--- title: "Get a message" method: GET path: "/v1/email/messages/{message_id}" tags: ["email-messages"] --- # Get a message `GET /v1/email/messages/{message_id}` ## Request - Base URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com` - URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/email/messages/{message_id}` - Auth: one of: - HTTP bearer - API key in cookie `bird_session` Returns a single message with its aggregate delivery `status` and per-state recipient counts. The response never includes the `html`/`text` bodies. When content storage is enabled for the send, fetch the stored bodies with [Get stored message content](/docs/api/reference/get-email-message-content). Per-recipient statuses and the event timeline are separate sub-resources. ## Path parameters - `message_id` string, required ## Headers - `X-Workspace-Id` string - `X-Organization-Id` string ## Response `200` Message object. - EmailMessage: An email message, including a recipient's copy of a broadcast. `broadcast_id` identifies the broadcast that sent the message and is absent for other sends. A broadcast records one message per recipient; these copies share the same `broadcast_id`. - `id` string, required - `from` EmailAddress, required: An email address with an optional display name. - `email` string, email, required: Email address. - `name` string: Display name shown alongside the address in mail clients. - `to` EmailAddress[], required: Primary recipients. Length is the recipient count. Use the broadcasts endpoint for audience-targeted sends. Each entry's `name` is present when a display name was provided on the send. - `email` string, email, required: Email address. - `name` string: Display name shown alongside the address in mail clients. - `cc` EmailAddress[]: CC recipients. - `email` string, email, required: Email address. - `name` string: Display name shown alongside the address in mail clients. - `bcc` EmailAddress[]: BCC recipients. - `email` string, email, required: Email address. - `name` string: Display name shown alongside the address in mail clients. - `subject` string, required: The subject line as delivered. For a send that used a template, the stored subject is the template's, so this reports it with the send's `parameters` substituted in, which is what the recipient saw. - `category` 'marketing' | 'transactional', required: Content classification, which controls suppression policy: - `marketing`: Blocks on all suppression reasons. - `transactional`: Allows delivery through complaint and unsubscribe suppressions, for receipts, password resets, and similar operational mail. - `reply_to` EmailAddress[], nullable: Reply-To addresses, if set on the send. Empty/null when no Reply-To was provided. - `email` string, email, required: Email address. - `name` string: Display name shown alongside the address in mail clients. - `status` 'scheduled' | 'accepted' | 'processed' | 'deferred' | 'delivered' | 'partial_failure' | 'bounced' | 'complained' | 'rejected' | 'canceled', required: Aggregate delivery status of an email, derived from its recipients' states. In flight: - `scheduled`: The message is queued to send at a future time and has not been dispatched yet. - `accepted`: The initial status of an immediate send. The message is queued for its recipients. - `processed`: Delivery is underway, so at least one recipient's message is on its way out and none has failed. - `deferred`: At least one recipient's mailbox provider asked for a retry, and delivery attempts continue. Final: - `delivered`: Every recipient's mail server accepted the message. - `bounced`: Every recipient permanently failed (bounced or was rejected). - `rejected`: Every recipient was rejected before a delivery attempt (for example, all recipients were suppressed). - `partial_failure`: Some recipients permanently failed while others were delivered or are still in flight. - `canceled`: A scheduled message was canceled before it was sent. `complained` takes precedence over every other status: at least one recipient reported the message as spam, regardless of what happened to the rest. - `accepted_count` integer, required: How many recipients are in the `accepted` state, meaning we have the message and are getting ready to deliver it. - `processed_count` integer, required: How many recipients the message has been prepared for and queued for delivery. - `delivered_count` integer, required: How many recipients' messages were accepted by their mail server. - `bounced_count` integer, required: Number of recipients that resulted in a permanent delivery failure. - `complained_count` integer, required: Number of recipients that reported spam. - `deferred_count` integer, required: Number of recipients in transient delivery deferral. Their mail server asked for a retry, and delivery attempts continue. - `rejected_count` integer, required: Number of recipients rejected before delivery. Read the per-recipient `rejection_reason` field on `GET /v1/email/messages/{message_id}/recipients` for the specific cause. - `processing_latency_ms` integer, nullable: Time between the send being accepted and the message being prepared for delivery, in milliseconds, for the fastest recipient. Null until the first recipient reaches `processed`. - `delivery_latency_ms` integer, nullable: Time between the message being processed and the receiving mail server accepting it, in milliseconds, for the fastest delivered recipient. Null until the first recipient is delivered. - `total_latency_ms` integer, nullable: End-to-end accept → delivered time for the fastest delivered recipient, in milliseconds. Null until the first recipient is delivered. - `open_count` integer, required: Total open events across all recipients. - `click_count` integer, required: Total click events across all recipients. - `requested_language` string: A language tag in BCP-47 form, for example `en` or `pt-BR`. - `resolved_language` string: A language tag in BCP-47 form, for example `en` or `pt-BR`. - `template_id` string - `template_version_id` string - `broadcast_id` string - `tags` Tag[]: Labels on this message, each one a `name` and a `value`, that you can filter and search messages by. Use tags for anything you want to find messages by later, and `metadata` for data you only want handed back to you. - `name` string, required: Tag name. ASCII letters, digits, underscore, and hyphen only. Case-sensitive. Maximum 32 characters. - `value` string, required: Tag value. ASCII letters, digits, underscore, and hyphen only. Case-sensitive. Maximum 64 characters. - `metadata` object: Any JSON you kept on the message. We store it and hand it back in webhook payloads, and that is all it does. If you want to search or filter by it, use `tags` instead. - `parameters` object, nullable: The substitution values this send supplied, whether inline or from a template, or null if none were supplied. They are the values applied to `subject` and to the bodies the content endpoint returns, kept so you can see what produced the delivered copy and not only the result. - `attachments` EmailAttachmentRef[]: Attachment metadata for the send. Empty when no attachments were included. Raw content is not echoed. When content storage is enabled, download an attachment by its `id` via the message's attachment endpoint. - `id` string - `filename` string, required: Filename as shown to the recipient. - `content_type` string: Resolved MIME type at send time. - `size` integer, required: Decoded size in bytes. - `inline` boolean: True when the attachment was sent inline via a `content_id` reference in the HTML body, false for regular file attachments. - `content_id` string, nullable: The Content-ID set at send time, when the attachment was inline. - `track_opens` boolean, required: Whether open tracking is enabled for this send. - `track_clicks` boolean, required: Whether click tracking is enabled for this send. - `created_at` string, date-time, required: When the send request was accepted. - `thread_id` string, nullable: Thread this message belongs to, or null when the message is not part of one. - `in_reply_to_message_id` string - `delivered_at` string, date-time, nullable: When all recipients reached a terminal delivered state, or null if not yet fully delivered. - `scheduled_at` string, date-time: When this message is scheduled to send, for a send created with a future send time. Absent for an immediate send. Stays set after the scheduled send fires. ## Other responses - `400`: Bad request - `401`: Authentication required - `403`: Insufficient permissions - `404`: Resource not found - `422`: The request has invalid field values, violates a business rule, or carries a query parameter the endpoint does not declare. Field validation errors use `type: validation_error` and include the affected fields in `details`. Business-rule errors identify the failed rule in `type`. - `429`: Rate limit exceeded - `500`: Internal server error --- [API](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api/revisions/6dfce1179799?raw)