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Metrics & Analytics

Unsubscribe Rate

The percentage of email recipients who opt out of your mailing list after receiving an email.

Definition

Unsubscribe rate measures the percentage of email recipients who click the unsubscribe link and opt out of receiving future emails. It is calculated by dividing the number of unsubscribes by the number of delivered emails. A healthy unsubscribe rate indicates you are respecting subscriber preferences while maintaining list quality.

Why It Matters

Unsubscribe rate is a direct indicator of subscriber satisfaction. High unsubscribe rates suggest content is not meeting expectations, you are sending too frequently, or you acquired subscribers who were not truly interested. Monitoring this helps you adjust your strategy before bigger problems develop.

How It Works

When subscribers click your unsubscribe link, they are removed from your mailing list (either immediately or after confirming). Your ESP tracks these unsubscribes and reports them per campaign. Some platforms offer preference centers where subscribers can reduce frequency instead of fully unsubscribing.

Best Practices

  • 1Make unsubscribing easy with a single click when possible
  • 2Offer a preference center as an alternative to full unsubscribe
  • 3Set appropriate expectations at signup about content and frequency
  • 4Monitor unsubscribe rates by campaign type to identify problematic content
  • 5Consider an unsubscribe rate below 0.5% per campaign as healthy

Frequently Asked Questions

A typical unsubscribe rate is 0.1-0.5% per campaign. Rates consistently above 0.5% suggest problems with content relevance, frequency, or list quality. Welcome emails may see higher rates as subscribers reconsider their signup.

Not necessarily. Unsubscribes help maintain list quality by removing uninterested subscribers. It is better than being marked as spam. However, consistently high rates indicate you need to improve content or targeting.

Improve relevance through segmentation, set clear expectations at signup, find the right sending frequency, offer a preference center for options, and ensure you are delivering the value promised when they subscribed.