Help & FAQ

Ping is a Chrome extension. Install it from the Chrome Web Store, then click the Ping icon in your browser toolbar to open the dashboard. The first time you open it, you'll be prompted to sign in with your Gmail account - this lets Ping send emails on your behalf via the Gmail API.

Ping never sees your password. Authentication uses Google OAuth, the same standard used by every legitimate Gmail-connected tool.

Ping requests the following Google API scopes, each used only for what its name suggests:

• gmail.send - to send the emails you write
• gmail.readonly - to count your daily quota and detect replies on tracked threads
• gmail.modify - reserved for future label management features (e.g. auto-labeling sent campaigns); currently unused but listed in the consent screen
• userinfo.email - to identify your account so we keep your data isolated from other users
• userinfo.profile - to show your display name in the dashboard
• drive.file - to import recipients from the specific Google Sheets you explicitly select via Google's file picker. Ping never sees other Drive files.

Ping does not read your inbox content, scan your messages, or use any of these permissions for anything beyond what they're named for. See our privacy policy for the full breakdown.

Open the Ping dashboard and click New Campaign. There are 5 steps:

1. Upload a CSV or import a Google Sheet with your recipients
2. Map the columns - at minimum, mark which column has the email address
3. Compose your subject and body, with variables like {{Name}} that get filled in per recipient
4. Review the preview to make sure variables substitute correctly
5. Send - you get a 5-second countdown so you can cancel if you spot a mistake

Each email sends individually from your Gmail. They look like personal emails to your recipients, not bulk blasts.

Ping embeds a tiny 1x1 transparent image at the bottom of every email you send. When the recipient opens your email, their email client loads the image, and our server records the open event with a timestamp.

Open tracking is the standard mechanism every email tool uses (GMass, Mailchimp, HubSpot, all of them). It works in most email clients but has limitations: recipients who have images blocked, who use plain-text mode, or whose corporate firewall pre-fetches images can show as "not opened" or "always opened" respectively.

That's usually a security scanner. Many corporate inboxes (Microsoft Defender, Proofpoint, Barracuda, etc.) automatically fetch every link and image in an email BEFORE delivering it to the recipient, to check for malware. This triggers our tracking pixel and registers as an "open" even though the actual recipient hasn't seen the email yet. Ping filters out the most obvious scanner patterns (Google Image Proxy, known security bots) but can't catch all of them.

Ping tries to filter self-opens by recording the IP address you sent from and ignoring opens from that IP for the first 15 seconds. After 15 seconds, any open counts - including ones from your own device. If you check your sent folder on a phone or different network 30 seconds later, that counts as an open.

Follow-ups are Pro-only. You configure 1 or more "stages", each with a delay (e.g., "3 days after the first email") and its own body content. The Ping background worker checks every few minutes and sends each stage when its delay has elapsed.

By default, follow-ups stop sending to a recipient who has opened or replied to your previous email (you can toggle these off if you want them to continue regardless).

Follow-ups run as a Chrome extension background worker, so your browser needs to be running for them to fire. If your computer is off when a stage is due, it sends as soon as Chrome is open again. For server-side scheduling that runs even when your computer is off, use the dedicated Schedule button on the Send step (Pro feature).

Open the Ping extension → click Settingsin the header → scroll to the Subscription section → click Cancel subscription→ confirm in the dialog.

You keep Pro access until the end of your current billing period, then revert to the free plan. All your data stays intact. See our cancellation policy for details.

We don't pro-rate the unused portion of a billing period (you keep Pro access until the period ends). If you were charged in error, the service was unusable, or you were charged after cancelling, email contact@getping.dev within 7 days. See the full refund policy.

This is rare but does happen. Try in this order:

1. Open the Ping dashboard, close it, reopen. The plan refreshes on every focus.
2. If still showing free after 5 minutes, email us with your Gmail address and the Razorpay payment ID from your receipt email. We can manually sync the plan within the day.

Ping is built and billed from India via Razorpay. International cards work fine - Razorpay charges them in INR at the live exchange rate, and your bank converts to your local currency on your statement. The displayed "≈ $9" and "≈ $79" are approximations; the exact amount on your card statement may differ by a few cents.

Open the Ping extension → Settings → Privacy & Data section → click Delete. You'll be asked to type your email to confirm. Your account is hidden immediately, and after 30 days all personal data is permanently erased. You can restore by signing back in within those 30 days.

Same place: Settings → Privacy & Data → Export. You get a JSON file with everything we have on you.

On a DigitalOcean server in Bangalore, India. Server-side data is just tracking metadata (recipient emails, open/click events, plan info). The actual content of your campaigns is built and sent entirely from your browser via the Gmail API - we never see the body of your emails. See the privacy policy for the full picture.

Most common causes, in order of frequency:

1. Daily quota exceeded. Personal Gmail has a 500/day cap, Workspace varies. Ping shows your remaining quota in the home stats card.
2. Auth expired. Click Sign Out, then Sign back in to refresh your tokens.
3. Recipient column not mapped. Step 2 of the wizard requires you to mark one column as Email.
4. Gmail temporarily blocked you. If you've been sending hard for hours, Google may rate-limit you. Wait 15-30 min and retry.

Reload the dashboard once after upgrading - the plan cache refreshes and the footer disappears from new sends. If you opened a compose tab BEFORE upgrading and keep it open, that tab still uses the old plan state until reloaded.

This usually means a previous OAuth grant was revoked. Go to Google Account permissions, find Ping, click Remove, then sign in again from the extension. This forces a fresh consent screen.