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What is the best time to send marketing emails?
The data on best send times for email marketing, why your own list matters more than general benchmarks, and how to find your actual best time in 4-6 weeks.
- 3 August 2026
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What is the best time to send marketing emails?
Tuesday to Thursday, 9-11am in the recipient's local time zone, is the broadly cited best window across most industries, but the difference between the best and worst common send times is usually only 3-8 percentage points in open rate. Your own list's behaviour, tested over four to six sends, matters more than any general benchmark.
Last updated 3 August 2026
| Day | Typical relative open rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Average | Inboxes full from the weekend, competes with catch-up |
| Tuesday | Above average | Most commonly cited best day |
| Wednesday | Above average | Close second to Tuesday in most benchmarks |
| Thursday | Above average | Similar performance to Tuesday/Wednesday |
| Friday | Below average | Attention drops toward the weekend |
| Weekend | Varies by audience | Can work well for consumer/lifestyle brands, poorly for B2B |
Do this
The steps, in order.
- Step 1
Start with the general benchmark, then test
Send at Tuesday or Wednesday, 9-11am recipient time zone, for your first month if you have no data yet. This is a reasonable starting point, not a rule to follow indefinitely.
- Step 2
Run an actual A/B test on your own list
Split your list and send the same email at two different times over four to six sends, then compare open and click rates. Your specific audience's habits often diverge from general benchmarks in ways that matter more than the benchmark itself.
- Step 3
Account for your audience's actual schedule
A newsletter for restaurant owners performs differently at 9am (when they're prepping) than one for office workers. Think about what your specific reader is doing at the time you're sending before defaulting to generic advice.
- Step 4
Consider time zones if your list spans regions
Most email platforms support send-time optimisation or time-zone-based sending. If your list is split across time zones, a single send time can mean some readers get it at 6am and others at 2pm.
- Step 5
Don't over-optimise send time before fixing content
The gap between a good and mediocre send time is single-digit percentage points; the gap between a strong subject line and a weak one is often 2-3x in open rate. Fix the content first, then fine-tune timing.
Worth knowing
The bits people get wrong.
Send-time benchmarks come from aggregating across thousands of accounts and industries, which smooths out the meaningful variation between specific audiences. A B2B newsletter read during the workday behaves very differently from a consumer fitness newsletter more likely to get opened during a morning commute or evening wind-down.
The most reliable way to find your best time is to test it directly rather than trust any published benchmark, including this one. Most email platforms with over 1,000 subscribers offer built-in send-time optimisation features that learn from individual open patterns and send at the statistically best time per subscriber.
Frequency and consistency usually matter more than exact timing. A newsletter that reliably arrives every Tuesday at 10am builds a habit in readers' inboxes, even if Wednesday at 9am would technically perform marginally better — the predictability itself becomes part of what drives opens over time.
For time-sensitive emails (sales, event reminders, abandoned cart), timing relative to the trigger event matters far more than day-of-week benchmarks. An abandoned cart email sent one hour after abandonment will outperform any 'optimal' scheduled send time by a wide margin.
Questions
Follow-up questions.
Is Tuesday really the best day to send emails?
It's the most commonly cited best day across aggregated benchmarks, but the actual difference versus Wednesday or Thursday is usually small — a few percentage points. Test your own list before treating it as a firm rule.
Does sending time matter for transactional emails?
No — transactional emails (receipts, password resets, shipping confirmations) should send immediately upon trigger regardless of time of day, since they're expected and time-sensitive by nature.
Should I send at the same time every week?
Consistency helps build a habit with readers and is generally worth more than chasing a marginally better time slot each week. Pick a good time and stick with it for at least two months before changing.
How do I test send times without a large list?
With a smaller list, alternate send times across consecutive weeks rather than splitting a single send, since a true A/B split needs a larger sample to be statistically meaningful. Track trends over 6-8 weeks.
Do weekends work for any type of email?
Yes, for consumer and lifestyle brands where people browse more on weekends. B2B and workplace-tool audiences generally see lower engagement on weekends since they're not thinking about work.
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