Email Open Rate Calculator
Email open rate = unique opens ÷ delivered. Also click rate, click-to-open rate, bounce and unsubscribe rates, with the arithmetic shown. No signup.
Total sent for the campaign
Emails that were not delivered
Leave empty to use sent minus bounced
Each recipient counted once
Each recipient counted once
Unsubscribes from this campaign
The numbers above are a made-up example, not data about any campaign. Use the unique counts from your email platform's report, not total opens or total clicks.
Open tracking is unreliable. Apple Mail Privacy Protection, introduced in 2021, stops senders from seeing when a message is opened, and Mailchimp says it can falsely inflate open and click metrics. Treat the open rate as an upper estimate and lean on click rate when you can. Platforms also differ on the denominators, for example sent versus delivered, so compare rates only with ones calculated the same way.
What Email Open Rate Calculator Does
Email open rate, click rate and the other campaign percentages all start from the same few counts in your email platform report. This calculator takes emails sent, bounced, unique opens, unique clicks and unsubscribes, works out how many were delivered, and returns the open rate, click rate, click-to-open rate, bounce rate and unsubscribe rate, with the division written out under each.
Open rate is the least reliable of them. Apple Mail Privacy Protection, announced in 2021, stops senders from seeing when a message is opened, and Mailchimp warns that it can falsely inflate open and click metrics. That is why the page shows click rate and click-to-open rate next to open rate, and why it treats the open figure as an upper estimate rather than a verdict.
How to Use Email Open Rate Calculator
- Enter the emails sent and how many bounced; delivered is worked out as sent minus bounced unless you type it in
- Enter the unique opens, unique clicks and unsubscribes from your email platform report
- Read the open rate, click rate, click-to-open rate, bounce rate and unsubscribe rate with the arithmetic under each
- Use Copy results to paste the figures elsewhere, or Reset to return to the example campaign
Formula Used by Email Open Rate Calculator
Open rate
Open rate = unique opens ÷ delivered × 100
- Delivered
- Sent minus bounced, unless you enter a delivered figure from your platform
- Unique opens
- Recipients who opened at least once, each counted one time
Worked example
Made-up campaign: 10,000 sent, 200 bounced, 2,450 unique opens.
- 10,000 − 200 = 9,800 delivered
- 2,450 ÷ 9,800 = 0.25
- 0.25 × 100 = 25%
Result: An open rate of 25%. Divided by sent instead, the same opens would give 24.5%.
Click rate and click-to-open rate
Click rate = unique clicks ÷ delivered × 100 · CTOR = unique clicks ÷ unique opens × 100
Worked example
The same campaign with 392 unique clicks.
- 392 ÷ 9,800 = 4%
- 392 ÷ 2,450 = 16%
Result: A click rate of 4% and a click-to-open rate of 16%.
Bounce rate and unsubscribe rate
Bounce rate = bounced ÷ sent × 100 · Unsubscribe rate = unsubscribes ÷ delivered × 100
Worked example
The same campaign with 200 bounces and 49 unsubscribes.
- 200 ÷ 10,000 = 2%
- 49 ÷ 9,800 = 0.5%
Result: A bounce rate of 2% and an unsubscribe rate of 0.5%. Some platforms use a different denominator for these two.
The Default Campaign Worked Out
Made-up counts. Each rate is computed from the counts in the left column.
| Metric | Count | Divided by | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivered | 9,800 | sent 10,000 − bounced 200 | |
| Open rate | 2,450 unique opens | 9,800 delivered | 25% |
| Click rate | 392 unique clicks | 9,800 delivered | 4% |
| Click-to-open rate | 392 unique clicks | 2,450 unique opens | 16% |
| Bounce rate | 200 bounced | 10,000 sent | 2% |
| Unsubscribe rate | 49 unsubscribes | 9,800 delivered | 0.5% |
How to Read Your Result
Sent versus delivered
Mailchimp defines open rate as the share of successfully delivered emails that were opened, which is the base used here. Mailtrap’s open rate guide divides opens by total recipients. When bounces are a few percent the two differ by a fraction of a point, as in the example above, but they can differ more on a poor list. Check the base before comparing.
What Apple Mail Privacy Protection changed
Apple’s 2021 announcement describes Mail Privacy Protection as stopping senders from using invisible pixels to learn when a user opens an email. Because opens are counted from those pixels, Mailchimp says it can falsely inflate open and click metrics and recommends excluding Apple MPP and other bot activity from reports where the platform allows it. Opens are best read as an upper estimate.
Why click-to-open rate helps
Click-to-open rate removes the audience that never opened, so it speaks more directly to the content of the email than click rate does. It is also affected by open inflation, since extra counted opens enlarge the base, which makes the figure look lower than the true behavior of real readers.
No benchmark is shown
Mailchimp notes that average open and click rates vary by audience, industry and company size. Benchmarks from other lists, mailing platforms or years are hard to compare, particularly across the 2021 change. The most dependable comparison is your own earlier campaigns, measured the same way.
Limitations & Accuracy Notes
- Use unique opens and unique clicks. Total counts include repeats and will push rates above what share of the audience took the action.
- Open tracking depends on images loading. Mail clients that block images undercount opens, and Apple Mail Privacy Protection can overcount them.
- Soft and hard bounces are entered together as one number. The tool does not split them.
- Bounce and unsubscribe rates use this tool’s denominators (sent and delivered). Platforms differ, so figures may not match your dashboard exactly.
- This is arithmetic on the numbers you type. It cannot tell whether a figure is good for your list.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate email open rate?
Divide unique opens by delivered emails, then multiply by 100. Mailchimp describes open rate as the share of successfully delivered emails that were opened. With 2,450 unique opens and 9,800 delivered, the open rate is 25%. Use unique opens, where each recipient counts once, not the total number of times emails were opened.
Is open rate based on emails sent or delivered?
Mailchimp bases it on delivered emails, and that is what this calculator does. Some guides divide by total recipients instead, which gives a lower figure when some emails bounce: 2,450 over 10,000 sent is 24.5%, not 25%. When you compare open rates, check which denominator each source used.
What is the difference between click rate and click-to-open rate?
Click rate is unique clicks divided by delivered emails, so it measures the whole audience. Click-to-open rate is unique clicks divided by unique opens, so it measures how many openers clicked. With 392 clicks, 2,450 opens and 9,800 delivered, click rate is 4% and click-to-open rate is 16%.
How does Apple Mail Privacy Protection affect open rates?
Apple announced Mail Privacy Protection in 2021, and it stops senders from seeing when a recipient opens an email. Mailchimp says it can falsely inflate open and click metrics. Opens for Apple Mail users may therefore be overstated, so treat open rate as an upper estimate and weigh clicks more heavily.
How are bounce rate and unsubscribe rate calculated here?
Bounce rate is bounced emails divided by emails sent. Unsubscribe rate is unsubscribes divided by delivered emails. Platforms do not all use the same denominators, and some report them against sent, so compare your figures only with rates calculated the same way. Both are shown with the numbers used.
What is a good email open rate?
This tool shows no benchmark. Mailchimp notes that average open and click rates vary by audience, industry and company size, and Apple Mail Privacy Protection distorts open data. A better yardstick is your own earlier campaigns, measured the same way and with the same list.
Why can there be more clicks than opens?
Open tracking relies on an image loading, and some mail clients block images, so a click can arrive from someone whose open was never recorded. When unique clicks exceed unique opens the calculator still works, flags it, and the click-to-open rate can go above 100%.
References & Further Reading
- Mailchimp — About Open and Click Rates — Open rate as the share of delivered emails opened; click rate as delivered emails with at least one click; Apple MPP can falsely inflate open and click metrics
- Apple Newsroom — iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey (June 2021) — Mail Privacy Protection stops senders from using invisible pixels to see when an email is opened
- Mailtrap — How to calculate email open rate — Open rate over total recipients; click-to-open rate as unique clicks ÷ unique opens, with a 150 opens, 42 clicks example
- Twilio SendGrid — Click-to-open rate — Click-to-open rate = unique clicks ÷ unique opens × 100