Jimmy KimCEO & Founder, Commerce Roundtable · Marketer of 17+ Years, 4x Founder. Former DTC/Retailer & SaaS Founder. Newsletter. Host of ASOM & Send it! Podcast. DTC Event: Commerce Roundtable

What's a Good Email Unsubscribe Rate? (Context Matters More)

4 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief dialogue, two speakers discuss what constitutes a "good" email unsubscribe rate. Speaker B cites the typical industry benchmark of 0.2%–0.5% and emphasizes that raw numbers are insufficient without context. They illustrate how a low unsubscribe rate (e.g., 0.1%) might indicate either highly engaging content or overly bland messaging, while a higher rate (e.g., 1%) could signal either poor relevance or bold, polarizing brand voice. The conversation concludes that the unsubscribe metric must be interpreted alongside other performance indicators and the nature of the email content.

I wanna define what a good unsubscribe rate. You got a take on that?
The industry average is about 0.2 to about 0.5%, but I think the thing that matters is actually the context.
What do you mean by that?
So a 0.1% unsubscribe rate, that could be great, or it could mean, like we talked about before, that you're being very boring and your stuff's just vanilla. Unsubscribe rate of 1% could be terrible, or it could mean that you're being bold and on brand, maybe even a little bit polarizing, right?
I agree. The number alone doesn't really tell the story.
You need to look at the bigger picture. What else is happening? Helpful if we break down some scenarios. Let's say like you have a 0.1 unsubscribe rate, but your open rate's 15% and your click rate's 1%. That's probably a red flag.