Mailto Link Generator - URL, HTML and Markdown

Build an email link and check the receiving draft

SimplyUtils Mailto Link Generator prepares a URL, an HTML anchor and a Markdown link from the same fields. These outputs ask a browser's configured email handler to open a draft. Creating, copying or opening a link does not send an email, confirm a mailbox exists or prove that a recipient will receive a message.

Worked example: a support request

Enter support@example.com as To addresses, Question & update as Subject, Hello and Please review. on separate body lines, and Ask support as Link text. The resulting URL is:

mailto:support@example.com?subject=Question%20%26%20update&body=Hello%0D%0APlease%20review.

The spaces become %20, the subject ampersand becomes %26 and the body line break becomes %0D%0A. The HTML output escapes the query separator as & while its anchor text is Ask support. Copy the complete HTML output into HTML source; copy the URL alone into a website editor's link destination field. Pasting the entire anchor into a plain text editor does not create a clickable HTML element.

Multiple recipients and literal symbols

To send a draft to two fictional addresses, enter support@example.com, editor@example.com. Surrounding spaces are removed and the URL preserves the separating comma. For a tagged mailbox, feedback+web@example.com produces feedback%2Bweb@example.com; the plus is encoded as a literal plus rather than treated as a space. Optional CC and BCC fields are omitted when empty.

The form supports at most 10 addresses and 1,000 characters per recipient field. It accepts ordinary ASCII dot-atom mailbox names and DNS-style domains with a dot, including domains already written in ASCII punycode. Display names, quoted mailbox names, address literals, single-label domains and international local parts are outside this tool's supported subset; a rejection here does not prove an address is invalid for every email system.

HTML and Markdown are different output contexts

The HTML output escapes its attribute and visible label, so text such as Help <today> stays text rather than becoming a tag. The Markdown output escapes punctuation in the label and encloses the encoded destination in angle brackets. A label such as Support [urgent] should remain a literal label rather than form a second link. Check the rendered result in the editor that will publish it: Markdown engines and sanitizers can differ in how they allow mailto links.

These snippets provide a link, not an email template with rich formatting, attachments, signatures or tracking. The message body is plain text. The mailto URI specification describes percent encoding and CRLF body line endings. This generator normalizes LF, CR and CRLF inputs to CRLF without adding an extra body line.

Limits and email handler troubleshooting

The subject accepts 200 UTF16 characters, the body 4,000 and visible link text 120; emoji can occupy more than one character. The subject and label must be single-line, and unsupported controls or broken Unicode are rejected. Links exceeding the tool's 8,000-character encoded URL cap are hidden. This cap is not a compatibility promise: a browser or email app may accept less.

1. Inspect the generated recipient list, subject and body before copying.
2. Open email draft only when you want to invoke your device's email handler.
3. In that application, verify all fields and line breaks. Some handlers ignore CC/BCC or truncate long values; the tool cannot inspect the resulting draft.
4. If nothing opens, configure an email handler in your browser or device settings. If fields are missing, try a shorter body or paste the text into a new message manually.

Clipboard success appears only after the browser confirms the write. If Clipboard access failed appears, select the output and copy manually or retry the button. Editing the inputs clears an old copy status and replaces the outputs. Reset fields clears the draft.

Public links and processing privacy

Every address and message field embedded in a published link is inspectable, including BCC. Encoding is not encryption or spam protection. Do not use a public link to conceal recipient addresses, credentials or confidential message text. BCC behavior in the eventual email does not make BCC private inside the URL.

The generator computes the snippets locally without submitting draft fields to a processing API or browser storage. Entries clear on reload. Copying shares them with your device's clipboard; opening the link passes them to the configured email handler. Site-level analytics and advertising are explained in the Privacy Policy. If you need to inspect an existing saved message instead, use the EML File Viewer.

Frequently asked questions