Know when a recipient reads your email

If you’re sending an important email to someone, find out when they’ve opened it by setting up a read receipt. A read request is sent to every recipient in the To and Cc fields, but not to recipients in the Bcc field, mailing lists, or aliases. Note: Read receipts work on most email systems, but the behavior depends on different email software. For more information, see Make read receipts available to users.

Send a read receipt with an email

In Gmail, compose your message. At the bottom of the Compose window, click More Request read receipt. If you don't see this setting, it means you either don't have a work or school account. Or, you have a work/school account, but your admin hasn't enabled read receipts. Ask your admin to Make read receipts available. Click Send. You’ll get a notification email when your message is opened.

Approve a read receipt

Depending on the settings for your organization, you might have to approve sending a read receipt to the person who sent you the email message. If so, when you try to close or navigate away from a message with a read receipt, you’ll be prompted to send the receipt.

1. In the receipt box, click Send receipts or Not now.
2. If you click Not now, you’ll be prompted again the next time you open the message.