What is Open Rate Definition?

Open rate is the percentage of delivered emails that are opened, helping marketers measure engagement and optimize email marketing performance.

Written by

Luka Pecavar

Published on

February 3, 2026

2

min

What is Open Rate Definition?

The open rate definition refers to a marketing metric that measures the percentage of recipients who open a sent email or message. It is commonly used in email marketing to evaluate how effective a subject line, sender name, and timing are at capturing the audience’s attention.

Open rate can help you to understand initial engagement with their campaigns.

What is the purpose of open rate?

The purpose of open rate is to measure audience interest and the effectiveness of outreach efforts.

Some of the main purposes of open rate are:

  • To evaluate email subject line performance

  • To measure the recipient engagement levels

  • To optimize email send times and frequency

  • To improve overall email marketing strategy

  • To compare performance across campaigns

A higher open rate generally indicates stronger audience interest and better message relevance.

How to calculate Open Rate?

You can calculate open rate by dividing the number of opened emails by the number of delivered emails, then multiplying by 100.

Open rate formula: (Number of opened emails ÷ Number of delivered emails) × 100

For example, if 500 emails are delivered and 100 are opened, the open rate is 20%.

This calculation will help you to track and benchmark campaign performance.

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Luka Pecavar

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