Email marketing benchmarks.
Quarterly benchmarks built from the marketing emails brands actually send: subject lines, send timing, cadence, design, and sending platforms. Every number comes from emails in our archive. We do not use surveys or self-reported data.
of subject lines carry an emoji, the third straight quarterly decline
- Q3 2026
- Q3 2025
| Day | Q3 2025 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 9,445 (74%) | 12,385 (88%) |
| Tuesday | 11,243 (89%) | 12,660 (90%) |
| Wednesday | 9,778 (77%) | 14,117 (100%) |
| Thursday | 11,941 (94%) | 12,926 (92%) |
| Friday | 12,694 (100%) | 12,839 (91%) |
| Saturday | 9,195 (72%) | 12,337 (87%) |
| Sunday | 9,017 (71%) | 12,529 (89%) |
- 89,812emails analyzed
- 4,601brands
- 20industries compared
- 5quarters of trend data
Inside the report.
Five findings
The quarter’s five main findings, each with its numbers and a link to the section behind it.
Read the section →02Subject lines
The average subject line ran 35.6 characters, down from 37 a year earlier. Emoji use fell to 24.2% of subject lines, a third straight quarterly decline.
Read the section →03Send timing
Wednesday was the busiest day with 15.7% of sends. A year earlier Friday led and the weekend sat about 28% below it.
Read the section →04Industries
Emoji use ranged from 7.5% of subject lines in Higher Education to 51.1% in Video Games, across the 20 largest industries. Pick a category to compare it with all emails.
Read the section →05Sending cadence
45.8% of brands sent 13 or more emails in the quarter, a weekly pace or faster. The 2,409 brands tracked in both years sent 4.9% less.
Read the section →06Seasonal
Labor Day appeared in 1,036 subject lines, up 14% from a year earlier. Halloween drew 228 mentions before October began.
Read the section →07Design & content
In Q3 2026, analyzed at 99.9% coverage, the average email had 264 words, 20.2 images, and 28.5 links.
Read the section →08Sending platforms
Klaviyo sent 51.5% of the emails where we could detect the sending platform in Q3 2026. Salesforce Marketing Cloud was second at 14.4%.
Read the section →09Reader favorites
What 67,821 visitors viewed on Email Love during the quarter. Newsletter emails were the most-viewed category.
Read the section →Every edition.
Each quarter gets its own report, and earlier editions stay online as the record for their quarter.
Q3 2026
July 1 to September 30, 2026. 89,812 emails from 4,601 brands; 67,821 marketers studied the archive that quarter.
Read the Q3 2026 report →Earlier editionQ2 2026
April 1 to June 30, 2026. 79,235 emails from 4,346 brands; 65,325 marketers studied the archive that quarter.
Read the Q2 2026 report →At a glance.
Subject line and cadence benchmarks for the last five quarters. Each column covers the marketing emails we archived in that quarter.
| Benchmark | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emails analyzed | 73,349 | 79,113 | 68,867 | 78,930 | 89,812 |
| Brands | 3,565 | 3,477 | 3,730 | 4,238 | 4,601 |
| Average subject line, in characters | 37.0 | 36.7 | 35.4 | 35.7 | 35.6 |
| Subject lines of 30 characters or less | 37.8% | 36.3% | 41.2% | 40.6% | 40.5% |
| Subject lines with an emoji | 27.2% | 29.0% | 27.0% | 25.4% | 24.2% |
| Subject lines with an exclamation point | 16.0% | 17.2% | 13.4% | 12.5% | 12.2% |
| Subject lines with discount language | 25.0% | 28.0% | 22.4% | 23.2% | 23.2% |
| Subject lines with an exact percent off | 17.3% | 20.7% | 16.2% | 16.3% | 16.0% |
| Emails per brand | 20.6 | 22.7 | 18.5 | 18.6 | 19.5 |
| Brands sending weekly or more | 46.7% | 50.4% | 42.7% | 45.5% | 45.8% |
Emoji figures start in Q3 2025 because emails archived before then lost emoji characters to an encoding bug. Email and brand counts show the size of our archive each quarter, not total market volume. Weekly or more means 13 or more emails in a quarter. Design and sending-platform benchmarks are in the full report.
How we measure.
Every benchmark comes from marketing emails that brands sent to their subscribers. These are the rules we follow when we turn the archive into numbers.
- 1
We archive real emails.
Email Love subscribes to brands’ mailing lists and keeps every marketing email they send. When we built the Q3 2026 edition, the archive held 482,132 emails from 8,920 brands.
- 2
We measure each quarter separately.
Subject line figures come from each email’s subject header. Send days come from each email’s own date header, in UTC. Design and sending-platform figures come from our email analysis, and the report states how much of each quarter it has covered.
- 3
We publish a new edition every quarter.
Each edition comes out shortly after its quarter closes and stays online as the record for that quarter, so a figure you cite does not change later.
- 4
We state the limits.
The archive leans toward US ecommerce and direct-to-consumer brands, so read these as benchmarks for those senders. We receive emails the way a subscriber does, so we do not have open, click, or revenue data. Archive growth is reported next to a same-brand comparison, so a bigger archive is never mistaken for a busier market.
How to cite the benchmarks.
You are welcome to quote any figure. Credit Email Love and link to the edition you quote, so readers can check the number and the quarter it covers.
Source: Email Love, Email Marketing Benchmarks Q3 2026, based on 89,812 marketing emails archived from 4,601 brands (emaillove.com/benchmarks/q3-2026).
Questions, answered.
Where does the benchmark data come from?
From the marketing emails Email Love archives from brands’ mailing lists. The Q3 2026 edition covers 89,812 emails from 4,601 brands, sent between July 1 to September 30, 2026. We do not use surveys or self-reported data.
How often are the benchmarks updated?
Every quarter. We publish a new edition shortly after each quarter closes and compare it with the quarters before it. Earlier editions stay online, so a figure you cite keeps pointing to the same number.
Do the benchmarks include open rates or click rates?
No. We receive emails the way a subscriber does, so we measure what brands send: subject lines, send timing, cadence, design, and sending platforms. We do not have access to brands’ open, click, or revenue data.
Which brands and industries are included?
Every brand in the Email Love archive that sent at least one email during the quarter. The archive leans toward US ecommerce and direct-to-consumer brands. The report breaks out results for the 20 largest industries.
Can I cite these benchmarks?
Yes. Credit Email Love and link to the edition you quote, for example emaillove.com/benchmarks/q3-2026. Each report has a copy-ready citation.
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