CSS property · data last changed 10 Nov 2026
margin in email clients
Works in 8 of 21. Partial in Gmail, Gmail Android, Gmail iOS and 10 more.
Your reader in Outlook Classic may not see margin the way you wrote it, even if it looks right where you tested it.
caniemail (MIT) via @emailens/engine 0.18.22
What to do instead in Outlook Classic
Replace structural margin with padded table cells for cross-client consistency. Use margin only for resetting browser defaults on block elements, and always set explicit margin: 0 on <p>, <h1>–<h6>, and <ul> to prevent client-default spacing from pushing your layout.
- Partial. Negative values are not supported.
- Partial. Not supported on
<span>and<body>elements. - Buggy.
background-coloris included inside themargin. - Partial.
autovalue is not supported.
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margin is not among the 24 features we have screenshotted on real installs. The ones we have →
All 21 clients, problems first
| Client | Support |
|---|---|
| Gmail | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Gmail Android | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Gmail iOS | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Outlook 365 | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Outlook (New) | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Outlook Classic | Partial See caveat 2 |
| Outlook iOS | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Outlook Android | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Outlook for Mac | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Yahoo Mail | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Yahoo Mail Android | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Yahoo Mail iOS | Partial See caveat 1 |
| AOL Mail | Partial See caveat 1 |
Works in 8: Apple Mail, Apple Mail iOS, Samsung Mail and 5 more. Show all
| Client | Support |
|---|---|
| Apple Mail | Works |
| Apple Mail iOS | Works |
| Samsung Mail | Works |
| Thunderbird | Works |
| HEY Mail | Works |
| Proton Mail | Works |
| Fastmail | Works |
| Superhuman | Works |
Caveats (2)
- 1. Gmail, Gmail Android, Gmail iOS, Outlook 365, Outlook (New), Outlook iOS, Outlook Android, Outlook for Mac, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail Android, Yahoo Mail iOS, AOL Mail: Partial. Negative values are not supported.
- 2. Outlook Classic: Partial. Negative values are not supported. Partial. Not supported on
<span>and<body>elements. Buggy.background-coloris included inside themargin. Partial.autovalue is not supported.
Caveats as recorded by caniemail (MIT), one entry per wording.
How margin behaves
margin controls external spacing around block-level elements and is notably less reliable in email than padding. Outlook Classic ignores margin on most elements, so production email layouts typically substitute margin with padded <td> cells. Modern clients honor margin correctly, but the lowest-common-denominator approach is to avoid it entirely for structural spacing.
- Outlook Classic ignores margin on table elements, breaking centering tricks unless you use align="center" and a fixed width.
- Gmail strips negative margin values entirely, making margin-based off-canvas tricks unreliable.
- Some clients add extra default margin on <p> tags, explicitly set margin: 0 on every paragraph that needs predictable spacing.
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