Overview
Email statuses might be one of the reasons why you use Mailjet. This way you can tell if your message has been opened, clicked, encountered an error (“bounced”) and even if your recipient has decided it was spam, and all that on the same page! Understanding these statuses will allow you to interpret your statistics in a proper manner, and you will be able to boost your deliverability.
Main emails statuses
👉"Delivered" Emails
If an email has the “delivered” status it means that it was successfully sent and accepted by the recipient server.
The number of delivered emails matches the total number of sent emails minus the delivery errors (see “Bounced” & “Blocked” below). Therefore, the quality of your contact list is the key!
The Stats page, along with open & click tracking, can provide insightful information on your email placement and deliverability.
👉"Opened" emails
The Open Rate is the percentage of unique ‘opens’ based on the total number of emails delivered.
To enable ‘open tracking’, please go to your Email tracking settings page. Once activated, an invisible tracking pixel (image) is added to each email you send via Mailjet. When the recipient’s email client loads this tracking pixel, the email is considered ‘opened’.
The Open Rate is a good indicator of how many people read your email, it is not however a precise measurement. Please keep in mind that:
The "open" status in email tracking is not 100% accurate due to several factors:
- Image Blocking: Many email clients block images by default, including the tracking pixel used to register an "open." If a recipient reads the email but doesn't enable images, the open won't be recorded.
- Plain Text Emails: If the email is sent or viewed in plain text format, tracking pixels cannot be used, making it impossible to track opens.
- Email Previews: Some email clients, like those on mobile devices or in webmail interfaces, might register an open when a user previews the email without actually opening it.
- Multiple Devices: If a recipient opens the email on multiple devices (e.g., phone, tablet, desktop), it might count as multiple opens, skewing the data.
- Privacy Features: Increasingly, email services and clients are implementing privacy features that block tracking pixels or provide false opens to protect user privacy.
- Forwarding Emails: If a recipient forwards the email to others, each subsequent open might be incorrectly attributed to the original recipient.
- Antimalware Scan Tools: Some antimalware and antivirus tools automatically open emails to scan for potential threats. These automated actions can trigger false opens, making it appear that the recipient has engaged with the email when they have not.
Although the "open" status is not super accurate, it still remains one of the leading metrics to monitor engagement over time. For example, if you typically have a 40% open rate and suddenly it drops to 10%, this indicates there might be a problem somewhere that needs to be investigated.
👉"Clicked" Emails
The Click Rate accounts for successfully delivered emails with at least one click (excluding those clicks where an unsubscribe occurs).
To activate click tracking, go to your Email tracking settings. Once enabled, each link in your email receives a unique identifier that records data on when a link is clicked, by whom, from where, when, etc. which can be found on the Stats page.
The Click Rate is a very powerful indicator as it provides insight into how recipients interact with your specific content. High click rates are generally a sign of interest and can help shape your future campaigns. Moreover, regardless of how a recipient views the emails, a click will always be detected.
The Click Rate is generally a lot more accurate than the Open Rate, but it still has its limitations. Here's a detailed explanation:
- Direct User Interaction: Clicks are based on a recipient actively clicking a link within the email. This direct interaction makes the click rate a more reliable metric compared to the open rate, which can be affected by image blocking and privacy features.
- Tracking Mechanisms: Clicks are tracked through unique tracking URLs. When a recipient clicks a link, it redirects through a tracking server before reaching the final destination. This redirection is what gets recorded.
- Less Affected by Image Blocking: Unlike the open rate, which relies on images (tracking pixels) being loaded, the click rate is not affected by whether images are blocked or not.
- Spam Filters and Security Tools: Some spam filters and security tools may test links in emails for safety, potentially resulting in false clicks. However, this is less common than the issues affecting open rates.
While the click rate is generally more accurate and reliable than the open rate, it is not entirely free from inaccuracies. However, it remains a critical metric for measuring user engagement and the effectiveness of email campaigns.
For example, if you normally see a 15% click rate on your emails and it suddenly drops to 5%, this could indicate an issue with your content, deliverability, or relevance to your audience.
👉"Unsubscribed" Emails
The Unsubscribe Rate is related to the number of delivered emails, and indicates the number of people who opted out of your list using the unsubscribe link.
As per the Mailjet Acceptable Use Policy, an unsubscribe link is mandatory for all marketing campaigns.
👉Emails reported as "Spam"
The percentage of emails reported as Spam is based on the total number of emails delivered.
Spam complaints are made when the recipient believes an email is unsolicited. Spam is typically aimed at marketing emails; whereas transactional emails usually do not warrant spam complaints.
Reporting an email as Spam is an action that is taken by the recipient upon receiving your email. This is not to be confused with emails that have been delivered to the spam folder by the ISP; this is not considered a spam complaint.
Many ISPs provide a ‘this is spam’ button or link to each email they deliver. When a recipient clicks this button, the email is reported as Spam and is displayed on your Stats page.
However, sometimes the recipient may contact their ISP, the sending ESP, or a 3rd party Anti-Spam Organization to lodge a spam complaint. These complaints are taken very seriously.
Spam complaints can be detrimental to your reputation and should be well under the statistical thresholds outlined in the Mailjet Acceptable Use Policy. Otherwise, your account may be temporarily or permanently suspended.
The Mailjet Acceptable Use Policy also provides the rules that need to be observed to keep your spam rates down; here is a quick summary:
- Emails can only be sent to recipients who have given explicit consent. The use of 3rd party lists is prohibited.
- An unsubscribe link must be included in every marketing email. The link needs to be clearly visible and easy to use. Otherwise, your recipients may report your email as spam to stop receiving them.
- Your sender name and domain must be communicated in every message. Your content should be relevant and reflect what your subscribers are expecting. Regular maintenance of your contact lists will ensure your emails are being sent to engaged readers.
👉"Bounced" Emails
The Bounce Rate is based on the total number of sent emails.
An email is declared as a “bounce” when it cannot be delivered to the recipient and is returned with an error message.
There are two types of bounces and Mailjet handles each type differently:
- Soft Bounce: This is a temporary issue such as the recipient’s inbox being full or a connection timeout.
- Hard Bounce: This type of bounce occurs when an email cannot be delivered permanently due to reasons like an invalid email address (e.g., a mistyped address or a non-existent destination server) or when Mailjet is unable to establish a connection with the recipient's server, marking the email address as invalid or non-existent. Hard bounces can harm your sender reputation and result in automatic blocking by Mailjet for 90 days.
Although Mailjet will handle bounce emails, it is important to regularly remove bounced email addresses from your contact lists to avoid deliverability issues. You may wish to read the FAQ: How to maintain a list of responsive contacts.
👉Emails "Blocked" and "Pre-Blocked" by Mailjet
One of Mailjet’s strengths is that it can anticipate certain deliverability problems and “block” an email from being sent when it has no chance of reaching the recipient’s inbox. This avoids causing an error on the recipient’s server that would negatively hurt your sender reputation.
To decide if an email should be blocked, Mailjet’s system examines several parameters including your sending history. Examples of why an email can be blocked include:
- A recipient reported your email as Spam;
- An email address that has already hard bounced;
- An email that would have been classified as Spam based on its content. Before your campaigns are sent, our system scans the campaign using an anti-spam software to check for any potential ‘spam’ related triggers or issues. (e.g. ALL CAPS, poor text/image ratio, spammy words).
To check why an email was blocked, go to the Stats page and click on the subject line of a blocked email. The “details” column will show the reason for the block. If your email was “spam preblocked”, this means your email would have been classified as Spam by the recipient server. Please check our FAQ on how to improve the deliverability of your email.
👉"Retrying" Emails
Once a message reaches the Mailjet servers, it is processed and relayed to our outgoing servers for sending. Our servers then communicate with the "outside world" (Gmail, Hotmail, etc) and the message is sent.
An email that is in status “retrying”, means we are attempting to deliver it and waiting for an update from the destination server. An update can take a couple seconds up to 24 hours. Once the 24 hours have passed, the emails is marked as a soft-bounce and will not be delivered.
👉"Queued" emails
“Queued” means Mailjet accepted the message and placed it in line to send. No delivery attempt to the recipient’s server has occurred yet. You’ll see this status in logs, message events, and stats.
More about queued emails
Queued vs. Retrying
Queued: Waiting to be sent; no delivery attempt has occurred yet. In some cases (e.g., plan pacing).
Retrying (a.k.a. deferred): At least one delivery attempt was made and got a temporary response or timed out. Mailjet retries for up to 24 hours. If delivery never succeeds, the message is marked as a soft/hard bounce.
Typical flow
Submitted → Queued → (attempt) → Sent/Delivered or Bounced
Submitted → Queued → (attempt) → Retrying → Sent/Delivered or Bounced
Common reasons an email is queued
Prioritization (bulk behind transactional)
Dedicated IP bottleneck
Temporary platform load or maintenance windows
What you can do
Prioritize time-critical/transactional mail ahead of bulk
If you’re using dedicated IPs and hit a bottleneck, add more IPs. Each IP handles about 100k emails per hour.
Monitor stats in real time (API/APP)
Where to see it
REST APIs (status = queued)
- Campaign/Stats screens (status breakdowns by event)
Additional metrics explained
👉"Open" status
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Total opens: The Total open number equals the total number of times that your campaign has been opened by all the recipients who have received it (multiples open events by a single or multiple recipients are counted).
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Messages opened: Those are the Unique opens and are calculated by counting the first time a unique recipient opens the email (only first open by recipient is counted).
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Average opens per message: This value shows the average number of times the campaign was opened by one recipient. It is calculated by dividing the total opens by opened messages.
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Delivered messages opened: This value shows the percentage of opened emails from the total delivered messages.
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Average open delay: This is the average time the recipients took to open the message after the reception of the message by the mailbox provider.
👉"Click" status
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Total clicks: The Total click number equals the total number of times that the links in your messages have been clicked by all the recipients who have received it (multiple clicks on a link by a single recipient are counted too) .
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Messages clicked: Those are the Unique clicks and are calculated by accounting for the first time that the recipients clicked on your message (only the first click on a link by a unique recipient is counted).
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Average click per message: This value shows the average number of times a message was clicked by one recipient. It is calculated by dividing the total clicks by messages clicked.
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Delivered message clicked: This value shows the percentage of clicked messages from the total delivered messages.
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Average click delay: This is the average time the recipients took to click the message after the reception of the message by the mailbox provider.
👉"Unsubscribe" and "Spam" statuses
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Total unsubscribed: The total unsubscribed number is simply the total number of all contacts that have unsubscribed from your campaign.
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Delivered messages unsubscribed: This value shows the percentage of unsubscribed contacts from the total delivered messages.
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Total marked as spam: This is the number of contacts that have marked your campaign as spam.
- Delivered messages marked as spam: This value shows the percentage of messages marked as spam from the total delivered messages.