Survivors were rescued both during the battle and afterwards. During the battle, they were generally rescued by destroyers detached from those supporting the battlefleets. Those rescued in the aftermath were rescued by both civilian ships and naval vessels.

The first capital ship to be sunk during the battle was the British battlecruiser Indefatigable, which exploded at about 16:00. Two men from her crew survived. They remained in the water for several hours, until picked up by the German torpedo boat S16. This had been detached from the forces escorting the main body of the High Seas Fleet, which was pursuing the British Battlecruiser Fleet (BCF)northwards, through the waters where the earlier stages of the battle had taken place. Queen Mary was the next battlecruiser to sink, exploding at 16:25, with twenty survivors (one of whom would die after the battle). Seventeen of these were picked up by the British destroyer Laurel, which was rejoining the BCF after making an attack on the German battlecruisers. Another survivor was picked up by HMS Petard in similar circumstances. The remaining two were picked up by the German V28 during the 'run to the north'. The rescues by Laurel and Petard were largely ad-hoc. Beatty had, at 16:47, ordered the 1st Destroyer Flotilla to rescue survivors, but this signal does not seem to have been seen. During the destroyer action that occurred as the British destroyers attempted to attack the German battlecruisers and the first echelon of the High Seas Fleet (and the German destroyers did the same to the BCF), the British destroyers Nestor and Nomad were sunk, as were the German V29 and V27. The survivors of all of these vessels were rescued by German destroyers. V26 and S35 picked up the crews of the German ships, while S16 and her flotilla-mates rescued 164 men from Nestor and Nomad. The battlecruiser Invincible was the next major vessel to sink, exploding at 18:34. Her six survivors were picked up by the crew of Badger, a destroyer from the 1st Flotilla.

The German light cruiser Wiesbaden found herself facing almost the entirety of the British fleet. Crippled by Invincible shortly after 18:00 in between the German and British lines, she was engaged by the secondary batteries of much of the Grand Fleet. The Germans made several attempts to rescue her crew, but these were driven off by heavy British fire. Wiesbaden sank, unnoticed by either side, at about 3am. Roughly 25 of her crew made it into the water, but only one would survive to be rescued by a Norwegian merchant on the 2nd June. The destroyer Shark, which made an attack on the German van as it approached the Grand Fleet, was torpedoed at about 18:10. Much of her crew made it off, including her captain, Commander Loftus Jones, who had been heavily wounded. Only seven men would survive until their rescue, at 22:00, by the Danish steamer Vidar; Loftus Jones was not among them. While it was generally safer to have been rescued than to be in the water, it was no guarantee of absolute protection. During the torpedo attack Scheer ordered to cover his retreat, S35 would be sunk by a heavy shell from a British ship. She went down with all hands, including survivors she had picked up from V29. The night phase of the battle saw a number of brief, confused actions. The cruiser Frauenlob was sunk by a torpedo from HMS Southampton, some time after 22:20. Her nine survivors drifted for ten hours before being picked up by a Dutch steamer. The British 4th Destroyer Flotilla engaged the German I Battle Squadron at about 23:00, with four losses. Ardent was sunk by the battleship Westfalen. Forty of her crew made it into the water, but only three survived the five hours until HMS Marksman located and rescued them, with one dying later. The eighteen survivors of Fortune had a similar experience, being picked up by Moresby and Maenad at 5:00. Sparrowhawk and Tipperary would remain afloat for some time after the encounter. The German destroyers S53, S54 and G88 were detached to take care of them, and to support the damaged cruisers Elbing and Rostock. S53 took nine crewmen from one of Tipperary's rafts, which had been launched prematurely, but they were more occupied with the light cruisers. It was decided to scuttle Elbing, and some 477 of her crew were taken onto S53 and S54. A skeleton crew remained aboard until 2:00, when she was finally abandoned, with the crew taking to her lifeboat. They rescued Tipperary's surgeon (and maybe two more crewmen), but left the remainder of the destroyer's crew in the water or on rafts; these eventually were picked up by Sparrowhawk. Sparrowhawk survived into the morning of the 1st. Marksman and Dublin attempted to tow her to safety, but were eventually forced to take off her crew and the survivors of Tipperary, and scuttle her. Dublin also picked up one of Tipperary's crew from the water. The German battlecruiser Lutzow and cruiser Rostock had a similar experience, being scuttled by German destroyers after their crews were removed. During the night actions, the old battleship Pommern would blow up, as would the destroyer V4. There were no survivors from Pommern, while those from V4 would be picked up by her flotilla-mates.

In general, the Germans took prisoners because of the tactical situation of the battle. During the 'run to the south', no German ships were sunk, but several British ships were. When the situation reversed, and the British battlecruisers retreated, this brought the Germans over the waters where the British ships had sunk, allowing them to pick up a few survivors from these ships. No ships were sunk during the main fleet engagement. During the night actions, it was generally easier for the Germans to make the initial rescues, due to the confusion and damage suffered by the British ships.