How to Track Email Opens

Objective

Open Tracking adds an invisible, one pixel image at the end of the email which can track email opens. If the email recipient has images enabled on their email client and a request to SendGrid’s server for the invisible image is executed, then an open event is logged. These events are logged in the Statistics UI, Email Activity interface, and are reported by the Event Webhook.

When using this service, customers often ask the difference between a unique open versus an open. A unique open is logged only the first time a given recipient opens the email, whereas normal opens are logged for all opens of the email in question.

If you are using email link branding, then your open tracking image will be served from your branded domain instead of from SendGrid.net.

Product

Email 

Procedure

Settings

Status: On or Off

Untracked email opens

Not all email clients load images by default. There may be many occasions where recipients will have received a message, opened it, and even clicked on a link, and it will never be counted as opened. The following common email clients are known to automatically block images from loading by default:

  • Apple Mail
  • Google Gmail
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Mozilla Thunderbird
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