How to add a countdown timer to beehiiv
beehiiv supports custom HTML blocks, but with one rule that decides the whole approach: iframes do not render in the email version of a post, only on the web version. An image does render in both — which is why the countdown is delivered as an image and works in the newsletter and on the published post alike.
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Design your countdown in tikio
Create a timer in the tikio editor: pick colors, fonts, labels and the languages you need. What you see in the editor is exactly what lands in the inbox — the timer is delivered as a regular animated image.
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Publish and copy the image URL
Hit Publish and copy the public image URL. The deadline lives in the URL as a parameter, so the same link works for every campaign — change the date, not the link.
https://tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?target=2026-08-01T20:00 -
Insert the timer into your beehiiv post
Add a custom HTML block where the countdown belongs and paste the image snippet below. Use the <img> form rather than an iframe: iframes are stripped from the emailed version of the post.
<img src="https://tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?target=2026-08-01T20:00" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="max-width:100%;" />
Per-recipient evergreen deadlines
beehiiv exposes {{subscriber_id}} in the email version of a post — a unique, non-personal identifier per subscriber. Used as the recipient key it gives each reader a deadline starting at their first open.
<img src="https://tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?duration=86400&uid={{subscriber_id}}" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="max-width:100%;" />FAQ
Why not embed the interactive iframe version?
Because beehiiv drops iframes from the email version of a post — the block would show on the web post and vanish in the inbox. The image version renders in both, so one block covers both surfaces.
Do the merge tags work on the web version too?
No. beehiiv resolves subscriber macros only in the email version. On the published web post the key stays literal, so the countdown behaves as a shared one there — which is usually what you want on a public page.
Does it work for paid subscriber segments?
Yes — segmentation happens in beehiiv, and the timer is the same image URL whichever segment receives the post.
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