Email Sending Statistics 2026 and Projections for 2027–2028

Introduction

Email remains one of the most important communication channels in the world, connecting individuals, businesses, customers, employees, marketers, and organizations across different countries and industries. Despite the rapid growth of social media, instant messaging applications, video conferencing, and AI-powered communication platforms, email continues to play a central role in everyday digital communication.

In 2026, email is no longer just a tool for sending personal messages. It has become an essential part of business operations, customer relationship management, online advertising, ecommerce, financial transactions, customer support, software authentication, and marketing automation. Businesses use email to communicate with prospects, distribute newsletters, deliver invoices, send password-reset links, confirm purchases, and maintain relationships with existing customers.

The scale of global email activity is particularly impressive. Industry forecasts indicate that approximately 392.5 billion emails will be sent and received worldwide every day in 2026. This figure is expected to increase to 408.2 billion daily messages in 2027 and 424.2 billion in 2028, according to The Radicati Group’s Email Statistics Report, 2024–2028.

These figures demonstrate that email communication is continuing to expand, even as newer digital communication channels become more popular.

For businesses, marketers, publishers, and technology companies, understanding email sending statistics is increasingly important. It helps organizations evaluate market opportunities, plan email infrastructure, improve deliverability, understand customer communication habits, and make better decisions about marketing investments.

This guide examines important email sending statistics for 2026, explores the projected growth of email communication in 2027 and 2028, and discusses the trends likely to influence the global email industry.

Global Email Sending Statistics for 2026

One of the most useful indicators of the email industry’s growth is the number of messages sent and received worldwide each day.

According to The Radicati Group’s global email traffic forecast, daily email traffic is expected to reach approximately 392.5 billion messages in 2026. This includes personal and business communication, as well as automated and other forms of email traffic.

The figure represents a substantial communication infrastructure supporting billions of users and organizations.

The projected daily volume also demonstrates how email has evolved beyond traditional person-to-person communication. A significant proportion of modern email traffic is generated automatically by websites, applications, online stores, financial institutions, marketing platforms, and business software.

For example, an individual purchasing a product online may receive an order confirmation, payment receipt, shipping notification, delivery update, and customer satisfaction survey. Each message contributes to the overall volume of email traffic.

Businesses also generate large quantities of email through employee communication, customer support, sales operations, marketing campaigns, and automated workflows.

Global daily email volume forecast:

These figures represent forecasts from the same research series, rather than independently measured totals for each year.

 

The figures suggest that global email traffic will continue increasing by approximately 4% annually.

By 2028, the world could be exchanging more than 424 billion emails every day. This growth creates opportunities for email service providers, marketing software companies, cybersecurity businesses, hosting providers, and organizations offering email verification and deliverability solutions.

Number of Email Users Worldwide in 2026

The growth of email traffic is closely connected to the increasing number of people using email services around the world.

The Radicati Group estimates that worldwide email users will reach approximately 4.73 billion in 2026, compared with 4.594 billion in 2025. Its forecast places the global user base at approximately 4.97 billion by 2028.

This means email continues to reach a substantial proportion of the world’s population.

The growth is supported by several factors, including smartphone adoption, expanding internet access, digital banking, online education, ecommerce, remote working, and the increasing availability of cloud-based business applications.

Email is also essential for accessing many online services. People frequently need an email address to register for websites, create social media accounts, access educational platforms, receive verification codes, and manage online subscriptions.

For businesses, this widespread adoption makes email an attractive channel for communicating with existing customers and reaching potential buyers.

Estimated worldwide email user growth:

The 2027 figure is an indicative projection based on the growth trajectory, while the 2028 figure comes from the Radicati forecast.

 

An expanding user base creates opportunities for businesses that rely on newsletters, promotional campaigns, customer onboarding, and automated communication.

However, having access to a large audience does not automatically guarantee successful email marketing. Companies must still build permission-based subscriber lists, provide relevant content, and maintain good sender reputations.

Email Sending Projections for 2027 and 2028

The outlook for email communication remains positive over the next two years.

Based on the Radicati forecast, global email traffic is expected to increase from 392.5 billion daily messages in 2026 to 408.2 billion in 2027.

By 2028, the figure could reach 424.2 billion daily messages.

This growth is likely to be influenced by several developments.

First, businesses are becoming increasingly dependent on automated communication. Customer relationship management platforms, ecommerce systems, marketing automation software, and enterprise applications generate messages throughout the customer lifecycle.

Second, the expansion of digital services is creating more situations where email communication is necessary. Online purchases, subscription renewals, account registrations, security alerts, and payment confirmations all contribute to email traffic.

Third, businesses are investing in more sophisticated email marketing strategies. Instead of sending occasional promotional messages, organizations increasingly use automated customer journeys, personalized newsletters, product recommendations, and behavioral campaigns.

The following projections illustrate the expected direction of the industry.

An important distinction is that these are industry forecasts, not guaranteed future measurements. Actual volumes may change as communication habits, automation technology, and email security requirements evolve.

Business Email Sending Statistics

Business email accounts for an important part of worldwide email activity.

Organizations use email for internal communication, customer relationships, sales, recruitment, supplier management, marketing, and administrative operations.

Unlike personal communication, business email often involves multiple systems working together.

For example, a company might use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for employee communication, a customer relationship management platform for sales correspondence, and a separate email service provider for newsletters and promotional campaigns.

Transactional email platforms may also handle account verification, purchase confirmations, and security notifications.

The Radicati Group’s research includes separate forecasts for business email accounts, business email traffic, and the number of messages sent and received by business users. This distinction is important because the growth of business communication cannot be understood simply by looking at the number of consumer email accounts.

Business email demand is likely to remain strong in 2027 and 2028 because of:

• Increasing remote and hybrid working arrangements.

• International business communication.

• Growing ecommerce operations.

• Customer support automation.

• Sales prospecting and relationship management.

• Digital invoicing and financial notifications.

• Cloud-based business applications.

• AI-assisted business communication.

One particularly important development is the growing use of automated email workflows.

Instead of requiring employees to manually send every message, businesses can configure systems to send emails when customers perform particular actions.

For example, a new customer might automatically receive a welcome email, followed by onboarding instructions, product recommendations, and account notifications.

This approach improves operational efficiency while increasing the number of useful business messages generated by digital systems.

Email Marketing Statistics and Campaign Performance in 2026

Email marketing remains an important component of digital advertising and customer acquisition.

Businesses use email campaigns to promote products, announce new services, distribute educational content, share company updates, and encourage customers to complete purchases.

However, email marketing performance depends on more than the number of messages sent.

Marketers need to understand delivery rates, open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, unsubscribe rates, and spam complaints.

One useful 2026 industry reference comes from Mailpro’s email marketing benchmark, which examined 113 million campaign emails sent between January and September 2026.

Its reported results included:

These results represent Mailpro’s own campaign data and should not be treated as universal averages for every industry or email service provider.

 

The figures provide a useful indication of how marketing campaigns are performing in 2026.

For example, a business sending 100,000 emails should not automatically expect 100,000 people to receive, open, or interact with its campaign.

Some messages may bounce, some may be filtered into spam folders, and others may reach inboxes without generating engagement.

The quality of the subscriber list, relevance of the content, timing, sender reputation, and effectiveness of the subject line all influence results.

Why Email Open Rates Require Careful Interpretation

Open rates have traditionally been used to measure the percentage of recipients who open marketing emails.

However, modern email privacy features have made this metric less reliable.

Apple Mail Privacy Protection, automated image loading, and other privacy-related technologies can register email opens without confirming that a person actually read the message.

For this reason, marketers should avoid making major business decisions using open rates alone.

Click-through rates, conversions, revenue per recipient, and other meaningful engagement indicators can provide a clearer understanding of campaign effectiveness.

Email Engagement Trends in 2026

Industry-specific results can differ significantly.

For instance, newsletters sent to smaller, highly engaged audiences may achieve better engagement than campaigns distributed to large, less targeted mailing lists.

Mailpro’s 2026 findings show that lists containing fewer than 1,000 contacts recorded a 32.6% average open rate, compared with 21.2% for lists exceeding 10,000 contacts.

This illustrates why subscriber quality and audience relevance matter when measuring email marketing performance.

 

Email Deliverability Statistics and Inbox Placement

Email deliverability is becoming increasingly important as global sending volumes increase.

Deliverability describes the ability of an email to reach its intended destination successfully. However, successful delivery does not necessarily mean that the message appears in the recipient’s primary inbox.

An email can be accepted by a receiving server and still end up in a spam folder or another filtered mailbox.

This distinction matters because businesses can spend considerable money on email marketing campaigns without achieving the expected results if their messages are not reaching recipients’ inboxes.

A useful example comes from Omeda’s Q2 2026 Email Engagement Report, which analyzed nearly 1.96 billion emails delivered on behalf of its media and publishing clients.

The report recorded:

These figures represent Omeda’s publishing and media customer base, not the entire email industry.

 

The report demonstrates that high-volume email delivery can be achieved while maintaining strong delivery performance.

Nevertheless, businesses should understand that deliverability is influenced by sender reputation, authentication, recipient engagement, list quality, and sending practices.

Three particularly important email authentication technologies are:

• SPF: Helps receiving servers verify which systems are authorized to send messages for a domain.

• DKIM: Adds a cryptographic signature that helps establish the authenticity and integrity of an email.

• DMARC: Provides domain owners with a policy for handling messages that fail authentication checks and supports reporting.

Businesses sending substantial email volumes should implement these authentication technologies correctly.

They should also monitor bounce rates, spam complaints, domain reputation, and unusual sending activity.

The Impact of Spam on Global Email Traffic

Spam remains one of the major challenges facing the email industry.

As the number of legitimate messages increases, unwanted messages also create additional pressure on email providers, security systems, and users.

Spam includes unsolicited promotions, misleading advertisements, fraudulent messages, phishing attempts, and other unwanted communications.

Kaspersky’s 2025 measurement, reported in 2026, placed the proportion of global email traffic identified as spam at approximately 44.99%.

This means unwanted messages continue to represent a substantial proportion of email activity.

 

For email marketers, this creates an important responsibility.

Sending more messages does not necessarily produce better marketing results. Businesses that send irrelevant campaigns or contact people without appropriate permission risk damaging their domain reputation.

Email providers increasingly rely on authentication, engagement patterns, complaint rates, and other signals to determine how messages should be handled.

Organizations should therefore focus on sending relevant messages to people who genuinely want to receive them.

This approach benefits both recipients and legitimate email senders.

How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Email Sending in 2026

Artificial intelligence is becoming an important part of the modern email industry.

Businesses are using AI technologies to improve email writing, personalize marketing campaigns, identify customer interests, automate responses, and optimize communication schedules.

These developments are likely to influence email sending patterns throughout 2027 and 2028.

One major application is AI-powered email marketing automation. Instead of distributing identical messages to every subscriber, businesses can use customer behavior and available data to create more relevant communication.

For example, an ecommerce business can use AI-assisted systems to identify customers who have previously purchased particular products and recommend related items through personalized email campaigns.

Similarly, SaaS companies can automate onboarding messages based on how customers interact with their applications.

AI is also helping organizations improve their email operations through:

• Automated subject line suggestions.

• Personalized email content.

• Predictive campaign scheduling.

• Subscriber segmentation.

• Automated customer support.

• Email response recommendations.

• Spam detection and filtering.

• Email performance analysis.

• Deliverability monitoring.

Another important development is the increasing availability of AI-powered email assistants. These tools help employees compose professional messages, summarize conversations, organize inboxes, and respond to routine inquiries.

As adoption increases, AI may contribute to higher email activity while helping businesses manage communication more efficiently.

However, automation also introduces challenges. Organizations must ensure that AI-generated messages are accurate, relevant, and appropriate. Excessive automated communication can contribute to inbox fatigue and reduce customer engagement.

Mobile Email Usage and Its Influence on Sending Statistics

Smartphones have changed how people access and interact with email.

Previously, email communication was heavily associated with desktop computers and office environments. Today, users can read messages, respond to customers, approve business requests, and receive transaction notifications from almost anywhere.

Mobile devices are particularly important for ecommerce, banking, education, travel, and customer support.

A person purchasing an item through a smartphone may immediately receive an order confirmation and subsequent delivery notifications.

Similarly, someone registering for an online course may receive an account verification message, enrollment confirmation, payment receipt, and learning instructions.

These activities contribute to the increasing volume of automated email communication.

Mobile email usage also creates new requirements for businesses.

Email templates must be responsive, readable on smaller screens, and designed with convenient links and buttons.

Organizations should also avoid unnecessarily large images, complicated layouts, and subject lines that become difficult to understand on mobile devices.

As smartphone adoption continues expanding, particularly in emerging markets, mobile access is likely to remain an important contributor to email industry growth through 2028.

What Will Drive Email Growth in 2027 and 2028?

Several developments are expected to influence email sending volumes over the next two years.

1. Ecommerce expansion

Online retailers will continue using email to communicate with customers before and after purchases. Order confirmations, shipping updates, abandoned-cart reminders, receipts, promotional offers, and loyalty notifications will remain important sources of email traffic.

2. Business automation

Companies are increasingly connecting their email systems to CRM platforms, accounting software, customer support applications, and marketing automation tools. These integrations generate messages automatically whenever particular business activities occur.

3. Growth of SaaS platforms

Software companies depend on email for account registration, authentication, password recovery, billing notifications, product updates, and customer onboarding. As subscription-based software adoption increases, automated email communication is likely to expand.

4. Digital education

Online schools, universities, training organizations, and professional development platforms use email for student registration, course announcements, examination notifications, learning materials, and administrative communication.

5. International business communication

Businesses operating across multiple countries require reliable communication with employees, suppliers, customers, and business partners. Email remains a convenient channel because it supports asynchronous communication across different time zones.

6. AI-powered marketing

AI-assisted marketing platforms are making it easier for businesses to create, personalize, and automate campaigns. This could increase campaign activity while encouraging more sophisticated audience segmentation.

7. Increased digital security requirements

As organizations strengthen account protection, email will continue to support verification, suspicious-login alerts, password recovery, and security notifications.

Together, these developments provide a strong foundation for continued email traffic growth.

Opportunities for Email Marketing and Technology Businesses

The expansion of global email communication creates opportunities for companies operating in the digital marketing and technology industries.

Email marketing software providers are particularly well positioned to benefit from businesses seeking better ways to communicate with customers.

However, opportunities extend beyond traditional newsletter platforms.

Some of the most promising areas include:

The market for these products is supported by the growing dependence of businesses on email communication.

For example, a company sending thousands of marketing emails may require an email verification service to clean its subscriber list, an email marketing platform to manage campaigns, and a deliverability monitoring tool to protect its sending reputation.

Similarly, a software developer building an ecommerce application may require an email API provider to deliver order confirmations and account notifications.

These requirements create opportunities for specialized software companies to serve different segments of the email ecosystem.

For publishers covering email marketing and digital technology, these developments also create valuable opportunities to produce educational content, software comparisons, product reviews, and practical business guides.

Challenges Facing the Email Industry in 2027 and 2028

Although email traffic is projected to increase, the industry will face several challenges.

The first is inbox congestion. As individuals receive more promotional messages, automated notifications, and business correspondence, getting attention becomes increasingly difficult.

The second challenge is cybersecurity. Phishing, business email compromise, domain spoofing, and malicious attachments continue to create risks for individuals and organizations.

The third challenge is deliverability. Businesses must maintain good sender reputations and comply with increasingly important authentication and anti-spam requirements.

The fourth challenge is measurement. Privacy technologies make traditional open-rate reporting less dependable, requiring marketers to pay greater attention to clicks, conversions, and actual business outcomes.

Finally, email fatigue may encourage users to unsubscribe from irrelevant newsletters or ignore promotional campaigns.

These challenges suggest that the future of email will not simply be about sending more messages. It will also involve improving the quality, security, relevance, and usefulness of communication.

Frequently Asked Questions About Email Sending Statistics

1. How many emails are sent and received worldwide daily in 2026?

Approximately 392.5 billion emails are forecast to be sent and received worldwide every day in 2026, according to The Radicati Group’s 2024–2028 industry forecast.

2. How many emails will be sent daily in 2027?

The Radicati forecast estimates approximately 408.2 billion emails sent and received daily worldwide in 2027.

3. What is the projected daily email volume for 2028?

Global daily email traffic is projected to reach approximately 424.2 billion messages in 2028.

4. How many people use email worldwide in 2026?

The worldwide email user population is estimated at approximately 4.73 billion in 2026.

5. Is email marketing still effective in 2026?

Yes. Email marketing remains an important channel for customer acquisition, retention, sales, and business communication. Its effectiveness depends on audience relevance, deliverability, content quality, and campaign strategy.

6. Why is email traffic increasing?

Major contributors include ecommerce, business automation, SaaS applications, digital education, mobile communication, online transactions, and marketing campaigns.

7. Will AI increase email sending volumes?

AI may contribute to increased email activity by making it easier to generate, personalize, and automate messages. However, its impact will depend on how organizations use automation and manage communication frequency.

8. What email metrics should businesses monitor in 2027 and 2028?

Businesses should monitor delivery rates, bounce rates, inbox placement, click-through rates, conversions, unsubscribe rates, spam complaints, and sender reputation.

Conclusion

Email remains one of the world’s most widely used digital communication technologies, and its growth trajectory indicates that it will continue playing an important role in business and personal communication.

The Radicati Group forecasts approximately 392.5 billion emails sent and received daily in 2026, increasing to 408.2 billion in 2027 and 424.2 billion in 2028.

The global email user population is also expected to approach 5 billion by 2028.

These developments highlight the continued importance of email marketing, business communication, automated messaging, and email infrastructure.

For businesses, the opportunity lies in using email more intelligently rather than simply increasing sending volumes. Reliable delivery, relevant content, effective automation, strong authentication, and meaningful customer engagement will remain important competitive advantages.

For technology providers, the expanding email ecosystem offers opportunities in bulk email delivery, verification, automation, security, analytics, and marketing software.

Ultimately, the future of email will be shaped by a combination of growing digital adoption, AI-powered communication, improved security, and changing customer expectations. Email is not disappearing. Instead, it is evolving into an increasingly sophisticated communication infrastructure for the global digital economy.

Research and statistical references

• The Radicati Group

• Statista –

• Mailpro

• Omeda

• Data & Marketing Association –

Statistical note: The global volume figures are forecasts from a report published in 2024, not independently verified 2026–2028 totals. Different research providers may publish different estimates because of their methodologies and reporting periods.