Most open rate benchmark reports are published once a year and outdated the week they go live. This page is different. The data below comes from newsletter writers who voted on this page, it updates in real time and shifts as more writers share their numbers. Vote to see where you stand.
Where Does Your Open Rate Fall?
Vote to add your data point and see the current distribution.
What the Current Data Shows
The data is still forming, responses are arriving but haven't reached the volume needed for a stable distribution. What's already visible is the shape of the question: open rates are highly variable across newsletter types, and the benchmarks most writers reference are built on data that doesn't distinguish between a solo writer publishing weekly and an enterprise email list. This page will update as more writers vote. Check back when the sample is larger, this paragraph may say something different.
What the Numbers Mean
Why Open Rates Vary by Niche
A finance newsletter with 2,000 highly engaged subscribers will routinely see 45%+ open rates. A general-interest newsletter at 200,000 subscribers is doing well to hit 18%. The absolute number is almost meaningless without knowing list size and niche. What matters is your trend over time and how you compare within your category.
The benchmarks most cited in the industry, Mailchimp's annual report, Klaviyo's seasonal data, aggregate across industries that include e-commerce, SaaS, and brick-and-mortar retail. Newsletter writers are a subset with very different characteristics. The data on this page comes only from writers who identify as newsletter publishers, which makes it a more relevant comparison than any generic benchmark report.
The Post-iOS 15 Measurement Problem
Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), introduced in iOS 15, pre-loads email tracking pixels regardless of whether the recipient actually opens the email. For newsletters with a high proportion of Apple Mail readers, this inflates open rates artificially, sometimes by 10–20 percentage points.
If your open rate jumped sharply in late 2021 and never came back down, you are likely measuring machine opens, not human attention. Many writers now track click-to-open rate (CTOR) as a more reliable engagement signal.
What CTOR Tells You That Open Rate Doesn't
Click-to-open rate divides the number of unique clicks by the number of unique opens. It removes the noise of MPP inflation because clicks cannot be faked by a proxy server. A CTOR above 10% generally signals strong content-to-audience fit. Below 3% suggests opens are occurring but the content isn't landing.
If your open rate looks healthy but your CTOR is low, the issue is usually one of three things: subject line over-promises relative to content, the audience is too broad, or the content format isn't matching reader expectations.
Publishing Frequency and Open Rate Decay
Writers who publish daily typically see lower open rates per issue than writers who publish weekly. This is not a sign of worse content, it reflects reader habituation. Readers of daily newsletters develop a triage instinct and skip issues that don't match their current context.
If you are considering increasing publishing frequency, model the likely open rate impact before committing. A drop from 38% to 24% on twice-weekly sends may still represent a net increase in total attention if your list grows or engagement per reader holds.
Keep Your Benchmarks Current in Every Issue
Charts that reference these benchmarks in your newsletter go stale the moment your next issue lands. When you publish "our open rate is above the industry average" and link to a static chart from six months ago, that claim becomes false without you noticing.
LiquiChart charts connect to live data. When the benchmark on this page shifts, because more writers voted, or the distribution moved, the chart embedded in your web archive updates automatically. Your readers find accurate data whether they arrive today or two years from now.