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How to set up an out-of-office reply in Outlook
Outlook's Automatic Replies feature sends a message back to anyone who emails you while you're away, and lets you set a separate reply for people outside your organisation. This guide covers Outlook on the web (outlook.com and Outlook for Microsoft 365 accessed through a browser).
What you'll need: An Outlook.com or Microsoft 365 email account. A desktop or laptop browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.
Open Outlook in your browser
Go to outlook.com and sign in if you aren't already.
Open Settings
Click the gear icon (⚙️) in the top-right corner, then click View all Outlook settings at the bottom of the panel that opens.
Go to Mail, then Automatic replies
In the Settings window, click Mail in the left-hand list, then click Automatic replies.
Turn automatic replies on
Switch the Automatic replies on toggle at the top of the panel.
Set a start and end date (optional)
Tick Send replies only during a time period, then set a start date and end date. This switches the automatic reply off by itself once the end date passes.
Write your reply message
Type your message into the text box. Include the date you'll be back and, if someone is covering for you, who to contact urgently. For example:
Thank you for your email. I'm out of the office until [date] with limited access to email. For anything urgent, please contact [name] at [email address].Set a separate message for people outside your organisation (Microsoft 365 accounts only)
If your account is part of a workplace or school Microsoft 365 organisation, a second section headed Send replies outside your organization appears below the main message box. Tick it, then choose whether to reply to My contacts only or to Anyone outside my organization, and write a separate message if you want one. Personal outlook.com accounts don't show this section — the single message from step 6 goes to everyone.
Save your changes
Click Save at the top of the Automatic replies panel. Outlook shows a banner at the top of your inbox confirming automatic replies are active.
Variations
Go back to Settings › Mail › Automatic replies and switch the toggle to off, then click Save. If you set an end date in step 5, this isn't necessary — it switches off by itself.
The Windows and Mac desktop versions of Outlook call this feature Automatic Replies (Out of Office), found under File menu › Automatic Replies, with a similar layout to the web version. This guide covers Outlook on the web only.
Open the Outlook app, tap your account icon or the menu, tap Settings, select your account, then tap Automatic Replies. The same on/off toggle and message box are available as on the web.
Troubleshooting
Outlook only sends one automatic reply to each sender during the whole period it's switched on, not one per email. If someone emailed you more than once while you were away, only their first message gets a reply.
That option only appears on accounts that are part of a Microsoft 365 work or school organisation. Personal outlook.com accounts only have the single message box from step 6, which goes to everyone who emails you.
Check Settings › Mail › Automatic replies — if no end date was set in step 5, the toggle stays on until you switch it off yourself.
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