Frequently Asked Questions

CountdownMail is a service that lets you add real-time countdown timers to emails. The timer is delivered as an animated image and updates whenever it is loaded, so each email open shows the current time left until a deadline.

Any team running deadline-based emails. Ecommerce brands, creators, SaaS marketers, event organizers, and agencies use CountdownMail to highlight when a sale ends, a webinar starts, tickets stop selling, or an offer expires.

It only takes two steps. First, create your timer using the timer builder: choose a style, fonts, colors, and your end date/time. Then copy the embed code and paste it into your email template (HTML). Create a timer

Yes. Choose from multiple styles, show days or only hours/minutes/seconds, and adjust colors, fonts, and sizes to match your email design.

Branding is shown on the Free plan. Any paid plan removes it. See our plans.

The simplest estimate is based on opens (or views) in your email platform. Each time the timer image loads typically counts as one credit. Also factor in extra loads from email previews and repeated opens. If you’re unsure, start with a plan that covers your expected opens and adjust after you see real usage.

Yes. CountdownMail is built to handle large sends. If you expect tens of millions of timer loads in a short period (for example, a huge broadcast), please send us a quick note so we can keep an eye on it.

On iOS 15+ in Apple Mail, images can be cached, so the timer may not refresh correctly and can show an incorrect time. To prevent this, turn on the “Hide Timer in Apple Mail” switch. In that case, the timer is replaced with a 1px transparent image for those recipients.

Some versions of Outlook (especially desktop) don’t fully support animated GIFs and may show only the first frame. The timer still works in clients that support animation. If Outlook desktop is a major part of your audience, consider using a design where the first frame still clearly communicates the deadline.

Most often it’s caching. Some email clients, networks, or security gateways cache images and don’t request a fresh copy every second. Reopening the email usually forces a refresh. If you open the timer link directly in a browser, you can quickly confirm whether the timer itself is working.

Add a GET parameter named "language" to the image URL using a 2-letter language code. For example:

<img src="https://i.countdownmail.com/td.gif?language=de" border="0" alt="countdownmail.com" />

You don’t need to calculate anything for subscribers in different time zones. Just pick the time zone for the timer, and we count down to that exact moment. Everyone sees the correct time left based on your chosen end date/time and time zone.

Use a personal (evergreen) timer and pass a unique subscriber identifier in the URL (for example, email or user ID). This way, each recipient gets their own countdown that starts based on their personal timeline.

This usually happens during testing. Evergreen timers start when they are first loaded for a specific recipient (based on a unique ID). If you opened the email or previewed the template earlier, your personal countdown may have already started. For accurate testing, use a fresh recipient ID (or a different email) and avoid repeated editor previews.

Yes. Use a dynamic timer and pass the deadline in the URL (for example, using an end_date_time parameter). This lets you reuse one timer design while setting different deadlines for different subscribers or segments.

You can choose what happens after expiration: show a message, show a custom image, hide the timer, or reset it. This is configured in the timer settings.

Your timers never stop. If you exceed your plan’s monthly credits, overage is added to your next invoice automatically (the exact rate depends on your plan and is shown on the pricing page). If you downgrade to the Free plan, branding will appear on your timers.

No. The timer is an animated GIF. It plays smoothly and repeats (for example, after about a minute). When the image is loaded again (reopen/refresh), it updates and continues counting down.

Yes. You can embed the timer image on a webpage like any other image. Keep in mind it’s still a GIF, so the animation repeats; the timer updates whenever the browser loads the image again.

Some email clients apply dark mode transformations that can change colors and reveal edges around transparent areas. If this happens, try using a solid background color in the timer, adjust padding, or test a different design style that looks good in both light and dark mode.

You can download invoices and update invoice details (like company name or VAT number) in your Billing page. If you need help with something that can only be changed by our payment processor, contact Paddle at [email protected].

We don’t offer a time-limited trial. You can start on the Free plan to test timers (with branding). Upgrade any time if you want to remove branding and get more features.

On your profile page, in the “Deleting an Account” section, click “Delete account”.