Short answer: A good email open rate is usually somewhere in the 30% to 45% range for marketing campaigns today, and higher for automated flows such as welcome emails. Mailchimp's published benchmark puts the all-industry average at about 36%. Treat any open rate as a rough signal, though: since Apple Mail Privacy Protection arrived in 2021, it counts many opens that never happened.
Key takeaways
- For campaigns to a healthy, opted-in list, reported open rates in the 30s and low 40s are typical in our experience. Welcome and abandonment flows often sit well above that.
- Mailchimp's benchmark page reports an average of 35.63% across all industries and 29.81% for ecommerce, and warns that Apple's privacy changes affect accuracy.
- Apple Mail Privacy Protection loads tracking pixels automatically, so open rates today run higher than before 2021 and do not compare with older figures.
- A good open rate depends on what you send and to whom: flows beat campaigns, small engaged lists beat large old ones.
- Judge open rate next to click rate, placed order rate and revenue per recipient. A high open rate with no clicks is not good.
Open rate is the share of delivered emails that were recorded as opened. Most platforms count unique opens, so one person opening three times counts once. It is the first number most people look at, which is exactly why it is worth understanding what it can and cannot tell you.
What open rate do most email senders get?
Mailchimp publishes one of the most widely quoted benchmarks. Its page, last updated in December 2023, reports an average open rate of 35.63% across all industries and 29.81% for ecommerce. The same page carries a disclaimer that open rate accuracy may be affected by Apple's privacy changes.
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35.63%All industries
Mailchimp benchmark average open rate -
29.81%Ecommerce
Mailchimp benchmark average open rate
Those averages mix senders of every size and quality, so use them as a sense check rather than a target. In our experience, for marketing campaigns:
- Below about 20% usually points to a problem: old or bought contacts, emails landing in spam, or a list that was never really engaged.
- Roughly 30% to 45% is a typical, healthy result for a list built from genuine sign-ups.
- Well above 50% on campaigns is possible for small, loyal lists, but check how much of it is Apple Mail before celebrating.
Why are open rates higher than they used to be?
Because of Apple Mail Privacy Protection. Apple announced it in June 2021 and it went live with iOS 15 in September 2021. When it is switched on, Apple's servers download email content, including the invisible tracking pixel that records an open, whether or not the person ever reads the message.
The result is that many Apple Mail users show as "opened" on every email. Since Apple Mail is a large share of opens for most consumer lists, open rates jumped across the industry in late 2021, and they have stayed high.
What this changes about "good":
- Old benchmarks do not apply. A 20% open rate from 2019 and a 20% open rate today are not the same result. Compare only with figures from after 2021.
- Your own number depends on your audience. A list with many iPhone users will show a higher rate than a mostly Gmail list, with no difference in real reading.
- Open rate is weak for testing. A subject line test judged on opens can be decided by Apple's servers rather than people.
Klaviyo tags each opened email event with an "Apple Privacy Open" property, true or false, from November 2021 onwards, so you can exclude those opens when you build engaged segments. Other platforms offer similar filters, and they are worth using.
If your open rate rose sharply with no change in clicks or orders, the likeliest cause is more Apple Mail users on the list or a change in how your platform counts opens, not better emails.
How does a good open rate differ for campaigns and automated flows?
Automated flows usually open far better than campaigns, so judge them separately. A flow email arrives at the moment someone has just signed up, browsed or started checkout, while a campaign arrives whenever you decide to send it.
| Email type | Typical open rate, relative | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome email | Highest | The person signed up minutes ago and expects it. |
| Abandoned checkout and browse abandonment | High | Sent right after an action, about something the person chose. |
| Post-purchase | High | Customers look for order and delivery information. |
| Regular campaigns | Middle | Sent on your schedule to the whole list or a segment. |
| Winback and re-engagement | Lowest | Sent to people who have stopped paying attention. |
So a 35% campaign open rate can be perfectly good while a 35% welcome email open rate is a warning. Averaging the two together, as some dashboards do, hides both.
An email marketing agency that judges email on revenue, not opens
We separate real engagement from Apple Mail noise, compare your campaigns and flows on clicks, orders and revenue per recipient, and fix what holds them back. If open rate is the only problem, we will tell you it is not one.
See our email marketing agencyHow do list size and quality change what counts as good?
The more engaged your list, the higher your open rate, and engagement usually falls as a list grows older and wider. A small list of recent customers will beat a large list that includes years-old sign-ups and contest entrants.
List A
4,000 subscribers, all active in the last six months. A campaign is recorded as opened by 1,800, so 45%.
List B
The same 4,000 plus 16,000 older contacts who rarely engage, of whom 1,200 open. That is 3,000 of 20,000, so 15%.
What it shows
List B reaches more people and its rate looks poor. The older contacts also drag on deliverability, which can lower results for everyone.
These numbers are an example. The practical point: before deciding your open rate is bad, check who you sent to. Sending campaigns to an engaged segment and moving long-inactive contacts out through a sunset process usually lifts the rate and inbox placement together.
What should you judge alongside open rate?
Click rate, placed order rate and revenue per recipient. Open rate tells you whether the email was delivered and noticed, roughly. The others tell you whether it did its job.
A good open rate, then, is one that holds steady against your own recent sends to the same segment, with clicks and orders that hold up too. If clicks are healthy but orders are not, look at the landing page; what a good ecommerce conversion rate is helps you judge that side. If an agency reports on email for you, the same logic applies as in how to know if your marketing agency is working: ask for revenue, not opens.
Frequently asked questions
For campaigns today it is on the low side, because Apple Mail Privacy Protection pushes recorded opens up for most lists. Before 2021 it would have been respectable. Check list age, inbox placement and whether you are sending to inactive contacts.
Not for a welcome email or a small, loyal list. For a large campaign it usually means many Apple Mail users or very tight segmenting. Look at clicks and orders: if they are strong too, the engagement is real.
For segments and tests, yes, where your platform allows it, because those opens may not be real. For reporting, keep the headline rate but read it alongside clicks. Klaviyo marks these opens with an Apple Privacy Open property you can filter on.
A sharp drop across all sends often means emails started landing in spam, so check deliverability and authentication first. A gradual drop usually means the list is ageing or you are sending more often than people want.
Most platforms divide unique opens by delivered emails, so bounces are left out. Check your own platform's definition before comparing with any benchmark, and compare unique with unique.
What to do next
Find out what your own open rate actually says before trying to raise it.
- Split your last three months of sends into campaigns and each flow, and note open, click and placed order rate for each.
- Filter out Apple privacy opens where you can, and check how much of your list has not engaged in six months or more.
- If you want a second opinion, ask for a free written email audit. We send it within 48 hours. Our email marketing services, ecommerce marketing services and marketing analytics services pages show how we measure email against real orders.