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The data

A lot of good email never gets read.

We won’t ask you to take our word for it. Every number below links straight to its primary source - tap any card and check it yourself.

~1 in 6

emails never reaches the inbox

Across 2024-25, average inbox placement sat around 84% globally - so roughly one in six legitimate emails is filtered to spam or quietly disappears.

Source · Validity · 2025 Deliverability Benchmark
47%

of all email is spam

Nearly half of global email traffic in 2024 was spam. That’s exactly why providers filter so aggressively - and why real senders keep getting caught in the net.

Source · Statista · Spam share of email traffic
0.3%

spam complaints can sink your domain

Gmail’s own rules: if more than 3 in 1,000 recipients hit “report spam,” your future emails get far more likely to be filtered - for everyone on your domain. Aim under 0.1%.

Source · Google · Email sender guidelines
75.6%

inbox rate at the toughest provider

At Microsoft / Outlook, only about three-quarters of legitimate email reaches the inbox - so even senders doing everything right lose a chunk of their outreach.

Source · Validity · 2025 Deliverability Benchmark

The worst part? You never find out.

When an email is filtered to spam, there’s no bounce, no error, no notice. It just silently disappears. You assume the prospect wasn’t interested - when the truth is they never saw it. Filters score every message in milliseconds against hundreds of signals, and one or two bad ones is all it takes.

What actually trips the filters

  • Spam-trigger words in the subject or body (“guaranteed”, “risk-free”, “act now”)
  • Too many links, or links to unfamiliar / shortened domains
  • ALL-CAPS, excessive punctuation, and urgency phrasing
  • Missing unsubscribe link or physical address (CAN-SPAM)
  • Poor HTML-to-text balance and image-heavy messages
  • Low sender reputation from past complaints or bounces

Check our sources

Deliverability figures vary by study, year, industry, and mailbox provider - anyone quoting a single “exact” number is guessing. We round conservatively and link the primary research so you can judge for yourself:

Validity - 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark ReportGlobal and provider-level inbox-placement rates.Statista - Spam share of global email trafficSpam as a percentage of all email sent, tracked monthly.Google - Email sender guidelinesOfficial spam-complaint thresholds for reaching Gmail inboxes.EmailTooltester - Deliverability & spam studiesIndependent, repeated inbox-placement tests across providers.

HitSend isn’t affiliated with any of these organizations. Spot a figure you think is off? Tell us through our contact page and we’ll correct it.

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