Outlook distribution lists are now usually called Contact Groups in classic Outlook or Contact Lists in Outlook on the web. They let you email a saved group by typing one name instead of adding every address one at a time.
Does this affect you?
Use this for Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2021, Outlook 2019, Outlook.com, and Outlook on the web when you repeatedly email the same team, committee, class, club, family, or project group.
Create a contact group in Outlook for Windows
Classic Outlook saves the group in your contacts.
- Open People from the navigation bar, or press Ctrl+3.
- Click New Contact Group.
- Type a group name, such as Marketing Team or Book Club.
- Click Add Members.
- Choose From Outlook Contacts, From Address Book, or New E-mail Contact.
- Add each person to Members.
- Click OK, then Save & Close.
When writing a new email, type the group name in the To field and select it. Outlook expands or addresses the full group.
Create a contact list in Outlook on the web
Use this for Outlook.com, new Outlook, or browser-based mail.
- Open the People app from the left navigation.
- Click New contact list, sometimes under New > Contact list.
- Enter the list name.
- Type or paste email addresses, pressing Enter after each one.
- Click Create.
More control
Edit members later
Open People, find the group or list, edit it, add new members, remove old members, and save.
Nest smaller groups carefully
In some Outlook versions, a saved group can be added as a member of a larger group. This is useful for a whole-department list built from smaller team lists.
Use Bcc for privacy
For large groups or recipients who do not know one another, put the list in Bcc and your own address in To. This keeps everyone email address from being exposed.
Check where the group is saved
Groups saved locally in classic Outlook may not sync everywhere unless they live in a synced Exchange or Microsoft 365 contacts folder. If a list is missing on another device, check the account and contacts location.
Sources
- Microsoft Support – Create a contact group (2025)
- Microsoft Support – Add or remove group members (2024)
- Microsoft Support – Send an email to a contact group (2024)