--- title: "Email Bounce Rate — Causes & How to Fix It | OWOX" canonical: "https://www.owox.com/metrics/email-bounce-rate" updated: "2026-09-21" --- ![](https://cdn.owox.com/www/content-marketing-marketingmetrics/bounce-rate/icon/1.svg/public) Metric · 2 min read # Email bounce rate Email Bounce Rate measures the percentage of emails that couldn't be delivered to recipients. Here’s everything you need to know: what it is, why it matters, how to calculate it, and how to improve it! Formula Email Bounce Rate (%) · \= · Bounced EmailsEmails Sent · × 100 **Example.** If you send 10,000 emails and 300 of them bounce, your Email Bounce Rate is 3%. Keeping this rate low helps protect your sender reputation and ensure more of your emails reach the inbox. ## Overview ## What it is Email Bounce Rate is the percentage of sent emails that are returned by the recipient’s server as undeliverable. Bounces are typically categorized as either soft (temporary issue) or hard (permanent failure like invalid email addresses). ## Why it matters Email Bounce Rate reflects the health and quality of your mailing list. A high bounce rate can hurt your sender reputation, decrease email deliverability, and limit the success of future campaigns. ## How it is calculated Divide the number of bounced emails by the total number of emails sent, then multiply by 100 to get the percentage. ## Good and bad values ## A good value A good Email Bounce Rate is under 2%. Rates lower than 1% are ideal and show you’re maintaining a clean and engaged list. ## A bad value A bounce rate over 5% is a warning sign. It could be caused by outdated contacts, spam traps, or low-quality data, and can damage your ability to reach users. ## Do Follow these strategies to reduce your Email Bounce Rate and improve email deliverability. 1. 01 ### Use confirmed opt-in Require subscribers to confirm their email addresses to prevent fake or mistyped contacts from entering your list. 2. 02 ### Clean your list regularly Remove hard bounces and inactive subscribers on a regular basis to maintain a healthy database. 3. 03 ### Authenticate your emails Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to validate your sender identity and reduce the risk of being blocked or marked as spam. ## Avoid 1. Don’t buy email lists or neglect to verify addresses. Ignoring bounce reports can lead to poor sender reputation and email deliverability issu ## Related metrics ## Related metrics you might be interested in [Average Engagement Rate`= (Total Engagements ÷ Total Impressions or Followers) × 100`](/metrics/average-engagement-rate) [Bounce Rate`= (Single-Page Sessions ÷ Total Sessions) × 100`](/metrics/bounce-rate) [Conversion Rate`= (Total VisitorsConversions​) × 100`](/metrics/conversion-rate) [Exit Rate`= (Total Exits from Page ÷ Total Pageviews for Page) × 100`](/metrics/exit-rate) [Email Subscribers`= New Subscribers − (Unsubscribes + Bounces)`](/metrics/email-subscribers) [Emails Sent`= Total Number of Emails Processed for Delivery in a Campaign`](/metrics/emails-sent) ## Related articles ## Articles that use Email Bounce Rate [data integration · How to load Open Exchange Rates into BigQuery with OWOX Data Marts · Oct 26, 2026](/blog/articles/free-open-exchange-rates-to-bigquery-connector) [ai · How to Review AI-Generated SQL: The Checks, in Order, Tested on ChatGPT and Claude · Oct 14, 2026](/blog/articles/review-ai-generated-sql) [marketing · Semrush vs Similarweb: which is more accurate? A test on 787 websites · Oct 7, 2026](/blog/articles/semrush-vs-similarweb) ## Customer stories ## Learn how teams ship analytics faster Organizations that scaled analytics without scaling headcount [All case studies →](/blog/success-stories) [Pürblack · "For 10 years I was blind." The day Pürblack® founder stopped guessing · Seconds · to get reports across six channels · Read the story](/blog/success-stories/purblack) [Reformation · How OWOX Reports Helped Reformation Make Data-Backed Decisions · Minutes · from data request to business decision · Read the story](/blog/success-stories/reformation) [WorkSimpli · How OWOX Reports Streamlined Operations for WorkSimpli, Saving Over 10 Hours Weekly · 10hrs+ · saved per week on manual reporting · Read the story](/blog/success-stories/worksimpli) ## What users are saying ## Not testimonials. Comment threads. Real things real customers said — each quote pinned to a specific claim, straight from the quotes database. A9 · re: one source of truth ![Mark Simmons](https://cdn.owox.ai/www/webflow/6a7b298b2b9daab0ade631d7_mark-headshot.png/public) Mark Simmons · CMO, Pürblack® > _“We had six or seven different channels and no single source of truth — it was almost impossible, a lot of guesswork.”_ C3 · re: golden data ![Nodari Rizun](https://cdn.owox.ai/www/webflow/6a7b298b2ca5055443187566_nodari-headshot.png/public) Nodari Rizun · Founder & CEO, Pürblack® > _“Golden data is clean data — the measure of reality, true and not false, that you can trust based on its source. If you have that, you're good.”_ E5 · re: dashboards vs truth ![Nodari Rizun](https://cdn.owox.ai/www/webflow/6a7b298b2ca5055443187566_nodari-headshot.png/public) Nodari Rizun · Founder & CEO, Pürblack® > _“Most businesses look at a Shopify or Google Analytics dashboard and think it's the source of truth. It's not — that data was never cleaned.”_ ## Your New Normal Calculate Email Bounce Rate on your own data. OWOX Data Marts connects your email platform data to help you monitor bounce trends and identify sources of bad emails. Use these insights to clean your list and improve future deliverability. * No AI hallucinations * Analyst-governed definitions * Every number traces to SQL [Get started free](https://www.owox.com/app-signup) ## Book a call You are booked. The invitation is on its way to , with the calendar invite and the meeting link. [Reschedule](#) [Cancel](#) ## Schedule a meeting ## Schedule in person meeting at Tip Top Toronto You are booked. The invitation is on its way to , with the calendar invite and the meeting link. [Reschedule](#) [Cancel](#) ## Links Pages this page links to, on this site and on docs.owox.com. Where the page has a Markdown twin, its address follows the link. - [Average Engagement Rate= (Total Engagements ÷ Total Impressions or Followers) × 100](https://www.owox.com/metrics/average-engagement-rate) — /metrics/average-engagement-rate.md - [Bounce Rate= (Single-Page Sessions ÷ Total Sessions) × 100](https://www.owox.com/metrics/bounce-rate) — /metrics/bounce-rate.md - [Conversion Rate= (Total VisitorsConversions​) × 100](https://www.owox.com/metrics/conversion-rate) — /metrics/conversion-rate.md - [Exit Rate= (Total Exits from Page ÷ Total Pageviews for Page) × 100](https://www.owox.com/metrics/exit-rate) — /metrics/exit-rate.md - [Email Subscribers= New Subscribers − (Unsubscribes + Bounces)](https://www.owox.com/metrics/email-subscribers) — /metrics/email-subscribers.md - [Emails Sent= Total Number of Emails Processed for Delivery in a Campaign](https://www.owox.com/metrics/emails-sent) — /metrics/emails-sent.md - [data integration · How to load Open Exchange Rates into BigQuery with OWOX Data Marts · Oct 26, 2026](https://www.owox.com/blog/articles/free-open-exchange-rates-to-bigquery-connector) — /blog/articles/free-open-exchange-rates-to-bigquery-connector.md - [ai · How to Review AI-Generated SQL: The Checks, in Order, Tested on ChatGPT and Claude · Oct 14,…](https://www.owox.com/blog/articles/review-ai-generated-sql) — /blog/articles/review-ai-generated-sql.md - [marketing · Semrush vs Similarweb: which is more accurate? A test on 787 websites · Oct 7, 2026](https://www.owox.com/blog/articles/semrush-vs-similarweb) — /blog/articles/semrush-vs-similarweb.md - [All case studies →](https://www.owox.com/blog/success-stories) — /blog/success-stories.md - [Pürblack · "For 10 years I was blind." The day Pürblack® founder stopped guessing · Seconds · to get…](https://www.owox.com/blog/success-stories/purblack) — /blog/success-stories/purblack.md - [Reformation · How OWOX Reports Helped Reformation Make Data-Backed Decisions · Minutes · from data…](https://www.owox.com/blog/success-stories/reformation) — /blog/success-stories/reformation.md - [WorkSimpli · How OWOX Reports Streamlined Operations for WorkSimpli, Saving Over 10 Hours Weekly ·…](https://www.owox.com/blog/success-stories/worksimpli) — /blog/success-stories/worksimpli.md - [Get started free](https://www.owox.com/app-signup)