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    Survey response rate calculator

    Work out your survey response rate from invitations, bounces and completed responses — with the completion rate if you track starts.

    Invitations that never reached anyone.

    Leave at 0 if you don’t track starts.

    Response rate

    20.0%

    190 completed of 950 delivered

    Delivered

    950

    Completion rate

    76.0%

    Completed ÷ started

    Start rate

    26.3%

    Started ÷ delivered

    190

    Completed

    950

    Delivered

    20.0%

    Response rate

    What is a survey response rate?

    The response rate is the share of people you invited who completed your survey. It tells you how much of your intended audience you actually heard from — and, indirectly, how far you can trust the results to speak for everyone.

    Response rate (%) = Completed responses ÷ (Invitations sent − Bounced) × 100

    Bounced and undelivered invitations are removed — nobody can answer a survey they never received

    Worked example

    You email 1,000 customers; 50 bounce, 250 open the survey and 190 finish it. The response rate is 190 ÷ 950 = 20%, and the completion rate among those who started is 190 ÷ 250 = 76%.

    Response rate vs completion rate

    These two numbers point at different problems:

    • Low start rate — people are not opening the survey. Look at the invitation: timing, subject line, sender name, channel.
    • Low completion rate — people start and give up. Look at the survey: length, confusing or required questions, mobile layout.

    A rate is not a verdict on quality

    A high response rate does not guarantee representative results, and a low one does not make them wrong. What matters is whether the people who answered differ from those who did not. Check who responded — by segment, region or customer type — not just how many.

    How to raise your response rate

    1. Ask soon after the experience. A survey sent the same day gets answered; one sent a week later is competing with memory.
    2. Keep it short, and say how short. “Two questions, under a minute” sets an expectation people will meet.
    3. Use the channel people read. For many service businesses that is WhatsApp rather than email — see WhatsApp surveys.
    4. Send one reminder. A single, polite reminder to non-responders usually lifts responses; more than that mostly irritates.
    5. Plan how many you need. Work backwards from the sample size you need and your expected response rate to decide how many to invite.

    Frequently asked questions

    Divide completed responses by the number of invitations that were delivered — invitations sent minus bounces — and multiply by 100. 190 completes from 950 delivered invitations is a 20% response rate.

    Count only completed responses in the response rate, and report partials separately through the completion rate. If you do count partials, say so, because it makes rates hard to compare.

    It depends heavily on channel, audience and relationship: a survey to your own recent customers will do far better than one to a cold list. Compare against your own previous surveys sent the same way rather than a general benchmark.

    Divide the number of responses you need by your expected response rate. If you need 400 responses and expect 20%, invite about 2,000.

    Response rate is completes divided by everyone delivered the invitation. Completion rate is completes divided by only those who started. The first measures reach; the second measures whether the survey itself loses people.

    Start with a template

    Collect the responses this calculator needs with a ready-made survey you can edit and send for free.

    Other free calculators

    Sample SizeWork out how many survey responses you need for results you can trust, at any confidence level and margin of error.NPSTurn promoter, passive and detractor counts into a Net Promoter Score, with the breakdown behind the number.CSATCalculate a customer satisfaction score from 1-5 ratings, using the standard top-two-box method.Margin of ErrorSee how precise your survey results really are, given the sample you actually collected.A/B SignificanceCheck whether the difference between two variants is real or just noise, with p-value, confidence interval and power.P-ValueConvert a z, t or chi-square statistic into a p-value for one- or two-tailed tests.Confidence IntervalFind the range a survey percentage or average is likely to fall in for the whole population.CESTurn 1-7 agreement ratings into a Customer Effort Score, as an average and as the share who found it easy.
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