Research
Cold email benchmarks for 2026, measured on 299,874 real emails
We matched every reply and every bounce in Emailchaser to the email that caused it. This is what follow-ups add, how fast people answer, and what moves the numbers.
By the Emailchaser team · Updated October 6, 2026 · 6 min read
People who had replied, in campaigns with three-email sequences
0.81% → 1.61%
Two follow-ups nearly doubled the replies.
Emailchaser campaign data, 55,329 people, sequences started January 1 to March 15, 2026.
These are the six things we found.
- 01Two follow-ups nearly double the replies a campaign gets.In campaigns that ran three-email sequences, 0.81% of people replied to the first email. By the third email, 1.61% had.
- 02Nearly four in five replies arrive within 24 hours of the email.Half come within about two hours, and 91% within three days, which tells you when to follow up.
- 03Unverified addresses bounced 4.6% of the time, against 0.6% for verified ones.The gap held in August and September: 4.6% against 1.7%.
- 04Verification turned away about one address for every two the typical campaign emailed.In the median campaign, 33% of the addresses it emailed or skipped failed the check, so they never went out.
- 05Emails sent Monday to Wednesday got 12% more replies than emails sent Thursday or Friday.Tuesday was the best day. The hour of the day barely mattered.
- 06Three in four replies arrive between 9 am and 5 pm, and 10 am is the busiest hour.Monday brings the most replies of any day.
Let the follow-ups and the verification run themselves.
Emailchaser sends every follow-up on schedule and, by default, stops for anyone who replies. Turn on Filter invalid emails and it checks each address before the first email. Unlimited Gmail and Outlook mailboxes on every plan.
Finding 01
Two follow-ups nearly double the replies a campaign gets.
We followed every person in campaigns that ran three-email sequences and noted which email they finally answered. 0.81% replied to the first email. After the first follow-up 1.38% had replied, and after the second 1.61%. The two follow-ups found almost as many repliers as the first email did.
Inside the same account, a second email drew 24% more replies per email sent than the first. Yet 334 of 576 campaigns (58%) never sent a follow-up, and 77% of the people in our data got only one email.
Emailchaser campaign data: 55,329 people in 160 campaigns from 50 accounts, sequences started January 1 to March 15, 2026, replies through April 12. Reply shares: all 1,721 people who replied.
What to do: put at least two follow-ups in every campaign. By default, Emailchaser sends them in the same thread and stops the sequence for anyone who replies.
Finding 02
Nearly four in five replies arrive within 24 hours of the email.
We timed each reply against the email it answered. Half came within 2 hours 8 minutes, 38% within the first hour, 79% within 24 hours and 91% within three days. After that, replies slow to a trickle: only 2% arrive more than a week later.
Emailchaser campaign data: 1,877 replies from 103 accounts, emails sent January 1 to April 5, 2026. Rechecked on August and September 2026: 73% within 24 hours (211 replies).
What to do: wait three days before the next follow-up, because by then 91% of the replies an email will ever get are in. Emailchaser collects the replies from every connected mailbox in one inbox, so you can answer the fast ones fast.
Finding 03
Unverified addresses bounced 4.6% of the time, against 0.6% for verified ones.
We looked at the first email of every sequence. Addresses Emailchaser had not verified bounced 7 times as often as addresses it verified before sending. The gap narrowed but held in August and September: 4.6% against 1.7%.
It is not just better senders verifying. In the 16 accounts that sent both kinds, verified addresses bounced 0.9% and unverified ones 3.2%. Of the accounts that sent 200 or more first emails, 31% bounced more than 2% of them, the line most deliverability guides draw.
Emailchaser campaign data: 225,531 first emails sent January 1 to April 5, 2026 (149,822 verified, from 86 accounts, and 75,709 not verified, from 97); 49,914 first emails sent August 3 to September 27, 2026.
What to do: turn on Filter invalid emails in your campaign settings. Emailchaser then checks each address before the first email and skips the invalid ones.
Finding 04
Verification turned away about one address for every two the typical campaign emailed.
In campaigns with verification on, we counted the addresses each campaign emailed and the ones the check turned away. In the median campaign, 33% of them failed: about one address for every two it emailed. One campaign in four lost 45% or more. In August and September the median was 33% again.
Those addresses never reached a mailbox, so they never became bounces. Without the check, a list like this goes out whole.
Emailchaser campaign data: 147,390 failed and 182,180 sent addresses in 191 campaigns from 81 accounts, campaigns created January 1 to April 5, 2026. Median and chart: the 82 campaigns that checked 200 or more addresses.
What to do: verify a list before it goes anywhere near your mailboxes. You can check an address free with the email checker, or turn on Filter invalid emails and let Emailchaser check the whole campaign before it sends.
Finding 05
Emails sent Monday to Wednesday got 12% more replies than emails sent Thursday or Friday.
We compared each account only with itself, so a stronger list cannot make a weekday look good. Tuesday did best, 12% above the account's own average, and Thursday did worst of the weekdays, 8% below. Measured in the recipient's own time the gap was 25%, and in August and September 34%.
The hour mattered far less. Every window from 6 am to 6 pm in the sender's time came within 4% of the account's average.
Emailchaser campaign data: 299,874 emails and 1,877 replies from 142 accounts, emails sent January 1 to April 5, 2026, in the time zone each campaign was scheduled in.
What to do: start new campaigns on a Monday or Tuesday so the first email and the first follow-up land early in the week. Each Emailchaser campaign has its own sending days and hours.
Finding 06
Three in four replies arrive between 9 am and 5 pm, and 10 am is the busiest hour.
In the recipient's own time, replies build from 8 am, peak at 10 am and fade after 3 pm. 48% arrive between 8 am and noon. Monday brings 23% of the week's replies, and the weekend only 7%.
Emailchaser campaign data: 716 replies where the lead's country gives the recipient's time zone, emails sent January 1 to April 5, 2026. 46 accounts had leads like that.
What to do: keep weekday mornings, Monday first, for answering replies. That is when most of them land.
These are the questions people ask about cold email benchmarks.
How many follow-ups should a cold email campaign have?
At least two. In three-email sequences, the follow-ups took the share of people who replied from 0.81% to 1.61%, and 30% of all replies came from a follow-up.
How long should I wait before sending a follow-up?
About three days. 79% of replies arrive within 24 hours of the email they answer and 91% within three days.
What is a normal bounce rate for cold email?
Verified lists bounced 0.6% to 1.7% on the first email in 2026, and unverified lists 4.6%. The median account bounced 1.1%.
What is the best day to send cold emails?
Monday to Wednesday. Emails sent on those days got 12% more replies than emails sent Thursday or Friday from the same account, and Tuesday was the best single day.
How many cold emails can one mailbox send a day?
On a typical day a mailbox in our data sent 19 campaign emails, and on nine days in ten it sent 38 or fewer. Within the same account, mailboxes sending 31 to 40 a day got about as many replies per email as those sending 10 or fewer.
Where do these cold email statistics come from?
From Emailchaser's own campaign records: 299,874 emails sent by 142 customer accounts from January 1 to April 5, 2026, with every reply matched to the email it answered. No customer, campaign or recipient is identified.
We measured this on Emailchaser's own campaign records, one account at a time.
- 299,874 campaign emails sent from January 1 to April 5, 2026, by 142 customer accounts from 783 mailboxes to 225,754 people, with replies counted through April 12. That is the largest recent stretch with complete reply records.
- We rechecked the findings on 65,925 emails sent August 3 to September 27, 2026, by 62 accounts, with replies through October 4. The table below says which findings held.
- Each reply was matched to the most recent campaign email that person received before it arrived, within 30 days.
- A reply is a message a person wrote back to say yes or no, as sorted by Emailchaser's reply classifier. Out-of-office notices, bounces, automatic acknowledgements, wrong-person notes and unsubscribe requests are left out, and so are replies that arrived less than two minutes after the email, because most of those are automatic. If anything, the reply counts are slightly low.
- Replies are counted by person, not by email: a person who got three emails and replied once counts once.
- For days, hours and mailbox volume, each account is compared only with itself: we count the replies it would get if every day did as well as its own average, and compare that with what came in.
- Recipient time comes from the country on the lead (one-time-zone countries, plus the US and Canada when the campaign was scheduled in a North American time zone). Otherwise we use the time zone the campaign was scheduled in, and say so.
- Verification checks a campaign's whole list when the campaign starts. A campaign stopped before the end of its list has addresses that passed the check and were never emailed: they are counted in neither the addresses emailed nor the ones turned away, so a campaign like that shows a higher failed share.
- We do not publish open rates. Emailchaser does not track opens on campaign emails, because mail apps that preload images make them unreliable.
- Emailchaser's own accounts and those of our sister companies are left out. We publish rates and timing only, and no customer, campaign or recipient can be identified.
| Finding | Sample | Replies or bounces | Accounts | Held in August and September |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Follow-ups | 55,329 people | 891 replies | 50 | Not enough follow-ups to recheck |
| 02 Reply speed | 1,877 replies | 1,877 replies | 103 | Yes: 73% within a day |
| 03 Bounces | 225,531 first emails | 4,423 bounces | 86 verified, 97 not | Yes: 4.6% against 1.7% |
| 04 Verification | 329,570 addresses emailed or skipped | 147,390 failed | 81 | Yes: median 33% |
| 05 Send day | 299,874 emails | 1,877 replies | 142 | Yes: 34% more |
| 06 Reply hours | 716 replies | 716 replies | Up to 46 | Too few replies in August and September |
You can quote these numbers with a link to this page.
Quote any line below and link to www.emailchaser.com/cold-email-benchmarks. The full tables are in the CSV download.
- Two follow-ups nearly doubled cold email replies, from 0.81% to 1.61% of people emailed (Emailchaser, 2026).
- 79% of cold email replies arrive within 24 hours of the email they answer (Emailchaser, 2026).
- Unverified email addresses bounced 4.6% of the time, against 0.6% for verified ones (Emailchaser, 2026).
- Email verification turned away about one address for every two a typical cold email campaign sent (Emailchaser, 2026).
- Cold emails sent Monday to Wednesday got 12% more replies than those sent Thursday or Friday (Emailchaser, 2026).
Suggested citation: Emailchaser, "Cold email benchmarks 2026", October 2026, www.emailchaser.com/cold-email-benchmarks.
These guides go deeper on each finding.
How long to wait before a follow-up email · How to improve your cold email response rate · Cold email statistics from published studies · Does email warm-up work?
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