Gmail is clipping my email

Gmail clips emails that have a message size larger than 102KB, and hides the full content behind a “View entire message” link. This interferes with the way that Mailchimp tracks opens.

In this article, you’ll learn more about why Gmail clips emails and how to prevent this issue with your Mailchimp emails.

What happens when Gmail clips your email

The email message is the underlying code that makes up the email. This includes your text, the URLs and tracking code for links, the HTML used to style your content, and more. Each letter—or character—of the code is approximately 1 to 2 bytes. The total byte size of every character in the code creates the message size.

When Gmail clips the message, it also clips the code that tracks opens. Keep emails smaller than 102KB so that content isn’t hidden and all email opens are tracked.

How to prevent clipping

Here are some additional ways to keep Gmail from clipping your email.

Change the subject line of test emails

Gmail often combines, or "threads," emails with the same subject line into a single item in your inbox. If you send yourself several test emails for the same campaign, this message can become so large that Gmail clips the test email. When your email is sent to contacts, clipping shouldn't occur. However, for testing purposes, change the subject line or delete the previous test emails in your inbox, and then send the test email again.

Remove the extra code created when you copy and paste content

If you pasted content from an outside source, such as your blog or an app, then hidden formatting code could have been added to your email. Use the Clear Styles tool to remove extra code, then add your styles back in with the email builder.

Delete unnecessary content

If the above options don't prevent clipping, it’s likely that your email just has a lot of content. The first recommendation would be to delete unnecessary content.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when you delete content.

• Replicate the email before making changes.
  This will create a copy of your email with all the original content, just in case content you want to keep is accidentally deleted. To learn more, read Replicate a Campaign.
• Test with Inbox Preview after you delete content.
  Inbox Preview will show you if Gmail still clips your message. To learn more, read Test With Inbox Preview.
• Send your email to a test address to determine the message size.
  View the source code, and save the source code in a document. Then view the file size of that document.
• Delete unnecessary images.
  Changing image dimensions won't change the amount of data because images are loaded from our servers. However, deleting an unnecessary image from an email removes its associated code and reduces the message size.

Use Read More links

If you can't delete any content, use Read More links to direct recipients to the full content of the email in a way that is more obvious than the link Gmail creates, and it ensures that opens are tracked.