ToolboxHow to know if someone opened your email in Gmail
Install Toolbox, sign in, and send your email from Gmail in Chrome as usual: new emails are tracked by default. In Gmail's lists and messages, one check mark (✓) means sent and two (✓✓) mean opened, and Toolbox sends a Chrome notification when it's first opened. It works with a tiny invisible image in the email, so an open counts when the recipient's mail app loads images.
Open tracking and notifications are free. Link click tracking, no-reply reminders and reports need Premium ($20/month or $200/year) or Pro.
Step by step
- Add Toolbox to Chrome. Install Toolbox from the Chrome Web Store, pin it to the toolbar, and sign in with Google or your email. The free plan needs no card.
- Write the email in Gmail. Open Gmail (mail.google.com) in Chrome and write your email as usual.
- Check the switch next to Send. Next to Send, Toolbox's switch reads Tracked. Click it to turn tracking off for this one email, or open Tracking options to track link clicks or get a reminder if there's no reply.
- Send it. Send as usual. A ✓ appears next to it in Gmail's lists and in the thread.
- See when it's opened. When it's opened, the mark turns into ✓✓ and you get a notification. Hover over the mark to see how many times and when; the Email tracker in the side panel and on the Toolbox website lists every open.
The full version is on the web: Email tracker in Toolbox, opens, clicks and follow-ups for your gmail.
Good to know
- Your own views don't count: opens from your own Gmail, and from your computer just after sending, are left out.
- Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com load images through their own servers, so their opens count but show no device or location.
- Apple Mail may open emails by itself for privacy. Toolbox ignores those automatic opens in the first 15 minutes after sending, but later ones look like a real open.
- If the recipient's mail app blocks images, the open isn't seen.
- When an email goes to several people, an open shows that someone opened it, not who.
- Only emails sent from Gmail on the web in Chrome with Toolbox are tracked, not ones sent from the Gmail phone app or other mail apps. Emails to yourself aren't tracked.
- Toolbox stores each email's subject, recipients and open times, never the message itself, and keeps opens and clicks for a year.
Questions
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Is it free?
Yes, open tracking with ✓ / ✓✓ marks and notifications works on the free plan. Link click tracking, no-reply reminders and reports come with Premium and Pro.
Can I turn tracking off for one email?
Yes. Click the Tracked switch next to Send before you send it. To stop tracking new emails altogether, untick Track new emails in the side panel.
Will the recipient see anything?
The tracking image is a transparent 1×1 pixel, so nothing shows in the email. Someone who looks at the email's source code can find it.
Does it work in the Gmail app on my phone?
No. Tracking is added when you press Send in Gmail on the web in Chrome with Toolbox installed. Emails you send from the phone app aren't tracked.
Does it work on Mac, Windows and Chromebooks?
Toolbox runs in Google Chrome 116 or later on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. It isn't available for phones, where Chrome doesn't support extensions.