Widgets

Email countdown timers for your next deadline.

Count down to a launch, a sale's end, or a deadline. DynaMail calculates the time remaining when it renders the requested image, with per-recipient dates and timezones if you need them. Email clients and image proxies may reuse a previously fetched image. Design it once and paste one URL into your email.

Email countdown timer widget rendered by DynaMail: dark cards showing days, hours, minutes, and seconds remaining

A real render produced by DynaMail’s image pipeline.

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How it works

Every DynaMail widget is a plain image URL. Design it in the dashboard, then paste the URL into an <img> tag — or your email editor’s image block — like this:

Example embed snippet

<img src="https://img.dynamail.io/widgets/YOUR-WIDGET-ID/render.gif" width="720" height="200" alt="" />

YOUR-WIDGET-ID is a placeholder — every widget you create gets its own id. The file extension requests the output format — gif, apng, webp, or png. Depending on the design, an animated widget may be served in an animated format even when a static extension is requested.

DynaMail renders when the image is requested and briefly caches the result. Email clients and their image proxies can also cache images, so a later open may reuse a previous response. No script, no custom HTML, nothing for your email platform to strip out.

What it’s for

Sales and offers — show the time remaining to your deadline
Product launches and events — count down to one shared deadline
Webinar reminders — render the start time in each registrant's timezone
Trial and renewal deadlines — a per-recipient date from a merge tag

Personalize it in the URL

The data behind the widget — its values, chart points, and text placeholders — can come from the URL. Append query parameters, or your email platform’s merge tags, and each recipient’s open renders from their own data.

?referenceDate=…Per-recipient deadline — a trial end or renewal date from a merge tag

?timezone=…Count down in the recipient's timezone

?mode=…countdown to a date, or countup since one

?v_name=…Override any {v_name} text placeholder in your design

Frequently asked questions

How do I add a countdown timer to an email?

Create the timer in the DynaMail dashboard, then paste its image URL into an <img> tag in your template. It works in any email service provider that can display images — no script, no plugin.

Is the timer actually live?

The animation is an image calculated from the time remaining when DynaMail renders it. A later image request can show an updated countdown. Some email clients and image proxies reuse an earlier image, so opening an email again does not always trigger a new render.

Do countdown timers work in Outlook?

Yes — the widget is a standard image, so it displays wherever images do. The URL extension requests the format (render.gif, render.png, render.webp, render.apng); depending on the design, an animated widget may be served in a compatible animated format even when a static extension is requested. A few clients, like classic Outlook for Windows, show only the first frame. That frame reflects the countdown when the image was rendered; the client may reuse it on later opens.

What happens when the timer reaches zero?

The timer stops at zero — it never counts into negative time. You can also switch the widget to count-up mode to show time elapsed since a moment instead.