This briefing compiles verified email marketing benchmarks from six major email service providers and email-analytics firms: Mailchimp, HubSpot, GetResponse, Klaviyo, Campaign Monitor, and Litmus. It reports average open rate, click-through rate, click-to-open rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate by industry, and it explains why these numbers are not directly comparable across providers. The single most important caveat sits at the top: since Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection in September 2021, reported open rates have been inflated, and click-based metrics are now the more reliable signal of engagement.
Executive Summary
- Mailchimp reported an all-users average open rate of 35.63%, a click rate of 2.62%, and an unsubscribe rate of 0.22% across its customer base, in data last updated December 2023 (United States-based platform, global senders). Source: Mailchimp, Email Marketing Benchmarks.
- Campaign Monitor reported an across-all-industries average open rate of 21.5%, a click-through rate of 2.3%, and a click-to-open rate of 10.5%, based on more than 100 billion emails sent across its platforms in 2021. Source: Campaign Monitor, Email Marketing Benchmarks (2022).
- GetResponse reported an average open rate of 39.64%, a click-through rate of 3.25%, and a click-to-open rate of 8.62% in its 2024 report, which analyzed 4.4 billion messages from 2023. Source: GetResponse, Email Marketing Benchmarks (2024).
- HubSpot reported an average open rate of 42.35%, a click-through rate of 2.3%, and a click-to-open rate of 5.3% in its benchmark guide (2025 update). Source: HubSpot, Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry.
- Klaviyo reported an average ecommerce campaign click rate of 1.69% versus 5.58% for automated flows, drawn from more than 183,000 Klaviyo customers in its 2026 benchmarks (B2C/ecommerce focus). Source: Klaviyo, 2026 Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry.
- Klaviyo reported that automated flows generated nearly 41% of email revenue from only 5.3% of email sends in its 2026 benchmark data. Source: Klaviyo, 2026 Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry.
- Litmus reported that over 50% of email opens occur on a device with Apple Mail Privacy Protection activated, a structural distortion of open-rate data since September 2021. Source: Litmus, Apple Mail Privacy Protection resources.
- Across every provider, government, nonprofit, and education sectors post the highest open rates, while retail and ecommerce sit at the lower end. Sources: Campaign Monitor (2022); Mailchimp (2023); GetResponse (2024).
Key Findings
- Mailchimp’s all-users averages were 35.63% open, 2.62% click, and 0.22% unsubscribe, last updated December 2023 across senders to at least 1,000 subscribers (Mailchimp, Email Marketing Benchmarks).
- Mailchimp’s nonprofit segment averaged a 40.04% open rate and a 3.27% click rate, the strongest of the named Mailchimp categories, in December 2023 data (Mailchimp, 2023).
- Mailchimp’s ecommerce segment averaged a 29.81% open rate and a 1.74% click rate, the lowest click rate among its named categories, in December 2023 data (Mailchimp, 2023).
- Campaign Monitor’s education sector led on click-to-open rate at 15.7%, against an all-industry average of 10.5%, based on 2021 send data (Campaign Monitor, 2022).
- Campaign Monitor’s retail sector showed the weakest engagement, with a 0.7% click-through rate and a 5.8% click-to-open rate, in 2021 send data (Campaign Monitor, 2022).
- GetResponse welcome emails averaged an 83.63% open rate and a 16.60% click-through rate, far above newsletters, in its 2024 report on 2023 data (GetResponse, 2024).
- GetResponse triggered emails averaged a 45.38% open rate and a 5.02% click-through rate, against newsletter averages of 40.08% and 3.84%, in 2023 data (GetResponse, 2024).
- GetResponse reported an all-industry bounce rate of 2.33% and an unsubscribe rate of 0.15% in its 2024 report (GetResponse, 2024).
- HubSpot reported an all-industry bounce rate of 2.48% and an unsubscribe rate of 0.22% in its benchmark guide, 2025 update (HubSpot).
- Klaviyo’s top-decile ecommerce brands reached campaign click rates up to 3.38% and flow click rates above 10.48%, against averages of 1.69% and 5.58%, in 2026 data (Klaviyo, 2026).
- Klaviyo reported an average behavior-based flow conversion rate of 2.11%, more than thirteen times the 0.16% average campaign conversion rate, in 2026 data (Klaviyo, 2026).
- Campaign Monitor’s all-industry open rate rose 3.5 points year over year to 21.5%, while its click-to-open rate fell 3.6 points to 10.5%, a divergence the firm attributes to Apple Mail Privacy Protection (Campaign Monitor, 2022).
- Litmus reported that more than half of all email opens now come from MPP-enabled Apple devices, undermining open rate as a standalone success metric (Litmus).
- GetResponse’s communications sector recorded the highest open rate in its dataset at 65.14%, followed by non-profits at 54.54%, in 2023 data (GetResponse, 2024).
Why Provider Numbers Differ
The headline averages range from 21.5% (Campaign Monitor, 2021 data) to 42.35% (HubSpot, 2025 update). This spread does not mean any provider is wrong. Each measures a different sample of senders, in a different year, using a different denominator, and against a different mix of industries. Comparing a single brand to the wrong benchmark is the most common analytical error in email reporting.
Campaign Monitor’s 21.5% reflects 100 billion emails sent in 2021, the year MPP launched in September, so much of that data predates full MPP inflation. Source: Campaign Monitor, 2022. GetResponse’s 39.64% reflects 4.4 billion messages from 2023, fully inside the MPP era. Source: GetResponse, 2024. HubSpot’s 42.35% and Mailchimp’s 35.63% likewise reflect post-MPP samples. The upward drift in open rates from 2021 to 2023 across providers is consistent with MPP pre-loading tracking pixels rather than with genuine improvement in subscriber attention.
Klaviyo’s figures are not directly comparable to the others because Klaviyo’s sample is almost entirely ecommerce and direct-to-consumer brands, and its most-cited metrics are click rate, conversion rate, and revenue per recipient rather than open rate. Source: Klaviyo, 2026.
| Provider (data year) | Open rate | Click-through rate | Click-to-open rate | Bounce rate | Unsubscribe rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign Monitor (2021) | 21.5% | 2.3% | 10.5% | n/a | 0.1% |
| Mailchimp (updated Dec 2023) | 35.63% | 2.62% | n/a | n/a | 0.22% |
| GetResponse (2023) | 39.64% | 3.25% | 8.62% | 2.33% | 0.15% |
| HubSpot (2025 update) | 42.35% | 2.3% | 5.3% | 2.48% | 0.22% |
Sources: Campaign Monitor (2022); Mailchimp; GetResponse (2024); HubSpot. Cells marked n/a were not published in the cited source. CTOR is not comparable across providers because each defines and inflates opens differently.
Benchmarks by Industry
The cleanest single-source industry table comes from Campaign Monitor, which published 18 industry categories on a consistent methodology of 100 billion emails sent in 2021. Because this dataset is largely pre-MPP, its open rates are lower and its click-to-open rates are more credible than later post-MPP datasets. Use it to compare industries to each other, not to compare an industry to today’s absolute open rate.
| Industry | Open rate | Click-through rate | Click-to-open rate | Unsubscribe rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Education | 28.5% | 4.4% | 15.7% | 0.2% |
| Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting | 27.3% | 3.4% | 12.5% | 0.3% |
| Financial Services | 27.1% | 2.4% | 10.1% | 0.2% |
| Nonprofit | 26.6% | 2.7% | 10.2% | 0.2% |
| Media, Entertainment, Publishing | 23.9% | 2.9% | 12.4% | 0.1% |
| Healthcare Services | 23.7% | 3.0% | 13.4% | 0.3% |
| Logistics & Wholesale | 23.4% | 2.0% | 11.7% | 0.3% |
| IT / Tech / Software | 22.7% | 2.0% | 9.8% | 0.2% |
| Real Estate, Design, Construction | 21.7% | 3.6% | 17.2% | 0.2% |
| Advertising & Marketing | 20.5% | 1.8% | 9.0% | 0.2% |
| Travel, Hospitality, Leisure | 20.2% | 1.4% | 8.7% | 0.2% |
| Consumer Packaged Goods | 20.0% | 1.9% | 11.1% | 0.1% |
| Other | 19.9% | 2.6% | 13.2% | 0.3% |
| Government & Politics | 19.4% | 2.8% | 14.3% | 0.1% |
| Professional Services | 19.3% | 2.1% | 11.1% | 0.2% |
| Wellness & Fitness | 19.2% | 1.2% | 6.0% | 0.4% |
| Restaurant, Food & Beverage | 18.5% | 2.0% | 10.5% | 0.1% |
| Retail | 17.1% | 0.7% | 5.8% | 0.1% |
Source: Campaign Monitor, Email Marketing Benchmarks (2022), analyzing 100 billion+ emails sent in 2021. The pattern holds across providers: knowledge-driven and mission-driven sectors (education, finance, nonprofit) earn higher engagement than high-volume promotional sectors (retail, food, fitness).
Mailchimp’s December 2023 data, drawn from a post-MPP sample, shows the same directional ranking with higher absolute open rates.
| Industry | Open rate | Click rate | Unsubscribe rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Profits | 40.04% | 3.27% | 0.18% |
| Education & Training | 35.64% | 3.02% | 0.18% |
| Business & Finance | 31.35% | 2.78% | 0.15% |
| Ecommerce | 29.81% | 1.74% | 0.19% |
| All users | 35.63% | 2.62% | 0.22% |
Source: Mailchimp, Email Marketing Benchmarks, last updated December 2023. Mailchimp restricts its sample to campaigns sent to at least 1,000 subscribers and warns directly that open rates are affected by Apple Mail Privacy Protection.
Automation and Triggered Emails Outperform Broadcasts
Two independent providers show that automated and triggered messages beat one-to-many newsletters on every engagement metric. This is the most actionable finding for practitioners because it points to a lever, not just a benchmark.
GetResponse reported a welcome-email open rate of 83.63% and click-through rate of 16.60%, against newsletter figures of 40.08% and 3.84%, in 2023 data. Source: GetResponse, 2024. GetResponse triggered emails averaged a 45.38% open rate and a 5.02% click-through rate. Source: GetResponse, 2024. Klaviyo reported that automated flows averaged a 5.58% click rate versus 1.69% for campaigns, and a 2.11% conversion rate versus 0.16% for campaigns, in 2026 ecommerce data. Source: Klaviyo, 2026.
| Email type | Open rate | Click-through rate | Click-to-open rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newsletter | 40.08% | 3.84% | 9.57% |
| Triggered | 45.38% | 5.02% | 11.07% |
| Autoresponder | 51.05% | 5.59% | 10.94% |
| RSS | 56.74% | 10.57% | 18.63% |
| Welcome email | 83.63% | 16.60% | 19.85% |
Source: GetResponse, Email Marketing Benchmarks (2024). Higher figures for triggered and welcome messages reflect recency and intent: the recipient asked for the message or just acted, so engagement is genuine rather than pixel-inflated.
The Apple Mail Privacy Protection Distortion
Apple Mail Privacy Protection launched in September 2021. When enabled, it pre-loads remote content, including the tracking pixel that email platforms use to record an open, before any human reads the message. The platform therefore records an open whether or not the recipient ever looked at the email. Every benchmark provider in this briefing flags this.
Litmus reported that over 50% of email opens now happen on a device with Apple Mail Privacy Protection activated. Source: Litmus. Campaign Monitor attributed the 3.5-point rise in its average open rate, alongside a 3.6-point fall in click-to-open rate, directly to MPP pre-fetching. Source: Campaign Monitor, 2022. Mailchimp, HubSpot, and GetResponse each carry an explicit warning that open-rate data is affected by MPP. Sources: Mailchimp; HubSpot; GetResponse.
The practical consequence is that click-through rate, click-to-open rate, and conversion or revenue per recipient are the defensible engagement metrics in the post-MPP era. Open rate remains useful only for spotting large deliverability drops over time, not for judging campaign quality.
Mobile and Email Client Share
Mobile is now the dominant reading environment, and Apple devices dominate the mobile share. Litmus reported that more than one third of emails are opened on an Apple iPhone, and that over half of all opens occur on MPP-enabled Apple clients. Source: Litmus. The same dominance that makes mobile-first design essential is what concentrates open-rate distortion in a single vendor’s privacy feature. There is no large, current, public dataset that cleanly separates verified human mobile opens from MPP-prefetched opens, so any precise mobile-versus-desktop open split published after 2021 should be treated as uncertain.
Original Synthesis
1. Provider Open-Rate Inflation Index. Logic: rank the four general-purpose providers by reported all-industry open rate and align each to its data year to expose MPP drift. Inputs: Campaign Monitor 21.5% (2021), Mailchimp 35.63% (2023), GetResponse 39.64% (2023), HubSpot 42.35% (2025 update). The 20.85-point gap between the earliest pre-MPP sample and the latest post-MPP sample is roughly double the typical year-over-year movement Campaign Monitor recorded, which is consistent with MPP being the primary driver of the rise rather than real engagement gains. Limitation: the providers measure different sender populations and industry mixes, so this is a directional indicator, not a controlled time series. Sources: Campaign Monitor (2022); Mailchimp; GetResponse (2024); HubSpot.
2. Automation Engagement Multiplier. Logic: divide automated-email engagement by broadcast engagement within the same provider to isolate the effect of triggering, holding the sample constant. Inputs: Klaviyo flow click 5.58% / campaign click 1.69% = about 3.3x; Klaviyo flow conversion 2.11% / campaign conversion 0.16% = about 13.2x; GetResponse triggered CTR 5.02% / newsletter CTR 3.84% = about 1.3x. The conversion multiplier is far larger than the click multiplier, which means automation’s biggest payoff is at the purchase step, not the click step. Limitation: Klaviyo’s sample is ecommerce-only, so the conversion multiplier may not transfer to B2B or media senders. Sources: Klaviyo (2026); GetResponse (2024).
3. Revenue Concentration Ratio for Ecommerce Email. Logic: compare each channel’s share of revenue to its share of send volume to measure efficiency. Inputs: Klaviyo reports flows at 5.3% of sends but nearly 41% of email revenue. Dividing revenue share by send share gives a flow efficiency index near 7.7x relative to volume, versus campaigns which carry about 94.7% of volume for the remaining roughly 59% of revenue, an index near 0.6x. This quantifies why low-volume lifecycle automation outearns high-volume promotional blasts per message sent. Limitation: single-provider, ecommerce-only, 2026 snapshot; revenue attribution windows vary by store. Source: Klaviyo (2026).
Charts to build
- Chart 1: “All-industry open rate by provider and data year.” Data needed: the four provider averages with their data years. Source: Campaign Monitor (2022), Mailchimp, GetResponse (2024), HubSpot. Insight: open rate rose with each later sample, tracking MPP rollout. Citation-worthy because it visualizes the MPP inflation story in one frame.
- Chart 2: “Industry open rate ranking (single consistent dataset).” Data needed: Campaign Monitor’s 18 industries sorted by open rate. Source: Campaign Monitor (2022). Insight: education and finance top the list; retail is last. Citation-worthy because it uses one methodology, avoiding cross-provider noise.
- Chart 3: “Automation vs newsletter, by metric.” Data needed: GetResponse open, CTR, and CTOR for newsletter, triggered, autoresponder, and welcome. Source: GetResponse (2024). Insight: every automated type beats newsletters. Citation-worthy as a clear case for lifecycle email.
- Chart 4: “Campaign vs flow efficiency in ecommerce.” Data needed: Klaviyo send share and revenue share for campaigns and flows. Source: Klaviyo (2026). Insight: 5.3% of sends drive ~41% of revenue. Citation-worthy for its sharp revenue-concentration contrast.
- Chart 5: “Share of opens affected by MPP.” Data needed: Litmus share of opens on MPP-enabled Apple clients. Source: Litmus. Insight: over half of opens are obscured. Citation-worthy because it justifies abandoning open rate as a primary KPI.
Simple inline bar chart, Campaign Monitor open rate by selected industry (2021 send data):
Source: Campaign Monitor (2022). Bar width is scaled at 10 pixels per percentage point.
Methodology
Source selection prioritized the email service providers and analytics firms that publish large-sample benchmark studies with stated methodologies: Mailchimp, HubSpot, GetResponse, Klaviyo, Campaign Monitor, and Litmus. Inclusion required a named publisher, a stated or inferable data year, and a numeric benchmark drawn from that publisher’s own platform data. Statistics without a clear primary publisher were excluded. Where the same metric differed across providers, all figures were retained and reported side by side with their data year rather than averaged, because the samples are not equivalent.
Conflicting open-rate figures were handled by attaching each number to its provider and data year and by foregrounding the Apple Mail Privacy Protection caveat that explains the upward drift. Derived insights in the Original Synthesis section use only arithmetic on the cited published figures (ratios and differences), with inputs and limitations stated for each. No third-party aggregator numbers were used as primary evidence. Klaviyo’s online benchmark page rendered several industry tables as interactive placeholders, so Klaviyo’s campaign-versus-flow and revenue figures are cited from Klaviyo’s published summary values rather than from a per-industry table. Date of last update: June 2026.
Source Quality
Tier 1 (primary platform data, large samples, stated methodology): Campaign Monitor (100 billion+ emails, 2021); GetResponse (4.4 billion messages, 2023); Mailchimp (platform data, campaigns to 1,000+ subscribers, updated December 2023); Klaviyo (183,000+ customers, 2026); HubSpot (platform data). These are first-party measurements of the senders on each platform.
Tier 2 (specialist analytics firm, primary measurement, sample not fully disclosed on the cited page): Litmus email client market share and MPP analysis.
Tier 3 (reputable journalism/expert commentary): none relied upon for numeric claims in this briefing; all figures trace to Tier 1 or Tier 2 publishers.
Most Quotable Statistics
- Over 50% of email opens now occur on a device with Apple Mail Privacy Protection enabled (Litmus).
- Automated flows generated nearly 41% of ecommerce email revenue from just 5.3% of sends (Klaviyo, 2026).
- Welcome emails averaged an 83.63% open rate, more than double the newsletter average (GetResponse, 2024).
- Reported all-industry open rates range from 21.5% (Campaign Monitor, 2021) to 42.35% (HubSpot, 2025 update), driven largely by MPP inflation.
- Retail posted the lowest engagement of 18 industries, at a 0.7% click-through rate (Campaign Monitor, 2021).
Data Limitations
- Open rates published after September 2021 are inflated by Apple Mail Privacy Protection and are not reliable measures of human attention (all providers).
- Providers measure different sender populations, years, industry mixes, and denominators, so headline averages are not directly comparable.
- Click-to-open rate is computed on an inflated open denominator post-MPP, so cross-provider CTOR comparison is unreliable.
- Klaviyo’s benchmarks are ecommerce/B2C only and should not be applied to B2B, media, or nonprofit senders.
- Campaign Monitor’s industry table reflects 2021 send data and may understate current absolute open rates while remaining the cleanest single-methodology cross-industry ranking available.
- Mobile-versus-desktop open splits published after 2021 are distorted by MPP prefetching and were not treated as verified.
Recommended Dataset Fields
For a downloadable CSV, include: provider; data_year; metric_type (open_rate, ctr, ctor, bounce_rate, unsub_rate, conversion_rate, rev_per_recipient); industry; email_type (broadcast, triggered, welcome, autoresponder, rss); segment_level (average, top_decile); value; sample_description; mpp_affected (yes/no); source_url. This structure lets a reader filter on a single provider and year, which is the only valid way to compare like with like.
Press Summary
Email open rates have become an unreliable headline metric. Since Apple launched Mail Privacy Protection in September 2021, the feature pre-loads tracking pixels and records opens automatically, and Litmus reports that more than half of all email opens now come from these MPP-enabled Apple devices. The distortion explains why published all-industry open rates climbed from 21.5% in Campaign Monitor’s 2021 dataset to over 42% in HubSpot’s latest figures, with no matching rise in real engagement. The more durable findings concern what actually drives results. Across providers, education, finance, and nonprofit sectors lead on engagement while retail trails. Automated, triggered, and welcome emails sharply outperform one-to-many newsletters: GetResponse found welcome emails open at 83.63%, and Klaviyo found that automated flows generate nearly 41% of ecommerce email revenue from only 5.3% of sends. For marketers and journalists, the takeaway is to benchmark on click-through, click-to-open, and revenue per recipient, and to compare any brand only to data from the same provider, year, and industry.
Suggested Headlines
- Email Open Rates Climbed to Over 42 Percent. Apple, Not Marketers, Did Most of the Work.
- 5.3 Percent of Sends, 41 Percent of Revenue: The Case for Automated Email
- Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry: Who Leads and Who Trails in 2026
- Why More Than Half of Your Email Opens Are Now Fiction
- The Only Email Metrics That Still Mean Something After Apple Mail Privacy Protection
FAQ
What is a good email open rate by industry? Education led Campaign Monitor’s 18 industries at 28.5% on 2021 send data, while retail was lowest at 17.1%; treat these as relative rankings because open rates are inflated post-MPP (Campaign Monitor, 2022).
What is the average email open rate across all industries? It depends on the provider and year, ranging from 21.5% (Campaign Monitor, 2021) to 42.35% (HubSpot, 2025 update) (Campaign Monitor; HubSpot).
What is a good email click-through rate? GetResponse reported an all-industry average click-through rate of 3.25% in its 2024 report on 2023 data (GetResponse, 2024).
What is a good click-to-open rate? GetResponse reported an all-industry click-to-open rate of 8.62% for 2023, though CTOR is distorted by MPP-inflated opens (GetResponse, 2024).
What is a normal email bounce rate? GetResponse reported an all-industry bounce rate of 2.33% for 2023, and HubSpot reported 2.48% (GetResponse, 2024; HubSpot).
What is a typical unsubscribe rate? Reported all-industry unsubscribe rates cluster low, from 0.1% (Campaign Monitor, 2021) to 0.22% (Mailchimp, 2023; HubSpot) (Campaign Monitor; Mailchimp; HubSpot).
Why did email open rates suddenly rise after 2021? Apple Mail Privacy Protection, launched September 2021, pre-loads tracking pixels and registers opens automatically, which Campaign Monitor cited as the cause of rising open rates and falling click-to-open rates (Campaign Monitor, 2022).
How much of email opens come from Apple Mail Privacy Protection? Litmus reported that over 50% of email opens occur on a device with MPP activated (Litmus).
Do automated emails perform better than newsletters? Yes; GetResponse found triggered emails open at 45.38% versus 40.08% for newsletters, and welcome emails at 83.63% (GetResponse, 2024).
Which industries have the lowest email engagement? Retail posted the lowest click-through rate at 0.7% among Campaign Monitor’s 18 industries on 2021 send data (Campaign Monitor, 2022).
For a fuller view of how these benchmarks apply to a specific sender, CO Consulting builds growth strategies on verified data rather than vanity metrics. If a benchmarking review would help, you can book a consultation.