A good WhatsApp open rate is 72%.
What the open rate of WhatsApp campaigns really measures. Median, weighted average and the difference between a sent and a delivered basis, from the data of 382 brands.
Key Findings
- 01The median open rate per brand is 72.05%. Half of all brands sit above it, half below. That is the figure an individual brand should measure itself against.
- 02Message-weighted, the open rate is 79.6%. Large senders with high rates pull the platform figure around 7.6 percentage points above the median.
- 03Same campaigns, two denominators: on a sent basis, the open rate from June 2025 to February 2026 was 65.2%. Since the switch to a delivered basis on 15 March 2026 it is 79.6%. The 14 percentage points come from the measurement.
- 04No account reaches the often-quoted 98% as a campaign average. The reliable reference points are 72% for an individual brand and 79.6% for the platform.
- 05Open rates are only comparable on the same basis. Putting 65% on a sent basis next to 80% on a delivered basis compares two different metrics.
The median is your yardstick.
Across 414 brands, the median open rate per brand is 72.05%. Half of all brands sit above it, half below. The message-weighted average from the WhatsApp Marketing Benchmark is noticeably higher at 79.6%, because there every message counts equally and large senders with high rates carry more weight. For a platform-level comparison, that is the right number. For the question of whether your own campaign is doing well, the median is the more honest yardstick. Any single brand above 72% already beats half of all senders.
Open rate: median vs. weighted average
n = 414 brands (median) · 382 brands (average) · Mar–May 2026, delivered basisThe average weights every delivered message equally. The median takes one open rate per brand and shows the middle of the distribution.
A new denominator, 14 percentage points more.
Until February 2026 we calculated the open rate against messages sent. Messages that never arrived sat in the denominator. On that basis the open rate stayed stable between 63.6% and 67.2% over nine months, 65.2% message-weighted. Since 15 March 2026 only delivered messages count, and the same campaigns show 78.6% in March, 81.0% in April and 77.6% in May. Only someone who received the message can open it. The jump in the chart is therefore a correction of the measurement, not a jump in recipient behaviour.
Open rate by month
n = 382 brands · Jun 2025 – May 2026 · sent basis to Feb, delivered basis from MarGrey bars: open rate on messages sent (old measurement). Blue bars: on messages delivered since 15 March 2026. June 2026 is a partial month and not included.
How to read your own number.
Three questions are enough to put an open rate in context. First: which denominator sits behind it, messages sent or messages delivered. Only a delivered basis can be compared with this benchmark. Second: is it an average across many brands or the figure of a single brand. A single brand compares itself with the median of 72.05%. Third: how is an open measured. Our figure is based on read receipts, and recipients without read receipts enabled count as unopened. The actual rate is therefore more likely above than below the measured value. Even the median sits at a good three times a strong email campaign.
“A good WhatsApp open rate is 72%.”
Median across 414 brands · delivered basis · Mar – May 2026Methodology & definitions
All data comes from the Chatarmin platform. No surveys. No self-reported figures. Every metric is calculated from actual send, delivery and read data on the platform.
Open rate
Messages read (read receipts) divided by messages delivered. Applies to all figures from 15 March 2026.
Sent basis
Messages read divided by messages sent. Messages that were never delivered sit in the denominator. Old measurement until February 2026, shown here for context only.
Delivered basis
Messages read divided by messages delivered. Measurement since 15 March 2026 and the basis of every benchmark figure.
Weighted average
All messages read divided by all messages delivered across all brands. Every message counts equally, large senders weigh more.
Median per brand
One open rate per brand in the measurement window, then the middle value across all brands. Half sit above it, half below.
Campaign
Manually sent message to a segment, e.g. newsletter, sale announcement or product launch. Flows are not included here.
Cohort & window. The basis is the same brand pool as in the WhatsApp Marketing Benchmark: 591 active brands, 382 of which sent campaigns between June 2025 and June 2026, test accounts excluded. The weighted average of 79.6% comes from 11.8 million delivered messages of these 382 brands since the measurement change on 15 March 2026. The median of 72.05% is based on 414 brands with campaigns in the same window. The monthly figures up to February 2026 show the old measurement on a sent basis and serve to put the change in context. The partial month of June 2026 is not included in any chart.
Limitations
- The sample consists of Chatarmin customers and is not representative of e-commerce as a whole.
- The sent-basis figures up to February 2026 are figures from the old measurement. They illustrate the change and are not a benchmark.
- The open rate is based on read receipts. Recipients with read receipts disabled count as unopened, so the actual rate may be higher.
- Median and weighted average are based on 414 and 382 brands respectively, i.e. on groups of different size.
Questions about this report
What editors, journalists and operators ask us most often.
Yes – with attribution. Cite as: "Chatarmin WhatsApp Open Rate Benchmark 2026, chatarmin.com/en/studies/whatsapp-open-rate-benchmark". Please link back to this page.
For an individual brand, 72% is a good figure. That is the median across 414 brands, half sit above it. The platform average is 79.6% message-weighted, because large senders with high rates count more. No account reaches the often-quoted 98% as a campaign average.
Because the denominator changed. Since 15 March 2026 we calculate messages read against messages delivered. Before that, messages that were never delivered also sat in the denominator. The change lifts the same campaigns from around 65% to around 80%. Anyone comparing their campaigns with this benchmark should therefore only use figures on a delivered basis.
From the Chatarmin platform itself: 382 brands with campaigns out of a pool of 591 active brands, 11.8 million delivered messages in the measurement window since 15 March 2026, monthly figures from June 2025 to May 2026. Fully aggregated and anonymised – details in the methodology.
Cite this study
Chatarmin (2026). WhatsApp Open Rate Benchmark: Median, average and measurement basis from 382 brands. Retrieved from https://chatarmin.com/en/studies/whatsapp-open-rate-benchmark