What is a good unsubscribe rate?

Under 0.5% per campaign is generally considered healthy. Under 0.2% is excellent. If you're consistently above 0.5%, that's a signal worth investigating. Above 1% is a problem.

A few things worth knowing about that benchmark: it varies by email type and context. A re-engagement campaign sent to your least-active subscribers will naturally produce a higher unsubscribe rate than your regular newsletter, and that's actually fine. You're asking cold subscribers to opt back in, and the ones who don't are doing you a favor by making it obvious. A promotional campaign with a strong sales push will generate more unsubscribes than an editorial newsletter. Neither is necessarily wrong, but context matters when you're interpreting your rate.

Also: unsubscribes are the honest feedback loop that spam complaints are not. When someone unsubscribes, they're politely telling you this isn't for them. When someone hits the spam button instead, they're telling the mailbox provider too, which is much more damaging to your reputation. A healthy unsubscribe process is actually something to respect, not minimize at all costs. Making it hard to unsubscribe doesn't reduce complaints; it just shifts people from unsubscribing to reporting spam.

If your rate is above 0.5%, check whether it's consistent across all campaigns or spiking on specific ones. Consistent elevation usually means frequency or content mismatch. Campaign-specific spikes usually mean the wrong audience got that send. Here's how to investigate and reduce it.