Email Deliverability Statistics 2026: Bounce, Spam and Authentication Data
Email deliverability in 2026 comes down to a few published numbers: Gmail wants spam complaints below 0.10% and never 0.30%, platforms review accounts at bounce rates from 2% to 10%, and only 53% of the large consumer mailbox providers we tested will say whether a mailbox exists. This page collects 74 figures in one place, each with its date and source, and a CSV you can download and reuse.
How this page is built
Every number here is either from a SimpleVerifier study with its own page and CSV, or from a public document we link, read on the date shown. Nothing is estimated, extrapolated or taken from a third-party roundup.
- Our studies. Dated tests on public DNS records, public pages and made-up addresses we generated. No customer data and no real person's address was used. Each study page has its method and limits. See all of them on the research page.
- Public documentation. Thresholds are copied from Google's, Yahoo's, Microsoft's, Amazon's, HubSpot's, Brevo's, Postmark's, Instantly's and lemlist's own pages, and labour figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. We read them on 1 October 2026 unless a row says otherwise; vendors change these, so check the source before relying on a figure.
- What is missing on purpose. Industry-wide open rates, "average bounce rate" percentages and email decay rates are absent, because we could not trace them to a primary source. A weak statistic repeated by many sites is still weak. We do not publish an accuracy percentage for our own checker either, because we have no independent measurement to back one.
Download: the full dataset as CSV (74 rows, CC BY 4.0).
The figures
Mailbox checks
What 51 consumer mailbox providers did when asked whether a made-up address exists.
| Figure | Value | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Providers that said a made-up mailbox does not exist | 27 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Providers that accepted every address | 10 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Providers not probed (Microsoft consumer, Apple iCloud) | 6 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Providers that refused our check | 7 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Providers that deferred our check | 1 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Providers answering the same way in both rounds (about 10.5 hours apart) | 51 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
Authentication
How widely email authentication is published, from our own DNS studies.
| Figure | Value | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer mailbox domains publishing SPF and DMARC | 51 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Consumer mailbox domains with DMARC p=none | 20 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Consumer mailbox domains with DMARC p=reject | 12 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Consumer mailbox domains with an MTA-STS policy record | 18 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Consumer mailbox domains signed with DNSSEC | 11 of 51 | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Live disposable-email domains on Google, Microsoft, Zoho, Yandex, Proton or Mail.ru mail servers | 2.4 % | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| Live disposable-email domains using their own or small hosts | 91.8 % | 2026-10-23 | our study |
| SaaS companies publishing a valid DMARC record | 97 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| SaaS companies fully enforcing DMARC (quarantine or reject at pct=100) | 63.5 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| SaaS companies on DMARC p=none | 27.5 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| S&P 500 companies on DMARC p=none | 9.1 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| S&P 500 companies fully enforcing DMARC | 88.7 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Published SPF records needing more than 10 DNS lookups (permerror) | 16 of 673 | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Published SPF records at 8 to 10 lookups (one new tool from failing) | 120 of 673 | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| SaaS companies using ~all as their SPF default | 74.5 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Major domains publishing MTA-STS | 58 of 1,359 | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Major domains enforcing a working MTA-STS policy | 28 of 1,359 | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| MTA-STS domains with a broken policy host | 7 of 58 | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| S&P 500 companies publishing BIMI | 16.9 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| SaaS companies publishing BIMI | 11.5 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| S&P 500 BIMI publishers meeting Gmail's bar (unexpired certificate, enforced DMARC, logo loaded) | 13.5 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| BIMI domains pointing at an expired certificate | 22 of 256 | 2026-10-02 | our study |
Disposable and free providers
Disposable-domain and mail-hosting figures from our own studies.
| Figure | Value | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disposable domains in the analysed list | 8740 domains | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Disposable domains with a live MX record | 66.4 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Disposable domains that no longer exist | 21.3 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Disposable domains containing an obvious throwaway word such as temp or trash | 4.9 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Live disposable domains routing mail through ten servers | 47 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Consumer mail domains with live MX records | 79 of 79 | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| SaaS companies receiving mail directly at Google Workspace | 93.5 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| S&P 500 companies receiving mail directly at Google Workspace | 4.0 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| S&P 500 domains routing mail through a security gateway first | 56.7 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| S&P 500 companies using Proofpoint as their front door | 45.2 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
Sender rules
The published rules and numbers for sending to Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com, read from each provider's own documentation.
| Figure | Value | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google: bulk sender threshold | 5000 messages a day to personal Gmail accounts | 2026-10-01 | support.google.com |
| Google: user-reported spam rate to stay below | 0.10 % | 2026-10-01 | support.google.com |
| Google: spam rate to never reach | 0.30 % | 2026-10-01 | support.google.com |
| Yahoo: spam complaint line | 0.3 % | 2026-10-01 | senders.yahooinc.com |
| Microsoft Outlook.com: high-volume sender threshold | 5000 emails a day | 2025-05-05 | techcommunity.microsoft.com |
| Google: minimum DKIM key length accepted | 1024 bits (2048 recommended) | 2026-10-01 | support.google.com |
| SPF: maximum DNS lookups before permerror | 10 lookups | 2014-04-01 | rfc-editor.org |
Platform limits
Where each sending platform reviews, pauses or suspends an account, read from each vendor's help pages.
| Figure | Value | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo: hard bounce rate that can lead to suspension | 2 % (above) | 2026-10-01 | help.brevo.com |
| HubSpot: hard bounce rate that can lead to suspension (in a month) | 5 % | 2026-10-01 | knowledge.hubspot.com |
| Amazon SES: bounce rate that puts an account under review | 5 % | 2026-10-01 | docs.aws.amazon.com |
| Amazon SES: bounce rate at which sending may be paused | 10 % | 2026-10-01 | docs.aws.amazon.com |
| Amazon SES: complaint rate that puts an account under review | 0.1 % | 2026-10-01 | docs.aws.amazon.com |
| Amazon SES: complaint rate at which sending may be paused | 0.5 % | 2026-10-01 | docs.aws.amazon.com |
| HubSpot: spam report rate that can lead to suspension | 0.1 % | 2026-10-01 | knowledge.hubspot.com |
| Postmark: bounce rate must stay below | 10 % | 2026-10-01 | postmarkapp.com |
| Instantly: default auto-pause bounce rate (campaigns with 200+ sends) | 5 % | 2026-10-01 | help.instantly.ai |
| lemlist: bounce rate that triggers an alert | 10 % | 2026-10-01 | help.lemlist.com |
Verification market
What email verification costs and what vendors claim, from two audits we ran on public pages.
| Figure | Value | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest published price to verify 10,000 addresses | 11.90 USD | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Highest published price to verify 10,000 addresses | 129 USD | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Lowest published price to verify 1,000,000 addresses | 349 USD | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Highest published price to verify 1,000,000 addresses | 3199 USD | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Median one-off price per 1,000 addresses at 10,000 | 5.00 USD | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Median one-off price per 1,000 addresses at 100,000 | 3.20 USD | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Median one-off price per 1,000 addresses at 1,000,000 | 1.35 USD | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Verifier sites audited | 19 vendors | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Vendors publishing an accuracy figure | 11 of 19 | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Range of published accuracy figures | 97 to 99.73 % | 2026-10-02 | our study |
| Vendors giving different figures for the same claim on different pages | 2 of 19 | 2026-10-02 | our study |
Why lists decay
Official US labour statistics that set the scale of how often work addresses stop working. They are not email data.
| Figure | Value | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median years with current employer, US wage and salary workers | 4.1 years | 2026-01 | bls.gov |
| Median years with current employer, workers aged 25 to 34 | 3.0 years | 2026-01 | bls.gov |
| Total US job separations in August 2026 | 5.1 million | 2026-08 | bls.gov |
| Separations as a share of employment in August 2026 | 3.2 % | 2026-08 | bls.gov |
SimpleVerifier checker facts
Facts about our own checker, so you can interpret the rest.
| Figure | Value | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disposable domains on SimpleVerifier's list | 9913 domains | 2026-10-23 | simpleverifier.com |
| List verification pace, peak | 60 addresses a minute | 2026-10-23 | simpleverifier.com |
| List verification pace, day average | 30 addresses a minute | 2026-10-23 | simpleverifier.com |
| Days a confirmed result is returned from cache | 14 days | 2026-10-23 | simpleverifier.com |
What the numbers say
- There is no single "safe" bounce rate. The lines depend on who carries your mail, and some do not publish theirs. Keeping hard bounces under about 2% leaves room under every published line. See bounce rate limits by platform and the bounce rate calculator.
- Complaints are the tighter constraint. The strictest figures sit at 0.1%, and Gmail and Yahoo calculate against mail that reached the inbox. Verification lowers bounces, not complaints; relevance and one-click unsubscribe lower complaints. See what spam complaint rate is too high.
- Half of the big providers cannot be fully verified. Where a provider accepts everything or hides mailbox status, the honest result is "risky". See how mailbox providers answer verification checks.
- Authentication is nearly universal but rarely enforced. All 51 consumer mailbox domains publish SPF and DMARC, but only a quarter publish p=reject. See DMARC from none to reject.
- Price varies more than quality can be shown to. Published prices differ by up to nine times at one million addresses, and accuracy claims cannot be checked from outside. See the pricing index and the claims audit.
How to cite this page
Link to https://simpleverifier.com/blog/email-deliverability-statistics-2026 and name the row you use. For one of our studies, prefer the study's own page, which gives the method. For a public threshold, cite the original source in the row's source_url column.
Limitations
- Our studies are snapshots on the dates shown; rerun results get new dates and do not replace old figures.
- The mailbox provider test used one checking server, and providers judge the server as well as the address, so the "refused" group says more about the checker than about any mailbox.
- Sample sizes differ by study (51 providers, 200 SaaS companies, 496 S&P 500 companies); each row states its scope.
- The labour statistics set the scale of job turnover only; they are not an email decay rate.
- Vendor documentation changes. A row is correct as of its date, not forever.
Check your own list
Run any address through the checker above, or verify a list: the first 100 checks are free with a Google sign-in. The research page lists every study behind these figures.
Common questions
What bounce rate is too high?
Published enforcement lines run from 2% to 10%. Brevo can suspend above a 2% hard bounce rate, HubSpot at 5% in a month, Amazon SES reviews at 5% and may pause at 10%, and Postmark requires under 10%. Several large platforms enforce thresholds they do not publish.
What spam complaint rate do Gmail and Yahoo allow?
Google asks bulk senders to stay below 0.10% and never reach 0.30%. Yahoo names 0.3% as its line. Amazon SES reviews accounts at 0.1% and may pause sending at 0.5%.
How many consumer mailbox providers will confirm a mailbox exists?
In our 23 October 2026 test, 27 of 51 consumer providers (53%) said a made-up address does not exist, so a mailbox check there is reliable. 10 (20%) accepted every address, 6 (12%) were not probed because they do not confirm mailboxes, and 7 (14%) refused our check.
How many domains enforce DMARC?
In our October 2026 studies, 63.5% of 200 SaaS companies and 88.7% of S&P 500 companies fully enforce DMARC, while 20 of 51 consumer mailbox domains publish p=none and 12 of 51 publish p=reject.
Can I use these statistics?
Yes. Our figures are licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse them, including commercially, with a link back to this page. Public figures remain the property of their sources, which are linked in the CSV for every row.
Check your list before you send
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