Unsubscribe rate calculator: which campaign made people leave?
In short: Unsubscribes ÷ delivered for up to eight campaigns, the pooled rate across them, each campaign against your own average with the ones at twice the usual rate flagged, plus complaint rate and unsubscribes per complaint when you add complaints. Limit: Mailbox providers publish no unsubscribe-rate limit, so it doesn't grade against one.
Unsubscribe rate is unsubscribes divided by delivered emails, times 100: 30 unsubscribes on 12,000 delivered is 0.25%. Enter each campaign's numbers to see its rate, the overall rate across them, and which campaigns lost at least twice as many readers as the rest, which is a more useful test than any industry average.
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Campaigns
The figures loaded are an example. Replace them with your own from each campaign report; complaints are optional.
0.41%
135 unsubscribes ÷ 32,800 delivered × 100, across 3 campaigns.
- Unsubscribe rate
- 0.41%
- One unsubscribe per
- 243 delivered
- Complaint rate
- 0.046%
- Unsubscribes per complaint
- 9.0
Each campaign against the others
- Spring launch0.25% · 0.6× the average · 0.033% complaints
- Weekly #410.20% · 0.5× the average · 0.017% complaints
- Re-engagement0.90% · 2.2× the average · 0.10% complaints
Re-engagement lost at least twice as many readers as your other campaigns. Look at who it went to (an old segment, a new import) and what it promised, before sending to that audience again.
There is no published “safe” unsubscribe rate from Gmail or Yahoo; they set limits on spam complaints, not unsubscribes. Your own history is the better yardstick: a campaign well above your usual rate is the one to look at.
Next step
Unsubscribes are people leaving. Bounces are addresses that were never there.
An unsubscribe is a healthy exit; a bounce tells Gmail and Yahoo the list is poorly kept. Old segments and imports that drive unsubscribes usually carry dead addresses too. Verifying the list before the next send removes the bounces.
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Sample result
A 0.41% unsubscribe rate across 3 campaigns; the re-engagement send lost 0.90%, over twice the others.
- Unsubscribe rate
- 0.41%
- One unsubscribe per
- 243 delivered
- Complaint rate
- 0.046%
What this means for you
Look at who that campaign went to before mailing the same segment again.
- Unsubscribes over delivered
- Up to 8 campaigns side by side
- Outlier campaigns flagged
- Unsubscribes per complaint
- Unsubscribes
- Campaigns
- List health
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
How do I calculate my email unsubscribe rate?
- Open each campaign's report in your email platform and note delivered (sent minus bounces) and unsubscribes.
- Enter up to eight campaigns, with spam complaints too if you have them.
- Read the overall rate and each campaign against your own average.
- Look at what the flagged campaigns had in common: an old segment, a new import, a different offer or frequency.
Example
- You enter
- 3 campaigns: 30 unsubscribes on 12,000 delivered (4 complaints), 24 on 11,800 (2) and 81 on 9,000 (9).
- You get
- A 0.41% unsubscribe rate across 32,800 delivered, one per 243. The third campaign, at 0.90%, is flagged at more than twice the others' rate; complaints are 0.046% overall, 9 unsubscribes per complaint.
- Limits
- Up to 8 campaigns; runs in your browser.
How do I calculate unsubscribe rate?
Divide unsubscribes by emails delivered and multiply by 100. Thirty unsubscribes on 12,000 delivered emails is 30 ÷ 12,000 × 100 = 0.25%, one unsubscribe for every 400 delivered. In a spreadsheet the formula is =B2/C2 formatted as a percentage, with unsubscribes in B2 and delivered in C2.
Use delivered, not sent: a bounced email never reached anyone who could unsubscribe. Some platforms divide by opens instead, which gives a much higher number; check which one a report uses before comparing two of them.
What is a good unsubscribe rate?
There is no published line from the mailbox providers. Google's sender guidelines and Yahoo's best practices set limits on spam complaints (below 0.3%) and require easy one-click unsubscribe, but put no number on unsubscribes. Platforms such as Mailchimp publish average rates by industry, which tell you what is typical for their customers, not what is safe.
Your own history is the better yardstick. A campaign that loses twice as many readers as your usual send is telling you something about who it went to or what it said. The calculator flags those once you enter three or more campaigns.
Are unsubscribes bad for deliverability?
Not in themselves. An unsubscribe is a reader leaving the polite way; the alternative is the spam button, which does count against you. Google requires bulk senders to offer one-click unsubscribe, defined in RFC 8058, precisely so that people leave rather than complain. Ten or more unsubscribes per complaint is a sign the exit is easy to find.
What a spike in unsubscribes often does signal is a list problem: an old segment mailed after a long gap, or an import of contacts who don't remember you. Those segments also tend to carry addresses that no longer exist, which bounce.
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Email marketers
- Compare this month's campaigns side by side and find the one that drove people away.
- Newsletter writers
- See whether a change of frequency or format shows up as twice your usual unsubscribes.
- Ecommerce teams
- Check a win-back or re-engagement send against regular campaigns before rolling it out.
- Agencies
- Report unsubscribes alongside complaints so a client sees which one actually matters.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- Mailbox providers publish no unsubscribe-rate limit, so it doesn't grade against one.
- Outliers need at least three campaigns and three unsubscribes to be flagged.
- Small sends swing hard: two unsubscribes on 500 emails is 0.4%.
- It can't tell whether the addresses on the list exist.
Common questions
- How to calculate unsubscribe rate?
- Unsubscribes ÷ delivered emails × 100. For example, 24 unsubscribes on 11,800 delivered emails is 0.20%.
- What is the average email unsubscribe rate?
- Platforms publish averages for their own customers by industry, and they differ by platform and year. Compare each campaign with your own usual rate instead; a campaign at twice your norm is the one to look into.
- Is a high unsubscribe rate bad?
- It means the campaign reached people who didn't want it. That's better than spam complaints, but a spike usually points to an old or imported segment, a change in frequency or an offer that didn't fit.
- Should I divide by sent or delivered?
- Delivered. Bounced emails reached no one, so including them understates the rate, more so on lists with many bounces.
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
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