Report · November 2026
Cold email benchmarks 2026: what gets B2B replies
We looked at the cold email campaigns Grafema has run, which have reached more than 250,000 B2B decision-makers, to see which prospects reply, when, and to what kind of email. Every figure below is relative to the average reply rate, so 2.0× means twice as likely to reply as the average prospect.
Key findings
Six things the data says
~1.7×
Companies with 1 to 10 people reply about 1.7 times as often as the average. Above 1,000 people, about half as often.
1.3×
Owners, founders, CEOs and partners reply more than any other role. Finance and contacts without a job title reply least.
<120
words is where first emails perform best. Past 175 words, replies disappear.
+23%
One follow-up added about a quarter more replies, and about a quarter more leads, on top of the first email.
½
Emails first sent on a Saturday or Sunday get about half the replies of a weekday send.
40%
of replies arrive on the same day as the email, two in three within 3 days, and nearly all within 10 days.
Company size
Small companies reply far more often
The thin line marks the average (1.0×).
Up to 10 people, almost any role replies; in larger companies, replies come mostly from owners and senior leaders.
Job title
Email the person who owns the decision
The thin line marks the average (1.0×).
Marketing, HR and IT are left out: their results varied too much between campaigns to draw a conclusion.
Industry
Some industries reply three times as often as others
Most likely to reply
The thin line marks the average (1.0×).
Least likely to reply
The thin line marks the average (1.0×).
Industries with enough emails sent to be meaningful. Hospitality is left out: its results varied too much between campaigns.
Day of the week
Weekdays, and early in the week
The thin line marks the average (1.0×).
Day the first email was sent.
Email length
Short first emails win; long ones get ignored
The thin line marks the average (1.0×).
Words in the first email. Very short emails did best, but on a small sample; the clear finding is the drop past 175 words.
Follow-ups and replies
What happens after the first email
+23%
One follow-up added about a quarter more replies and leads. Keep it short: follow-ups of 40–79 words did better than longer ones (1.2× vs 0.9×).
40%
of replies come the same day, 66% within 3 days and nearly all within 10. If someone hasn't replied after 10 days, the next email should be a new angle, not a reminder.
About 1 in 3 replies is a lead
Counting interested replies, questions, referrals to someone else and "get back to me later". The rest are mostly polite no's, which are also useful: they tell you the list or the offer needs work.
About 1 in 12 replies points you to someone else
"Talk to my colleague" is one of the most common positive replies. Follow it up the same day, naming the person who referred you.
Longer sequences didn't help
Campaigns with 3 or 7 emails didn't reply more than first email + one follow-up. Those campaigns were few, so treat this as a hint, not a rule.
Methodology
How we measured
- •Reply rate counts every prospect who replied, excluding automatic replies (out-of-office and similar). A lead is a reply that is interested, asks a question, refers to another person or asks to be contacted later.
- •Every figure is an index: the reply rate of a segment divided by the average reply rate. We publish indices rather than raw rates because raw rates depend heavily on each client's offer and list, while the differences between segments hold across clients.
- •We only report findings that hold consistently across campaigns and clients.
- •Segments with too few replies to be meaningful are left out or flagged. Timing within the day is left out because each client chooses its own sending window, which mixes the client's effect with the time's.
- •Analysis run on 9 November 2026.
You're welcome to cite these findings with a link to this page. Questions about the data: hello@grafema.ai.
FAQ
Questions about cold email performance
What is a good cold email reply rate?
It depends so much on the offer, the list and the market that a single number is misleading. It's more useful to compare segments: in our data, prospects at companies with 1 to 10 people reply about 1.7 times as often as average, and owners or CEOs about 1.3 times as often.
How long should a B2B cold email be?
Under about 120 words for the first email. In our data, first emails over 175 words got no replies at all.
What is the best day to send cold emails?
Monday to Wednesday did slightly better than Thursday and Friday, and weekends got about half the replies of a weekday.
Should I send follow-ups?
Yes: one follow-up added about 23% more replies, and a similar share of leads, on top of the first email. More than one follow-up didn't raise reply rates in our data.
Who should I email at a company?
At small companies, almost any senior person replies. Above about 50 people, email the owner, founder or CEO: other roles reply far less.
Let an AI SDR apply this to your outbound
Grafema targets the right people, keeps first emails short and follows up for you. Enter your website to see your first 15 prospects and the email each would get.
See your first 15 prospects free