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Research / Statistics

COLD EMAIL
STATISTICS

What 2 million real cold emails reveal about B2B outreach. Every data point from real campaigns—not surveys, not estimates.

February 2026 · 2M+ emails · 61K replies · 100+ industries

0%
Avg Reply Rate
0%
Positive Rate
0
Emails Analyzed
0
Replies Classified
Overview Who to Target What to Write When & Where Deep Dives
Reply Classification
Reply Sentiment Breakdown
14.1%
Positive
Positive 14.1%
Negative 29.9%
Auto-Reply 45.1%
Referral 2.1%
Neutral 2.7%
Other 6.1%
Only 14.1% of replies are genuinely positive. Nearly half (45.1%) are auto-replies. The effective "interested reply rate" across all contacts emailed is ~0.64%.
The Funnel
From Send to Interested Reply
Contacts Emailed 1,369,823
Replied (any)
28,632 2.09%
Replied Positively
8,737 0.64% of total
The average cold email reply rate is 2.09%. But only 14.1% of those replies express genuine interest—making the real "interested" rate roughly 1 in 157 contacts.
Sequence Position
Initial Message vs Follow-Up
Initial Outreach
79.4%
of all replies
1.83%
Reply Rate
8.90%
Positive Rate
Follow-Up
20.6%
of all replies
1.22%
Reply Rate
7.55%
Positive Rate
The first message drives 79.4% of all replies at a higher reply rate (1.83% vs 1.22%) and higher positive rate (8.90% vs 7.55%). Follow-ups have diminishing returns. Read the full analysis →
Reply Rate
By Seniority Level
Directors reply 66% more than junior contacts (2.46% vs 1.48%). But reply rate alone doesn't tell the quality story.
Reply Rate
By Company Size
Contacts at 1–10 person companies reply 75% more often than those at 5,000+ employee enterprises.
Reply Rate
By Department
Customer Success (2.79%) to Engineering (0.98%)—a 2.8x gap. Department matters more than most people think.
Positive Reply Rate
By Seniority Level
C-level: 14.16% positive—3.3x higher than managers. When a CEO replies, they mean it. Full report →
Positive Reply Rate
By Company Size
Small companies (1–10): 18.20% positive. Enterprises (10K+): 3.43%. A 5.3x difference in reply quality.
5.3x
Small companies respond positively at 5.3x the rate of enterprises. Fewer gatekeepers, faster decisions, decision-makers read their own email.
Reply Rate · Min 5K contacts
Top 20 Industries
Religious institutions (4.28%) reply at 2x the rate of computer software (2.09%). Mission-driven organizations consistently outperform commercial industries.
Positive Reply Rate
By Email Tone
Informal wins decisively—10.36% positive rate, 78% higher than formal (5.83%). Write like a human, not a brochure.
Positive Reply Rate
By Email Length
Ultra Short and Medium tie at ~8.8%. Long emails drop to 6.42%. The sweet spot: 2–3 sentences or enough context to be compelling.
Positive Reply Rate
By Email Structure
Lead with your value proposition. "VP → Trust → CTA" outperforms all others at 9.47%.
78%
Informal tone outperforms formal by 78% in positive reply rate. Every cold email guide says "be professional"—the data says be human.
Positive Reply Rate · Min 200 replies
Top 10 CTAs
Video and demo CTAs crush everything else. "Want to see it in action?" has a 30.05% positive rate—3.5x higher than generic "Mind if I send more info?" (8.59%). Browse more in our template library →
Data-Driven Synthesis

The Ideal Cold Email

Target C-Level at 1–10 employees
Tone Informal (10.36% positive)
Length Ultra Short or Medium (~8.8%)
Structure VP → Trust → CTA (9.47%)
CTA Video or demo-based (30.05%)
Timing Monday (volume) or Thursday (quality)
Focus First message (79.4% of replies)
Reply Rate & Positive Rate
By Day of Week
Reply Rate Positive Rate
Monday has the highest reply rate (1.96%). Thursday has the highest positive rate (10.5%). Weekends drop 27%. Timing deep dive →
Reply Rate · Min 2K contacts
By Country
European countries reply at 2–3x the rate of the US. Switzerland leads at 4.39%. Lower inbox saturation and email volume drive higher responsiveness.
Published Research

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Coming Soon

More research reports are in the pipeline. Follow @jakobgreenfeld for updates.

Methodology

This analysis is based on 2 million+ cold emails sent across 161 active campaigns, 2.5 million contacts with enriched firmographic data, and 61,770 replies classified by sentiment. Email copy analysis covers 1.7M+ messages tagged with component-level analysis including tone, length, structure, and CTA type.

Full methodology details

Data spans campaigns run between 2024 and early 2026. Reply rates are calculated as replies divided by unique contacts emailed (not total emails sent), to avoid inflating rates from multi-touch sequences.

Industry, seniority, and company size data comes from third-party enrichment providers and is available on the contact record.

For the "positive reply rate" metric, we classified replies into six groups: Positive/Interested (includes "possibly interested," "question," "contact later"), Negative/Not Interested, Neutral, Referral, Auto-Reply/OOO, and Other. Positive rate is calculated as positive replies divided by total replies in that segment.

Minimum thresholds were applied for statistical significance: 5,000 contacts for industry rankings, 2,000 contacts for country rankings, and 200 replies for CTA analysis.

This data comes from Sales.co, the most data-driven cold email service in the world. We built our own cold email infrastructure from the ground up, allowing us to pull granular data on every email sent, opened, and replied to. Report updated: February 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average cold email reply rate in 2026?
Based on our analysis of 2M+ cold emails, the average reply rate is 2.09%. However, only 14.1% of those replies are positive/interested, making the effective "interested reply rate" approximately 0.64%—about 1 in 157 contacts.
What industries have the highest cold email response rates?
Religious institutions (4.28%), civic & social organizations (3.89%), professional training & coaching (3.89%), government administration (3.80%), and biotechnology (3.58%) have the highest reply rates. Mission-driven organizations consistently outperform commercial industries.
What is the best day to send cold emails?
Monday has the highest overall reply rate (1.96%), while Thursday has the highest positive reply rate (10.5%). Weekends show a 27% drop in reply rates compared to weekdays. The best strategy: send for volume on Monday, send for quality mid-to-late week.
How many follow-up emails should you send?
Our data shows 79.4% of all replies come from the initial message. Follow-ups generate only 20.6% of replies at a lower reply rate (1.22% vs 1.83%) and lower positive rate (7.6% vs 8.9%). Diminishing returns set in quickly—we recommend a maximum of 3 emails total.
Do C-level executives respond to cold emails?
Yes. C-level executives have a 2.00% reply rate, and crucially, 14.16% of their replies are positive—3.3x higher than managers (4.25%). When a CEO responds, they're far more likely to be genuinely interested.
What email tone gets the most positive replies?
Informal emails have the highest positive reply rate at 10.36%, followed by energetic (7.78%), humble (6.13%), and formal (5.83%). Informal tone outperforms formal by 78%. Write conversationally, not like a corporate brochure.
How long should a cold email be?
Ultra short emails and medium-length emails perform nearly identically (8.78% and 8.74% positive rate). Long emails underperform at 6.42%. The sweet spot is either extremely concise (2–3 sentences) or medium with enough context to be compelling.
What CTA works best in cold emails?
Video and demo CTAs dramatically outperform others. "Want to see it in action?" has a 30.05% positive rate. "Are you open to a quick demo?" has 22.74%. Generic "Mind if I send more info?" only gets 8.59%. Offering something tangible and visual is 3–4x more effective.
Does company size affect cold email reply rates?
Yes, dramatically. Companies with 1–10 employees have a 2.40% reply rate and 18.20% positive rate. Companies with 5,000+ employees have only 1.37% reply rate and 3.4% positive rate—a 5.3x difference in reply quality. Smaller companies have fewer gatekeepers and faster decision cycles.
What percentage of cold email replies are positive?
Only 14.1% of cold email replies express genuine interest. 45.1% are auto-replies/out-of-office, 29.9% are negative/not interested, 2.7% are neutral, 2.1% are referrals, and 6.1% are other categories. Optimizing for positive reply rate—not raw reply rate—is what matters.

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