Summary
Inflated Gmail open rates coupled with low clicks are a common deliverability challenge, primarily stemming from the technical ways email clients and security systems handle images. Gmail, along with other platforms, frequently employs image proxy servers, security scanners, and pre-rendering techniques that load email content and tracking pixels before a user genuinely interacts with the message. While initial theories around AI-generated templates suggested they might trigger suspicious behavior leading to pre-fetching, it was later concluded that such templates were often a red herring. The underlying cause was more frequently tied to sender reputation issues, such as high complaint rates from sending too many messages, which prompted Gmail to pre-fetch emails and then route them to spam. Regardless of the technical 'open,' low clicks fundamentally indicate that the email's content, relevance, design, or call-to-action failed to engage the recipient effectively, or that the emails were never truly seen by a human due to spam folder placement.
Key findings
- Automated Image Loading: Gmail and other email clients utilize image proxy servers, pre-fetching mechanisms, and security scanners that automatically load images, including tracking pixels, to enhance security, privacy, or performance. This technical behavior triggers an 'open' even when a human recipient has not viewed the email, leading to artificially high open rates.
- AI Template Misdirection: While AI-generated email templates were initially suspected of causing suspicious behavior that led to inflated opens and spam placement, this was largely identified as a secondary or misattributed cause. The primary issue was often rooted in broader deliverability challenges.
- Reputation Impact & Spam Routing: A significant contributor to inflated opens with low clicks is a damaged sender reputation, often resulting from high complaint rates due to excessive sending volume. Gmail may respond by pre-fetching email content and subsequently routing messages to spam, where they are 'opened' by the proxy but never seen or clicked by the recipient.
- Content-Engagement Disconnect: Low click-through rates, despite high opens, strongly indicate issues with the email's content relevancy, compelling nature, design, or the clarity and placement of the call-to-action. An engaging subject line may secure an open, but if the message body fails to deliver on that promise or guide the user, clicks will suffer.
- Technical Open Tracking: Email open tracking fundamentally relies on a hidden 1x1 pixel image. Any system that causes this image to load-whether a human viewer, a proxy server, or a security scanner-will register an 'open,' inherently contributing to the potential for inflated metrics.
Key considerations
- Beyond Open Rates: It is crucial to look beyond raw open rates, especially for Gmail, and prioritize metrics like click-through rates, conversions, and actual engagement as truer indicators of email campaign success.
- Sender Reputation Management: Actively monitor sender reputation, manage sending volumes, and address complaint spikes promptly. Poor reputation can trigger defensive measures from mailbox providers, such as pre-fetching to spam, which inflates opens while suppressing true engagement.
- Content and CTA Optimization: Continuously test and optimize email subject lines, body content, design, and calls-to-action. Ensure content is relevant, engaging, clearly structured, and that the CTA is prominent and compelling to drive actual clicks.
- Template Analysis & Remediation: If specific email templates consistently exhibit high opens with disproportionately low clicks, treat these messages as filtered or spam-routed. It is advisable to stop sending such templates and make design or content changes, even if the template itself was not the initial cause of the deliverability issue.
- Investigate Image Load Origins: For deeper insights into inflated opens, consider investigating the IP addresses from which image loads originate, as this can help differentiate legitimate opens from those generated by proxies or scanners.
What email marketers say
18 marketer opinions
Understanding why some email templates register high open rates but dismal click-throughs is crucial for deliverability. This phenomenon largely arises from automated behaviors by email clients and corporate security systems, which pre-load images and content, triggering 'phantom' opens. While AI-generated templates were initially suspected, this was largely identified as a red herring; the true culprits were more often related to underlying sender reputation issues, such as high complaint rates that led providers to pre-fetch emails and then route them to spam. Regardless of these technical 'opens,' persistently low click-through rates are a clear signal that the email's content, relevance, design, or call-to-action is failing to engage recipients effectively, or that the messages are ending up in unseen folders like spam or promotions.
Key opinions
- Automated Pre-fetching: Email clients like Gmail, along with corporate spam filters and security scanners, frequently pre-load email images and content to check for malicious elements or improve user experience. This automated behavior triggers the tracking pixel, artificially inflating open rates even without human interaction.
- AI Template as Red Herring: Initial theories suggesting AI-generated templates caused suspicious activity leading to inflated opens were largely debunked. While some AI output might have included oddities like tracking pixels, the templates themselves were more often a symptom or a misdirection from core deliverability issues.
- Reputation and Spam Placement: The primary driver behind high opens and low clicks is often a degraded sender reputation, typically due to high complaint rates from sending too many messages. Mailbox providers respond by pre-fetching messages and then routing them to the spam folder, where they are 'opened' technically but never truly seen or clicked by recipients.
- Content-Click Disconnect: Even when an email is genuinely opened, low click-through rates indicate fundamental problems with the email's content, relevance, or call-to-action. A compelling subject line might secure an open, but if the message body fails to engage, provide clear value, or guide the user effectively, clicks will suffer.
- Design and UX Impact: Poor email design and user experience, such as overwhelming content, unclear hierarchy, tiny or hidden calls-to-action, or non-responsive layouts, can lead recipients to open and quickly abandon an email without clicking, despite initial interest.
Key considerations
- Evaluate True Engagement: Reliance on open rates alone can be misleading; prioritize metrics like click-through rates, conversions, and actual replies to assess genuine subscriber interest and campaign effectiveness.
- Maintain Sender Reputation: Proactively monitor your sender reputation, carefully manage sending volumes, and address any increases in spam complaints promptly, as poor reputation can trigger aggressive pre-fetching and spam routing by mailbox providers.
- Optimize Content and Design: Continuously refine email subject lines, body content, visual design, and calls-to-action to ensure they resonate with your audience, fulfill the subject line's promise, and effectively prompt desired clicks.
- Address Problematic Templates: If a specific email template consistently records disproportionately high opens with very low clicks, treat this as a strong signal of deliverability issues. Discontinue its use and redesign, even if the template's AI origin was not the primary cause of the underlying problem.
- Improve Audience Relevance: Implement robust audience segmentation to ensure that content is highly relevant to each recipient group. Generic messages, even if technically opened, often fail to drive clicks if they lack personalization or perceived value for the specific individual.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that AI-generated templates might look suspicious, causing mailbox providers to pre-fetch images and send the mail to spam, leading to high image loads (opens) but no actual reads or clicks. He also suggests that Claude might embed suspicious domains and recommends checking the IP addresses from which image loads originate for insight.
24 Mar 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that the issue could be 'fingerprinting slop' and points out a very old attack/filter bypass vector where intentionally broken image links are sent to bypass filtering, then enabled later, which might light up Google's machine learning.
3 Mar 2023 - Email Geeks
What the experts say
2 expert opinions
The discrepancy between high Gmail open rates and low clicks is largely attributed to Gmail's internal processing, specifically its practice of pre-fetching images through Google's own proxy servers for security and performance. This technical action causes the tracking pixel to fire, registering an 'open' even before a recipient genuinely views the email. Expert analysis further suggests that various factors can contribute, including whether older emails are being shunted to spam or promotions folders where image loading might differ, if templates are too similar causing 'fingerprinting,' or if template length impacts pixel visibility. Conversely, new emails might temporarily enjoy better inbox placement due to a nascent reputation, a transient state that doesn't guarantee sustained engagement. Ultimately, these 'phantom opens' highlight the challenge of accurately measuring user engagement solely through the open rate.
Key opinions
- Gmail Proxy Pre-fetching: Gmail extensively uses its own proxy servers to pre-fetch images within emails for security and performance reasons. This automated action triggers the tracking pixel, registering an 'open' even if the email is never seen by a human recipient.
- Technical vs. True Open: The distinction between a pixel firing due to automated pre-fetching and an actual human opening an email is critical. Inflated open rates occur because Google's systems load images, not necessarily because a user has engaged with the content.
- Email Age and Placement: Older emails, particularly those directed to spam or promotions folders, may exhibit different image loading behaviors, potentially affecting the accuracy of open rate metrics. Images might fire less often in these folders.
- Template Characteristics Matter: The characteristics of an email template can play a role; highly similar templates might be 'fingerprinted' by Gmail, while excessively long templates could lead to tracking pixels being truncated, impacting open rate reliability.
- Temporary Inbox Favorability: New email campaigns or senders may experience a brief, temporary period of better inbox placement due to a lack of established reputation. This can lead to an initial bump in observed open rates that may not be sustainable.
Key considerations
- Prioritize Engagement Metrics: Shift focus from raw open rates to more reliable indicators of audience engagement, such as click-through rates, conversions, and actual replies, as these reflect true user interaction and campaign effectiveness.
- Analyze Inbox Placement: Beyond open rates, actively monitor where your emails are landing, whether it's the primary inbox, promotions tab, or spam folder. This helps understand if pre-fetching is occurring before messages are ultimately filtered away from user view.
- Review Template Design: Carefully assess email template characteristics for consistency, length, and content structure. Ensure tracking pixels are not inadvertently cut off and that templates aren't so similar they trigger 'fingerprinting' or unusual processing by Gmail.
- Monitor Sender Reputation for Fluctuations: Be aware that sender reputation can influence Gmail's processing, including temporary periods of favorable inbox placement for new campaigns, which might artificially inflate initial open rates. Consistent monitoring is crucial for sustained deliverability.
- Adapt to Gmail's Processing: Recognize that Gmail's unique image pre-fetching and HTML processing mechanisms impact how open rates are measured. Acknowledge that a high open rate from Gmail does not always equate to human engagement, and adjust your performance analysis accordingly.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that Gmail determines how to process HTML, and an AI trick fooling Gmail is unlikely long-term. He speculates several possibilities for the observed behavior: old emails might be going to spam/promotions (where images fire less), templates might be similar enough for Gmail fingerprinting, old emails might be longer causing tracking pixels to be cut off, or new emails might temporarily enjoy inbox placement due to lack of reputation, which wouldn't last.
20 May 2025 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that Gmail pre-fetches images for mailbox security by pulling them from Google’s own proxy servers. This means the open pixel often fires when Google pre-fetches the images, not necessarily when the user actually opens the email, which can lead to inflated open rates without corresponding user clicks.
16 Feb 2023 - Word to the Wise
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
The phenomenon of inflated Gmail open rates co-occurring with unusually low click-throughs is largely a consequence of Google's internal mail processing and security measures. Gmail commonly employs image proxy servers and may pre-render dynamic content, such as AMP emails, to bolster user security and privacy while also enhancing performance. These automated actions involve pre-loading email images, which includes the hidden 1x1 pixel used for open tracking. As a result, an 'open' is registered even when a human recipient has not truly viewed or engaged with the message. This means a significant portion of reported 'opens' are system-generated rather than direct indicators of user interest, naturally explaining the disparity between high open counts and actual clicks.
Key findings
- Automated Image Loading: Gmail extensively uses image proxy servers to automatically load all images in an email. This process is for security, privacy, and performance, but it simultaneously triggers the open tracking pixel even if the email is not genuinely viewed by a human.
- Pre-rendering Dynamic Content: Gmail may pre-render dynamic content and AMP emails to provide a faster and more interactive user experience. This pre-rendering also causes the embedded open tracking pixel to fire before the user explicitly interacts with the email.
- Technical Open Tracking Mechanism: Email open tracking fundamentally relies on a hidden 1x1 pixel image. Any action that causes this pixel to load, whether by a human viewing the email or an automated system like a proxy server, security scanner, or pre-fetcher, will register as an 'open.'
- Security and Performance Drivers: The automated image loading and content pre-rendering mechanisms are implemented by Gmail to enhance user security by scanning for malicious content, protect user privacy by masking IP addresses, and improve the overall loading speed and performance of emails.
- Metric Discrepancy: The core reason for high open rates coupled with low clicks is that system-generated 'opens' are counted identically to genuine human interactions. This creates an inflated open rate that does not accurately reflect true user engagement or interest in the email content.
Key considerations
- Adjust Open Rate Expectations: Recognize that Gmail's reported open rates are often inflated by technical processes and should not be solely relied upon as a measure of true campaign success or audience engagement.
- Prioritize Deeper Engagement Metrics: Shift your analytical focus to more reliable indicators of audience engagement, such as click-through rates, conversions, and actual replies, as these reflect genuine user interaction.
- Understand Pixel Tracking Limitations: Be aware that the fundamental 1x1 pixel open tracking method is inherently susceptible to automated system triggers, which can skew perceived engagement metrics.
- Content and Call-to-Action Optimization: Despite potentially inflated opens, consistently work to optimize your email content, design, and calls-to-action to maximize the likelihood of real human clicks and desired actions.
- Educate Stakeholders: Ensure that internal teams and clients understand these technical nuances of Gmail's processing to avoid misinterpreting email campaign performance based on inflated open rates alone.
Technical article
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains that Gmail uses image proxy servers to serve images, which can result in 'opens' being recorded when images are fetched, regardless of whether the user actually viewed the email. This process enhances user security, privacy, and performance by pre-loading images, thereby inflating open rate metrics.
4 Apr 2024 - Google Workspace Admin Help
Technical article
Documentation from AMP.dev explains that Gmail may pre-render AMP emails and dynamic content to provide a faster and more interactive user experience. This pre-rendering process involves loading the email's content and images, which can cause the open tracking pixel to fire and register an 'open' even before the user explicitly views or interacts with the email.
18 Dec 2023 - AMP.dev
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