How to Email Every Contact in Your Outlook Address Book

Send an email to all your contacts at once

What to Know

  • Start a new email, select To, then highlight all the contacts you want to message in the Select Names dialog box.
  • Select Bcc to add those contacts to the Bcc field. Select OK. Add your email address to the To field.
  • Compose your email and send it.

This article explains how to send an email to every person in your Outlook address book. Instructions in this article apply to Outlook 2019, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013, Outlook 2010, and Outlook for Microsoft 365.

How to Send One Email to All Your Outlook Contacts

Emailing everyone in your address book is as easy as adding all your contacts to the Bcc field.

  1. Go to the Home tab, and select New Email to start a new message.

  2. In the new message window, select To.

    Screenshot of new message window with To button highlighted
  3. In the Select Names dialog box, highlight the contacts you want to email. To select all contacts, select the first contact in the list, press and hold the Shift key, then select the last contact. To exclude a contact, press Ctrl, and select a contact.

    Screenshots showing all contacts selected
  4. Select Bcc to add the addresses to the Bcc field.

    When emailing multiple people, take their privacy into consideration. Add their addresses to the Bcc text box to hide every address from every recipient.

    Screenshot of all contacts in BCC field
  5. Select OK.

  6. In the new message window, place the cursor in the To text box and type your email address. 

    Screenshot of sender's email in To field
  7. Compose the email.

  8. Select Send.

Best Practices and Tips

Sending an email to many people at one time isn't a common occurrence. If you plan to do this more than once, it's faster to make a distribution list. That way, you can email one contact group that holds all of the other addresses within it.

Another good practice when sending mass emails is to address the email to a contact called undisclosed recipients. Not only is this more professional than having the email appear to be from you, but it also reinforces the idea that recipients should not Reply All.

FAQ
  • How do I export my contacts from Outlook?

    To export your contacts from Outlook, open the Navigation window and select People > Manage > Export contacts. Open the Contacts from this folder dropdown > All contacts > Export.

  • How do I import my contacts into Outlook?

    To import contacts into Outlook, have a saved .CSV file ready and select File > Open & Export > Open > Import. Select Import from another program or file > Next > Comma Separated Values > Next > Browse > choose your .CSV file.

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