Your 2024 Guide to Email Newsletter Dimensions

This article has been updated to maintain its accuracy and relevance

Email newsletter dimensions may seem trivial at first glance, but they are a big deal.

Not only does good design look good, but it also can make or break your relationship with your audience. 

Your campaigns will misfire if you ignore the best practices for email newsletter sizes. Like a stuttering engine that huffs and puffs, never reaching its full potential, your emails won’t have maximum impact, and your audience may lose interest before learning what makes your content so great. 

Don’t let something as silly as the dimensions in your email prevent you from developing long-lasting, sticky relationships with your subscribers. Your design should enhance your content and keep your audience interested and engaged. 

Amplify your best content and boost your audience relationships by using best practices for your email design strategy. 

Email Newsletter Sizes: Why Bother?

Is email design worth all of the time and financial resources that creators pour into it? The short answer: Yes! 

Email newsletter dimensions matter because:

1. A wrongly sized email template doesn’t give maximum impact and is visually unappealing: Poor aesthetics irk users, leading some to dump your email without reading it.

2. An incorrectly sized email newsletter can hide information vital to your marketing strategy: If your email hides vital info, you won't be able to communicate your message and meet your business goals fully. 

3. An email with the wrong dimensions is terrible for user experience: It makes it hard for subscribers to navigate the email and find what they want.

4. A poorly designed email hurts your brand’s reputation: Subscribers won’t take your brand seriously if you send emails with substandard layouts.

5. Incorrectly sized email newsletters won’t likely be mobile friendly: Most of your audience is going to read your newsletters from their phones (55%, according to 2023 research by emarketer.com). Optimize your design to meet mobile users’ needs. 

Fortunately, email dimensions are simple to fix and pack a big punch.

1. Nice-looking emails delight and engage users: The visuals of your newsletter contribute to the first impression your audience has of your newsletter. 

2. Perfect-size emails display all vital info correctly: Your CTAs are only meaningful if your audience has all of the details they need to take the action you’re suggesting. 

3. Right-size emails make it easy to find all of the essential information: You want your newsletter to be easily read by people who skim, and great email design makes finding critical information easy. 

4. Good email design bolsters your brand image: Great email design takes your newsletters from “good” to “professional.” 

There’s no doubt that email newsletter sizes are crucial to the success of your newsletter; and, overall, that design plays a huge role in upping your content game. 

For example, take Sam Ryan of SamRyanStudio Newsletter. He found success on beehiiv after growing his following on Instagram. His visuals are stunning, and that keeps his audience coming back for more every week. 

So we’ve established that email dimensions are important, but what ARE the dimensions in question? 

Dimensions for Email Newsletter (Best Size For 2024)

Here’s a chart with the exact dimensions for an email newsletter.

Now that you have a bird’s eye view of the size of email newsletter elements, let’s get into the nitty-gritty details of each.

Template Width: 600 px

Email design best practices peg the ideal email newsletter width size at 600 pixels. This number has been the standard for many years.

As I mentioned before, it’s no secret that most people now open emails on mobile devices.

That said, many users still open emails on desktops and tablets. According to the mobile screen resolution stats worldwide from StatCounter in April 2024, these are the six most common screen resolution sizes for desktops, mobiles, and tablets:

How do you reconcile all of these numbers as an email marketer? It’s simple. You find the sweet spot that caters to every device. That magic number is 600 px. Yes, your email template can be wider and still display on some devices, but 600 px is the safe bet if you want your email to render correctly on most devices.

Check out how this email from Sally Beauty displays on my desktop:

Now, check out how the same email renders on my phone: 

Since both have the same template width (600 px), the email looks great on both devices. 

Here’s an excellent example from The Boston Globe:

This email newsletter width is 670 px, which is a little bit bigger than the recommended 600 px, but should still render on all devices. Keep your email template width as close to 600 px as possible to ensure that your emails look great no matter how your audience is reading.

Template Height: 1500 px

Next, let’s look at the template height.

As a rule of thumb, stay within 1500 px for height or length. 

While you can go up to 3000 px, the longer your email, the higher the chance of drop-offs as readers disengage. Besides, the longer the email, the more your recipients must scroll to get to the end. It's more work to keep recipients engaged for a long time.

For those unique campaigns where you must knock on the 3000 px ceiling, make sure that your message is fascinating enough to engage readers throughout, so they read your entire message.

When you do have those longer emails, be strategic with your Call to Action (CTA) placement. The “fold” in an email is the line you must scroll beneath to get to the rest of your email. 

You can place your CTA above or below the fold to maximize engagement. Both have their advantages. 

Above the fold gets your CTA in front of your readers without needing to scroll. Below the fold puts your CTA in front of your most engaged readers who read to the end of your email and want to take the next step. 

Back to template height, here’s a case study from Payload to illustrate another option for template height using simple code:

Instead of manually setting the height of this newsletter, Payload used the code height="auto" to adjust the height so that the content displays correctly automatically by adapting to the pre-set dimensions. 

Email File Size: Under 100 KB

Another crucial email dimension is the email file size or weight.

Your email weight is vital because email systems aren’t made to transfer large data files. The heavier the HTML code of your email, the longer it takes to load and display in your subscribers' inboxes. Conversely, the lighter your email, the faster it loads.

For instance, Gmail clips messages at 102 kb – meaning that your email will be cut off if it exceeds that weight and that your audience may not see your full message (and any CTAs below the fold). 

There are a number of factors that influence your email weight, such as using images and gifs or longer copy. If you have too much content to keep your email weight down, consider splitting the content up into two emails. 

This strategy can be especially beneficial toward driving engagement, as the longer your email is, the more you must work to keep your audience engaged. 

Keep your email weight under 100 kb to avoid any issues. The good news is that 100 kb is a lot of email real estate, giving you ample room to customize your newsletter.

Want to verify that your email’s weight is good? beehiiv’s text editor will display a warning message if your email goes over 102 kb:  

Email Preheader

Before we talk about header sizes, let’s look at the preheader.

The email preheader is a short text that appears next to the subject line. It supports the message of the subject line. Preheader width equals the template’s width.

Below is an example from Grammarly – a preheader that is short and sweet: 

Technical Email Header

It’s important to note that there are two different meanings to the word “header” in an email. There is the design email header that we’ll discuss today and the technical email header. 

Don’t get the two confused. The technical email header is still a very important part of your email, as it contains all of the technical details about your email, including who it was sent to, when it was sent, and where it was sent from. 

You probably won’t need to worry about your technical header in your day-to-day life, but it’s good to familiarize yourself with its details. 

Here’s an example of a technical email header from LastPass. This information does not automatically display; click the drop-down arrow at the top of your email to view it: 

Design Email Header Height: 70-200 px

Your design email header is the top portion of your email and the first thing your audience will see when you open your email. 

If your subject line and preheader made a great first impression, your header is what will drive your audience to take the next step and actually read your content.

Headers can be anything from 70 to 200 px. Be sure to consider what information, if any, you want to include in your header. 

Here’s an example from the same email sent by LastPass:

This header is super simple, just the LastPass logo and small banner graphic. 

This example from POPFLEX is also super simple, but includes links to their website to encourage their subscribers to shop:

For my final header example, Renée Rouleau Skin Care uses their header to give an immediate above-the-fold CTA: 

Email Banner: 600 px 730 px

Next up, it’s time to look at the banner – just below your design email header. 

A unique banner draws readers into your email. An email banner is a prominent attention-grabbing image at the top of the email. It's typically filled with any of the following: copy, company logo, or a CTA.

Publish Press used its email banner for maximum impact: 

The banner is a clickable animated GIF showcasing the company’s branded merchandise. Subscribers who click the banner go straight to the sales page. 

Content Blocks (Total): 800 px

Now we go to the core of the email-content blocks.

Content blocks are layout containers where you put your content.

Your content blocks can contain words, CTAs, images, videos, or GIFs. Use only a few large content blocks because sustaining subscribers’ interest in a lengthy email message is challenging.

All of your content blocks must range between 800 px to 1200 px. Each block should be around 200 to 300 px high. 

As an illustration, here’s a newsletter from Milkroad.

The newsletter has three blocks: copy, image, and more copy. Shorter blocks make it easier for subscribers to consume the content.

The Books newsletter in the New York Times uses blocks to include links to more content and to visually break up their content for ease of reading: 

Image Size

Now, let’s take a look at image dimensions.

What’s the right size for your campaign? Well, it depends. 

There are no standard sizes for newsletter images. Your goal determines the dimensions you use. Your image width is the same as your newsletter’s width and as high as your campaign demands.

CTA

Every email has an overarching goal. 

The Call to Action, or CTA as it’s popularly known, embodies that goal. 

Whether you want to drive subscribers to your premium content, courses, or another resource, your CTA guides your audience to their next step. 

Publishers and content creators usually present the CTA as a hyperlinked text or button. While CTA button sizes differ depending on the campaign type, there’s a range to shoot for.

According to Research Gate, the perfect size for easily clickable buttons on mobile devices is between 42 px and 72 px or around 11-19 mm. Another study by Really Good Emails falls within the same range and puts the average height of a CTA at 47.9 px.

beehiiv makes it simple to create your own buttons or use a menu of pre-made buttons for your most commonly used CTAs. 

Email Newsletter Size Guidelines

Now that we’ve covered all the newsletter dimensions from top to bottom, let’s tie everything together visually.

Here an image that captures all the latest email newsletter dimensions.

Nail Your Email Newsletter Format With beehiiv

With beehiiv, you can easily customize your newsletter’s sizes and design.

You can edit every element of your newsletter including the size, colors, spacing, font, alignment, header, CTA button, etc.

Email Newsletter Dimensions (Key Takeaways)

To wrap up, when it comes to your email newsletter’s format and sizes, keep these three key points in mind:

1. Email dimensions matter: Using correct email dimensions maximizes your email’s impact, drives engagement, and solidifies your brand presence. 

2. Pay attention to file size: If you go over 102 kb, your emails will be clipped by Gmail. 

3. Your audience will use a variety of devices: Size your newsletter templates to be easily read – regardless of device. 

All in all, remarkable content is pivotal. 

No matter how precise your email newsletter dimensions are or how brilliant your design is, if your content isn’t the best, your campaigns will bomb. Excellent design enhances your content, but it doesn’t replace it.

Ultimately, precise design and stellar content are a formidable team that’ll make your newsletter content sparkle. Both come together to create the full package that makes up an excellent email campaign. 

With beehiiv, you can adjust your email newsletter sizes with a few clicks, get warnings about your email weight, and create gorgeous, world-class newsletters without coding experience. 

Sign up today to create the perfect-size newsletter!