Plain Text Email: Definition, Benefits & Best Practices

Definition

Plain text email is a message format that contains only unformatted text without any HTML markup, images, colors, or special formatting. Unlike HTML emails, plain text messages display identically across all email clients and devices, making them highly reliable for deliverability. This format is commonly used for transactional emails, personal correspondence, and situations where maximum compatibility is required.

Common Use Cases

Transactional emails like password resets and order confirmations where reliability matters most

Cold outreach campaigns where personal, non-promotional appearance improves response rates

Internal business communications that need to work across all corporate email clients

Automated system notifications from servers, monitoring tools, and CI/CD pipelines

Legal and compliance communications requiring exact content preservation

Email newsletters offering a plain text alternative for accessibility compliance

Personal correspondence where simplicity and authenticity are valued

Debugging and testing email systems where HTML complexity would obscure issues

Why Plain Text Email Matters

Plain text emails play a crucial role in email deliverability and accessibility. Spam filters and email security systems tend to trust plain text messages more than HTML emails because they cannot contain hidden malicious code, invisible tracking pixels, or deceptive formatting. This trust translates to higher inbox placement rates, especially when sending to corporate email servers with strict security policies. Accessibility is another significant advantage of plain text. Screen readers and assistive technologies can easily parse plain text content, making emails accessible to users with visual impairments. Additionally, plain text emails display consistently across all devices and email clients, eliminating rendering issues that can occur with complex HTML layouts on older or less common email applications. For email verification purposes, understanding plain text is essential because verification services need to parse email content and headers accurately. Plain text emails provide clean, unambiguous data that verification systems can process reliably, contributing to more accurate verification results and better list hygiene.

How Plain Text Email Works

Plain text emails are transmitted using the most basic email encoding standards, typically ASCII or UTF-8 character sets. When you compose a plain text email, the message body contains only raw text characters without any HTML tags, CSS styling, or embedded media. The email client renders these characters exactly as written, using the system default font and formatting. The simplicity of plain text emails means they have smaller file sizes and load faster than their HTML counterparts. Email servers process plain text messages more efficiently, and spam filters are less likely to flag them as suspicious since there are no hidden links or tracking pixels. Many email clients automatically generate a plain text version of HTML emails to ensure recipients can read the content regardless of their email settings. When sending marketing or transactional emails, best practice dictates including both HTML and plain text versions in a multipart MIME format. This approach, called multipart/alternative, allows the recipient's email client to display whichever version it supports or prefers, maximizing deliverability and user experience.

Best Practices

Always include a plain text version when sending HTML emails using multipart MIME format

Keep line lengths under 80 characters to prevent awkward line breaks across email clients

Use clear formatting conventions like dashes or asterisks for lists and emphasis

Include full URLs rather than hyperlinked text since plain text cannot hide link destinations

Add adequate spacing between sections to improve readability without formatting options

Test plain text rendering across multiple email clients before large campaigns

Use consistent signature formatting that displays cleanly without HTML styling

Consider plain text for cold emails as they appear more personal and less promotional

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between plain text and HTML email?

Plain text email contains only unformatted text characters, while HTML email uses markup language to include formatting, images, colors, fonts, and interactive elements. Plain text is more reliable and accessible but offers no visual design options. HTML provides rich formatting but may render differently across email clients and is more likely to trigger spam filters.

Do plain text emails have better deliverability?

Plain text emails generally have slightly better deliverability because spam filters trust them more. They cannot contain hidden tracking pixels, malicious scripts, or deceptive formatting. However, modern email marketing benefits from multipart emails that include both HTML and plain text versions, giving recipients the best experience while maintaining good deliverability.

Should I send marketing emails in plain text only?

For most marketing campaigns, sending only plain text is not recommended because you lose branding, visual hierarchy, and tracking capabilities. Instead, send multipart emails with both HTML and plain text versions. However, for cold outreach and sales emails, plain text can actually perform better because it feels more personal and less like mass marketing.

How does plain text affect email verification?

Plain text format itself does not directly affect email verification, which focuses on the email address rather than message content. However, emails verified before sending in plain text format experience fewer delivery issues because the simple format avoids rendering problems and spam filter triggers, complementing the deliverability benefits of using verified email addresses.

Plain text

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