Why is Gmail clipping my email?

If the code behind your email message size is larger than 102KB, Gmail will automatically clip the message and hide some of the content. This is when you will see the 'View entire message' link which you can click to see the full content of your email. A good HTML file size to aim for is around 85kb.

The size of the message is the total number of bytes in the code. Content such as images, URLs and hyperlinks, body copy, headers, footers and CSS for styling all create the size of the message.

When Gmail clips an email the tracking code for tracking opens on your email is also clipped. To avoid your tracking code and full message not showing it is important to keep your message size below 102KB

Below are some reasons why clipping might happen and how to troubleshoot it:

Subject Line

Gmail will clip and thread emails that use the same subject line. If you are sending multiple test emails with the same content and using the same subject line Gmail will thread them into a single email. This will then lead to the size of the email becoming too large resulting in Gmail clipping it.

When you are sending an email to your subscribers they will only get the email once so Gmail shouldn't clip this email. When testing your emails to avoid clipping you can change the subject line or delete all previous test emails from your inbox. When you send the test email again clipping should not occur.

Copy/Pasting content

Copy and pasting content from a website or word document/programme into your email can sometimes add extra hidden formatting code into your email. To avoid this happening use the option to paste as plain-text when adding to your email.

Too much content

If none of the above apply to your email and it is still clipping in Gmail it is more than likely because your email has a lot of content. In this case it would be best to cut any content that is not necessary. After cutting content from your email you can send a test email to see if this has resolved the clipping in Gmail.

To check the size of your email you can open a test email view the source code and save it in a document. You can then view the file size of the document.

How to troubleshoot the issue

Removing content might not be an option for you, so it can be useful to take a closer look at specifically why the email is clipping, or in other words, why the email file size is over 102kb.

If the email is clipping when you send tests from Taxi, then there is enough content/modules to push the file size over the gmail limit. Taxi never alters your code or adds anything additional to your HTML.

As removing content might not be possible, you can consider changing the design of the email to fit in more content in a smaller space/fewer modules. You can also think about the types of modules you are using. Some modules in your Email Design System will have more code than others, for example, a 1 column vs a 4 column module.

If none of the above is possible then it’s important to remember that gmail clipping your emails is normal behaviour and chances are your subscribers will be familiar with this. Those who are interested in your content will click to view the entire message. Having said this, it’s a good idea to keep your most relevant or important content higher up in the email. It’s more likely to grab the attention of your audience and is less likely to be clipped.

Please note, if the 102kb limit is reached halfway through a module then that module can appear right-aligned while the rest of the email is centre aligned. This isn’t caused by problems with HTML but is something that gmail can do to clipped emails.

Sometimes the email will not clip when you send a test from Taxi but it will clip when you send an email from your ESP. This means that the file size is being increased after you’ve exported out of Taxi which can be caused by the ESP adding to or changing your HTML.

If you manage your link tracking in your ESP then the tracking added here can add some size to the HTML. You can use our link tracking manager so Taxi will automatically add tracking to your links when you export. This means you can have a better idea of the actual size of your emails earlier in the process. If you need to make adjustments to reduce the email size, you’ll have more time to do so.

If you notice your emails clipping from sends from your ESP but not from Taxi you can view the source code of both emails and save them as HTML files to compare the size. If one of them is significantly larger then you can use a HTML difference checker to find out exactly what is different between the Taxi and the ESP version of the HTML.