Benchmarks & Data
Newsletter Open Rate Benchmarks 2027 by Industry and Platform (with the Apple MPP Caveat)
By Artem KukharenkoPublished Updated 13 min read
Last checked
Updated 1 November 2026. Sources are re-checked each January; the changelog at the end records new editions.
What an open rate measures (and what it doesn't)
Open rate is unique opens divided by delivered messages. An "open" is recorded when the tracking image in the email loads. Since September 2021, Apple Mail Privacy Protection has loaded that image on Apple's servers for users who opt in, whether or not the person reads the message. An open rate therefore measures a mix of human attention and Apple infrastructure, in proportions that depend on how many of your subscribers use Apple Mail. It does not measure reading, interest or deliverability, and it cannot be compared across senders with different device mixes without a correction.
The benchmark spread by source
Every figure below is as published by the source, with its data period and sample. Read the "Audience" column before comparing anything.
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| Source and edition | Data period | Sample | Open rate | Click rate | CTOR | Unsubscribe | Audience | MPP note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite, Email Marketing Benchmarks 2026 | Dec 2024–Nov 2025 | 3.6M campaigns, 181,000 accounts, 46 industries | 43.46% (median) | 2.09% (average) | 6.81% (median) | 0.22% (median) | SMBs, creators, newsletters | States real opens are lower, real CTOR higher |
| Mailchimp, Email Marketing Benchmarks | as of Dec 2023 | Campaigns to 1,000+ recipients, industry self-reported | 35.63% | 2.62% | — | 0.22% | SMB marketing lists | Warns MPP affects accuracy |
| GetResponse, Email Marketing Benchmarks | 2023 | 4.4 billion messages, senders with 500+ contacts | 39.64% | 3.25% | 8.62% | 0.15% | Mixed; newsletters only in monthly data | Attributes part of the rise to MPP |
| Campaign Monitor, Benchmarks 2022 | 2021 | 100+ billion emails | 21.5% | 2.3% | 10.5% | 0.1% | All campaigns, all industries | Says MPP is "artificially inflating open rates" |
| Klaviyo, Email Benchmarks 2026 | not stated | 183,000+ customers | 31% campaigns, 32.2% flows; top 10%: 45.1% / 45.8% | 1.69% campaigns, 5.58% flows | — | — | E-commerce | No note |
| Omnisend, Email Marketing Benchmarks | 2025 | 20+ billion campaign emails, 470M automated sends, 27,000+ brands | 30.22% campaigns (30.41% in one section), 30.21% automated | 0.74–0.88% campaigns, 4.66% automated | 2.44–2.91% campaigns, 11.87% automated | 0.20% campaigns, 0.59% automated | E-commerce | Says MPP preloads pixels; treats CTR as the clearer signal |
| beehiiv, State of Newsletters 2026 | 2025 | 28 billion emails, 255M+ readers | 41%+ platform; medians 44.54% (1k–10k subs), 40.12% (250k+) | — | — | — | Newsletters | Recorded opens, subject to privacy limits (methodology note in the report) |
| Paved, sponsorship benchmark | April 2026 | Startup newsletters with 2+ sponsorship bookings, avg ~112,000 subs | 48.87% | — | — | — | Sponsored newsletters (selected group) | Not stated |
| Constant Contact | Nov 2022 (full table); 2026 blog gives a range only | Small-business senders | 33.86% all industries (2022); "roughly 25% to over 41%" by industry (2026) | — | — | — | SMB | Not stated |
| Benchmark Email, 2026 (via secondary summaries) | 2025 | Not stated | ~25.55% | — | — | — | SMB | Not stated |
Two numbers that look like the same metric differ by more than twenty points. MailerLite publishes a median (the middle campaign); Campaign Monitor publishes a mean across every campaign, including huge low-engagement sends that pull the average down. MailerLite's base is creators and small senders with many Apple Mail readers; Campaign Monitor's 2021 data predates most of the MPP effect. Neither is wrong. They are measuring different populations in different years with different arithmetic.
By industry
The table lines up the industry rows that can be mapped across sources. Column headers carry the data period. Blank cells mean the source has no comparable category. Constant Contact's column is from its November 2022 study, the last complete table it published.
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| Industry | MailerLite (2025) | GetResponse (2023) | Mailchimp (2023) | Constant Contact (2022) | Campaign Monitor (2021) | Omnisend (2025, e-commerce) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-profit | 52.38% | 54.54% | 40.04% | 37.84% | 26.6% | — |
| Religion / faith-based | 55.71% | — | — | 42.85% | — | — |
| Government / politics | 48.52% (politics 47.19%) | — | 40.55% (FAQ) | — | 19.4% | — |
| Education | 43.98% (higher ed) | 41.33% | 35.64% | 36.06% | 28.5% | 39.55% (jobs & education) |
| Media / publishing | 42.97% media; 34.24% publishing | 39.89% | — | — | 23.9% | — |
| Business and finance | 43.34% | 34.70% (financial services) | 31.35% | 26.44% (financial) | 27.1% (financial services) | 20.25% (finance) |
| Healthcare | 43.75% | 43.95% | — | 34.62% (health & wellness) | 23.7% | 28.64% (health) |
| Technology / software | 39.31% software; 35.29% computers | 44.72% | — | 17.86% (technology services) | 22.7% | 23.41% (computers) |
| E-commerce / retail | 32.67% e-commerce; 37.47% retail | 41.77% (retail) | 29.81% (e-commerce) | — | 17.1% (retail) | 30.22% (overall) |
| Travel | 30.10% | 32.83% | — | 40.18% | 20.2% | 44.84% |
| Marketing / agency | 40.52% agency; 37.23% marketing | 39.26% agencies; 32.62% internet marketing | — | — | 20.5% | — |
| Real estate | 40.37% | 42.71% | — | 32.81% | 21.7% | — |
| Legal | 42.58% | 47.26% | — | 31.08% | — | — |
| Restaurants / food | 44.32% | 38.52% | — | 37.11% | 18.5% | 30.03% (food & drink) |
| Arts and entertainment | 46.00% | 51.19% | — | 38.61% (recreation, sports, entertainment) | — | 34.15% |
| Health, fitness, beauty | 47.81% health & fitness; 38.40% beauty | 38.16% (health & beauty) | — | — | 19.2% (wellness & fitness) | 29.33% (beauty & fitness) |
| Manufacturing | 37.36% | — | — | 27.08% | — | — |
Three patterns hold across every dataset regardless of its level. Non-profits, faith organizations and government sit at the top: people subscribed because they belong to something. E-commerce and retail sit near the bottom: people subscribed for a discount and the list keeps growing. Technology and finance vary the most between sources, because "technology" means a SaaS trial list in one dataset and an enterprise newsletter in another.
By platform type
The platform you send from is a proxy for the kind of list you have, which is why platform benchmarks differ more than industry benchmarks.
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| Platform type | Benchmark | What the audience looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter platforms (beehiiv) | 41%+ platform-wide; medians 40–45% by size (2025) | Readers who chose a publication; lists are younger; creators prune more often |
| Sponsored newsletters (Paved) | 48.87% (April 2026) | A selected group that sells ads and therefore manages engagement |
| Substack | No platform benchmark is published | Compare to the beehiiv size bands as the nearest proxy; see the Substack open-rate guide |
| General ESPs (MailerLite, GetResponse, Mailchimp) | 35–44% depending on source and year | SMB marketing lists, mixed consent sources, mixed ages |
| General ESP, all-campaign mean (Campaign Monitor) | 21.5% (2021) | Includes very large low-engagement sends |
| E-commerce platforms (Klaviyo, Omnisend) | 30–32% campaigns | Checkout-collected addresses, large lists, discount-driven signups |
By list size
GetResponse's 2023 data and beehiiv's 2025 medians show the same shape from different angles: open rates fall as lists grow, then recover at the very top where only well-run programs survive.
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| List size | GetResponse 2023 open rate | GetResponse 2023 click rate |
|---|---|---|
| 250–499 | 70.64% | 10.40% |
| 500–999 | 54.84% | 6.88% |
| 1,000–2,499 | 45.73% | 5.24% |
| 2,500–4,999 | 40.78% | 4.92% |
| 5,000–9,999 | 37.95% | 4.03% |
| 10,000–24,999 | 36.89% | 4.08% |
| 25,000–49,999 | 39.90% | 2.69% |
| 50,000–99,999 | 40.76% | 2.60% |
| 100,000+ | 61.25% | 5.19% |
beehiiv, 2025: median 44.54% for publications with 1,000–10,000 subscribers; 40.12% for publications above 250,000.
The decline from small to mid-size lists is mostly dilution: as a list ages, the share of subscribers who never engage grows, and every one of them sits in the denominator. The worked example in the Substack guide shows the arithmetic: 3,000 opens on 10,000 subscribers is 30%; if 4,000 of them have engaged with nothing in six months, the same 3,000 opens are 50% of the readers who actually exist.
By send frequency
GetResponse, 2023, newsletters per week: one per week 48.31% open and 5.71% click; two per week 43.20% and 4.73%; three per week 41.34% and 3.73%; sixteen or more per week 32.15% and 3.75%. Daily senders should expect lower per-issue opens than weekly senders and should define "inactive" on a shorter window, which is the logic behind the inactivity table in the sunset-policy guide.
Why the numbers disagree
- Median versus mean. MailerLite and beehiiv publish medians; Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp publish means. Means are dragged down by a minority of huge, low-engagement sends.
- Who is in the sample. Minimum list sizes (Mailchimp 1,000 recipients per campaign; GetResponse 500 contacts), self-reported industries, and the platform's customer base all shape the result.
- Year. Apple MPP arrived in September 2021. Every dataset after that is inflated; the 2021 Campaign Monitor data is only partly affected. Comparing a 2021 mean to a 2025 median is comparing two different instruments.
- Campaign versus automated. Omnisend's automated emails open at about the same rate as campaigns (30.21% vs 30.41%) but click at 4.66% versus 0.74% and convert 19× better. Klaviyo's flows attract 41% of email revenue from 5.3% of sends. Any benchmark that pools the two hides this.
- Device mix. A list of iPhone-heavy consumers records more Apple auto-opens than a list of corporate Outlook users; the "open rate" gap between them can be entirely device mix.
- List age and hygiene. The single biggest driver, and the one no benchmark reports.
The Apple MPP correction
Three ways to see through the inflation, in order of effort.
- Stop using opens as the primary metric. Use click rate, click-to-open rate and revenue or replies. The cross-source click benchmarks are tighter than the open benchmarks: MailerLite 2.09%, Campaign Monitor 2.3%, Mailchimp 2.62%, GetResponse 3.25% for general lists; Klaviyo 1.69% campaigns and 5.58% flows, Omnisend 0.74–0.88% campaigns and 4.66% automated for e-commerce.
- Segment by client. If your ESP reports the email client, compare open rates for non-Apple clients only; that number is closer to human opens. MailerLite's note is the honest summary: dashboards overstate opens and understate CTOR.
- Estimate the inflation. If about half of your recorded opens are Apple (49% to 62% in the 2026 estimates), a 40% dashboard open rate corresponds to roughly 20–25% of recipients whose open was a human act, before adding back the Apple users who really did read. You cannot know the exact number; you can know the direction.
What a "good" open rate is for you
Use the row that matches your audience, and treat the range as "normal for a healthy list," not as a target.
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| Audience | Normal range for a maintained list (recorded opens, 2025–2026 data) | Below the range usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer newsletter, chosen subscription | 40–50% | A large inactive share; check the dormancy map before changing content |
| B2B or SaaS newsletter | 35–45% | Old lead imports in the same list as subscribers; corporate clients record fewer auto-opens |
| E-commerce, campaigns | 28–35% | Checkout-collected addresses that never consented to a newsletter; send to engaged tiers |
| E-commerce, flows | 30–35% with 5%+ click | Flow triggers reaching the wrong stage |
| General SMB marketing list | 30–40% | Mixed consent sources and no sunset policy |
| Anything sent to a list untouched for a year | Not comparable to any benchmark | Expect bounces and complaints first; follow the reactivation playbook rather than a subject-line test |
Before you compare your number to a benchmark, find out what share of your list is dormant. The dormant email list value calculator estimates what that share is worth and what it costs to keep, in under a minute. Open the calculator →
Find your benchmark range
A large inactive share; check the dormancy map before changing content
Sources: beehiiv (2025 medians); Paved (April 2026, selected sponsorship group). These are the article's editorial ranges, not a single-source dataset. Recorded opens include privacy-proxy activity.
Read dated sources and methodsWhat actually moves open rate
In rough order of effect, from what the datasets above and our own audit work show:
- Dormant share. Removing or reviving subscribers who have not engaged in six months changes the denominator more than any creative change changes the numerator. The sunset-policy guide gives the windows; the Klaviyo and beehiiv guides show where to find the segment.
- Subscriber source. Chosen subscriptions (newsletter signups) open at 40%+; checkout-collected or imported addresses open at 20–30%.
- Frequency. Weekly senders see higher per-issue opens than daily senders (GetResponse 2023: 48% vs 32%); the total attention per month may still favor daily.
- Inbox placement. A move to Gmail's Promotions tab or to spam shows up as a drop in opens before anything else; check Postmaster Tools before changing copy.
- Subject lines and send time. Real but small, and increasingly contested as a lever; several 2026 industry outlooks expect send-time optimization to fade in importance.
FAQ
What is a good open rate in 2027? For a maintained consumer newsletter, 40–50% of recorded opens; for a B2B newsletter 35–45%; for e-commerce campaigns 28–35%. These are 2025–2026 figures that include Apple Mail auto-opens, so a human-read rate is lower. Judge your program on clicks and revenue.
Why is my open rate lower than the benchmark? Most often because your list contains a large inactive share, because your subscribers came from checkout or imports rather than a signup form, or because your audience uses fewer Apple devices than the benchmark population. Check the dormant share first.
Are open rates still reliable? As a trend on your own list, yes. As an absolute number or a cross-sender comparison, no. Apple Mail Privacy Protection records opens that no person made, and the share varies by audience.
Which benchmark should I use? The one whose audience looks like yours: beehiiv or Paved for newsletters, Klaviyo or Omnisend for e-commerce, MailerLite or GetResponse for general SMB lists. Use the same source's year and method for every comparison.
What is a good click rate? About 2–3% for general lists (MailerLite 2.09%, Mailchimp 2.62%, GetResponse 3.25%), 1.5–2% for e-commerce campaigns (Klaviyo 1.69%), and 4.5–5.5% for automated or flow emails (Omnisend 4.66%, Klaviyo 5.58%). Click-to-open of 6–10% is typical.
Do larger lists have lower open rates? Usually, until the very top of the range. GetResponse's 2023 data falls from 70% under 500 contacts to about 37–40% between 5,000 and 100,000, then rises to 61% above 100,000, where only well-managed programs operate. The decline is mostly dilution by inactive subscribers.
Want the dormant share measured rather than guessed? The free List Health Audit maps dormancy by tier, scans for invalid addresses and traps and estimates recoverable revenue, within 72 hours. Get the free audit →
Changelog
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| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2 Nov 2026 | Publication release with the benchmark picker and source-linked diagrams. |
| 1 Nov 2026 | Page published with MailerLite 2026 (2025 data), Mailchimp (Dec 2023), GetResponse (2023), Campaign Monitor (2021), Klaviyo 2026, Omnisend 2025, beehiiv 2026 (2025 data), Paved April 2026, Constant Contact 2022 and 2026 range. |
Sources
- MailerLite, Email Marketing Benchmarks (2026 edition, Dec 2024–Nov 2025 data, 3.6M campaigns, 181,000 accounts): https://www.mailerlite.com/blog/email-marketing-benchmarks (checked 1 Nov 2026)
- Mailchimp, Email Marketing Benchmarks and Statistics by Industry (data as of Dec 2023): https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/ (checked 1 Nov 2026)
- GetResponse, Email Marketing Benchmarks (2023 data, 4.4 billion messages): https://www.getresponse.com/resources/reports/email-marketing-benchmarks (checked 1 Nov 2026)
- Campaign Monitor, Email Marketing Benchmarks (2022 report, 2021 data): https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/ (checked 1 Nov 2026)
- Klaviyo, Email Benchmarks 2026 (183,000+ customers): https://klaviyo.com/products/email-marketing/benchmarks (checked 17 Oct 2026)
- Omnisend, Email Marketing Benchmarks (2025 data, 27,000+ brands): https://www.omnisend.com/blog/email-marketing-benchmarks/ (checked 1 Nov 2026)
- beehiiv, The State of Newsletters 2026 (5 Jan 2026) and beehiiv open-rate medians by audience size: https://www.beehiiv.com/blog/the-state-of-newsletters-2026 (checked 18 Oct 2026)
- Paved, newsletter sponsorship benchmark (April 2026), via secondary reports.
- Constant Contact, industry open rates (study current as of Nov 2022, as reproduced by beehiiv's July 2026 guide) and What Is a Good Open Rate for Email in 2026?: https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/what-is-a-good-open-rate/ (checked 1 Nov 2026)
- Benchmark Email, 2026 overall average (~25.55%), via secondary summaries. Vendor figure.
- Stripo (49.29% of opens from Apple MPP, B2B) and Litmus email client market share, July 2026 (Apple family 62.26% of tracked opens, via Webtonic). Secondary.
- EngageMKTG, Substack Open Rate, Email Sunset Policy and Dormant Email List Reactivation Playbook (internal).
Cite this page
Newsletter Open Rate Benchmarks 2027 by Industry and Platform (with the Apple MPP Caveat). Artem Kukharenko. EngageMKTG. 2026-11-02. https://engagemktg.com/knowledge/newsletter-open-rate-benchmarks
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