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MailerLite best time to send emails: testing your audience

Three MailerLite tools set the send time: delivery by time zone, Smart sending and best send time detection.

Last reviewed October 6, 2026

Quick answerMailerLite can deliver a campaign at the same local time in every time zone on any plan, and on Comfort and Power its Smart sending picks a send time for each subscriber from past clicks and opens.

Send timing tools in MailerLite

MailerLite has three ways to time a campaign beyond a fixed send time. Delivery by time zone, a free feature, sends at the same local hour in each time zone. Smart sending, on Comfort and Power, chooses a time for each subscriber. Best send time detection, an account setting on the same plans, shifts a small share of each campaign to learn better times.

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Delivery by time zone

Choose the date and time on the Schedule step at least 24 hours ahead, because sending starts in the earliest time zone. A subscriber's time zone comes from their sign-up IP or from clicks, not from opens; imported subscribers have no location at first and get your account's default time zone.

Smart sending

Smart sending looks at each subscriber's clicks first, then opens, then the time they signed up through a form. Imported subscribers with no activity get the account's most popular times, and a new account with no campaign data sends at 9 a.m. in its own time zone until it has data. You pick the day, and the campaign starts at the next full hour after you schedule it.

Best send time detection

This setting needs Comfort or Power and at least one Smart sending campaign, and it applies to regular campaigns sent to 1,000 or more subscribers. For 0.5% of recipients of each campaign it shifts the send by up to 3 hours to learn their peak time, so a campaign can take up to 24 hours to finish. It is off by default.

Testing a send time

For a fixed time, compare matched sends on one metric. MailerLite's reports count Gmail opens as webmail opens whatever the device, and security filters that click every link are recorded as clicks, so read clicks on the links that matter and your own sales or signups as well as opens.

Plans and the trial

Delivery by time zone works on every plan; Smart sending and best send time detection need Comfort or Power, and Smart sending is among the premium features of the 14-day trial. Testing send times needs enough sends, and the 14-day trial allows up to 2,500 emails.

Continue when useful

Next: MailerLite subscriber imports and consent

Import only people who gave permission and keep suppressed records suppressed; this guide covers the checks to make before an import.

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Related guides

MailerLite import subscribers: consent and suppression checksImport only people with a valid permission basis and preserve records that should remain suppressed. A clean file is not proof of consent.MailerLite pricing: Free, Comfort and Power by list sizeMailerLite Comfort costs $12 a month billed monthly at 500 subscribers and $19 at 1,000, and yearly billing saves 10%. To pay by emails sent rather than by subscribers, look at Brevo instead.MailerLite reportingMailerLite campaign reports show opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes and spam complaints, plus revenue with a store connected; Gmail opens and security-filter clicks can distort the figures.

Sources used for this page

These records support the facts and comparisons above. Merchant-controlled records are labeled so you can separate product claims from independent evidence.

  1. MailerLite product overview — Merchant documentation · mailerlite.com · Merchant-controlled · read October 6, 2026
  2. MailerLite current plans and pricing — Merchant documentation · mailerlite.com · Merchant-controlled · read October 6, 2026
  3. MailerLite automation help library — Merchant documentation · mailerlite.com · Merchant-controlled · read August 23, 2026
  4. MailerLite integration directory — Merchant documentation · mailerlite.com · Merchant-controlled · read August 23, 2026
  5. MailerLite groups and segments — Platform documentation · mailerlite.com · Merchant-controlled · read August 24, 2026
  6. Google email sender guidelines — Platform documentation · support.google.com · Merchant-controlled · read August 23, 2026
  7. MailerLite help: delivery by time zone — Merchant documentation · mailerlite.com · Merchant-controlled · read October 6, 2026
  8. MailerLite help: Smart sending — Merchant documentation · mailerlite.com · Merchant-controlled · read October 6, 2026
  9. MailerLite help: best send time detection — Merchant documentation · mailerlite.com · Merchant-controlled · read October 6, 2026
  10. MailerLite help: analyzing and exporting reports — Merchant documentation · mailerlite.com · Merchant-controlled · read October 6, 2026