How to add a countdown timer to SendGrid

Whether you send with SendGrid Marketing Campaigns or transactional dynamic templates, a tikio countdown is one image URL. Handlebars substitutions work inside the URL, so both fixed and per-recipient deadlines are covered.

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  3. Insert the timer into your SendGrid email

    In the Marketing Campaigns design editor, drag in a Code module and paste the snippet below. In dynamic templates, add the <img> tag straight into your HTML — substitutions in the URL are resolved per recipient at send time.

    <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

For per-recipient evergreen deadlines, pass a recipient identifier such as {{contact_id}} as the uid. Each recipient’s countdown starts at their first open — useful for time-limited offers in automations and transactional sends alike.

<img src="https://tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?duration=86400&uid={{contact_id}}" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="max-width:100%;" />

FAQ

Does this work in transactional emails too?

Yes — the timer is a plain image URL, so it works in dynamic templates and any transactional send. Per-recipient evergreen is especially handy there, since every send happens at a different moment.

Can I set the deadline per send via substitution data?

Yes. Put a Handlebars variable in target= and supply an ISO date or unix seconds in your substitution data — one template, any deadline.

Is there anything to install?

No. No SendGrid add-ons, no scripts — just an image tag.

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