Gmail Clipping: Why It Happens and How to Fix It

You hit send on your campaign. The design looks great, the copy is compelling, and the offer is irresistible. Then you check the email on your phone and see it: "[Message clipped] View entire message"

Your email has been cut off by Gmail. Half your content, your main CTA, and your unsubscribe link — all hidden behind a tiny text link that almost nobody clicks. This is Gmail clipping, and it's one of the most common (and most damaging) problems in email marketing.

What Is Gmail Clipping?

Gmail clips any email whose HTML source code exceeds approximately 102KB. When this happens, Gmail truncates the email at whatever point the 102KB limit is reached and replaces the rest with a "View entire message" link.

The clipping is brutal and indiscriminate. It doesn't care about your layout — it will cut mid-sentence, mid-table, or mid-image, potentially breaking your HTML structure and causing everything below the cut to render incorrectly.

A critical detail: the 102KB limit only applies to the HTML and CSS code, not to images. Images are hosted externally (on Klaviyo's servers, for example) and loaded separately. A 3MB hero image doesn't count toward the limit — but the <img> tag and its inline styles do.

Why Gmail Clipping Kills Your Campaigns

Clipping isn't just an inconvenience — it actively sabotages your email marketing:

Hidden CTAs = Lost Revenue

If your main call-to-action button is below the clipping point, your subscribers never see it. No button means no clicks, no clicks means no conversions. For e-commerce campaigns, this translates directly to lost sales.

Broken Analytics

Most email platforms (including Klaviyo) place their open-tracking pixel at the bottom of the email. When Gmail clips the email, the tracking pixel gets cut off too. Your open rate data becomes unreliable — you might be getting opens that aren't being tracked.

Compliance Risk

If your unsubscribe link lives in the footer (where it usually does) and the email gets clipped, subscribers can't unsubscribe. Frustrated subscribers will mark your email as spam instead — which is significantly more damaging to your deliverability than an unsubscribe. It can also put you at risk of violating CAN-SPAM or GDPR requirements.

Broken Layouts

Gmail clips at a byte count, not at a logical content boundary. This means it might cut in the middle of an HTML table or div, leaving unclosed tags. The result: your email renders with broken layouts, overlapping content, or missing sections below the cut point.

What Actually Causes Emails to Exceed 102KB?

You might think a short email would be under 102KB. But the HTML source often tells a different story. Here's what inflates email size:

• Bloated drag-and-drop builder code: Most email builders generate far more HTML than necessary. Nested tables, redundant inline styles, and unused CSS classes add up quickly.
• Inline CSS on every element: Email can't use external stylesheets, so every style is inlined on every element. If you have 50 elements with the same font styling, that's 50 copies of the same CSS string.
• Tracking modifications: When your ESP wraps every link with tracking redirects, each link URL grows from 30 characters to 200+ characters. With 15 links in an email, that's an extra 2-3KB just from tracking.
• Copy-pasted formatting: If you paste content from Google Docs, Word, or other editors, hidden formatting tags come along for the ride — extra spans, style attributes, and non-standard HTML that bloats the source.
• Complex layouts: Multi-column designs, intricate product grids, and heavily styled email templates use significantly more HTML than simpler layouts.

How to Check Your Email Size

Before sending, check your email's HTML weight:

1. Klaviyo's built-in warning: Klaviyo estimates clipping risk. Under 85KB is safe. 85-95KB is at risk. Over 95KB is likely to be clipped.
2. Send a test to Gmail: Send yourself a test email and look for the "[Message clipped]" text at the bottom. The quickest real-world test.
3. Chrome DevTools: Open your test email in Gmail (web), right-click > Inspect, find the email's HTML source, and check the byte count.
4. Litmus or Email on Acid: Professional testing tools that measure email size and flag clipping risk across clients.

Rule of thumb: Aim to keep your HTML under 80KB. This gives you buffer for the tracking code and modifications your ESP adds during sending.

7 Ways to Fix Gmail Clipping

1. Simplify Your HTML Structure

If you're using a drag-and-drop builder, look for ways to reduce nesting. Every wrapper div, every unnecessary table, and every redundant cell adds bytes. Some builders have a "clean HTML" option — use it.

2. Remove Redundant Inline Styles

Review your email source for repeated CSS. If every paragraph has font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; color: #333333; inlined, that's ~50 bytes per paragraph. With 30 paragraphs, you've used 1.5KB just on font declarations.

3. Trim Your Content

Sometimes the simplest fix is removing content. Do you really need that third product section? Can you replace a long paragraph with a link to your website? Every character counts toward the 102KB limit.

4. Use Shorter Tracking Links

If your ESP supports custom tracking domains, set one up. A short domain reduces the length of every tracked link. With 15+ links per email, the savings add up.

5. Don't Copy-Paste from Word or Google Docs

Always paste content as plain text first, then format it in your email builder. Rich text copied from other editors brings hidden formatting that inflates HTML size.

6. Split Long Emails into Multiple Sends

If your email genuinely needs lots of content (like a monthly newsletter with 10 product features), consider splitting it into two emails or moving the full content to a landing page with a "Read more" link.

7. Use Image-Based Emails

This is the most effective solution for marketing campaigns, and it's how most e-commerce brands avoid clipping entirely. When your email content is rendered as images (not coded in HTML), the HTML source is minimal — just a series of <img> tags and links.

A typical image-based email with 6 slices generates roughly 5-15KB of HTML. That's less than 15% of Gmail's 102KB limit, giving you plenty of headroom for tracking code and ESP modifications.

The images themselves are hosted externally and don't count toward the 102KB limit. You get the full visual design, zero clipping risk, and consistent rendering across every email client.

Prevention Strategy for Klaviyo Users

If you're using Klaviyo for your Shopify store, here's a practical prevention strategy:

• For marketing campaigns: Use image-based emails. Design in Figma, slice, compress, and upload to Klaviyo. You'll never hit the clipping limit.
• For flows with dynamic content: Keep the template simple. Use minimal styling, avoid complex layouts, and limit the number of dynamic product blocks to 3-4.
• For newsletters: Tease content with a headline and short summary, then link to the full article on your website. Don't try to fit your entire blog post in the email.
• Move tracking pixels to the top: If clipping does happen, at least your open tracking will still work.
• Always test: Send a test to your Gmail account before every campaign. It takes 10 seconds and can save you from a clipped email going to thousands of subscribers.

Want to learn more about the image-based approach? Read our comparison of image-based vs HTML emails for Shopify stores.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Gmail clipping limit?

Gmail clips emails when the HTML source code exceeds approximately 102KB on desktop. On mobile, the threshold can be lower — around 75KB on some Android devices and as low as 20KB on certain iOS configurations. Only the HTML code counts, not images.

Do images count toward the 102KB limit?

No. Images are hosted externally and loaded separately by the email client. Only the HTML and CSS code itself counts. This is why image-based emails — which use minimal HTML — almost never get clipped.

How do I check my email size before sending?

In Klaviyo, look for the clipping risk indicator (warns at 85KB+). The fastest real-world check is sending a test to a Gmail account and looking for "[Message clipped]" at the bottom. For precise measurement, use Chrome DevTools or a tool like Litmus.

Does Gmail clipping affect my analytics?

Yes. The tracking pixel at the bottom of your email gets clipped too, causing underreported open rates. Moving the tracking pixel to the top of your email helps, but the best solution is preventing clipping altogether.

Can Gmail clipping hide my unsubscribe link?

Yes — and this is a serious compliance issue. Subscribers who can't find the unsubscribe link will mark your email as spam instead, which damages your deliverability far more than an unsubscribe would. It can also violate CAN-SPAM and GDPR requirements.