Why is my email being clipped?
Understanding email clipping helps you ensure your campaigns reach subscribers properly and maintain accurate performance tracking.
Email clipping occurs when Gmail detects that your message exceeds certain size limits. The size limit varies depending on the device your subscribers use to view your emails – desktop devices generally allow up to 102 KB, while mobile devices can be much more restrictive, with some iOS devices limiting emails to just 20 KB.
When your email gets clipped, Gmail also cuts off the tracking pixel that Sender uses to measure open rates, which means your campaign analytics won’t be accurate.
What happens when emails are clipped?
When Gmail clips your email, subscribers see a message like this:
If subscribers click “View entire message,” Gmail opens your email in their web browser, but this version may strip out some styling. Your carefully designed layout, colors, fonts, and formatting may appear broken or simply different from your original design.
Understanding size limits
Gmail’s size limits depend on the device:
- Desktop: Generally around 102 KB
- Mobile: Can range from 20 KB on iOS devices to approximately 75 KB on Android
The 20 KB limit on Gmail’s iOS app is particularly strict and inconsistently applied, making it one of the most challenging environments for email delivery.
Important: The size limit includes all HTML code, text content, CSS styling, and links, but does not include actual image file sizes. Images are hosted on Sender’s servers and loaded separately, so large images won’t directly cause clipping.
Your email might also be clipped if you send multiple test emails with identical subject lines to the same inbox, as Gmail may consolidate these into a conversation thread.
Checking your email size in Sender
Sender automatically monitors your email size and alerts you to potential clipping issues.
When your email exceeds the recommended size limits, you’ll see a Tips & Suggestions notification in the “Review and schedule” step of your campaign creation process. The warning will show:
Click the “Resolve” button to return to the email campaign editor and make changes if desired.
If your email includes dynamic content or personalization, preview it with different subscriber profiles since the final size may vary.
Size risk levels
- Under 85 KB: Safe from Gmail clipping,
- 85-95 KB: Might be at risk, especially on mobile devices,
- Over 95 KB: Very likely to be clipped – optimization recommended.
How to reduce email size
You can optimize your emails without removing content by making these adjustments:
Simplify your structure
- Consolidate blocks: Combine multiple small text blocks with similar styling into fewer, larger blocks. Four separate text blocks contribute more to code weight than one larger block with the same content.
- Merge sections: If you have multiple column sections in a row, combine them into a single layout rather than stacking separate sections.
- Remove spacing sections: Look for opportunities to eliminate redundant spacing or padding sections.
Clean up content
- Use plain text pasting: When copying from Word documents or websites, paste as plain text (Ctrl+Shift+V or Cmd+Shift+V) to avoid importing unnecessary styling code.
- Remove unused styles: Clean up any redundant CSS rules that accumulated during design.
- Optimize colors and fonts: Using fewer unique colors and fonts reduces overall code weight.
Optimize visual elements
- Remove background images: Section background images add significant code weight. Consider replacing them with solid colors or simple patterns.
- Minimize decorative elements: While images don’t count toward size limits, the HTML code needed to display them does. Focus on images that add value to your message.
Find problem areas
If you’re having trouble identifying what’s causing oversized emails:
- Duplicate your email template
- Remove sections or blocks one at a time
- Check the size after each removal to identify the heaviest elements
- Focus optimization efforts on components providing the biggest size reductions
Best practices
- Design mobile-first: Since mobile devices have stricter limits, designing for mobile ensures emails work everywhere
- Test regularly: Check email size throughout the design process, not just at the end
- Use Sender templates: Start with our optimized templates designed to stay within size limits
- Monitor performance: Keep an eye on open rates and delivery metrics to catch clipping issues early
Additional causes of clipping
Your message might also be clipped if you send multiple emails to the same inbox with identical subject lines. To avoid this, use unique subject lines when sending test campaigns.
That’s it!
If you got stuck on a specific task or can’t find a way to execute a particular job, contact our support team via LiveChat or [email protected] – we’re here to help 24/7.
