-written outreach reads like a real first email. The signal the classifier was trained to catch has weakened.
- Cold email is technically not spam. The classifier was not built to catch it.
- There is no door to be at. The filter is a verdict applied after the message has already entered your account. The decision is hidden inside a model.
- The user has no clear control. Whitelists are clunky, blacklists are reactive, and the underlying probability is opaque.
Rythm’s approach.
Three things change when the protection is economic instead of probabilistic.
A cover charge for strangers.
Anyone not on the list pays a small cover charge (about four cents) at the door. You set the amount. Real people barely notice. Mass campaigns cannot afford it. The payment settles to your wallet.
Rescue, do not delete.
Senders who do not pay wait in a folder you can review and rescue from in one click. Rescuing adds them to your guest list permanently. Nothing is silently dropped.
What Rythm doesn’t do here.
Rythm is not a replacement for your provider's bulk-spam filter. Gmail and Outlook do a fine job at obvious spam (mass blacklist domains, classic phishing kits, malware payloads). Keep that layer on. Rythm sits on top of it as a known-or-pay gate for the senders who are not obviously spam but are not on your guest list either: cold pitches, AI-generated outreach, recruiter spam, the polished first email from a stranger. If your problem is bulk spam, Rythm is overkill. If your problem is the message that walks past your spam filter looking legitimate, Rythm is the layer that handles it.
One plan. One price.
Keep your existing Gmail or Outlook. Cancel anytime.
$1.65
per month
Annual on Lightning includes one bonus month. See full pricing.
Frequently asked
Keep reading.
Email security for founders
Founders get the worst inbox attacks. The bouncer model holds the door for you.
Email security for solo attorneys
A bouncer for client confidentiality. No IT department needed.
Email bounce vs block vs filter
A short explainer on the three things people mean when they say "bounce".
How Rythm actually works
A step-through of what happens when an unknown sender hits the door.
What happens to filtered emails
On the difference between deletion and a waiting room you control.
