---
title: "Email open tracking"
description: "See when a message you sent was opened, how often and which of its links were followed, with automated fetches logged but left out of the count."
url: "https://openemail.uk/features/open-tracking"
---

[Writing & sending](https://openemail.uk/features.md#writing)

# See when mail you sent was opened and which links were followed

Opens and clicks are on unless you turn them off. Fetches recognised as machines are logged but never counted.

[Open mail](https://openemail.uk/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://openemail.uk/signup.md)[All features](https://openemail.uk/features.md)

In short

## What is email open tracking?

The sender hides a 1×1 image in the message: loading it reports that the message was displayed. A tracked link routes each click through the sender first.

100

different links rewritten per message, the rest left as written

10 seconds

after sending: any fetch sooner is marked a machine

30 seconds

between fetches of one copy, still one reading

How it works

## Two switches, both on

A pixel for opens, rewritten links for clicks. Each decides what your next message carries, and an API send can choose per message.

## Machines are logged, not counted

Apple's privacy fetches, scanners and anything inside ten seconds of sending are set aside. Gmail opens count, though its caching makes the total a floor.

## Every link keeps its own count

A page linked three times is one row with one count. Every other destination gets its own.

What you get

## In the product today

Named when possible

One recipient is always named. Several only while size times recipients stays under 8MB.

A clean Sent copy

Your copy drops the pixel and keeps every link as you typed it.

Quoted history left alone

Only the new part of a reply is rewritten.

Between OpenEmail mailboxes

The reader reports the open itself when images are showing.

Good practice

## Getting the most out of it

1. 01
   
   Weigh clicks first
   
   Images are blocked far more often than links go unclicked, so trust a click over an open.
2. 02
   
   Keep private links untracked
   
   Send sign-in and reset links with clicks off, since a tracked destination is stored.
3. 03
   
   Read places loosely
   
   A city describes the network, so anyone on a VPN appears somewhere they have never been.

Where it stands

## Good to know

Questions

## Asked often

Keep going

## Works well with

Tracking on your own domain

Tracked links and the open pixel on a subdomain you choose, such as links.yourdomain.com, instead of the OpenEmail address.

Analytics & graphs

What your mailbox is actually doing, drawn rather than guessed at.

Tracking pixels stripped

The invisible image that tells a sender you opened their mail is gone before you see the message.

Start

## Your domain, your mail.

Point a domain at OpenEmail and read it in a mailbox built around it. The free plan covers one domain.

[Open mail](https://openemail.uk/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://openemail.uk/signup.md)[Read the reference](https://openemail.uk/docs/knowledge/writing/open-tracking.md)