The Short Answer: B2B Averages Around 37% — But That Number Needs Context

You came here for a number, so here it is: according to the 2025 Email Benchmarking Report, the average B2B email open rate sits at 37.4% — a shade below B2C at roughly 40%, and just above the overall cross-industry average of 35.9%.

That's the most current B2B-specific figure available, and it's a reasonable anchor. But treat it as a starting point, not a verdict on your campaigns.

Here's the honest complication: reported B2B open rates span an enormous range. A 2026 benchmark analysis from Stripo found figures running from 15.1% all the way to 55.71% — a spread of more than 40 percentage points depending on the source, dataset, and date of measurement.

That gap isn't a mistake. Different email platforms measure different customer bases, in different industries, at different times. A few examples show how much the "average" moves:

• Older DMA data cited by Campaign Monitor put B2B opens at just 15.1% back in 2018.
• Mailchimp's all-industry average came in at 35.63% based on December 2023 data.
• MailerLite's 2025 benchmarks, drawn from 3.6 million campaigns, show an all-industry average of 43.46%.
• ActiveCampaign's aggregation of 3.3 million campaigns pegs a "good" overall open rate at roughly 42.35%.

ActiveCampaign itself cautions that the average for any metric "will fundamentally depend on the source of data that is tested." In other words, the right question isn't "what's the average?" — it's "average according to whom, and does their audience look like mine?"

So what counts as good? If your B2B open rate lands anywhere between the mid-30s and mid-40s, you're in healthy company. B2B-adjacent industries in MailerLite's data cluster right there — consulting at 45.96%, business and finance at 43.34%, agencies at 40.52%, and software at 39.31%.

Below that range isn't automatically a failure, either. As Braze's guidance puts it, chasing a universal benchmark matters less than watching how your own open rates move over time, alongside clicks and conversions. Your trend line tells you more than anyone else's average.

This is exactly how we approach measurement at Worqd — no vanity metrics, just numbers tracked against the results that actually matter to your business. An open rate is only useful when it sits inside a bigger picture: whether those opens turn into replies, booked calls, and revenue. That context is what the rest of this article unpacks.

Why Your Open Rate Is Lying to You (Thanks, Apple)

That 37.4% open rate on your dashboard? Nearly half of it never happened. Apple Mail Privacy Protection now pre-loads tracking pixels for every email delivered to its users, and that single change drives 49.29% of all tracked opens — automated machine activity, not human curiosity (Stripo's 2026 benchmark research). Your analytics platform counts those pre-loads the same way it counts a prospect reading your subject line and clicking through.

The major platforms have stopped pretending otherwise. Braze now calls open rate "a directional indicator—not an absolute measure of success." Salesforce warns it "may no longer provide a precise measure of actual opens" and points teams toward click-through rate and click-to-open rate instead. Litmus goes further: "bot-driven phantom engagement has made open rates unreliable," pushing top performers toward revenue per email, list churn, and lifetime value. The consensus is unanimous — open rate tells you which way the wind blows, not whether you're moving forward.

This is exactly why Worqd refuses to report open rates as a success metric. Our measurement framework is built on what actually connects to pipeline: replies, booked calls, qualified conversations, and revenue. If a metric doesn't trace to a business outcome, it doesn't make the report.

• Apple MPP inflates opens by roughly half across every ESP dashboard
• Click rate is now the most reliable engagement signal — it can't be faked by pre-loading
• CTOR (click-to-open rate) filters out the noise and shows genuine interest
• Revenue per email and qualified conversation rate are the only metrics that pay the bills

The B2B advantage shows up where it matters: even with lower reported opens than B2C (37.4% vs. ~40% per Braze's 2025 benchmark), B2B emails convert opens to clicks at 3.2% vs. 2.1% (Campaign Monitor). Your prospects open less but act more decisively — which is exactly what a growth partner should optimize for.

B2B Open Rate Benchmarks by Industry: Find Your Vertical

A 38% open rate means something very different for a consulting firm than it does for a software company. Comparing your numbers against a universal average tells you almost nothing — comparing them against your actual vertical tells you almost everything.

The most useful current dataset comes from MailerLite's analysis of 3.6 million campaigns sent between December 2024 and November 2025. Here's how the industries closest to B2B stack up:

Notice the nearly nine-point gap between consulting and marketing firms. If you run a software company, holding yourself to the consulting benchmark of 45.96% sets you up to "fix" a number that was never broken. Your realistic target sits closer to 39%.

Other sources draw a similar picture. ActiveCampaign's benchmark aggregation puts marketing and advertising at 39.05%, agencies at 38.89%, and software at 38.14% — slightly different figures, same clustering in the high-30s to mid-40s. The takeaway isn't the exact decimal; it's that B2B-adjacent industries consistently outperform the all-industry average.

Open rate alone still doesn't tell the full story. Pair it with the supporting metrics that reveal whether your list is healthy and your content converts:

• Click rate: Salesforce considers 2%–5% a healthy CTR, and MailerLite calls clicks the most accurate engagement signal since they don't rely on open tracking.
• CTOR: Click-to-open rate above 20% is strong, with most marketing emails landing between 10% and 25%.
• Bounce rate: Keep it under 2% — anything higher points to list quality problems.
• Unsubscribe rate: Below 0.5% is the healthy threshold; the 2025 all-industry average sits at 0.22%.

One more reason to look beyond opens: B2B emails actually convert attention into action better than B2C. According to Campaign Monitor's analysis of DMA data, B2B emails earn a 3.2% click-through rate versus 2.1% for B2C — B2B readers open less often but act more decisively when they do.

That's the philosophy behind how Worqd measures performance for clients: one report, built around clicks, qualified conversations, and booked calls rather than a single flattering open percentage. Find your vertical in the table above, note where you stand across all four metrics, and then work on beating your own numbers next quarter.

The Metrics That Actually Matter: Clicks, CTOR, and Booked Calls

Here's the quiet advantage most benchmark articles miss: B2B emails might get opened slightly less often than B2C, but when a business reader opens, they act. According to DMA data via Campaign Monitor, B2B emails convert at a 3.2% click-through rate versus 2.1% for B2C. That gap is where your pipeline actually lives.

There's also a practical reason clicks matter more now. Apple Mail Privacy Protection drives nearly half of all tracked opens through automatic pixel pre-loading, meaning your dashboard may be counting "opens" that no human ever performed. MailerLite puts it plainly: click rate is currently the most accurate indicator of email engagement, because it doesn't rely on tracking opens at all.

So what should you aim for? Salesforce's email benchmarks give you a clean framework:

• Click-through rate (CTR): 2–5% is good. This measures clicks against delivered emails and reflects real intent.
• Click-to-open rate (CTOR): 20%+ is strong, with 10–25% typical for general marketing emails. This tells you whether your content resonates with the people who did open.
• Bounce rate under 2% and unsubscribe rate under 0.5% signal a healthy list, per ActiveCampaign's benchmark aggregation.

Even these engagement metrics only tell part of the story. As Campaign Monitor notes, an open rate well above average does you no good if no one takes action — and a click does you no good if it never becomes revenue.

That's why top-performing teams are moving further downstream. Litmus research found that multi-channel attribution and MQL usage jumped 22% year-over-year, with leading teams shifting their reporting beyond opens entirely toward metrics that connect to revenue: conversions, qualified conversations, and booked calls.

This mirrors how we approach measurement at Worqd. Opens and clicks are diagnostic signals — useful for spotting what's working — but the numbers that pay the bills are qualified conversations and booked calls. A 40% open rate on a list that never picks up the phone loses to a 20% open rate that fills your calendar every week.

The takeaway: track CTR and CTOR to judge engagement health, then connect them to the outcomes your business actually runs on. Braze's guidance is worth adopting here — watch how your metrics move over time and in relation to each other, rather than chasing any single benchmark number.

How to Measure Email Performance the Right Way

Chasing a universal open rate is a losing game. The 2025 Email Benchmarking Report puts the B2B average at 37.4%, yet reported figures span a 40-point range — from 15.1% to 55.71% — depending entirely on the data source and how heavily Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates the numbers. Research from Stripo shows MPP now drives 49.29% of all tracked opens through automatic pixel pre-loading, not human reading. That alone makes any single dashboard number unreliable as a precision metric.

Braze and Salesforce both recommend treating open rate as a directional indicator and anchoring reporting on clicks, replies, and booked calls instead. B2B emails already prove this point: they open less often than B2C but convert those opens into clicks at 3.2% versus 2.1%, according to Campaign Monitor's analysis of DMA data. The signal that matters is what happens after the open.

Industry context shifts the target dramatically. MailerLite's 2025 benchmarks across 3.6 million campaigns show consulting at 45.96% open rate, business and finance at 43.34%, and software and web apps at 39.31%. Your peer group matters more than the global average.

• Benchmark against your own trend line, not a universal number
• Compare median open rates against peers in your vertical
• Track click-through rate and click-to-open rate as primary engagement signals
• Anchor pipeline reporting on replies, booked calls, and qualified conversations
• Measure list quality over list size — a smaller engaged list outperforms a larger passive one

This is exactly how Worqd structures measurement: one plan, one report, focused on the metrics that connect to revenue. Fast follow-up turns email interest into qualified conversations — our AI SDRs qualify every inquiry in under 60 seconds, 24/7, so the moment a prospect clicks, the path to a booked call is already in motion.