How to track email opens in Gmail

Does Gmail have read receipts?

Only for some accounts. According to Google's help page, read receipts are available for work or school accounts and don't work with personal Gmail (@gmail.com) accounts. For work accounts, your Google Workspace administrator controls whether you can request them, and can limit them to people inside your organisation.

Even when you can request one, a receipt isn't guaranteed. Google lists several cases where you won't get one back: the recipient may need to approve sending it, receipts aren't returned for emails sent to a group or alias, and they don't come back from some mail apps (for example POP or IMAP clients that don't send receipts). Google also notes that a receipt doesn't always mean the recipient read your message.

Your options at a glance

Option 1: request a read receipt (Google Workspace)

If you use Gmail through your work or school and your admin has switched read receipts on:

1. Open Gmail on a computer and click Compose.
2. Write your email as usual.
3. At the bottom of the compose window, click More options (the three dots) and choose Request read receipt.
4. Send. If the recipient approves, you get a receipt in your inbox.

Don't see the option? Then your account doesn't support it, or your admin hasn't enabled it. Admins find the setting in the Google Admin console under the Gmail user settings.

The catch: the recipient decides. Many people decline read receipt prompts out of habit, and external recipients outside Google Workspace often never see one. It is the most honest method, and also the least informative.

Option 2: track opens and clicks through your signature

A tracked signature contains an invisible pixel and redirect links (see how signature tracking works). You install it once in Gmail, and from then on every email with that signature is counted, including emails you send from the Gmail app on your phone, as long as it uses your full signature (see the Android guide).

This answers “is my signature working?” more than “did Anna read my email?”. You see how often emails with your signature are opened, which links get clicked and how a banner performs. With Regardly:

1. Make your signature and save it in your Pro account.
2. Click Save & copy tracked signature.
3. Paste it into Gmail with the Gmail install guide (two minutes).

Option 3: per-email read receipts with a Gmail extension

For a ✓✓ on the specific email that was opened, you need a pixel that is unique to that email. A browser extension can add one at the moment you click Send. Regardly for Gmail, our Chrome extension (beta), does exactly that:

• When you send, it adds a unique, invisible pixel to that email.
• In your Sent folder you see ✓ for sent and ✓✓ once it's opened, with the number of opens and the last time.
• It ignores opens from yourself, for example when you view your own sent email.
• It never stores recipient addresses or email text. Storing subjects is optional.

Limits to know: it works in Chrome on a computer, in Gmail on the web. Emails you send from the Gmail app on your phone don't get a per-email pixel, although your tracked signature still counts them.

How reliable are open notifications?

Every pixel-based method has the same limits:

• False opens. Apple Mail Privacy Protection can download images before anyone reads the email, so you may see ✓✓ on an email nobody has looked at yet.
• Missed opens. If the recipient blocks images or reads in plain text, the pixel never loads.
• Multiple recipients. With one pixel per email, you can see that the email was opened, not which of the recipients opened it.

Treat an open as a strong hint. A click on a link, or a reply, is real evidence of interest.

A word on etiquette and privacy

Being able to see opens doesn't mean you should act on every one. “I saw you opened my email” rarely lands well. Use the signal to time a follow-up, not to put pressure on people. In the EU, tracking pixels also fall under ePrivacy rules, so mention tracking in your privacy notice and switch it off for contacts where it isn't appropriate. More on that in privacy and the rules.