How to request an email read receipt in Gmail and Outlook

Want to know if someone has read your email?

A simple way to track email opens is by requesting a read receipt.

Below, we’ll show you how to request read receipts in Gmail and Outlook.

What is a read receipt? 📖

A read receipt is a confirmation that the recipient has opened your email.

(Note: It’s not a guarantee that they actually read your email, but it makes it more likely.)

The read receipt request gets sent with your email and will appear to the recipient as a pop-up notification.

The recipient can then either accept or reject sending back the read receipt.

It’s important to know that recipients can opt out of receiving read receipt requests, in which case they won’t work.

Requesting a read receipt in Gmail 📧

Requesting a read receipt in Gmail is a quick process.

Log in to Gmail and click on “Compose.”

Then:

1. ➡️ Click on the three dots on the lower right to open the “More Options” menu
2. ➡️ Check the “Request read receipt” option

Now ,when you send the email, a read request will be sent with it.

Don’t see the Request read receipt option in Gmail? 👀

Sending read receipt requests is only possible with Google Workspace accounts managed by an administrator. And the administrator has to set it up first.

That means that with a personal Gmail account, you won’t find this option in the “More options” menu.

Requesting a read receipt in Outlook 📨

Requesting a read receipt is possible in Outlook, too.

Log in to your Outlook account and click on “New.”

Then:

1. ➡️ Click on the options tab on the ribbon
2. ➡️ Check the “Request read receipt” option

Now, when you send the email, a read receipt request will go with it.

Is requesting a read receipt rude?

Sending read receipts is a transparent practice.

Recipients instantly know you’re tracking opens. This is not the case with some other tracking methods.

Yet, many people do consider sending read receipts rude. Sending read receipts is not a common practice, so people are not used to receiving them.

The notification pop-up can be a bit intrusive, too.

That’s why we recommend using other tracking methods. Email automation software like lemlist can function as email tracking tools to monitor your open rates without bothering recipients with read receipts.

Pros and cons of sending read receipts ✅ ❌

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Further reading: Chrome extensions to track email opens in your browser