While these two types of open rates may seem similar, they tell different stories about how your audience is interacting with your content.
Total Open Rate
The total open rate includes every time your email is opened—even if it’s by the same person multiple times.
Example:
Let’s say those 250 people from earlier opened the email more than once, generating 600 total opens. That shows a higher level of engagement, since people came back to the content or viewed it multiple times.
Unique Open Rate
The unique open rate tells you how many individual recipients opened your email at least once. No matter how many times one person opens it, they’re only counted once.
Example:
If you send an email to 1,000 subscribers and 250 people open it, your unique open rate is based on those 250 individuals—each counted just once.
This metric helps you understand the reach of your campaign: how many people showed initial interest.
Why Both Matter?
A unique open rate helps gauge how many people your email resonated with initially.
A total open rate gives insight into how engaging or valuable your content was to those individuals.
If your unique open rate is modest but your total open rate is high, it’s a good sign your content is compelling to those who did open it.