Include a plain-text part

Send HTML email as multipart/alternative, with a plain-text part first and the HTML part last.

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 20 October 2026.

How to do it

Write the text part with the same content and links as the HTML, not a placeholder. RFC 2046 says clients show the last part they can display, so the HTML goes last. Screen readers, watches, terminal clients and some filters use the text part.

Example

Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="b1"

--b1
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Your order 1042 has shipped. Track it: https://example.com/orders/1042
--b1
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

<p>Your order 1042 has shipped. <a href="https://example.com/orders/1042">Track it</a>.</p>
--b1--

How to check

In "show original", the top Content-Type is multipart/alternative. A text/plain part comes before the text/html part and holds the full message.

For agents: if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in Based on the Agent Wranglers email playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics/plain-text-part.