# Preview and send a test invite email

See each Smart Invites email with sample customer details, on desktop or mobile, and send a test to your own inbox before customers get it.

To check a Smart Invites email before customers get it, open its template: the preview on the right shows the email with sample customer details. To see the real thing in your own inbox, click **Send Test** in the top bar. A test doesn't use any of your invites.

Smart Invites are on Premium and Business, and you need to own the workspace or be an **Admin** on the project.

1. **Open the template**

   Click **Invites** under **Collect** in your project's sidebar, then the **Templates** tab, and click the template you want to check.

2. **Check the preview**

   The preview on the right follows your edits. Switch between **Email 1**, **Email 2** and **Email 3**, or between desktop and mobile, and click **Preview as…** to try other sample values for the tags.

   The subject is shown above the email. A reminder with no subject or body of its own shows Email 1's, as your customers get it. A reminder that's switched off is marked "(off)", and you can still preview and test it.

   ![The preview of Email 1: the subject above the email, then the project's name, the text that starts Hi Jane, the Share my experience button, and the footer with the Unsubscribe link and Powered by ReTestimonial](https://assets.retestimonial.com/app-statics/help/shots/invites-email-preview.339040db.webp)

3. **Send yourself a test**

   Click **Send Test** in the top bar, check the **Recipient email** and click **Send**. The box starts with your account's email address, or with the address you last sent a test to.

   You get the email showing in the preview, unsaved changes included.

## What the preview and a test fill in

A test uses the same sample details as the preview, including what you typed in **Preview as…**. In place of a real customer's details, both show:

- **A sample customer:** Jane Smith of Acme Inc, at `jane@example.com`, with a sample amount and currency for `{meta:amount}` and `{meta:currency}`. In **Preview as…** you can change the **Name**, **Email**, **Company** and **Metadata: amount**. Empty **Name** or **Company** to see the email as a customer without one gets it. An emptied **Email** goes back to the sample, and **Reset defaults** brings them all back. Other metadata tags, such as `{meta:plan}`, are blank. For what each tag becomes in a real invite, see [Invite email merge tags](/help/collect/invite-email-merge-tags).
- **One of your forms:** **Form** and **Form link** show your project's oldest live form, in the preview and in the test, and the button opens it; you choose the real form when you send invites. If the project has no live form yet, they show a sample form and a sample link.
- **A sample unsubscribe link.**

## How a test differs from a real invite

- **It doesn't use any of your invites,** and it adds nobody to a campaign.
- **Its subject starts with `[TEST]`.**
- **It has no open or click tracking.** The button opens the form directly.

The sender, the reply-to address, your project's name and logo, and the footer's wording are the ones your customers get.

## Limits on test emails

Only a few test emails can be sent per hour: 10 from one project, and 5 to one address, which can also get no more than 20 in a day. Past a limit, **Send** answers "Too many requests". Wait a while and try again.

An address we've [stopped emailing](/help/troubleshooting/emails-not-arriving#an-address-stopped-getting-emails) can't receive a test. Neither can an address on the project's **Do not email** tab: the message says it's on the project's do-not-email list, with the reason in brackets. See [Manage the do-not-email list](/help/collect/manage-the-do-not-email-list).

## What happens next

A message confirms **Test email queued for** and the address. The test usually arrives within a few minutes.

If it doesn't, look in spam and junk for an email from `invites@campaigns.retestimonial.com`. Then search for the address in the project's **Email Log**, where a test is listed as **Smart Invite** with `[TEST]` in its subject: see [Check whether an email was sent](/help/account/check-whether-an-email-was-sent).

When the emails read the way you want, send them:

- [Invite one customer](/help/collect/invite-one-customer)
- [Invite customers from a file](/help/collect/invite-customers-by-hand-or-from-a-file)
- [Send invites automatically with a webhook](/help/collect/send-invites-automatically-with-a-webhook)
- [Customize your invite emails](/help/collect/customize-invite-emails)