Work out your email metrics and check them against the limits
Enter sent, bounced, opened, clicked, replied, unsubscribed and spam complaints. Get every rate, each checked against a published limit from Google, Yahoo or Amazon SES, or a clearly labelled rule of thumb. Free, no account.
0 over a limit, 3 to watch
Example numbers. Enter your own above.
Of 1,000 sent, 977 were delivered (97.7%): bounce rate 2.3%, reply rate 3.17%, spam complaint rate 0.102%. Watch: bounce rate, spam complaint rate, unsubscribe rate.
| Metric | Rate | Status | Threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bounce rate | 2.3% | Warning | Amazon SES: keep it below 2%; at 5% or more an account is put under review, at 10% or more sending may be paused. | Amazon SES, Sending review process FAQs (checked 8 Nov 2026) |
| Spam complaint rate | 0.102% | Warning | Google: keep it below 0.10% and never reach 0.30%. Yahoo: keep it below 0.3%. | Google, Email sender guidelines (checked 8 Nov 2026); Yahoo, Sender best practices (checked 8 Nov 2026) |
| Reply rate | 3.17% | Healthy | 2% or more healthy, 1% to 2% low, under 1% very low. | Our rule of thumb, not a published standard |
| Unsubscribe rate | 0.61% | Warning | Under 0.5% healthy, 0.5% to 1% warning, 1% or more high. Separately, Yahoo requires unsubscribes to be honoured within 2 days. | Our rule of thumb, not a published standard; Yahoo, Sender best practices (checked 8 Nov 2026) |
| Open rate | 42.17% | Healthy | 30% or more healthy, 20% to 30% low, under 20% very low, which can mean mail is going to spam. Opens are inflated by mail apps that load images on their own. | Our rule of thumb, not a published standard |
| Click rate | 0.92% | No threshold | No limit we can cite: it depends on whether the email has a link, and many first cold emails have none. | None |
| Click-to-open rate | 2.18% | No threshold | Clicks divided by opens. No limit we can cite. | None |
Google measures the spam rate in Postmaster Tools from Gmail users' reports, and Amazon SES counts only some bounces and complaints, each over its own window. Your own counts are a close guide, not the number those providers act on.
The published limits
- Spam complaint rate. Google's sender guidelines ask every sender to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.30%, and recommend below 0.10%. Yahoo's sender best practices say below 0.3%. Google, Email sender guidelines (checked 8 Nov 2026); Yahoo, Sender best practices (checked 8 Nov 2026).
- Bounce rate. Amazon SES recommends below 2%, puts an account under review at 5% and may pause it at 10%. Its complaint limits are 0.1% (review) and 0.5% (pause). Amazon SES, Sending review process FAQs (checked 8 Nov 2026).
- Unsubscribes. Google requires one-click unsubscribe for bulk senders (more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail) sending marketing or subscribed mail; Yahoo asks bulk senders for a List-Unsubscribe header and to honour unsubscribes within 2 days.
Reply, open and unsubscribe rate thresholds are not published by any provider. The ones above are our rule of thumb for cold email to local businesses, and labelled as such in the table.
Fixing a rate that is over
A high bounce rate usually means an old or unverified list: verify it before the next send. A high complaint rate means the wrong people or the wrong message: narrow the list and make the opt-out obvious. A falling open rate with steady volume can mean mail is landing in spam: check the authentication and blocklists below.
Lists from 67Leads label every address verified, catch-all or unverified, and an export can be limited to verified addresses.
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Questions
Under 2%, the level Amazon SES recommends. SES reviews accounts at 5% and may pause sending at 10%, so treat anything over 5% as a list problem to fix before sending more.
0.3%. Google and Yahoo both set it as the limit for senders, and Google recommends staying under 0.1%.
Unique opens divided by delivered emails (sent minus bounced). Bounce rate is the one rate divided by sent.
No. No provider publishes them. They are our rule of thumb, labelled that way on the page.
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