How to Avoid Sending Clipped Emails to Gmail Users

Gmail sets a variable limit on the size of emails depending on the content of the email, the device the email is viewed on, and the app being used to access the email. When this limit is crossed by a sender, Gmail users see “[Message Clipped] View entire message” and must click the hyperlink to access the rest of the email. The clip can hide important content from your emails, such as calls to action and the unsubscribe link.

Gmail accounts for an estimated 27% of all emails received worldwide, so it is important to optimize your emails to avoid clipping. Read on to learn how to determine the size of your emails and strategies for reducing an email’s size!

Test an Email’s Size

While Gmail does not publicize the exact logic used to determine whether an email gets clipped or not, making sure emails are smaller than 102 KB has become an email industry best practice for avoiding Gmail message clipping.

To properly test your email’s size, you’ll need a Gmail account.

Send a Test Email To Your Gmail Account

In the Email Builder, send a test of your email to your Gmail account. View the email on desktop and mobile, and in standard inbox apps like Gmail and Apple Mail. If your email wasn’t clipped, you’re good to go! If it was clipped, move on to step two, or create an email specifically for your Gmail Contacts with instructions to click “View entire message.” Use Segments to create a List of all Contacts who use Gmail!

Determine Your Email’s Size

You can use a tool like bytesizematters to determine the size of your email:

1. Click the View entire message link in your clipped email to load the rest of your content
2. Right-click anywhere on the page and select View Page Source
3. Copy the code that appears in a new tab
4. Paste the code into bytesizematters

Look at the file size at the top right corner of the text box. If it is more than 102 KB, you will need to reduce the size of your email.

Reduce the Size of Your Email

The easiest way to reduce the size of your email is to cut content. When you cut content or rework your email to reduce its size, remember the email marketing best practice that an email’s content should be roughly 60% text and 40% images.

Generally, images account for the largest parts of an email. Try resizing or compressing the size of the images in your email and test different options to see what works best.