Here’s a fun one. MailerLite just crunched 2.1 million email campaigns and landed on Friday at 6pm as the best time to send. The advice you’ve read for a decade says Tuesday at 10am. Another big study swears by Monday morning. They can’t all be right, so either someone’s wrong, or the whole idea of a single “best time” was always a bit of a fib.
It’s the fib. The best time to send email shifts with who you’re emailing, what country they sit in, and what you’re selling. So let’s give MailerLite its due, line its findings up against a few studies that flatly disagree, and work out how you find the time that actually suits your list.
The short version
The best time to send email is the one your list actually opens.
- The studies flatly disagree. Friday evening, Tuesday mid-morning, Monday at 8am: pick a study and you’ll get a different “best time”.
- Opens and clicks peak at different times. MailerLite found people open in the morning but click at night, so the best time to be read isn’t the best time to be actioned.
- Country changes everything. US inboxes wake at 6am, Germany opens on Sundays, Asia leans midday. A global average hides all of it.
- So does industry. Ecommerce peaks in the afternoon, B2B in the morning, creators at night.
- Your own data is the only real answer. Use a study as a starting bet, then split-test send times on your list and watch the clicks.
What MailerLite’s study actually found
Since MailerLite’s is the study doing the rounds, let’s start there and give it credit. They analysed just over 2.1 million campaigns sent between December 2024 and November 2025 across the US, UK, Australia and Canada. That’s a proper sample, not a hunch.
The headline: Friday at 6pm pulled the highest average open rate at 49.7%, with Monday at 10am close behind on 49.4%. Clicks peaked on Friday evening too, and leaned into the 8-9pm window across most days.
The most useful bit is buried in there. Opens peak on weekday mornings, clicks peak on weekday evenings. MailerLite frames it like this: the best time to read an email isn’t necessarily the best time to act on one, and that’s the thing worth stealing from the whole study.
Then the next study says something completely different
Here’s where it gets messy. Line MailerLite up against the other big studies and they scatter.
| Study | Best day it found | Best time it found |
|---|---|---|
| MailerLite (2.1M campaigns) | Friday | 6pm, opens and clicks |
| Brevo (44B emails) | Tuesday and Thursday | 10am to 3pm |
| Moosend | Monday | 8 to 9am |
| HubSpot | Tuesday | 9am to noon |
| GetResponse | Depends on the country | Depends on the country |
Same question, five very different answers. Brevo, sitting on 44 billion emails, lands on Tuesday and Thursday between 10am and 3pm. Moosend says Monday, 8 to 9am. HubSpot’s surveys have pointed at Tuesday mornings for years. GetResponse won’t even give you one answer, because its data splits by region. None of them is lying, they’re just looking at different lists.
Why they can’t agree, and why that’s fine
None of this is a mistake. The studies disagree because they’re measuring different things, on different people, in different years.
- Different lists. MailerLite’s users skew creator and small business, Brevo’s 44 billion emails span everyone, GetResponse looked at SMBs region by region. Different senders, different audiences, and different email platforms entirely.
- Different metrics. Some rank by opens, some by clicks, some by conversions, and those three peak at different moments.
- The open-rate wobble. Since 2021, Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection quietly auto-opens a chunk of emails, so any “winner” based on opens is softer than it looks. I treat this as a conversion question and judge send times on clicks and sales instead.
Average all of that into one global “best time” and you lose the only variable that actually moves your numbers, which is how your specific list behaves.
What changes when you cross a border
This is where a single “best time” really falls apart. GetResponse ran the numbers by region, and the map is all over the place.
- US and Canada: inboxes wake early, best click-throughs around 6am, with Friday and Monday the strongest days.
- Europe, Middle East and Africa: a wider 8am to 7pm window, again Friday and Monday.
- Germany, Austria and Switzerland: mornings or mid-afternoon, and oddly, Sunday pulled the highest opens, which would horrify every Tuesday-morning purist.
- Asia-Pacific: a 9am to 6pm spread, best on Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Latin America: Monday, right through the working day.
Moosend backs the gist of it, with Europe and North America engaging hardest and Asia and Africa sitting lower, and the gap is big enough to matter. So if MailerLite’s Friday-6pm was measured mostly on US, UK, Aussie and Canadian lists, and you’re emailing Munich or Manila, you’re already off the map.
What changes by industry
Same story, different axis. Your industry moves the best time as much as your geography does.
MailerLite’s own breakdown makes the point. Creators get their best clicks Monday at 9pm. Small businesses peak for opens Thursday at 9am. Institutions do their best numbers Friday at 7 to 8am. Ecommerce clicks best Tuesday at 4pm, right in the afternoon slump-shop window.
Brevo saw the same shape from a different angle: B2B opens early in the week and early in the day, ecommerce leans Tuesday and Thursday, marketing services spike late afternoon. Put plainly, a B2B software company and a candle brand shouldn’t be sending at the same time, and if they do, one of them’s guessing.
So when should you actually send?
Here’s the honest playbook, minus the false confidence.
Start with the study closest to your world. Match it on country first, then industry, and treat that time as a hypothesis rather than an instruction. If you’re a Sydney ecommerce brand, MailerLite’s Aussie-inclusive ecommerce read of Tuesday afternoon is a sane opening bet. If you’re emailing German B2B buyers, it really isn’t.
Then test it on your own list. Split your sends across two or three time slots, give it a few weeks of real data, and let your audience vote. Measure clicks and conversions, not just opens, because opens are the softest number you’ve got, and a click that never becomes a sale isn’t much better. And remember MailerLite’s finding: people often open in the morning and buy at night, so if you want the sale, an evening send can beat the “best” morning one.
The email still has to be good
None of this replaces a good email. The right offer, a subject line that earns the open, and copy that earns the click will out-pull perfect timing on a flat message every day of the week.
The emails that get opened at all tend to be the ones that actually connect with a person. Good timing just multiplies a good email programme, it can’t rescue a weak one.
I’ve lost count of the times a client’s turned up certain that Tuesday at 10am is the law, because a blog post said so back in 2015. Then we test it and their list does something completely different. One had its best month sending on Sunday nights, which no best-practice guide would ever suggest. The studies point you at a starting bet, and that’s all they should ever be. Send me your open and click times and I’ll tell you in five minutes whether the timing’s quietly costing you.
Emailing into the void?
Send when your list is actually awake.
We’ll find your real open and click windows, then build a send schedule around your audience instead of someone else’s blog post.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time to send email?
Honestly, it depends on your audience. Across the big studies the “best” ranges from Tuesday mid-morning to Friday at 6pm, so there’s no single answer. As a starting bet, weekday mornings win opens and weekday evenings win clicks, then you confirm it by testing your own list.
What is the best day to send email?
The studies split. Brevo and HubSpot favour Tuesday, Moosend and GetResponse lean Monday, and MailerLite’s 2026 data points to Friday. Match the study to your country and industry, then check it against your own sends.
Does the best send time change by country?
A lot. GetResponse found US inboxes engage best around 6am, Asia-Pacific through the middle of the day, and German-speaking countries even opening on Sundays. Send in your recipient’s local time, not yours.
Does it change by industry?
Yes. Ecommerce tends to click in the afternoon, B2B in the morning, and creators late at night. A software brand and a retail brand shouldn’t share a send time.
Are email open rates still reliable?
Only partly. Since 2021, Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection auto-opens a share of emails, which inflates open rates. Weight clicks and conversions more heavily when you’re judging a send time.
How do I find my own best time to send?
Split your sends across two or three time slots, run it for a few weeks, and compare clicks and conversions rather than just opens. Your list’s own pattern beats any benchmark.
So, the best time to send email? There isn’t one, and anyone who hands you a single time without asking who you’re emailing is guessing. The studies are a brilliant place to start, especially once you match them to your country and your industry, but your own open and click data is the thing that settles it. If you’d like us to dig into yours and build a send schedule that fits your list, book a call and we’ll take a look.