HARO Statistics (2026): 100M Emails, 2M Pitches, AI Trends

Findings

• Featured Research · August 2026
• These figures come from HARO, Featured’s journalist-request network. Here is how those pitches are written, how journalists choose to receive them, and how requests and accounts are reviewed.
• 21% of pitches submitted through HARO are written entirely by AI.
• More than one in five pitches submitted through HARO are written completely by AI — and journalists are about three times more likely to use a human-written pitch instead.
• Key Definitions
• HARO — Help A Reporter Out, Featured’s journalist-request network. Journalists publish requests for sources; sources reply with pitches.
• Pitch — A response a source sends to a journalist’s request. HARO classifies whether that response was written by a person or generated entirely by AI.
• AI-generated pitch — A pitch classified as written completely by AI, with no meaningful human authorship. Journalists can choose to block these when they submit a request.
• Journalist request — A query a journalist submits seeking sources, quotes, or expertise. Featured reviews the journalist, publication, and request before it is sent to sources.
• Five findings
• 21% — One in five pitches is written entirely by AI
• More than one in five pitches submitted through HARO are written completely by AI.
• 35% — A third of journalists now block AI-generated pitches
• More than one-third of journalists now choose to block AI-generated responses when submitting a request.
• 23 min — A user is banned every 23 minutes
• HARO bans users primarily for spam and violations of its terms of service.
• 32% — Nearly a third of journalist requests are rejected
• Nearly one-third of journalist requests are rejected during the approval process after reviewing the journalist, publication, and request for quality and legitimacy.
• ~3× — Human-written pitches are far more likely to be used
• Human-written pitches are about three times more likely to be used by journalists than AI-generated pitches.
• Human-written pitches still win
• Journalists are about three times more likely to use a human-written pitch than an AI-generated one. More than a third now block AI-generated responses when they submit a request.
• Relative likelihood that a journalist uses the pitch. Human-written pitches are scaled to the AI-generated baseline.
• 21% of pitches submitted through HARO are written entirely by AI
• 35% of journalists block AI-generated responses on their requests
• 32% of journalist requests are rejected in approval review
• ~3× more likely that a journalist uses a human-written pitch
• Pitches. Pitch figures cover responses submitted through HARO. A pitch is counted as entirely AI-generated when the submission is classified as written completely by AI, with no meaningful human authorship. Use rates compare how often journalists use human-written pitches versus AI-generated pitches.
• Journalists. Journalist blocking is the share of journalists who opt to exclude AI-generated responses when they submit a request.
• Review. Ban frequency is the average interval between HARO account bans, issued primarily for spam and terms-of-service violations. Request rejection is the share of journalist requests declined during Featured’s approval review of the journalist, publication, and request for quality and legitimacy.
• Pitch journalists who still read every response
• Featured matches you to HARO and journalist requests in your beat — and helps you send a human pitch, the kind journalists actually use.
• See journalist requests