Email open rate calculator: open rate, CTR and click-to-open
Email open rate is unique opens divided by emails delivered, times 100, where delivered is sent minus bounces, because a bounced email could never be opened. 1,600 opens from 4,850 delivered is 33.0%. Enter your campaign's numbers above for open rate, click-through rate and click-to-open rate, plus the rate without automated Apple opens if your platform reports them.
Hard plus soft. Bounced mail was never delivered, so it leaves the denominator.
Recipients who opened at least once, not total opens.
If your platform labels Apple Mail Privacy Protection or bot opens, enter how many of the unique opens they are.
- Open rate (of delivered)
- 33.0%
- Click-through rate
- 2.47%
- Click-to-open rate
- 7.50%
- Delivered
- 4,850
1,600 unique opens ÷ 4,850 delivered = 33.0%. Calculated on sent instead, it would read 32.0%: the 3.00% that bounced could never open.
Published averages, for context
- MailerLite (Dec 2024 to Nov 2025; MPP acknowledged, not stated as removed)43.46%
- Mailchimp (page updated Dec 2023; says accuracy may be affected)35.63%
- Klaviyo campaigns (2026 benchmarks page; period and MPP handling not stated)31%
- Campaign Monitor (2021 data, mostly before Apple's Mail Privacy Protection)21.5%
Each covers one platform’s customers, one period and its own handling of automated opens, so compare against your own history first.
Next step
150 of 5,000 emails (3.00%) never arrived, so they could never be opened.
Bounced addresses shrink your delivered count and count against your sender reputation on the next send, which pushes more mail to spam and lowers the opens you can measure. Verifying the list first removes dead addresses, so delivered is close to sent and your open rate reflects real people.
- Drop your list as a CSV
- See its rows, duplicates and bad formats, free
- 100 free email checks when you sign in with Google, no card
Ready to verify now? Verify the list
Sample result
33.0% of 4,850 delivered emails were opened, or 24.7% without machine opens.
- Open rate (of delivered)
- 33.0%
- Click-through rate
- 2.47%
- Click-to-open rate
- 7.50%
What this means for you
Apple and bot opens inflate the number; judge campaigns on clicks and the lower rate.
- Opens over delivered, not sent
- Click-through and click-to-open rates
- Optional cut for Apple or machine opens
- Four published averages side by side
- Open rate
- CTR
- MPP
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
How do I calculate my email open rate?
- Enter emails sent and bounces (hard and soft together) from your campaign report.
- Enter unique opens, the number of recipients who opened at least once, and unique clicks if you have them.
- If your platform labels Apple Mail Privacy Protection or bot opens, enter how many of the unique opens they were.
- Read the open rate, CTR and click-to-open rate, and how they compare with the published averages listed under the result.
Example
- You enter
- 5,000 sent, 150 bounced, 1,600 unique opens, 120 unique clicks, of which 400 opens were machine opens.
- You get
- A 33.0% open rate on 4,850 delivered (32.0% on sent), 24.7% without machine opens, 2.47% click-through and 7.50% click-to-open.
- Limits
- No limit; runs in your browser.
How is email open rate calculated?
Open rate = unique opens ÷ delivered × 100, where delivered = sent − bounced. In a spreadsheet with sent in A2, bounces in B2 and unique opens in C2, that's =C2/(A2-B2) formatted as a percentage.
Use unique figures, not totals: someone who opens five times is one open, and that is what "unique open rate" means. And use delivered, not sent. Most platforms do, but if you work it out by hand on sent, a list with many dead addresses looks less engaging than it is, and a cleaner list next month looks like a jump in engagement that isn't there.
What is click-to-open rate, and how is it different from click-through rate?
Click-to-open rate (CTOR) is unique clicks divided by unique opens, times 100; click-through rate (CTR) is unique clicks divided by delivered emails. With the example numbers, 120 clicks from 1,600 opens is a 7.5% CTOR, and 120 clicks from 4,850 delivered is a 2.47% CTR.
They answer different questions. CTR measures the whole send, so it moves with list quality and subject lines. CTOR measures only people who opened, so it shows how well the content worked once read. Because opens are inflated by automated opens (below), CTOR reads lower than it should when many opens weren't people.
Why are email open rates inflated?
Opens are counted when a tiny tracking image loads, and some things load it without a person reading. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, launched in September 2021, loads remote content in the background "regardless of whether you engage with the email" (Apple), so mail to Apple Mail users with it on can register as opened unread. Security scanners fetch images too. Some platforms label these: Klaviyo adds an "Apple Privacy Open" property, and Mailchimp filters bot activity by default.
If your platform gives you that count, enter it and the calculator shows both rates. If it doesn't, treat open rate as a trend on the same list over time, and lean on clicks and replies, which need a person.
What is a good average open rate?
Published averages run from 21.5% (Campaign Monitor, 2021 data, mostly before Apple's change) to 43.46% (MailerLite, December 2024 to November 2025), with Mailchimp at 35.63%. They differ because each covers one platform's customers, one period and its own handling of automated opens; Klaviyo publishes 43.33% for Q3 2023 on one page and 31% on another. Our open rate benchmarks put six sources side by side with their dates.
For cold email, opens are weaker still: tracking pixels can hurt deliverability, and many senders turn them off (why). Reply rate is the number to watch there.
What are the open rate, CTR and CTOR formulas in a spreadsheet?
These are the calculator's own formulas. With sent in A2, bounces in B2, unique opens in C2, unique clicks in D2 and Apple or machine opens in E2:
| Metric | Spreadsheet formula | Example result |
|---|---|---|
| Open rate | =C2/(A2-B2) | 1,600 ÷ 4,850 = 33.0% |
| Click-through rate (CTR) | =D2/(A2-B2) | 120 ÷ 4,850 = 2.47% |
| Click-to-open rate (CTOR) | =D2/C2 | 120 ÷ 1,600 = 7.5% |
| Open rate without machine opens | =(C2-E2)/(A2-B2) | Depends on E2 |
Format each cell as a percentage. Use unique opens and clicks, not totals.
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Marketers
- Recalculate an ESP's open rate on delivered mail, and see the rate with Apple's automated opens taken out when the platform labels them.
- Agencies
- Report open rate, CTR and click-to-open rate to clients with the same formula across every platform they use, so month-on-month numbers compare.
- Cold emailers
- If you still track opens, see how much of the open rate is real, then move judgement to replies. Bounces are part of the input, so a dirty list shows up as a bounce rate problem, not an engagement one.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- It can only remove automated opens your platform counts and you enter. Without that number, the open rate includes Apple and scanner opens.
- Opens rely on images loading. Recipients who block images and read the email anyway aren't counted.
- The published averages are other platforms' customers over other periods, not a target for your list.
- It works on one campaign's totals. For an average across campaigns, add the opens and delivered figures before dividing.
Common questions
- How do you calculate email open rate?
- Divide unique opens by emails delivered (sent minus bounces) and multiply by 100. 1,600 unique opens from 5,000 sent with 150 bounces is 1,600 ÷ 4,850 = 33.0%.
- What is the open rate formula in Excel?
- With emails sent in A2, bounces in B2 and unique opens in C2, use =C2/(A2-B2) and format the cell as a percentage. Click-to-open rate is =D2/C2 with unique clicks in D2.
- How do I calculate the average open rate across campaigns?
- Add up the unique opens from every campaign and divide by the total delivered across them. Averaging the percentages instead gives a small campaign the same weight as a large one, which skews the result.
- Should open rate use emails sent or delivered?
- Delivered. Bounced emails never reached an inbox, so including them in the denominator understates engagement and mixes list quality into an engagement number. Most email platforms calculate on delivered.
- What's the difference between CTR and click-to-open rate?
- CTR is unique clicks divided by delivered emails. Click-to-open rate (CTOR) is unique clicks divided by unique opens, so it measures how compelling the content was to people who opened.
- What is a unique open rate?
- Open rate counted once per recipient, however many times each person opened. It's the standard open rate; a rate on total opens counts repeat opens and reads higher.
- What is a good email open rate?
- Recent published averages range from about 31% to 43% for marketing email, but they include different amounts of automated Apple opens. Your own trend on the same list is a better yardstick than any single average.
- Does Apple Mail Privacy Protection affect open rates?
- Yes. Apple says Mail Privacy Protection downloads remote content in the background whether or not the user engages, so tracking pixels load and register opens. If your platform labels these opens, enter them above to see the rate without them.
Sources
Authentication and capacity are half of deliverability.
The other half is who you send to. Every hard bounce counts against the domain and inboxes you are sending from, and nothing in DNS can tell you which addresses on your list are dead.
- Bulk verification with real SMTP mailbox checks
- Hard bounces removed before a send, not discovered after
- Catch-all, disposable and role detection on every row
One plan, cancel anytime, no contract. Sign in with Google and your first 100 email checks are free, no card. The free tools stay free either way.