# Email body

> The email body is the main content of an email, below the subject line and headers. What it contains, HTML and plain-text versions, and size limits.

Canonical: https://www.cresca.xyz/glossary/email-body

The email body is the main content of an email: the message the reader sees when they open it, below the subject line and sender. It is separate from the email header, which carries the From, To, Subject and other delivery details. The body of an email can be plain text, HTML, or both.

## What the email body contains

- A greeting, such as "Hi Ana,".
- The message itself: the paragraphs, images, buttons and links.
- A sign-off and signature.
- A footer. In marketing email this holds the unsubscribe link and the postal address of the sender.

## HTML and plain-text email body

Most email is sent as multipart: one message carries an HTML body and a plain-text body. The mail app shows the HTML version when it can and falls back to the text version when it cannot, for example on some smartwatches and in text-only clients.

Sending both is good practice. A message with only an HTML body and no text version is one of the small signals spam filters look at.

## Email body vs email header

The header is the block of fields at the top of the raw message: From, To, Subject, Date, Message-ID and the authentication results. The body starts after the first blank line. Attachments travel in the body as separate parts, although mail apps display them apart from the text.

## How long an email body should be

There is no fixed rule, but there is one hard limit worth knowing: Gmail clips an email whose HTML is larger than about 102 KB and hides the rest behind a "View entire message" link. The unsubscribe link is usually at the bottom, so a clipped email can hide it. Keep the HTML small and host images instead of embedding them.

In Cresca

## How Cresca handles the email body

In Cresca, you design the email body in the editor or describe it to Cresca AI. Through the API you pass html, text, or both, or a published template whose text version is generated from the HTML if you do not write one.

- [AI email template generator](https://www.cresca.xyz/ai-template-generator)
- [Templates and variables](https://www.cresca.xyz/docs/templates)

FAQ

## Email body questions

### What is the body of an email?

The body is the main message of the email, the part the reader sees on opening it. It excludes the subject line and the header fields such as From and To.

### Is the subject line part of the email body?

No. The subject is a header field. The body begins after the headers.

### What is the difference between message body and email body?

They mean the same thing. "Message body" is the term used in the email standards, and "email body" is the everyday phrase.

Glossary

## Related email terms

- [Reply-to address](https://www.cresca.xyz/glossary/reply-to-address)
- [Email header](https://www.cresca.xyz/glossary/email-header)
- [Email recipient](https://www.cresca.xyz/glossary/email-recipient)

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