caniemail.com

What is Can I Email?

Can I Email is a reference site that tracks which HTML and CSS features actually work in email clients. Instead of guessing whether a property like color-scheme or an element like SVG will survive the trip through Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail, you look it up and see a support table showing where it renders as intended and where it breaks.

What it covers

• Individual HTML elements, CSS properties, and platform-specific quirks, each with its own support table.
• A "latest features" feed that adds newly tested items over time — for example, SVG image format, the color-scheme meta tag, and the popover and command/commandfor attributes appear as recent entries.
• A client scoreboard that ranks email clients by how many tested features they support. In the page's own figures, Apple Mail on macOS leads at 288/308, followed by Apple Mail on iOS at 283/306, Samsung Email at 252/304, ProtonMail at 239/302, and Mozilla Thunderbird at 231/268.
• News posts documenting periodic updates, so you can see when support data changed.

Who it's for

Email developers and marketers who hand-code templates, and anyone debugging a layout that looks fine in a browser preview but collapses in Outlook. It's a lookup tool, not a builder or a testing service — it tells you what's known to work, not how your specific email will render with your specific content and ESP.

How to use it in practice

Say you want dark-mode-aware emails and are considering the color-scheme meta tag. Check its table first: if the clients your audience actually uses show partial or no support, you'd plan a fallback rather than relying on it. Then check the scoreboard to see whether the clients you care about are generally strong or weak performers, which sets your baseline expectations for anything more ambitious.

A useful next step: before committing to a technique in a production template, look up the feature, note which clients fail, and decide whether the visual payoff justifies the fallback work. For broader context on email client behavior, Email Client Market Share tracks which clients people actually open mail in, and Litmus and Email on Acid offer rendering previews that complement static support data.

Which email clients support a specific HTML or CSS feature I want to use?

Use Can I email... to look up a single feature and see which email clients support it. It is a support-table reference rather than a tool you install or a service you sign up for: you search for the HTML element, attribute or CSS property you are considering, and the site shows a client-by-client breakdown.

How to use it in practice

1. Identify the exact feature, not the effect you want. For example, look up the CSS property or HTML attribute by name rather than "rounded buttons."
2. Read the table per client, not just the headline result. A feature can work in Apple Mail but fail in Gmail or Outlook, which changes your design.
3. Check the client scores if you need a rough sense of overall support. The site lists scores such as Apple Mail (macOS) at 288/308 and Samsung Email (Android) at 252/304, which summarise how much of the tested feature set each client handles.
4. Build a fallback for anything that is not broadly supported, since email rendering varies by client and platform.

Deciding whether to use a feature

The site's "Latest features" list shows how quickly the email platform moves: recent entries include SVG image format and the HTML color-scheme meta tag (both dated September 16, 2026), the popover attribute and command/commandfor attributes (July 13, 2026), and CSS inert (April 16, 2026). That matters if you are considering a modern technique, because support can differ sharply between clients.

A concrete scenario: you want dark-mode-aware emails using color-scheme. Look it up, confirm which clients honour it, then decide whether to rely on it or keep a light-mode-safe design as the default. As a next step, check your own analytics to see which clients your subscribers actually use, and prioritise the table rows that match them.

How do I check whether CSS flexbox or grid works in Apple Mail, Gmail, or Outlook?

Use Can I email... to look up individual CSS features, then check its client scoreboard for the big picture. It tracks HTML and CSS support across email clients, so you can see whether a specific property works in Apple Mail, Gmail, or Outlook before you build around it.

How to check a specific feature

1. Search or browse for the feature you plan to use — for example display:flex, display:grid, or a related property.
2. Open its support table. It breaks results down by client and platform, because the same client can behave differently on desktop versus mobile.
3. Read the notes, not just the yes/no cell. Partial support often means the property is recognized but ignored in some contexts, or works only in a specific rendering engine.

What to expect with flexbox and grid

Flexbox has broader support than grid in email, but "supported" rarely means consistent. Webmail clients and desktop clients often render it differently, and some clients strip or rewrite the styles before display. Grid is the riskier choice: even where a client claims support, nested or spanned layouts frequently collapse. The practical approach is to treat flexbox as an enhancement and grid as experimental.

Check the scoreboard first

The client scores give you a rough sense of overall capability before you dig into individual features. In the page evidence, Apple Mail (macOS) scores highest at 288/308, followed by Apple Mail (iOS) at 283/306, then Samsung Email (Android) at 252/304, ProtonMail (Android) at 239/302, and Mozilla Thunderbird (macOS) at 231/268. Higher scores suggest more CSS and HTML features work, but they say nothing about whether your specific layout will hold together. A high-scoring client can still break a grid.

A realistic workflow

Build a simple fallback first — tables or stacked blocks — then layer flexbox or grid on top for clients that handle it. Test in the actual clients your audience uses, since support tables describe capability, not your exact markup combined with your exact CSS. If you are targeting Gmail or Outlook specifically, verify those columns carefully: they are usually the constraint that shapes the whole design.

Decision criterion

If a feature is marked unsupported or partial in any client that represents a meaningful share of your list, do not make it load-bearing. Use it only where a broken fallback still looks acceptable.

Which email client has the best overall HTML and CSS support according to the scoreboard?

Apple Mail on macOS currently leads the scoreboard at 288 out of 308, with Apple Mail on iOS close behind at 283 out of 306. If you are targeting the broadest HTML and CSS feature set, those two are the strongest reference points.

How the top scores compare

A high score means the client passes more of the tested features, not that it renders every email identically to a browser. Apple Mail's lead is useful mainly as a benchmark: build to it if your audience is Apple-heavy, but check the same features against your lower-scoring targets before relying on them.

Practical next step

Open the scoreboard on Can I email... and filter by the specific features you plan to use — for example SVG images, the color-scheme meta tag, or the popover attribute. A client's total score can look strong while a single feature you depend on fails in a client you care about, so verify the individual rows rather than the headline number.

How can I tell if a feature is safe to use in email across all major clients?

Use a support table like the one at Can I email... Support tables for HTML and CSS in emails to check a specific feature against the clients your audience actually uses. "Safe everywhere" is rare; the practical goal is "safe for the clients that matter to my list."

How to check a feature

1. Look up the exact feature (for example, an HTML attribute or CSS property) in the support table.
2. Read the client scores rather than a single yes/no. The site's scoreboard shows leaders such as Apple Mail (macOS) at 288/308 and Apple Mail (iOS) at 283/306, with Samsung Email, ProtonMail and Thunderbird lower — so support is uneven by client.
3. Compare against your own subscriber data. If most of your list is on Apple Mail, a feature with weak Outlook support may still be acceptable; if you mail a corporate audience, assume Outlook constraints dominate.
4. Build a fallback for anything not universally supported: a solid background color behind a gradient, alt text and a linked image behind an SVG, or plain text behind a newer interactive attribute.

Decision guide

Practical next step

Pick the one feature you most want to use, check its entry, then send a test to a seed list covering your top clients — Apple Mail, Gmail, Outlook and one Android client. If the fallback is invisible or the layout holds without the feature, ship it; if not, wait.

What do the support legend symbols and partial support ratings mean on Can I Email?

Can I Email? uses a per-feature support table for each HTML or CSS feature, and the legend is the key that tells you what each cell actually claims. The important distinction is not just "works / doesn't work" — it's where and how reliably a feature works across email clients.

What the symbols generally mean

The exact glyph for each state is defined on the site's own legend, so read that legend alongside any table you're using rather than assuming the colors or icons are universal.

Why "partial" is the rating that matters most

Partial support is where email development actually gets decided. A feature can be partial because:

• It works on one platform but not another (for example, desktop versus mobile versions of the same client).
• It works only with a specific syntax or fallback.
• It renders, but degrades in a way that breaks layout or accessibility.
• It is supported in the client but stripped by a webmail or forwarding layer.

For a concrete case: if you want to use a newer CSS property for progressive enhancement, a "partial" rating may be perfectly acceptable — clients that don't understand it simply ignore it, and your fallback styles carry the design. If the same property is load-bearing for your layout, partial support is usually a stop signal unless you test the specific clients your audience uses.

How to use it in practice

1. Look up the feature's table and read the legend entry for each symbol.
2. Check the client scores — the page shows totals such as Apple Mail (macOS) at 288/308 and Samsung Email (Android) at 252/304 — to understand which clients are generally more capable, then verify the specific feature.
3. Match the rating to your own audience. A feature marked partial in a client your list barely uses matters less than one partial in your top client.
4. Always test the real send. Support tables predict behavior; they don't replace a litmus-style preview or a seed test.

If you're starting out, pick a feature with full support in your top two or three clients and use it as a baseline, then add partial-support features only as enhancements with solid fallbacks.