How to add a countdown timer to any email platform

If your email platform can show an image, it can show a tikio countdown. There is no SDK and no integration: the timer is a live-rendered image behind one URL, and the deadline, recipient key and language are URL parameters.

  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 email

    Paste the snippet below wherever your editor accepts custom HTML — a code/HTML block, the template source, or an image block that takes an external URL. Wrap it in a link to your offer.

    <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 your platform’s recipient-ID merge tag as uid. Any stable per-recipient value works — a subscriber ID, a hashed email, a CRM contact ID.

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

FAQ

Which email clients support the timer?

The timer is a standard GIF, supported everywhere images are. Clients that don’t animate GIFs (some legacy Outlook versions) show the first frame — which is rendered with the correct remaining time at the moment of open.

Can I use the same timer on a landing page?

Yes — embed the same design on your site as an iframe. One design, one deadline, synchronized between the email and the page.

What are all the URL parameters?

Six: target (fixed deadline, ISO date or unix seconds), duration (evergreen length in seconds), uid (recipient key for personal deadlines), lang (label language baked into the design), cycle (recurring countdown length in seconds — e.g. 86400 for daily), and countup (set to 1 to count up from the target start). That’s the whole API.

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