45 Email Open Rate Statistics (2024-2026)
Latest data on email open rates, benchmarks by industry, device type, and campaign type. Discover what constitutes a good open rate and how to improve yours.
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Key Takeaways
- 42.35% average email open rate recorded across all industries in 2024
- Religion emails average a 55.71% open rate, the highest of any industry tracked by MailerLite in 2025
- 83.63% average open rate: welcome emails dramatically outperform all other email types
- 46% of all email opens now occur on mobile devices
- 26% higher open rates with personalized email subject lines (Campaign Monitor)
Overall Average Open Rates and Benchmarks
Email open rates vary significantly depending on data source, methodology, and how Apple's Mail Privacy Protection impacts reporting. These baseline metrics show the range of what constitutes typical performance across all industries. Understanding these figures helps you set realistic goals and identify whether your campaigns are underperforming.
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42.35% average email open rate recorded across all industries in 2024
MailerLite tracked this figure across 3.6 million campaigns, making it one of the most dataset-backed cross-industry benchmarks available. The number rose slightly to 43.46% in 2025, suggesting a modest but consistent upward trend in reported open rates.
2
34.23% is Mailchimp's cross-industry average open rate benchmark, based on billions of emails
Mailchimp's benchmark is notably lower than figures from other platforms, reflecting a dataset that spans a wider range of senders, including small businesses and high-volume marketers whose list hygiene and engagement levels vary significantly. This gap between platforms illustrates why the source of a benchmark matters as much as the number itself.
3
30.70% overall email open rate reported for ecommerce senders in 2025, up from 26.6% in 2024
Omnisend's 2026 Ecommerce Marketing Report tracked open rates rising for the fifth consecutive year among ecommerce brands. The gap between ecommerce open rates and broader platform averages reflects the higher volume of promotional messages ecommerce senders deploy, which tends to produce inbox fatigue over time.
4
39.7% overall average open rate reported by Constant Contact in early 2024 across all industries
Constant Contact's January 2024 benchmark covers both B2B and B2C businesses across industries. The figure sits between Mailchimp's more conservative reading and MailerLite's higher dataset, reinforcing that average open rates vary by 10 or more percentage points depending on which platform's data you consult.
5
Over 50% of all recorded email opens now happen on devices with Apple Mail Privacy Protection enabled
Litmus data confirms that MPP, which automatically preloads email content without the recipient ever opening the message, now affects the majority of recorded opens. This makes raw open rate figures unreliable for a large portion of most email lists, particularly those with a high share of iPhone users.
Open Rates by Industry
Different industries naturally attract different engagement levels. Email open rates vary from 30% in travel and transportation to over 55% in religion and nonprofit sectors. Your industry context matters significantly when evaluating campaign performance, so knowing where your sector ranks helps benchmark realistic targets.
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Religion emails average a 55.71% open rate, the highest of any industry tracked by MailerLite in 2025
Faith-based organizations consistently top industry open rate charts because subscribers opt in out of genuine personal interest. MailerLite's dataset of 3.6 million campaigns across 46 industries placed religion at the top for the second consecutive year, followed by hobbies at 53.25% and nonprofits at 52.38%.
10
Travel and transportation emails post the lowest open rate at 30.10%, according to MailerLite's 2025 benchmark report
Travel brands face tough inbox competition and highly transactional subscriber relationships, which push open rates to the bottom of the industry table. E-commerce (32.67%) and publishing (34.24%) follow as the next two weakest-performing sectors.
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Government emails lead Constant Contact's 2024 industry data with a 46.3% open rate, ahead of healthcare at 46.29%
Institutional senders enjoy a built-in trust advantage: recipients expect government and healthcare emails to carry information that directly affects them. Animal care and veterinary ranks third at 45.84%, rounding out the top tier of high-trust sectors.
12
The games industry records the lowest average open rate at 25.49% across aggregated benchmark data from Mailchimp and MailerLite
Gaming audiences receive high volumes of promotional email from multiple competing publishers, which depresses per-campaign open rates. Media and publishing (33.35%) and information technology (33.53%) also land near the bottom of the open rate table.
13
The communications sector achieved a 65.1% open rate in 2023, up from 48.8% in 2022, the highest figure in GetResponse's industry dataset
GetResponse's benchmark report, based on analysis of more than 4 billion emails, found communications leading all sectors by a significant margin. This reflects how subscribers treat communications-category senders as trusted sources of professional or operational updates.
Email Type Performance
Not all emails perform equally. Welcome emails, automated messages, and triggered campaigns dramatically outperform standard newsletters. These distinctions reveal that email engagement depends heavily on relevance, timing, and whether the message was expected by the recipient.
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83.63% average open rate: welcome emails dramatically outperform all other email types
GetResponse analyzed over 4.4 billion emails sent in 2023 and found welcome emails achieved an 83.63% average open rate, compared to just 40.08% for standard newsletters. The gap is explained by timing and expectation: the recipient just opted in and is primed to engage.
19
51.05% open rate for automated emails vs. 40.08% for newsletters in 2024
According to GetResponse data cited by Omnisend, automated emails outperformed newsletters by more than 11 percentage points in 2024. Automated emails are triggered by specific subscriber actions, making them far more relevant to the recipient at the moment of receipt.
20
Shipping confirmation emails reach a 62.99% open rate, the highest of any ecommerce email type
Omnisend data shows shipping confirmations lead all ecommerce email types with a 62.99% open rate, followed by back-in-stock emails at 58.03%. Both outperform promotional campaigns significantly because recipients are actively expecting them.
21
Automated emails account for just 2% of sends but drive 30% of total email revenue
Omnisend's 2026 ecommerce marketing statistics report found that automated emails earned $2.87 per email sent, compared to just $0.18 for standard campaign sends. That 16x revenue-per-send advantage makes automation the single highest-leverage email investment available.
22
Abandoned cart emails achieve a 50.5% average open rate, with top 10% of brands reaching 65.34%
Klaviyo benchmark data shows abandoned cart emails far outperform standard campaign open rates because they arrive in the context of a real, recent purchase intent signal. The top 10% of brands reach a 65.34% open rate, illustrating the ceiling for well-timed, personalized trigger emails.
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Automated email flows generate up to 30x more revenue per recipient than one-off campaigns
Klaviyo's analysis of over 325 billion emails found that automated flows average $3.65 revenue per recipient for abandoned cart emails versus $0.11 for standard campaigns. Despite making up only 5.3% of send volume, flows generate nearly 41% of total email revenue.
Device and Regional Performance
Mobile dominates email opens globally, and performance varies by geography. Different regions and devices show distinct engagement patterns, with important implications for when and how you send. Geographic and device data helps explain why your overall open rate might differ from cross-industry averages.
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46% of all email opens now occur on mobile devices
HubSpot data shows that nearly half of every email sent is opened on a mobile device, making mobile-first design a baseline requirement rather than an optional enhancement. Campaigns not optimized for small screens risk losing almost half their potential engagement immediately.
26
60% of email campaigns are read on mobile, 29% on webmail, and only 10% on desktop
This three-way split shows that desktop is now firmly the minority reading environment. For email marketers still designing primarily for desktop clients, this data signals a significant mismatch between how emails are built and how subscribers actually consume them.
27
Australia recorded the highest regional email open rate at 47.69% in 2024, while LATAM had the lowest at 31.97%
MailerLite's benchmark data across 3.6 million campaigns found a nearly 16 percentage point gap between the best and worst performing regions. High iPhone ownership in Australia inflates open rates via Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, while LATAM audiences are more likely to receive promotional content via messaging apps like WhatsApp rather than email.
28
Apple Mail accounts for approximately 46% of all email client market share, skewing open rate data upward globally
Because Apple's Mail Privacy Protection pre-loads email content regardless of whether a user actually opens the message, any region or audience with high iPhone penetration will show artificially inflated open rates. This makes regional comparisons unreliable unless platforms strip out MPP-influenced opens.
29
Australia had the highest click-to-open rate (CTOR) by region at 8.3%, while Asia had the lowest at 5.21%
CTOR measures how many people who opened an email also clicked a link, making it a more reliable engagement signal than open rate alone. The 3+ percentage point gap between Australia and Asia suggests meaningful differences in content relevance, audience intent, and how email is used across these markets.
Personalization and Segmentation Impact
Personalized and segmented campaigns dramatically outperform generic broadcasts. Data shows that behavioral targeting, dynamic content, and audience segmentation can lift open rates by 20 to 40 percentage points. These tactics represent some of the highest-impact optimizations available to email marketers.
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26% higher open rates with personalized email subject lines (Campaign Monitor)
Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened, according to Campaign Monitor. This single tactic, inserting a recipient's name, recent purchase, or a relevant detail into the subject line, directly impacts whether your message gets read or ignored.
34
Segmented email campaigns achieve 14.31% higher open rates than non-segmented sends (Mailchimp)
Mailchimp data shows that segmented campaigns outperform non-segmented ones by 14.31% on open rates and 100.95% on click rates. Splitting your list by behavior, demographics, or engagement history consistently moves the needle on both reach and response.
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65% of marketers say segmented emails deliver better open rates (HubSpot)
In a HubSpot email marketing survey, nearly two-thirds of marketers confirmed that segmented emails outperform non-segmented ones on open rates. Segmentation works because it aligns message relevance with audience intent, reducing the friction between send and open.
36
78% of marketers say subscriber segmentation is the most effective email marketing strategy
According to DemandSage, segmentation ranks above personalization (72%) and email automation (71%) as the top tactic for email marketing effectiveness. Marketers who prioritize audience segmentation consistently see stronger open rates and downstream conversions.
37
B2B personalized subject lines drive a 46% open rate vs. 35% for non-personalized (Belkins 2024 study)
Belkins analyzed over 5.5 million B2B cold emails sent in 2024 and found that personalized subject lines produced a 46% open rate compared to 35% without personalization, a 31% lift in visibility. Reply rates also more than doubled, jumping from 3% to 7%.
38
77% of email marketing ROI comes from segmented, targeted, and triggered campaigns (DMA)
The Data and Marketing Association found that the vast majority of email revenue is generated not from broadcast sends but from segmented, targeted, and triggered campaigns. Marketers still relying on one-size-fits-all messaging are leaving most of their potential returns on the table.
Apple Mail Privacy Protection and Data Caveats
Apple's Mail Privacy Protection automatically preloads emails for 46% of Apple Mail users, artificially inflating reported open rates. This technical change means many published benchmarks overstate true engagement. Marketers now focus on click rates and conversions for more accurate performance assessment.
40
49.29% of all tracked email opens in January 2025 came from Apple Mail
Litmus data calculated from over 1.1 billion opens shows Apple Mail is the single dominant email client. Because MPP pre-loads tracking pixels for opted-in users regardless of whether the email is read, nearly half of all reported opens in any given campaign are potentially unreliable as an engagement signal.
41
73.11% of all email pixel-firing events between January and August 2024 came from Apple's Privacy Proxy
Validity's analysis of global email data found Apple's proxy server leading every other reading environment in pixel-fire volume. This means that nearly three in four reported 'opens' during that period were triggered automatically by Apple's infrastructure, not by a human reading the email.
42
Open rates jumped 18 percentage points, rising above 40%, within six months of MPP launching
A study of over 80,000 email marketing accounts documented this sharp inflation in reported open rates after MPP rolled out. Since Apple Mail accounts for 46% of email clients, the mechanical pre-loading of tracking pixels at that scale produced a statistically significant and misleading upward shift across published benchmarks.
43
MPP is estimated to be enabled on approximately 97% of Apple iPhone devices
Because Apple prompts users to enable Mail Privacy Protection on first launch after an iOS update, adoption is near-universal among iPhone users who open the Mail app. This means the overwhelming majority of Apple Mail recipients trigger automatic pixel fires, making their reported opens unreliable for measuring true engagement.
44
Since April 2024, Apple adjusted its pre-fetching timing, causing a noticeable drop in reported open rates across ESPs
Validity's research identified that Apple changed when and how often pre-fetching occurs starting in April 2024, directly reducing pixel-firing volume. Many email marketers interpreted this as a genuine drop in audience engagement, when in reality it was a technical adjustment on Apple's side with no connection to actual subscriber behavior.
Frequently Asked Questions
This depends on your industry and email type. A general benchmark across all industries sits around 30-42% (adjusted for Apple Mail inflation). For most B2B campaigns, 20-40% is solid. For newsletters, aim for 40%+. For automated emails, expect 45%+. The best approach is to track your own baseline and improve month-over-month rather than chase an arbitrary industry average.
Open rates depend on multiple factors: email type (newsletter vs. triggered), industry, audience quality, subject line effectiveness, sender reputation, send frequency, device mix, and how much your audience was inflated by Apple Mail Privacy Protection. Compare to your own historical data rather than industry averages alone, which often include data skewed by high-performing segments.
Significantly. Apple Mail accounts for 46% of email clients and automatically preloads messages, generating phantom opens. Studies show open rates jumped 18+ percentage points six months after MPP deployment. Many published benchmarks reflect this inflation. For true engagement signals, prioritize click-through rates, click-to-open rates, and conversion metrics over open rates alone.
Welcome emails lead with 51-84% open rates, followed by triggered/automated emails at 45-51%, and newsletters at 40-45%. Behavior-based personalized emails reach 37-42%, while generic broadcast emails typically fall to 15-27%. Email type matters more than almost any other variable in predicting open rate performance.
Sources
All statistics on this page are sourced from the following 35 references.
