Aug 21,2026 
Most people check their spam folders, but many do not check them frequently.
A 2025 consumer survey published by ZeroBounce found that 76% of respondents check their spam folder. However, only 38% check it at least once a week. A further 23% check monthly, 25% check only a few times a year, and 14% never check it.
| Frequency | Percentage of respondents |
|---|---|
| At least once a week | 38% |
| Once a month | 23% |
| A few times a year | 25% |
| Never | 14% |
The business implication is clear. Landing in spam does not make an email completely invisible, but it substantially reduces the likelihood that it will be seen at the right time. For sales, recruitment, marketing and customer communication, inbox placement remains critical.
Why This Question Matters
Email remains central to how organisations generate demand, communicate with candidates, support customers, send invoices and complete commercial transactions. Yet many businesses judge email performance primarily by delivery rate.
That measurement can create a false sense of confidence.
A delivered email has been accepted by the recipient’s mail server. It may have reached the primary inbox, a secondary tab, the spam folder or another filtered location. Delivery therefore does not necessarily mean visibility.
This distinction is particularly important for outbound teams. If a large proportion of messages is accepted but placed in spam, sending more emails may increase infrastructure costs and reputation risk without producing a corresponding increase in conversations.
The more useful question is not simply whether an email was delivered. It is whether the email reached a location where the recipient was likely to notice, trust and act on it.
How Often Do People Check Their Spam Folders?
The belief that nobody checks spam is inaccurate. According to ZeroBounce’s 2025 survey, more than three-quarters of respondents check their spam folder at some point.
The frequency data, however, provides the necessary context. Only 38% check at least weekly. The remainder check monthly, a few times a year or not at all. This means a message placed in spam may eventually be discovered, but often after the moment when it would have been most useful.
Recipients are also more likely to search their spam folders when they are expecting a specific message, such as:
- A password-reset email
- An interview invitation
- A purchase receipt
- A ticket or travel confirmation
- A customer-support response
- An invoice, proposal or contract
- An appointment reminder
This behaviour should not be interpreted as protection for poor deliverability. An expected transactional message has a reason to be searched for. An unsolicited sales or marketing email usually does not.
Who Is Most Likely to Check Spam?
There is limited reliable public research comparing spam-folder behaviour across occupations. However, context strongly influences whether someone will look for a missing message.
People expecting a time-sensitive email
Job seekers, customers waiting for confirmation and people resetting an account password have a clear reason to check spam. The value and urgency of the expected message justify the additional effort.
Professionals who communicate outside their organisations
Recruiters, business owners, salespeople and service providers frequently receive messages from unfamiliar domains. This may make them more aware that legitimate emails can be filtered incorrectly.
Technically informed users
People familiar with email filtering are likely to understand that spam systems can produce false positives. Even so, awareness does not mean they review every message or trust unfamiliar senders.
The practical lesson is that intent matters. People search for messages they expect. Businesses cannot assume recipients will search spam for messages they did not request or anticipate.
Does Landing in Spam Mean Nobody Will Read Your Email?
No, but it makes discovery significantly less likely.
Inbox placement gives a message immediate visibility and may trigger a notification. Spam placement removes those advantages. The recipient must open a separate folder, notice the message among suspicious content and decide that the sender is trustworthy.
| Inbox placement | Spam placement |
| Visible during normal email use | Usually hidden from the main email view |
| May generate a notification | Usually generates no notification |
| Benefits from greater initial trust | Appears beside unwanted or malicious messages |
| Can prompt timely engagement | May be discovered after the opportunity has passed |
| Supports positive engagement signals | Can contribute to weak or negative reputation signals |
Sinch Mailgun also distinguishes delivery from deliverability: a mail server can accept a message even when that message is ultimately routed to spam. This is why delivery rate alone cannot reveal whether a campaign is consistently reaching the inbox.
Why Legitimate Emails End Up in Spam
Mailbox providers assess many signals before deciding where to place an email. A legitimate organisation can still experience poor placement when its identity, reputation, sending practices or recipient engagement create uncertainty.
Authentication problems
SPF, DKIM and DMARC help receiving systems verify that a sender is authorised to use a domain and that the message has not been improperly altered in transit.
Authentication does not guarantee inbox placement, but it is now a fundamental requirement. Yahoo’s published sender guidance requires bulk senders to implement SPF and DKIM and publish a valid DMARC policy. Similar requirements apply to organisations sending significant volumes to Gmail accounts.
Weak sender reputation
Mailbox providers evaluate the history associated with sending domains and IP addresses. High complaint rates, invalid addresses, repeated non-engagement and inconsistent practices can weaken that reputation.
Reputation is cumulative. A well-written message will not automatically overcome a long history of poor sending behaviour.
Sudden or inconsistent sending volume
A new domain that moves rapidly from minimal activity to very high volume can resemble abusive sending behaviour. Legitimate senders should establish stable patterns and increase volume carefully while monitoring performance.
Poor audience quality
Outdated, purchased or poorly verified contact data increases the likelihood of bounces, complaints and low engagement. These outcomes tell mailbox providers that recipients may not want the messages.
Irrelevant or unwanted content
Recipients influence deliverability through their actions. Deleting messages without reading them, marking them as spam or repeatedly ignoring a sender can contribute to weaker future placement.
Relevance is therefore not only a conversion issue. It is also a deliverability issue.
Inbox Placement Is Usually More Valuable Than Additional Volume
When email performance declines, a common response is to increase sending volume. That approach does not address poor placement.
Consider two campaigns, each sending 10,000 emails:
| Campaign | Emails sent | Illustrative inbox placement | Estimated inbox placements |
| Campaign A | 10,000 | 80% | 8,000 |
| Campaign B | 10,000 | 95% | 9,500 |
Campaign B creates 1,500 more opportunities to be seen without sending an additional email. If both campaigns produced a 3% positive-reply rate from messages reaching the inbox, that difference would represent approximately 45 additional positive replies.
This is an illustrative calculation, not an industry benchmark. Its purpose is to show why placement can have a greater commercial effect than volume alone.
The Email Metrics Businesses Should Monitor
No single metric provides a complete view of email performance.
| Metric | What it measures | Why it matters |
| Delivery rate | Messages accepted by receiving servers | Confirms technical acceptance, not inbox placement |
| Inbox placement rate | Messages reaching the inbox rather than spam | Indicates actual visibility more accurately |
| Bounce rate | Messages rejected by receiving servers | High rates may indicate poor data quality or technical problems |
| Spam complaint rate | Recipients marking messages as spam | A strong negative reputation signal |
| Reply rate | Recipients who respond | Useful for sales and recruitment programmes |
| Positive-reply rate | Responses showing genuine interest | Connects outreach activity to commercial outcomes |
| Click-through rate | Recipients clicking a tracked link | Useful for permission-based marketing, but less relevant to some outbound emails |
| Unsubscribe rate | Recipients opting out | Helps identify audience or content misalignment |
| Domain and IP reputation | Trust associated with sending infrastructure | Influences future acceptance and placement |
Open rate should be interpreted cautiously. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection prevents senders from reliably determining whether some recipients opened a message. Automated image loading and security tools can also distort open data. For outbound programmes, reply rate, positive replies, bounce rate, complaints and inbox-placement testing often provide more actionable information.
Seven Practical Ways to Improve Inbox Placement
1. Configure and monitor authentication
Implement SPF, DKIM and DMARC correctly for every domain used to send email. Review authentication reports to identify unauthorised systems, failed alignment or configuration errors.
2. Build sending volume responsibly
Avoid sudden volume increases on new or inactive domains. Establish a consistent sending pattern and monitor results as volume grows.
3. Use accurate and appropriate contact data
Remove invalid addresses, suppress hard bounces and maintain clear records of how contacts were acquired. Permission-based marketing lists and prospecting databases require different governance, but both depend on accurate data.
4. Prioritise relevance over volume
Segment audiences by role, company, need or behaviour. A smaller number of relevant messages is more likely to generate genuine engagement than a large volume of generic outreach.
5. Make opting out straightforward
Marketing emails should include a clear unsubscribe mechanism. Yahoo requires qualifying bulk senders to support one-click unsubscribe and honour requests promptly. Making opt-out difficult can increase spam complaints.
6. Monitor complaints and reputation
Use the reporting tools available from mailbox providers and email platforms. Investigate sudden changes by provider, domain, campaign, audience source and message type.
7. Separate different email programmes
Transactional messages, newsletters, recruitment outreach and sales prospecting have different purposes and risk profiles. Separating them appropriately can improve measurement and help prevent a problem in one programme from affecting every message the organisation sends.
Guidance by Email Type
Transactional email
Order confirmations, password resets and account alerts are expected by recipients. Priorities include reliable infrastructure, strong authentication, rapid delivery and clear separation from promotional traffic.
Permission-based marketing
Newsletters and campaigns should focus on consent, audience segmentation, list hygiene, easy unsubscription and content that reflects subscriber expectations.
Recruitment email
Recruitment teams should use accurate candidate data, identify themselves clearly, explain the relevance of the opportunity and avoid sending repetitive messages to unresponsive recipients.
Cold outbound sales email
Outbound teams should prioritise accurate targeting, restrained volume, genuine business relevance and clear opt-out handling. Authentication and technical configuration are essential, but they cannot compensate for outreach that recipients consider unwanted.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do most people check their spam folders?
Yes. ZeroBounce reported that 76% of survey respondents check their spam folders. However, only 38% check at least weekly, so a message placed in spam may not be discovered promptly.
Should I worry if some emails land in spam?
Yes. Occasional filtering can happen, but recurring spam placement reduces visibility and may indicate problems with authentication, reputation, audience quality or sending practices.
Does Gmail automatically delete spam?
Yes. Google states that messages in Gmail’s Spam folder are permanently deleted after 30 days unless the user removes them earlier.
Can SPF, DKIM and DMARC guarantee inbox placement?
No. They help receiving systems authenticate messages, but mailbox providers also consider reputation, recipient complaints, message quality, sending patterns and other signals.
What is the difference between delivery rate and inbox placement rate?
Delivery rate measures whether the recipient’s mail server accepted the message. Inbox placement rate measures whether the accepted message reached the inbox rather than spam or another filtered location.
Is open rate still reliable?
Not on its own. Privacy features, automated image loading and security scanners can make open data incomplete or inflated. It should be evaluated alongside replies, clicks, conversions, complaints and placement data.
Is sending more emails the fastest way to generate more meetings?
Not necessarily. If deliverability or targeting is weak, additional volume may create more bounces and complaints without producing more qualified conversations. Improving placement and relevance should come first.
What is a healthy spam complaint rate?
Lower is better. Google advises bulk senders to keep reported spam rates below 0.1% and prevent them from reaching 0.3% or higher. Teams should treat any sustained increase as a reason to investigate audience sources, frequency and message relevance.
Key Takeaways
Most people check spam, but many do so infrequently. An email placed there may eventually be found, especially when the recipient expects it, but businesses should not rely on that behaviour.
Strong email performance depends on more than technical delivery. Authentication, sender reputation, data quality, relevant messaging, complaint management and responsible sending patterns all affect whether a message reaches the inbox.
For businesses using email to generate demand, recruit talent or support customers, the objective should not be to send the largest possible number of messages. It should be to earn reliable inbox placement and create communication that recipients recognise as relevant and trustworthy.
Sources
- ZeroBounce, Into the Inbox: Email Marketing Statistics for 2026
- Google, Email Sender Guidelines
- Google, Gmail Messages Are Missing
- Yahoo Sender Hub, Sender Best Practices
- Yahoo Sender Hub, Frequently Asked Questions
- Apple, Use Mail Privacy Protection on iPhone
- Sinch Mailgun, Deliverability and the Impact of Inbox Placement
- Validity, 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report