How do I check if an email was delivered?

It depends on which email system you use, because “delivered” can mean a few different things:

• Sent from your mail server successfully
• Accepted by the recipient’s mail server
• Actually reached the recipient’s inbox (harder to prove)
• Read/opened by the recipient (not reliable in most cases)

Common ways to check

1) Look at the sent status / delivery notifications

Many email clients and services show:

• Sent
• Delivered
• Failed
• Bounced

If you got a bounce-back email, the message likely did not deliver.

2) Check email logs or message trace

If you use a business email service, you can often run a message trace:

• Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online: Message trace in the Exchange admin center
• Google Workspace: Email Log Search
• Mail server/admin tools: SMTP logs or mail logs

These can show whether the recipient server accepted the message.

3) Use a read receipt or delivery receipt

Some email systems let you request:

• Delivery receipt: confirms the recipient server/user received it
• Read receipt: confirms the message was opened

Limitations:

• The recipient can often decline
• Some email clients don’t support it
• Read receipts are not very reliable

4) Check bounce messages

A delivery failure often shows up as:

• “Undeliverable”
• “Mail delivery failed”
• “User unknown”
• “Mailbox full”
• “Rejected by recipient server”

5) Use email tracking tools

For newsletters or sales emails, tools like tracking services can show:

• Delivered
• Opened
• Clicked

Note: “Opened” is not always accurate because of privacy features.

Important note

If you only see that the recipient server accepted the email, that does not guarantee it reached the inbox. It may still be filtered to spam or quarantined.

If you want, I can give you exact steps for Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft 365, or a custom domain/server.