Whether you have just a few contacts, several hundred, or more than a thousand, there are times you'll want to search for a contact rather than scroll through a long list of contacts. There are several ways you can search for people and contacts in Outlook. You can use the Search People box on the ribbon in any Outlook folder, search while composing a new message or meeting, or search in Outlook's People tab.
Search for a contact using the Search People box on the ribbon
This is the quickest and easiest way to find a contact. Position your cursor in the Search People box, then start typing the first few letters of the person's first name or email address. As you type, Outlook will continually refine the search. For example, if you type the letter t, Outlook will return matches such as Tony, Teresa, and Tanya. If you type ta, Outlook will further refine that list to Tanya.
Search for a contact while composing a new message
When you select the To, Cc, or Bcc buttons in a new message, Outlook will display your default address book. If you have an Exchange or Microsoft 365 account, that's your organization's Global Address List. If you're using a POP or IMAP account, you'll get your Contacts folder.
If you have multiple contacts folders or address books, you can use the drop-down under Address Book to choose among them. When you do, you'll get an alphabetized list of contacts, sorted by name.
Note
In January 2024, Microsoft made a change in the Microsoft 365 service to limit browsing in any online address list to a maximum 500 objects. The change does not affect browsing Offline Address Books. For more specifics about this change, go to Address lists in Exchange Online.
To search, type part of the contact's name in the Search box and then select Go. You can select the More columns radio button to search by other fields, including department, phone, and location. Once Outlook returns a list of contacts, double-click the one you want to add the contact to the To box, or select the contact and then select To, Cc, or Bcc to add the contact to the respective boxes.
Search for a contact in the People pane
Choose People from the side panel.
Above your contacts list, place your cursor in the Search box.
Type the person’s name or other information—like a phone number or company name—you want to search for.
Tip
You can search for complete or partial information. If you're searching for someone named Chris Preston, for example, you can type the full name or “pre,” which represents the first three characters of the last name.
Outlook displays your search results. Choose the person you want from the search results.
Note
As you type, Outlook refines its search. For example, if you type the letter J, Outlook will return results that contain John, James, Jack, Julian, and Julie. If you type Jul, Outlook will return results that include Julian and Julie in any field, including company name, email address, and physical address.
Narrow your search
Getting too many results when you search for complete or partial information? Consider further refining your search. When you choose the Search box, the Search tab appears, where you'll have several options available to help narrow your search.
Tip
You can also press Ctrl+E to open the Search tab.