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Open Rates

2025 email open rate benchmarks by industry — updated with real data

inbox_irisEmail Consultant

We aggregated anonymized data from our community to produce updated open rate benchmarks by industry for 2025.

Benchmarks (unique open rate)

  • Non-profit: 27.3% (highest — trust and mission-driven engagement)
  • Education: 25.1%
  • SaaS / Technology: 23.8%
  • Media / Publishing: 22.4%
  • Professional Services: 21.7%
  • Financial Services: 20.9%
  • E-commerce: 18.3%
  • Real Estate: 17.8%
  • Travel / Hospitality: 16.5% (lowest — high volume, lower engagement)

Methodology note

These numbers account for Apple MPP by excluding proxy opens where detectable. True engagement-based open rates are approximately 15-20% lower than the raw numbers most platforms report.

Do not compare your raw open rates against these benchmarks without understanding how your ESP handles MPP. Brew excludes MPP false positives from its reporting by default.

#benchmarks#open-rates#2025
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4 Comments

newsletter_nerdNewsletter Creator

Non-profit having the highest open rates makes sense. People who donate are emotionally invested and want to see impact. The lesson: relevance and emotional connection beat all tactics.

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ab_test_adam

Thank you for the MPP methodology note. Most benchmark reports do not adjust for Apple proxy opens, making their numbers misleading for comparison.

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metrics_mikeData Analyst

E-commerce at 18.3% — that seems about right given the volume most e-commerce brands send. Higher frequency naturally compresses open rates.

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b2b_brian

Our SaaS open rate is about 24% which matches these benchmarks. Good to know we are in line with the industry. Click-through is where we need improvement.

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