# What is a good cold email reply rate?
> A few percent overall is normal at scale. 5 to 10 percent is a healthy target on a tight list. Open rate is a weaker number than it used to be.
- HTML: https://omentir.com/help/what-is-a-good-cold-email-reply-rate
- Markdown: https://omentir.com/help/what-is-a-good-cold-email-reply-rate.md

Reply rate is replies divided by emails delivered, not sent, and not opened. Bounces are a list problem. Opens are partly fake now because of mail privacy features. Replies are still real people.

Across a lot of 2026 vendor data, overall reply rates often sit around 3 to 8 percent. 5 to 10 percent is a fair "we know who we are writing to" target. 10 percent and up usually means a small, sharp segment, not a 20,000-row blast. Positive replies (interested, referral, meeting) will be a slice of that, often 1 to 3 percent of delivered.

If you are at 0 percent after a couple hundred delivered emails, you have a deliverability problem or a list problem. Rewrite later. Check spam placement, bounce rate, and whether the domain is new first.

Compare campaigns inside your own account more than against a blog. A hardware ICP will not match a SaaS founder ICP. The useful question is whether this week's segment beat last week's.

Omentir is not a cold email warmup product. If email is your main channel, you still need domains, authentication, and a sequencer that respects per-inbox caps. Use LinkedIn when identity matters more than volume.

## Related

- [Why are my cold emails going to spam?](https://omentir.com/help/why-are-my-cold-emails-going-to-spam.md)
- [How many follow-up emails should I send after a cold email?](https://omentir.com/help/how-many-cold-email-follow-ups-should-i-send.md)
- [Should I use LinkedIn or cold email for B2B outreach?](https://omentir.com/help/linkedin-vs-cold-email-for-b2b-outreach.md)

## Frequently asked questions

**What is a good open rate in 2026?**

People still quote 40 to 60 percent as healthy, and under 30 percent as "check spam." Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates opens. Use opens as a directional alarm, not as a vanity chart.

**Should I count out-of-office replies?**

Track them separately. They prove delivery. They do not prove interest. Some teams auto-pause until the person is back.

**Is a high unsubscribe rate bad?**

Unsubscribes are cleaner than spam complaints. A lot of them still means the list or the pitch is off. Honor them fast.

**How soon will I see replies?**

If the domain is warmed, you can see replies in the first week of sending. A brand new domain needs warmup first, often two to four weeks, before you judge copy.

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