Email image to text ratio checker: is your email mostly pictures?
In short: Counts the images in a pasted email against its visible text in bytes and words, names the SpamAssassin HTML_IMAGE_ONLY band it falls in (under 3,200 bytes of text with images), and flags missing alt text, base64 and http images, tracking pixels and hidden text. Limit: Byte counts follow the visible text; SpamAssassin's own parser may count a little differently.
Paste the email's HTML source and its images are counted against the text a reader sees, in bytes and words. If it has images and under 3,200 bytes of text, SpamAssassin's HTML_IMAGE_ONLY rules apply and the band is named. Images with no alt text, embedded base64 images, http images, tracking pixels and hidden text are flagged too.
Price: this tool is free. Checking a whole email list is from $9/mo, and the first 100 checks are free with Google, no card. See pricing
Sample result
3 images with 143 bytes of text: SpamAssassin's HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_04 band.
- Text vs images
- 143 bytes, 3 images
- No alt text
- 1
- Tracking pixels
- 1
What this means for you
The email reads as pictures with a line of text; add real copy that says what the images say.
- Visible text in bytes and words
- Image-only band named
- Alt text, base64 and http images
- Tracking pixels and hidden text
- Images
- HTML
- Spam filters
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
How do I check the list the email goes to?
- Fix the layout here.
- Upload your send list at /verify. Every address gets a live mailbox check, and valid, risky and invalid download as separate files. The first 100 email checks are free with a Google sign-in, no card.
- Send only to the valid file.
How do I check an email's image to text ratio?
- Copy the HTML from your email platform's code view, or View source on a test send.
- Paste it here or upload the .html file, and press Check images and text.
- If it reads as mostly images, add real text that says what the images say. Then fix missing alt text and base64 images.
Example
- You enter
- An HTML email with 3 content images (one with no alt text, one loaded over http), a 1x1 tracking pixel, a hidden preheader and two short lines of text.
- You get
- 3 images against 143 bytes (21 words) of text, which falls in SpamAssassin's
HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_04band (images with 0-400 bytes of words), marked to fix. 1 image with no alt text, 1 http image, 1 tracking pixel and 1 hidden element are listed. - Limits
- Runs in your browser, so the HTML is not uploaded and no image is loaded; an uploaded file can be up to 25 MB.
Is there a correct image to text ratio?
No provider publishes one. The 60/40 text-to-image rule repeated by many blogs isn't from Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo. What is published is SpamAssassin's set of HTML_IMAGE_ONLY rules: they fire on HTML email with images and only 0-400, 400-800 and so on up to 2,800-3,200 bytes of words. This checker measures the same thing, so it shows which band, if any, your email falls into.
Google has described its filters as catching image-based messages, which is the same idea: an email that is one big picture with a line of text tells a filter nothing about its content. A few images with real paragraphs around them are normal.
Why does alt text matter for deliverability?
Many inboxes don't load images until the reader allows it, so an image-only email arrives as an empty box. Alt text is what shows instead, and screen readers read it. It also adds words that say what the image says.
Images embedded in the HTML as base64 data: URIs are a separate problem: Gmail doesn't show them, and they make the email heavier; the email size checker shows how much.
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Ecommerce marketers
- Check a product-grid campaign isn't one big image with a button before it goes out.
- Designers
- Find images without alt text in a template exported from Figma or Canva.
- Newsletter senders
- Make sure a poster-style announcement has enough real text around it.
- Email developers
- Catch base64 images and http sources in QA.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- Byte counts follow the visible text; SpamAssassin's own parser may count a little differently.
- Images aren't loaded, so their file size and content aren't checked.
- Rendering differences between Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail aren't simulated.
- It can't tell whether the addresses you send to exist.
Common questions
- Does it count the text inside images?
- No, and neither does a spam filter reading the HTML. Text baked into an image isn't text to a filter or a screen reader.
- Is the hidden preheader a problem?
- A short hidden block at the top is usually the preview text and is normal. Long hidden passages are a spam signal; the checker counts hidden elements so you can look.
- Are tracking pixels counted as images?
- No. A 1x1 image is listed as a tracking pixel and left out of the image count.
- Is my email uploaded?
- No. It is read in your browser, and no image is loaded.
Sources
A tidy list can still be full of dead addresses.
Extracting, deduplicating and syntax checks all work on the text of an address. None of them can tell whether the mailbox exists. Only the server that hosts it can answer that, through an SMTP check, and that is what the paid product does.
- Upload the cleaned file as it is: CSVs up to 100,000 rows
- A real SMTP mailbox check on every row, with catch-all detection
- Small list? Starter at $9/mo covers 2,500 emails a month, cancel anytime
Plans from $9 a month, cancel anytime, no contract. Sign in with Google and your first 100 email checks are free, no card. The free tools stay free either way.