Create a contact group in Outlook

Use a contact group (formerly distribution list) to send an email message to multiple people—a project team, a committee—without having to add each name to the To line individually.

1. Select ​​​​​​​ People on the left margin of the window or press Ctrl+3 in classic Outlook.

2. On the Home tab, select New Contact Group.

   If you don't see New Contact Group, select the down arrow next to New Contact, and then choose Contact Group in classic Outlook.

3. Name your group and select Add Members to add people from the address book or your contacts list.

4. When you're done, select Save & Close.

Tip: A more elaborate solution is to instead create a Microsoft 365 group that has a shared inbox, shared calendar, and a document library. For details, see Create a Microsoft 365 group.

Use a contact list (formerly distribution list) to send an email message to multiple people—a project team, a committee—without having to add each name to the To line individually. 

In new Outlook​​​​​​​, the "New contact list" feature is currently under development and will be available soon. In the meantime, we suggest you use the Outlook on the web to create a contact list. 

For details, see Using contacts (People) in Outlook on the web, then open the section named, "Create a contact list."

In Outlook for Mac​​​​​​​, a mailing list is known as a contact list. A contact list lets you quickly address multiple email recipients at once. 

This feature is only available for Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com accounts.

1. On the navigation bar on the left side, select  ​​​​​​​People.

2. Select New Contact, then select New Contact List.

3. Type the name of your new contact list.

4. Under Add members, type the email address for your contact, then select Add. You can add multiple email addresses to your list.

5. When you are finished adding contacts to your list, select Save.

   Tip: You can remove contacts from the list at any time by selecting​​​​​​​   Remove from list, then Save to keep your changes.