TL;DR: What we discovered

In 2025, cold email is about resonance, not reach. Reply rates remain stable despite growing volume proving that relevance, not quantity, drives conversations.

  • The overall average reply rate is 1.6% with top-performers achieving 6-7% reply rates (2-3x higher)
  • First-touch cold emails convert at 2.7% which is 70% higher than the overall average
  • 60% of all replies are generated from step one in a cold email campaign
  • Sending emails on Wednesday results in higher open and reply rates
  • Best performing email campaigns maintain <80 word emails and A/B test new messaging weekly

Key performance metrics for cold email campaigns

Our data methodology 

This benchmark report analyzes billions of cold email interactions across thousands of active workspaces to provide you with recent cold email statistics. All metrics have been aggregated and anonymized to ensure benchmark accuracy while protecting user privacy.

What’s a good cold email reply rate?

Our analysis found that top performing (“elite”) cold email campaigns achieve a 5-8% reply rate, top quartile achieve 3-4% reply rates, and a median reply rate of 1.6%. In other words, the typical cold email response rate falls around lower single digits.

The biggest contributing factors to top performing campaigns are micro-segmentation, problem-focused messaging, frequent A/B testing and smart automation such as auto-triaging cold email replies and auto-scheduling follow-ups through subsequences.

How to improve your reply rate (the 70% principle)

Elite senders (2-3x higher reply rates) earn out-sized first-touch replies combining hyper-relevant subject lines, emails under 80 words, a single call-to-action and problem-first positioning.

Your first email sets the ceiling for the whole cold email sequence. In our dataset, the first‑touch reply rate is 2.7%, which is 70% higher than the overall median of 1.6%. If your first‑touch isn’t performing at least 70% above your overall rate, it signals poor targeting or generic messaging.

The First-Touch Advantage

Your first email creates the spark-everything that follows either fans the flame or lets it die.
Where Replies Come From in a Sequence

When is the best time to send cold emails?

Align sends to natural weekly engagement patterns: launch on Monday, push follow‑ups on Wednesday (peak engagement), and triage Friday auto‑replies so conversations restart on Monday. Timing matters almost as much as copy, our data shows teams that respect these windows compound replies across the week.

Cold email trends to consider for 2026

In 2026, the winners shift from volume to precision. Elite cold email teams run intelligence‑led outbound, hit prospects at the right moments using intent signals, and optimize for engagement‑first metrics.

Key facts

  • AI agents handle ~80% of research & sequencing work for elite teams.
  • “Right‑time” outreach blends hiring, funding, product‑launch, and website‑visit signals
  • ESPs increasingly weight engagement quality: time spent reading, reply depth, and conversation length for inbox placement.

Trend #1: Intelligence-led outbound

Elite cold emailers replace volume with precision. AI agents now handle ~80% of research and sequencing work, freeing humans to focus on positioning, messaging strategy, and high‑value conversations. The question shifts from “how many emails?”
to “how precisely can we target?”

Do this: Build micro-segmented B2B lead lists, keep your first-touch email less than 80 words and use a single CTA with frequent message A/B testing.

Trend #2: Intent-Driven Timing

Blend campaign data with buyer signals such as hiring patterns, funding events, product launches, and website visits to reach prospects when they actually care, not at arbitrary intervals.

Do this: map sequences to Mon → Wed → Fri rhythm, make step 2 of your campaign feel like a reply (~30% lift) and persist to 4–7 touchpoints with new value each step to get maximum reply rate coverage.

Trend #3: Engagement-First Metrics

Providers increasingly weight engagement quality such as time spent reading, reply depth, and conversation length for reputation and placement. This is a shift from quantity to quality.

Do this: protect domain health with steady cold email volume, keep bounces under 2% with high-quality lead data, set technical controls such as SPF/DKIM/DMARC and use inbox placement tests to monitor deliverability.

The Prediction

The next frontier is intent-driven outreach-reaching the right people at the right moment, not just the right people.
Where Replies Come From in a Sequence

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

What is a good cold email reply rate in 2025?

Our research found that “elite” cold emailers achieve a 5-8% reply rate with 1.6% being the median.

How many follow-ups should I send for a cold email?

4-7 emails is an ideal sequence length to maximise reply rate. Our research found that 60% of replies arrive on Step 1 of a cold email campaign with Steps 2-4 contributing another 40% replies. Our advice would be to have at least 4 emails in your campaign.

What’s an acceptable bounce rate for cold email?

A bounce rate under 2% is ideal. Any higher than this and you may see cold email campaign performance drop. If you’re seeing high bounce rates, pause your campaign and clean your lead list before continuing. 

How long should a cold email be (word count)?

Our research found the best performing cold email campaigns to have a word count of less than 80 words, indicating this
to be the sweet spot for performance. It’s enough to get your point across without wasting the reader’s time. The key
is to be concise, personalized, and focused on a single message/ask.