Email marketing held its ground in 2025. Open rates edged upward, click behaviour recovered, and marketers spread their campaigns more evenly across the year. Those are the main findings from the fifth edition of the GDMA International Email Benchmark 2026, the largest independent benchmark study in email marketing worldwide.

The numbers: stable with a modest recovery

The global Acceptance Rate held steady at 98.6%. The Open Rate (34.2%) returned to its 2023 level, meaning consumers opened commercial emails more often than in 2024.

Both the Click to Open Rate (7.7%) and the Click Through Rate (3%) showed a slight recovery. Recipients who opened an email were a little more likely to click through than the year before. Relevant content and well-timed delivery are key factors here.

From end-of-year peaks to year-round sending

The most notable shift in 2025 is how organisations distribute campaigns across the year. Q4 traditionally saw clear peaks driven by Black Friday and holiday campaigns. In 2025, those peaks flattened as marketers spread their sending volumes more evenly.

Globally, peak sending now starts as early as July. The share of campaigns sent in November and December dropped slightly. The logic is straightforward: spreading campaigns reduces dependence on peak periods, when crowded inboxes push open rates down.

Tuesday and Thursday now share the top spot

Sending day preferences also shifted in 2025. Tuesday and Thursday both gained ground as the preferred days to send. Thursday had long dominated on its own; now both days are nearly equal.

Worth noting: weekend sending is growing, too. That fits the broader move toward continuous inbox presence. Recipients read emails at times that suit them, not just on weekdays.

The largest email benchmark study to date

The GDMA International Email Benchmark 2026 draws on anonymised campaign data from 2021–2025. Fifteen email service providers contributed data, including Spotler, Flexmail, Marigold, and SAP/Emarsys.

The 2026 edition covers 17.7 million email campaigns and 847 billion sent emails. That is a significant jump from the previous edition (11.4 million campaigns, 521 billion emails). The study spans 61 countries across Europe, North America, Latin America, APAC, Africa, and the Middle East.

The report is an independent initiative by the Global Data & Marketing Alliance (GDMA) and the Dutch Data Driven Marketing Association (DDMA).