# Email Deliverability Statistics 2026: Inbox Placement, Spam Rates and DMARC

Updated 2026-11-04. Checked by StatisticsGlobal editorial team. Validity seed-list benchmarks for 2024 and 2025, the Sinch Mailgun 2026 survey and sending data, Google sender rules, EmailToolTester tests and our own DNS scan of 10,000 domains, 6 sources.
Canonical: https://statisticsglobal.org/email-deliverability-statistics/

Marketing email reached the inbox 87.2% of the time worldwide in 2025, according to Validity, up from 83.5% in 2024. Another 6.6% went to spam and 6.1% never arrived. Gmail had the best inbox rate of the big four mailbox providers at 89.8%, and Microsoft the worst at 77.4%. Europe led the regions at 91.1%. Authentication is spreading fast. In our scan of the Tranco top 10,000 sites in November 2026, 82.7% of domains that receive mail published DMARC and 61.1% enforced it.

## Key statistics

- The average global inbox placement rate for marketing email was 87.2% in 2025, according to Validity.
- Global inbox placement rose 3.7 percentage points in 2025, from 83.5% to 87.2%, a 4.4% relative gain, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data.
- Gmail placed 12.4 percentage points more marketing email in the inbox than Microsoft in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data.
- Europe had the highest regional inbox placement rate at 91.1% in 2025, according to Validity.
- 61.1% of mail-enabled top 10,000 domains enforced DMARC with quarantine or reject in November 2026, counted by StatisticsGlobal.

## Email inbox placement rate worldwide

Validity measures deliverability as inbox placement, the share of emails that land in the inbox rather than spam or nowhere at all. Its data comes from seed-list tests that its customers run before and during campaigns.

Inbox placement recovered in 2025 after a dip in 2024. The global rate rose 3.7 points to 87.2%. Almost all of the gain came from fewer missing emails, which fell from 9.8% to 6.1%. Spam placement barely moved. In other words, mailbox providers blocked and deferred less mail, and passed the decision to the recipient.

Validity links the change to the bulk sender rules that Gmail and Yahoo brought in from February 2024 and Microsoft followed in 2025. Google's rules apply to anyone sending about 5,000 messages a day to personal Gmail accounts. They require SPF, DKIM and DMARC, one-click unsubscribe and a spam rate below 0.1%. Since November 2025 Gmail has stepped up rejections of mail that does not comply.

Senders seem to be keeping inside those limits. The average complaint rate in Validity's data was 0.06% in 2025, 40% below Google's target. Hard bounces averaged 1.46% and outright rejections 3.20%. For how open rates relate to this, see our [email open rate benchmarks](https://statisticsglobal.org/email-open-rate-benchmarks/).

- The average global inbox placement rate for marketing email was 87.2% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- 6.6% of marketing emails tracked worldwide landed in the spam folder in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- 6.1% of marketing emails tracked worldwide went missing, blocked or deferred by the mailbox provider, in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- The average global inbox placement rate for marketing email was 83.5% in 2024, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report (March 2025, accessed 4 November 2026) https://validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-Benchmark-Report-FINAL.pdf
- 9.8% of marketing emails tracked worldwide went missing in 2024, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report (March 2025, accessed 4 November 2026) https://validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-Benchmark-Report-FINAL.pdf
- Validity's 2024 benchmark edition put the global inbox placement rate at 84.8%, according to Validity's 2025 report. Source: Validity, 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report (March 2025, accessed 4 November 2026) https://validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-Benchmark-Report-FINAL.pdf
- Global inbox placement rose 3.7 percentage points in 2025, from 83.5% to 87.2%, a 4.4% relative gain, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- The global missing rate fell from 9.8% in 2024 to 6.1% in 2025, a 3.7-point drop, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- The average spam complaint rate across tracked senders was 0.06% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- The average unknown user rate, or hard bounce rate, was 1.46% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Mailbox providers rejected an average 3.20% of tracked emails in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- The 2025 average complaint rate of 0.06% sat 40% below Google's 0.1% target for bulk senders, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity and Google data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Gmail treats senders of about 5,000 or more messages a day to personal Gmail accounts as bulk senders under rules in force since 2024, according to Google. Source: Google, Email sender guidelines (Google Workspace Admin Help) (rolling page, accessed 4 November 2026) https://support.google.com/a/answer/14229414
- Gmail asks bulk senders to keep user-reported spam rates below 0.1% and never reach 0.3%, under guidelines in force since 2024, according to Google. Source: Google, Email sender guidelines (Google Workspace Admin Help) (rolling page, accessed 4 November 2026) https://support.google.com/a/answer/14229414
- Mailbox providers received 70% of their inbound email activity in the first ten minutes of each hour in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Just 2% of total email volume produced 37% of all email-driven sales in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf

Table: Where marketing email landed worldwide, Validity benchmark, 2024 and 2025

| Year | Inbox | Spam | Missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 83.5% | 6.7% | 9.8% |
| 2025 | 87.2% | 6.6% | 6.1% |
| Change (points) | +3.7 | -0.1 | -3.7 |

Source: Validity 2025 and 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Reports. Changes calculated by StatisticsGlobal. The 2024 edition of the report gave 84.8% inbox for the year before.

## Email inbox placement rate by mailbox provider

Four providers, Microsoft, Apple, Gmail and Yahoo, handle most consumer email. Validity calls them MAGY. Each filters mail in its own way, so the same campaign can land very differently.

All four big providers improved in 2025, and the order did not change. Gmail stayed on top at 89.8%. Microsoft stayed at the bottom at 77.4%, 12.4 points behind Gmail. Microsoft is also the strictest junk filter. It sent 15.1% of tracked mail to junk, 2.4 times Gmail's share.

Apple made the biggest jump, 5.7 points. Apple has no bulk sender rules of its own. Validity puts the gain down to a halo effect, as senders cleaned up their programmes to meet Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft rules.

Smaller regional providers are a blind spot. Validity says their inbox rates trail the big four by about 10 to 25 points. The widest gap is in South America, where regional providers placed only 62.7% of mail in the inbox. Gmail's share of mailboxes in the data fell to 42.9% from 47.8%, so the long tail matters more than many senders assume.

- Gmail had an average inbox placement rate of 89.8% in 2025, the highest of the four biggest mailbox providers, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Yahoo had an average inbox placement rate of 87.3% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Apple Mail had an average inbox placement rate of 82.0% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Microsoft (Outlook and Hotmail) had an average inbox placement rate of 77.4% in 2025, the lowest of the big four, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Microsoft sent 15.1% of tracked marketing emails to junk in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Gmail had an average inbox placement rate of 87.2% in 2024, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report (March 2025, accessed 4 November 2026) https://validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-Benchmark-Report-FINAL.pdf
- Yahoo had an average inbox placement rate of 86.0% in 2024, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report (March 2025, accessed 4 November 2026) https://validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-Benchmark-Report-FINAL.pdf
- Apple Mail had an average inbox placement rate of 76.3% in 2024, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report (March 2025, accessed 4 November 2026) https://validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-Benchmark-Report-FINAL.pdf
- Microsoft had an average inbox placement rate of 75.6% in 2024, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report (March 2025, accessed 4 November 2026) https://validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-Benchmark-Report-FINAL.pdf
- Gmail placed 12.4 percentage points more marketing email in the inbox than Microsoft in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Microsoft junked 2.4 times as much tracked marketing email as Gmail in 2025, 15.1% against 6.4%, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Apple Mail improved inbox placement by 5.7 points in 2025, the biggest gain of the four largest mailbox providers, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Gmail held 42.9% of global mailbox provider market share in Validity's 2025 data, down from 47.8% the year before, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Regional mailbox providers in South America placed 62.7% of tracked email in the inbox in 2025, 25.3 points below the big four, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf

Table: Inbox placement rate by mailbox provider, Validity benchmark, 2024 and 2025

| Mailbox provider | Inbox 2024 | Inbox 2025 | Change (points) | Spam 2025 | Missing 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail | 87.2% | 89.8% | +2.6 | 6.4% | 3.8% |
| Yahoo | 86.0% | 87.3% | +1.3 | 6.4% | 6.3% |
| Apple | 76.3% | 82.0% | +5.7 | 10.8% | 7.2% |
| Microsoft | 75.6% | 77.4% | +1.8 | 15.1% | 7.5% |

Source: Validity 2025 and 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Reports. Changes calculated by StatisticsGlobal. Microsoft includes Outlook and Hotmail. Yahoo includes AOL.

## Email deliverability by region and country

Validity splits its seed data into five regions and nine spotlight countries. Every region improved in 2025.

Europe is still the best region for reaching the inbox, at 91.1%. Germany leads every country at 97.5%. Validity credits widespread double opt-in and strict legal rules. The UK reached 91.5%. Its lists carry about twice the global share of Microsoft addresses, so it gained when Microsoft's sender rules rewarded compliant senders.

South America and Asia improved most, by 10.6 and 8.3 points. The Asian average hides a split. China reached 88.9%, because most senders there run international programmes on the big four. Chinese providers such as QQ and NetEase placed only 57.9%. India came last of the countries at 71.0%.

The US sits below the global average at 86.8%. Canada, with stricter consent rules, reached 89.4%, 2.6 points higher. Validity rounds this to three points.

- Europe had the highest regional inbox placement rate at 91.1% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Oceania had an inbox placement rate of 87.9% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- South America had an inbox placement rate of 88.0% in 2025, up 10.6 points, the biggest regional gain, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- North America had an inbox placement rate of 86.7% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Asia had an inbox placement rate of 86.4% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- All five regions Validity tracks improved inbox placement in 2025, by an average of 5.1 percentage points, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- South America inbox placement rose 13.7% in relative terms in 2025, from 77.4% to 88.0%, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Germany had the highest inbox placement rate of the countries Validity monitors, 97.5% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- The United Kingdom had an inbox placement rate of 91.5% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Canada had an inbox placement rate of 89.4% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- The United States had an inbox placement rate of 86.8% in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- India had an inbox placement rate of 71.0% in 2025, the lowest of the countries in the report, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Germany placed 26.5 percentage points more tracked email in the inbox than India in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Canada placed 2.6 percentage points more tracked email in the inbox than the US in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf

Table: Inbox placement rate by region, Validity benchmark, 2024 and 2025

| Region | Inbox 2024 | Inbox 2025 | Change (points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 89.1% | 91.1% | +2.0 |
| South America | 77.4% | 88.0% | +10.6 |
| Oceania | 84.9% | 87.9% | +3.0 |
| North America | 85.0% | 86.7% | +1.7 |
| Asia | 78.1% | 86.4% | +8.3 |

Source: Validity 2025 and 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Reports. Changes calculated by StatisticsGlobal. Oceania was part of Asia Pacific before the 2025 report.

## Email authentication statistics (DMARC, SPF and BIMI)

Authentication proves that a message comes from the domain it claims. Two sources measure adoption here. Sinch Mailgun asks senders in a survey. We checked the DNS records of the Tranco top 10,000 domains on 4 November 2026.

DMARC is now the norm on large websites. Of the 7,241 top 10,000 domains that receive mail, 82.7% publish a DMARC record and 92.6% publish SPF. Most go further than the monitor-only p=none that Gmail requires. 61.1% quarantine or reject failing mail, and 35.1% reject it outright. Bigger sites are stricter. Enforcement falls from 74.6% in the top 1,000 to 56.1% in ranks 5,001 to 10,000.

The survey and the scan agree on direction but not level. In Mailgun's survey, 61% of senders said they used DMARC in 2025, up from 43% in 2023. About 52% of those enforced it. In our scan, 73.9% of domains with DMARC enforce it. The gap is expected. Top domains are large, well staffed brands, and survey respondents include many smaller senders. 27% of Mailgun's DMARC users also did not know their own policy.

By domain type, US .gov sites are strictest, with 80.9% enforcing. Japanese .jp sites are the most relaxed of the large groups, at 38.3%. BIMI, which shows a brand logo in the inbox and needs an enforced DMARC policy, reached 22% of senders in the Mailgun survey. For outbound sales mail, see our [cold email statistics](https://statisticsglobal.org/cold-email-statistics/).

- 82.7% of mail-enabled domains in the Tranco top 10,000 published a DMARC record in November 2026, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 61.1% of mail-enabled top 10,000 domains enforced DMARC with quarantine or reject in November 2026, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 35.1% of mail-enabled top 10,000 domains used the strictest DMARC policy, p=reject, in November 2026, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 21.5% of mail-enabled top 10,000 domains had a monitor-only DMARC policy, p=none, in November 2026, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 17.1% of mail-enabled top 10,000 domains had no DMARC record at all in November 2026, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 92.6% of mail-enabled top 10,000 domains published an SPF record in November 2026, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 73.9% of top 10,000 domains that published DMARC enforced it in November 2026, against 52% of DMARC users in the Mailgun survey, calculated by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- Among the top 1,000 sites, 74.6% of mail-enabled domains enforced DMARC in November 2026, against 56.1% for ranks 5,001 to 10,000, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 80.9% of mail-enabled .gov domains in the Tranco top 10,000 enforced DMARC in November 2026, the highest of the 12 largest TLDs, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 38.3% of mail-enabled .jp domains in the Tranco top 10,000 enforced DMARC in November 2026, the lowest of the 12 largest TLDs, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 87.2% of DMARC records on mail-enabled top 10,000 domains asked for aggregate (rua) reports in November 2026, counted by StatisticsGlobal. Source: StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains (4 November 2026) https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
- 61% of email senders said they had set up DMARC for all active sending domains in 2025, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 43% of email senders said they used DMARC in 2023, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- Self-reported DMARC use among senders rose 18 percentage points between 2023 and 2025, a 42% relative increase, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Sinch Mailgun data. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 34% of senders using DMARC set their policy to quarantine in 2025, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 21% of senders using DMARC kept a p=none policy in 2025, and 27% did not know their policy, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 52% of DMARC users in the Sinch Mailgun survey enforced quarantine or reject in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Sinch Mailgun data. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 65% of high-volume senders, sending 100,000+ emails a month, had implemented DMARC in 2025, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 22% of email senders said they had set up BIMI brand logos in 2025, up from under 10% in earlier years, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/

Table: DMARC policy on mail-enabled domains in the Tranco top 10,000, by rank band, 4 November 2026

| Rank band | Mail-enabled domains | Any DMARC | Enforced (quarantine or reject) | p=reject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 1,000 | 688 | 89.0% | 74.6% | 50.3% |
| 1,001 to 5,000 | 2,858 | 83.8% | 64.4% | 38.4% |
| 5,001 to 10,000 | 3,695 | 80.6% | 56.1% | 29.7% |
| All top 10,000 | 7,241 | 82.7% | 61.1% | 35.1% |

Source: StatisticsGlobal DNS scan of the Tranco list 746WX, 4 November 2026. Mail-enabled means a non-null MX record. Raw data: /data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv.

## Email deliverability by industry and email service provider

Three sources cover sectors and platforms. Validity reports inbox placement by sector. Mailgun reports delivery rates from its own sending. EmailToolTester ran seed tests on 15 email service providers until January 2024.

Senders whose mail people expect do best. Transportation reached 97.2% inbox placement, mostly operational messages such as shipping and booking updates. Real estate came last at 80.1%, with 15.9% sent to spam. Validity says sectors with long gaps between purchases struggle to build the engagement signals that providers now weigh.

Business email is harder to deliver than consumer email. Mail to hosting platforms such as Office 365 reached the inbox 83.0% of the time, 4.2 points below the global average. Mail through corporate filters such as Proofpoint managed 79.0%. Many B2B messages face both. For wider context see our [B2B email marketing statistics](https://statisticsglobal.org/b2b-email-marketing-statistics/).

Delivery rates look far better than inbox rates because they measure something else. Mailgun's top 10 industries had a volume-weighted delivery rate of 97.7% in 2025, yet a delivered email can still sit in spam. Mailgun's media figure also differs within its own page, 95.95% in the table and 95.05% in a callout. We use the table. Platform choice matters too. In EmailToolTester's last test, in January 2024, results ranged from 94.2% for ActiveCampaign to 47.1% for Benchmark Email, a 47.1-point spread.

- Transportation was the best-performing sector for inbox placement in 2025, at 97.2%, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Real estate senders had the lowest sector inbox placement rate, 80.1%, in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Inbox placement ranged 17.1 percentage points between the best and worst sectors in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- B2B email to hosting platforms such as Office 365 and Google Apps reached the inbox 83.0% of the time in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- B2B email passing through corporate filtering companies reached the inbox 79.0% of the time in 2025, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- B2B email to hosting platforms reached the inbox 4.2 points less often than the global average in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Validity data. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Office 365 held 60.3% of the B2B email hosting platform market in 2025, ahead of Google Apps at 35.9%, according to Validity. Source: Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide (March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- Air freight and logistics senders had a 99.25% delivery rate on Mailgun in 2025, the highest of the top 10 industries, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 2: Email benchmarks: How do you measure up? (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/email-benchmarks-how-do-you-measure-up/
- Media senders had a 95.95% delivery rate on Mailgun in 2025, the lowest of the top 10 industries, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 2: Email benchmarks: How do you measure up? (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/email-benchmarks-how-do-you-measure-up/
- Information technology senders sent 172.9 billion emails through Mailgun in 2025, more than any other industry, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 2: Email benchmarks: How do you measure up? (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/email-benchmarks-how-do-you-measure-up/
- The top 10 industries on Mailgun had a volume-weighted delivery rate of 97.7% across 494.8 billion emails in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Sinch Mailgun data. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 2: Email benchmarks: How do you measure up? (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/email-benchmarks-how-do-you-measure-up/
- Retail senders on Mailgun logged about 4,629 unsubscribes per million emails in 2025, 14 times the media rate, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Sinch Mailgun data. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 2: Email benchmarks: How do you measure up? (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/email-benchmarks-how-do-you-measure-up/
- 15 email service providers averaged an 83.1% deliverability rate in seed tests in January 2024, according to EmailToolTester. Source: EmailToolTester, Email Deliverability Test: The Latest Data for January 2024 (Round 12) (January 2024, page updated 5 August 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/email-deliverability-test-jan-2024/
- ActiveCampaign had the highest deliverability rate of 15 email service providers tested in January 2024, at 94.2%, according to EmailToolTester. Source: EmailToolTester, Email Deliverability Test: The Latest Data for January 2024 (Round 12) (January 2024, page updated 5 August 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/email-deliverability-test-jan-2024/
- HubSpot had a 77.7% deliverability rate in seed tests in January 2024, 12th of 15 providers, according to EmailToolTester. Source: EmailToolTester, Email Deliverability Test: The Latest Data for January 2024 (Round 12) (January 2024, page updated 5 August 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/email-deliverability-test-jan-2024/
- Benchmark Email had the lowest deliverability rate of 15 providers tested in January 2024, at 47.1%, according to EmailToolTester. Source: EmailToolTester, Email Deliverability Test: The Latest Data for January 2024 (Round 12) (January 2024, page updated 5 August 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/email-deliverability-test-jan-2024/
- Deliverability rates between the best and worst email service providers tested in January 2024 differed by 47.1 points, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from EmailToolTester data. Source: EmailToolTester, Email Deliverability Test: The Latest Data for January 2024 (Round 12) (January 2024, page updated 5 August 2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/email-deliverability-test-jan-2024/

Table: Inbox placement rate by sector, Validity benchmark, 2025, top five and bottom five of 21 sectors

| Sector | Inbox | Spam | Missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transportation | 97.2% | 1.1% | 1.8% |
| Energy, utilities and waste | 95.0% | 1.8% | 3.1% |
| Telecommunications | 92.6% | 4.7% | 2.7% |
| Government | 91.4% | 5.4% | 3.2% |
| Travel and hospitality | 90.8% | 4.1% | 5.1% |
| Law firms and legal services | 82.1% | 8.0% | 9.9% |
| Consumer services | 81.2% | 10.9% | 7.9% |
| Healthcare services | 80.3% | 10.7% | 9.0% |
| Real estate | 80.1% | 15.9% | 4.1% |
| B2B hosting platforms (all sectors) | 83.0% | 9.6% | 7.4% |

Source: Validity 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report. The B2B row covers mail to business hosting platforms such as Office 365 and Google Apps.

## How email deliverability is measured, and the limits of the data

Deliverability numbers depend on what is counted and who is in the sample. The sources on this page measure different things.

Validity's inbox placement rates come from seed-list tests. Its customers send campaigns to test addresses at hundreds of mailbox providers, and Validity records where each copy lands. Validity does not publish the number of seeds or tests, and its customers pay for deliverability tools, so they may be more careful senders than average. The report calls its percentage point changes percent changes. We give them as points.

Sinch Mailgun publishes two kinds of data. The benchmarks are delivery rates from more than 400 billion emails sent through its platform in 2025. The survey covers more than 1,200 senders, fielded from late September to early November 2025, and is self-reported. Only 25% of those senders run seed tests, so most cannot see their own inbox rate.

EmailToolTester's tests used GlockApps seed lists and counted Gmail tabs as inbox. It paused testing after January 2024, citing doubts about external testing tools, so its provider rankings are dated. Our DNS scan is a snapshot of the most visited sites, not of all senders. Many email programmes send from subdomains or third-party platforms that we did not check. The raw results and scripts are published at /data/snapshots/dns-scan/ so anyone can repeat the scan.

- 25% of email senders used seed mailbox (inbox placement) tests to measure deliverability in 2025, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 43% of email senders said their ability to reach the inbox improved in the 12 months to late 2025, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 40% of email senders named landing in spam as a top deliverability challenge in 2025, the most common answer, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 53% of email senders actively monitored their sender reputation with tools such as Google Postmaster Tools in 2025, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 46% of email senders used double opt-in to confirm new subscribers in 2025, up from 40%, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
- 22% of email senders rarely or never cleaned their contact lists in 2025, against 39% a year earlier, according to Sinch Mailgun. Source: Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement (2026, accessed 4 November 2026) https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/

## Frequently asked questions

### What is a good email deliverability rate in 2026?

The global average inbox placement rate was 87.2% in 2025, according to Validity. Gmail averaged 89.8%. A rate above 90% puts a sender ahead of the average in every region except Europe, where the average was 91.1%.

### Did email deliverability improve compared with last year?

Yes. Global inbox placement rose from 83.5% in 2024 to 87.2% in 2025, a gain of 3.7 points. Every region and all four major mailbox providers improved. The missing rate fell from 9.8% to 6.1%.

### Which email provider is hardest to reach the inbox at?

Microsoft, which runs Outlook and Hotmail. It placed 77.4% of tracked marketing email in the inbox in 2025 and sent 15.1% to junk, according to Validity. That is 12.4 points below Gmail.

### Which country has the best email deliverability?

Germany, at 97.5% inbox placement in 2025, followed by France at 94.0% and the UK at 91.5%. India had the lowest rate of the countries Validity reports, 71.0%. The US was at 86.8%.

### How many companies use DMARC?

In our scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains on 4 November 2026, 82.7% of domains that receive mail published DMARC and 61.1% enforced it. In Sinch Mailgun's survey, 61% of senders said they used DMARC in 2025, up from 43% in 2023.

### Will email deliverability get better in 2026?

Validity expects Microsoft's rate to keep rising as more senders meet its rules, and Apple's too. It expects Gmail's rate may fall, because Gmail now sorts by engagement and enforces its rules harder since November 2025. Yahoo may dip short term as AT&T and Comcast mailboxes move to it. We will update this page when the 2027 benchmark is published.

## Sources

1. Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report: An Analysis of Inbox and Spam Placement Rates Worldwide, March 2026, accessed 4 November 2026. https://www.validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Benchmark-Report.pdf
2. StatisticsGlobal, Email authentication (SPF and DMARC) DNS scan of the Tranco top 10,000 domains, 4 November 2026. https://statisticsglobal.org/data/snapshots/dns-scan/email-auth-tranco-top10k-2026-11-04.csv
3. Validity, 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, March 2025, accessed 4 November 2026. https://validity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-Benchmark-Report-FINAL.pdf
4. Google, Email sender guidelines (Google Workspace Admin Help), rolling page, accessed 4 November 2026. https://support.google.com/a/answer/14229414
5. Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 3: Deliverability: The impact of inbox placement, 2026, accessed 4 November 2026. https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/deliverability-impact/
6. Sinch Mailgun, The 2026 Email Impact Report, Chapter 2: Email benchmarks: How do you measure up?, 2026, accessed 4 November 2026. https://www.mailgun.com/email-impact-report/chapter/email-benchmarks-how-do-you-measure-up/
7. EmailToolTester, Email Deliverability Test: The Latest Data for January 2024 (Round 12), January 2024, page updated 5 August 2026, accessed 4 November 2026. https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/email-deliverability-test-jan-2024/