Brevo countdown timer that shows the real time left

Add a countdown when the email has a deadline a reader can actually miss: a sale that ends, an early-bird price, a registration cutoff, the last day to order before a holiday. The timer turns "ends Sunday" into a number that keeps shrinking, and because the GIF is rendered at open time, it is still right for the contact who opens on Saturday night.

Leave it out where nothing ends. A deadline that quietly resets teaches your list to ignore the next one. If your offer really does repeat, such as "order by 2pm for same-day dispatch", use a recurring countdown timer that resets on a clock rule in your time zone. For a one-off promotion, the flash sale countdown timer email guide covers timing and copy.

An evergreen timer gives each contact their own window, for example 48 hours from their first open. To tell contacts apart, the timer URL carries Brevo's own personalization variable: ?vid={{ contact.EMAIL }}. Brevo replaces it with the contact's address at send time, and flashtimer hashes the value before storing it. Keep the attribute name in capitals, exactly as Brevo shows it in your contact attributes.

The variable only works where Brevo personalizes content, so use the HTML block or the one-click insert, and send your test to a real contact in the list. A test to an address that is not a contact has nothing to fill in, and everyone in that test shares one countdown. More detail is on the evergreen countdown timer email page. Evergreen timers start on the Basic plan.

Automations are where per-contact timers pay off. In a Brevo welcome workflow, every new contact enters on a different day, so a fixed date would be wrong for almost all of them. An evergreen timer with a 7-day window lines up with a welcome email discount countdown for every contact, whenever they join.

The same idea works for an abandoned cart email triggered by your store, or a last-chance email at the end of a sequence. Paste the HTML snippet into the automation's email the same way you would in a campaign. For dates that already live on the contact, such as a trial end or renewal date, a personalized countdown timer (Pro and up) counts down to each contact's own date.

The timer works in every client that shows images: Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo, and Outlook on the web, Mac and mobile. Gmail fetches images through its proxy, so the timer is served with no-cache headers and a reopen shows the current time.

Classic Outlook for Windows (2007–2019, and newer versions with Windows animations turned off) shows only the first frame of any GIF. Your contacts there see the correct time left at the moment they opened, but it does not tick. That is why the deadline should also be in text. Apple Mail Privacy Protection fetches images before the contact reads the email. By default those loads get the live countdown as it stood then; on Pro and up, Apple Mail options can show them a message, your fallback image or nothing instead, so cached opens never show a stale time.

When the countdown hits zero, the timer shows your expiry message or, from Basic up, your own fallback image, such as "This sale has ended, see what's new". Late openers never see a countdown to a deal that's over. To match your Brevo template, set brand colors, upload your font on paid plans, or use a transparent background; the custom branded countdown timer page shows every option.

• The timer is frozen in the email: you uploaded the GIF instead of linking it. Use Insert image from URL or the HTML snippet so Brevo loads it live on every open.
• Every contact sees the same evergreen countdown: the variable didn't resolve. Check the spelling {{ contact.EMAIL }} and test with a real contact.
• The one-click connection fails: Brevo's error message is shown as-is. If it mentions an IP address, your Brevo account restricts API keys to authorized IPs; allow the request in Brevo's security settings or use the paste method.