What is a good email deliverability rate or benchmark?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 4 Jun 2025
Updated 19 Aug 2025
6 min read
When we talk about email deliverability, one of the first questions that comes to mind is, "What's a good rate?" It seems like a straightforward question, but in the world of email, terms can often be confusing. Many people use deliverability and delivery rate interchangeably, but they are quite distinct metrics. Understanding this difference is crucial for assessing your email program's true health.
The delivery rate simply tells us whether an email successfully reached the recipient's mail server, without bouncing. Deliverability, on the other hand, dives deeper, indicating whether that email actually landed in the recipient's inbox, or if it ended up in the spam or junk folder. Most Email Service Providers (ESPs) readily report on delivery rate, but getting accurate deliverability (inbox placement) data can be more challenging and often requires specialized tools.
So, while a high delivery rate is a good start, it doesn't guarantee your messages are being seen. The goal is always to achieve high inbox placement. In this guide, I'll break down what good rates look like for both, and how you can work towards improving yours.
What constitutes a healthy email delivery rate?
A good email delivery rate indicates that your emails are being accepted by the receiving mail servers without encountering hard bounces. A high delivery rate, generally in the mid to high 90s, is essential for maintaining a clean and healthy email list. If your delivery rate falls below this, it suggests issues with your recipient list or potential blocking by ISPs.
Many email professionals consider anything above 90% to 98% to be a good average email delivery rate. Some even aim for 99% or higher, although achieving 100% consistently can be challenging, especially for large senders. The most common reasons for a lower delivery rate include sending to invalid or old email addresses, which result in hard bounces, or being put on an email blacklist (or blocklist) by an internet service provider (ISP).
What to target
Excellent: Consistently 99% or higher. This indicates an extremely clean list and strong sender reputation.
Good: Between 97-99%. This is a strong indicator of minimal bounce issues.
Acceptable: Between 95-97%. While not bad, it suggests room for improvement in list hygiene or sender practices.
To improve your delivery rate, focus on maintaining a healthy email list. Regularly remove invalid or inactive addresses and implement a strong list hygiene strategy. You should also address any issues that lead to your IP address or domain being added to a blacklist or blocklist. Understanding what bounce rate percentage causes deliverability problems is key, as high bounce rates signal issues to mailbox providers.
Aiming for optimal inbox placement
This is where the real challenge lies. Inbox placement rate, often referred to as deliverability, measures the percentage of your successfully delivered emails that land in the recipient's primary inbox, rather than the spam or junk folder. This metric is far more impactful than simple delivery rate because it directly affects whether your audience sees your messages.
A good inbox placement rate is generally considered to be anything above 89%, with 95% or higher indicating excellent performance for a healthy list. However, some sources suggest deliverability rates are holding steady in the 80-85% inbox placement range, which shows how varied benchmarks can be. This rate is influenced by a multitude of factors beyond just successful transmission, including sender reputation, email content quality, recipient engagement, and compliance with authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
Mailbox providers like Google and Yahoo use sophisticated algorithms to decide where an email lands. These algorithms consider signals such as how recipients interact with your emails, how often your emails are marked as spam, and your overall sending volume and consistency. To achieve a good inbox placement rate, you need to actively manage your sender reputation and ensure your email program is optimized for engagement.
Key metrics affecting inbox placement
Engagement rates: Positive interactions like opens, clicks, and replies signal to ISPs that your emails are valued. Low engagement can hurt your standing. Learn more about good email engagement thresholds.
Complaint rates: When recipients mark your email as spam, it severely damages your sender reputation. A high complaint rate is a major red flag. Discover acceptable email complaint rate benchmarks.
Spam trap hits: Hitting spam traps indicates poor list hygiene and can lead to immediate blacklisting. Understand what spam traps are and how they work.
Domain and IP reputation: ISPs assign a reputation score based on your sending history. A poor reputation means emails are more likely to go to spam or be blocked. Regularly check for blacklists and monitor your domain reputation.
To achieve higher inbox placement, I focus on several key areas. First, I ensure my email list is segmented and engaged, sending relevant content to the right audience. I also prioritize technical setup, making sure my DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records are correctly configured and aligned, which helps mailbox providers verify my sender identity. Regular monitoring of engagement metrics and prompt action on any dips are also crucial.
Industry benchmarks and the role of context
While general benchmarks provide a helpful starting point, it's important to remember that a good deliverability rate can vary significantly across industries and audience types. For example, transactional emails or highly engaged internal communications might see near 100% inbox placement, while promotional emails in a competitive industry might consider 85% excellent. Industry averages for open and click rates also show this variability.
Instead of obsessing over a single benchmark number, I recommend focusing on your historical performance and setting internal goals for improvement. Track your own trends in delivery, inbox placement, open rates, click-through rates, and complaint rates. This approach allows you to understand what is normal for your specific sending patterns and audience, enabling more effective optimization.
Delivery rate vs. inbox placement rate
The email delivery rate measures the percentage of emails that successfully reach the recipient's mail server without bouncing. It reflects the technical success of the transfer between your sending server and the receiving server.
A high delivery rate (e.g., 97-99%) indicates a healthy list with minimal invalid addresses and no major ISP blocks or blacklisting issues. It's a foundational metric, but it doesn't tell the full story about where your emails ultimately land within the mailbox.
The key is to use multiple KPIs to monitor email deliverability trends and build a comprehensive picture of your email program's performance. Focus on incremental improvements and adapt your strategy based on your unique audience and content. This will lead to more sustainable and impactful email marketing efforts.
The holistic view of email success
Understanding what constitutes a good email deliverability rate is more nuanced than simply looking at a single number. While a high delivery rate (97-99%) is fundamental, the true measure of success lies in your inbox placement rate. Aiming for over 89% inbox placement is generally considered good, with 95% or higher being excellent.
Ultimately, the best benchmark is your own past performance and continuous improvement. By focusing on maintaining a clean list, optimizing your email authentication, and crafting engaging content, you'll be well on your way to maximizing your email reach and impact. Remember, email deliverability is an ongoing process that requires constant attention and adaptation.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Actively manage your email list by regularly removing unengaged subscribers and invalid addresses to improve deliverability.
Segment your audience and personalize content to increase engagement, which positively impacts inbox placement.
Monitor key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and complaint rates to identify and address issues proactively.
Ensure proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is in place and correctly configured to build sender trust.
Common pitfalls
Confusing email delivery rate with inbox placement rate, leading to an inaccurate understanding of email performance.
Ignoring bounce rates and complaint rates, which are strong indicators of potential deliverability problems.
Sending to old, unengaged, or purchased lists, which can lead to spam trap hits and blacklist (blocklist) listings.
Focusing solely on industry benchmarks without considering your specific audience and sending patterns.
Expert tips
Regularly audit your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools for key insights.
Implement double opt-in for new subscribers to ensure high-quality, engaged contacts from the start.
Pay close attention to changes in ISP filtering rules, especially from major providers like Google and Yahoo.
Test your email content for spamminess before sending large campaigns to avoid common triggers.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says a good deliverability rate depends on the ESP, but 96% is the lowest acceptable tolerance.
September 12, 2019 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says if delivery falls below 99%, something is definitely wrong.
Google and 
Yahoo use sophisticated algorithms to decide where an email lands. These algorithms consider signals such as how recipients interact with your emails, how often your emails are marked as spam, and your overall sending volume and consistency. To achieve a good inbox placement rate, you need to actively manage your sender reputation and ensure your email program is optimized for engagement.
