How to Calculate Open Rate on Emails

Understanding the performance of your email marketing campaigns is crucial for ROI. The Email Open Rate is one of the most fundamental metrics marketers track. It indicates the percentage of subscribers who opened your email out of the total number of subscribers who actually received it (excluding bounces).

Use the calculator below to instantly determine your campaign's open rate, or read further to understand the formula and benchmarks for success.

Email Open Rate Calculator

The total size of the segment you attempted to send to.

Undeliverable emails (hard & soft bounces).

The number of unique subscribers who opened the email.

Open Rate

0.00%

Delivered Emails

0

Deliverability Rate

0.00%

function calculateEmailMetrics() { // Get inputs var sentInput = document.getElementById('totalEmailsSent').value; var bouncedInput = document.getElementById('totalBounced').value; var openedInput = document.getElementById('totalOpened').value; // Convert to numbers var sent = parseFloat(sentInput); var bounced = parseFloat(bouncedInput); var opened = parseFloat(openedInput); // Validation if (isNaN(sent) || isNaN(bounced) || isNaN(opened)) { alert("Please enter valid numbers in all fields."); return; } if (sent < 0 || bounced < 0 || opened = sent) { alert("Bounced emails cannot equal or exceed total emails sent."); return; } // Calculation Logic // Delivered = Sent – Bounced var delivered = sent – bounced; // Open Rate = (Opened / Delivered) * 100 var openRate = (opened / delivered) * 100; // Deliverability Rate = (Delivered / Sent) * 100 var deliverabilityRate = (delivered / sent) * 100; // Update DOM document.getElementById('resultsContainer').style.display = 'block'; document.getElementById('resultOpenRate').innerHTML = openRate.toFixed(2) + '%'; document.getElementById('resultDelivered').innerHTML = delivered.toLocaleString(); document.getElementById('resultDeliverability').innerHTML = deliverabilityRate.toFixed(2) + '%'; // Dynamic Analysis Text var analysis = document.getElementById('analysisText'); if (openRate = 15 && openRate < 25) { analysis.innerHTML = "Your open rate is average. Good job, but there is room for A/B testing."; analysis.style.color = "#ffc107"; analysis.style.color = "#856404"; } else { analysis.innerHTML = "Excellent! Your open rate is above the industry average."; analysis.style.color = "#28a745"; } }

The Email Open Rate Formula

Calculating the open rate manually is straightforward. However, many marketers make the mistake of dividing opens by the total number of emails sent. This is incorrect because it does not account for bounced emails that never reached an inbox.

Open Rate = (Unique Opens ÷ (Total Sent – Bounced)) × 100

Where:

• Unique Opens: The count of individual subscribers who opened the email. If one person opens the email 5 times, it still counts as 1 unique open.
• Total Sent: The total number of email addresses in the campaign list.
• Bounced: Emails that were rejected by the recipient server (invalid address, full inbox, etc.).

Why Deliverability Matters

In our calculator, you will notice we calculate "Delivered Emails" first. This is the denominator of the equation. If you have a high bounce rate, your open rate might look artificially low if you calculated it against the total "sent" number. By removing bounces, you get an accurate picture of how engaging your subject line was for the people who actually had the opportunity to see it.

What is a Good Email Open Rate?

Open rates vary significantly by industry, but general benchmarks suggest:

• 15% – 25%: Good/Average. This is the sweet spot for most industries.
• Above 25%: Excellent. You have a highly engaged list and strong subject lines.
• Below 15%: Needs Improvement. This often indicates list hygiene issues or unappealing subject lines.

3 Tips to Increase Your Open Rate

1. Scrub Your List: Remove inactive subscribers and hard bounces. This improves your deliverability reputation and ensures your math (the denominator) is accurate.
2. A/B Test Subject Lines: Test questions vs. statements, emojis vs. text-only, and short vs. long subject lines to see what your audience prefers.
3. Optimize Pre-header Text: The snippet of text visible next to the subject line in an inbox is prime real estate. Use it to tease the content inside.