Gmail Clipped My Email: What Counts Toward the 102 KB Limit and How to Get Under It

Gmail hides everything after roughly the first 102 KB of an email's HTML behind a "[Message clipped] View entire message" link. Only the code counts, not the images, and the part that gets hidden is usually the bottom: your footer, the unsubscribe link and the open-tracking pixel. Measure the HTML as it will actually be sent (with tracked links), and cut editor junk and unused CSS before you cut content.

Sources, read 2 November 2026: Mailchimp's Gmail is clipping my email article, Litmus' How to keep Gmail from clipping your emails (published February 2024), and Google's email sender guidelines.

What counts toward the 102 KB

Mailchimp puts it simply: the total byte size of every character in the code is the message size. That includes:

• Your text, including hidden preheader text.
• Styles: the style block in the head and every inline style attribute. Inline styles repeated on hundreds of cells add up fast.
• Link URLs and tracking code. A 40-character link can become a 200-character redirect once your sending tool rewrites it for click tracking.
• Markup: tables, comments, Outlook conditional blocks, and anything pasted from Word or Google Docs.

What doesn't count: the image files themselves. Litmus says the limit covers only the data size of the code, and Mailchimp notes that changing image dimensions won't change the amount of data. Attachments are a separate limit.

Google doesn't publish the clipping threshold, which is why the number comes from sending platforms and testing. Treat 102 KB as the line and aim for well under it.

Why it matters more than it looks

• The opt-out gets hidden. Footers sit at the bottom, so they're the first thing clipped. Google's guidelines ask bulk senders for a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the body; one behind View entire message is hard to call visible, and a reader who can't find it may press Report spam instead. The List-Unsubscribe header still works, because Gmail shows that button at the top.
• Opens go missing. Mailchimp says that when Gmail clips the message, it also clips the code that tracks opens. If your pixel is near the end, a clipped send under-reports opens for every Gmail reader who doesn't expand it.
• Calls to action at the bottom disappear for anyone who doesn't click through.

How to check and fix it

1. Get the final HTML. Export it from your builder's code view, or send a test and use Gmail's Show original to see what arrived, with tracked links in place.
2. Measure it. Paste it into the email size checker or the HTML email checker, which compares the size to the 102 KB line and flags other problems in the same pass.
3. Strip editor junk. Text pasted from Word or Docs carries spans and styles on every line. Mailchimp's own advice is to clear the styles and re-apply them in the builder.
4. Delete comments and old hacks. Litmus lists HTML comments and code hacks for clients nobody uses as easy cuts.
5. Move repeated styles into the head, then inline once. If every cell repeats the same font stack, a class plus the email CSS inliner usually produces shorter code than hand-written repeats.
6. Flatten tables. Nested tables add a lot of markup. Remove one level at a time and re-test.
7. Then cut content. Mailchimp suggests a Read more link to a web version for long newsletters.
8. Re-test with a new subject line, so Gmail doesn't thread it with earlier tests.

Leave room: if your tool adds click tracking, expect the sent email to be several KB larger than the draft.

What this doesn't fix

Getting under 102 KB stops clipping. It doesn't affect whether Gmail puts the email in the inbox, Promotions or spam; that comes down to authentication, complaint rates and who you send to. See why emails go to spam in Gmail and the Gmail Promotions tab.

Where SimpleVerifier fits

The size and HTML checkers are free and run in your browser. Before the send, check that the addresses exist: upload the list on the verify page, where the first 100 checks are free with a Google sign-in. Pro is $39 a month with the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off. See pricing.