Summary

A Contact Group (formerly called a Distribution List) allows you to email multiple people at once by typing a single group name instead of adding each recipient individually. This article shows how to create, edit, and use Contact Groups in Outlook — no admin rights required.

Two different things share the name "distribution list", so check which one you need first. A Contact Group is private — it lives in your own mailbox, only you use it when composing, and nobody can send mail to it. A shared address such as [email protected] that colleagues and customers write to, and every member receives a copy of, is created in the Microsoft 365 admin center and needs an admin account: How to Create a Distribution List in Microsoft 365 covers that one.

Before You Start

• Microsoft Outlook desktop app or Outlook on the web.
• No admin rights required — Contact Groups are saved to your personal contacts.

Still working out what your team needs rather than how to build it? Understanding Distribution Lists, Microsoft 365 Groups, and Shared Mailboxes walks through the three shared options scenario by scenario, with the exact request to send IT for each — a Contact Group is the one you can build yourself, without waiting.

Instructions

1. Create a New Contact Group (Desktop App)

Build a reusable group of email addresses.

1. Open Outlook and go to the People tab (click the people icon at the bottom of the navigation pane).
2. On the Home ribbon, click New Contact Group.
3. In the Name field, type a descriptive name for the group (e.g., Project Alpha Team).
4. Click Add Members and choose one of the following:
   • From Outlook Contacts — Select from your personal contacts.
   • From Address Book — Search your organisation's global address list.
   • New E-mail Contact — Manually type a name and email address.
5. Select each person you want to add and click Members (or double-click their name).
6. Click OK when finished adding members.
7. Click Save & Close on the ribbon.

Tip: If the people you want are not in your contacts yet — they arrived as a spreadsheet from a colleague, or they live in a personal account — load them in bulk first. How to Import and Export Contacts in Outlook walks through the CSV import, then From Outlook Contacts picks them up here.

2. Create a Contact Group (Outlook on the Web)

Create a group using Outlook in your browser.

1. Open Outlook on the web (outlook.office.com).
2. Click the People icon in the left navigation bar.
3. Click New contact list from the toolbar.
4. Enter a name for the contact list.
5. In the Add email addresses field, type each member's name or email and press Enter.
6. Click Create when all members have been added.

3. Send an Email to a Contact Group

Use the group to email all members at once.

1. Create a new email in Outlook.
2. In the To field, type the name of your Contact Group (e.g., Project Alpha Team).
3. Outlook auto-suggests the group — select it from the dropdown.
4. The email will be sent to every member in the group.

4. Edit an Existing Contact Group

Open the group from the People tab to add members, remove members, or change its name.

1. Go to the People tab in Outlook.
2. Find and double-click your Contact Group to open it. The group opens in the same window you used to build it.
3. To add a member, click Add Members on the ribbon and follow the same steps as creation.
4. To remove a member, select their name in the member list and click Remove Member on the ribbon. Hold Ctrl while clicking to select several at once. This takes them off the list only — their contact card, their email address, and every message they have sent you stay exactly where they were.
5. To rename the group, edit the text in the Name box at the top of the same window. The new name is what you type in the To field from now on.
6. Click Save & Close. Your changes apply to the next email you send — messages already sent are unaffected.

In Outlook on the web and New Outlook, open People, click All contact lists, then right-click the list and choose Edit. That one panel handles renaming, adding contacts, and adding a description. Click Save when you are done.

5. Delete a Contact Group

Deleting a contact group removes the list only. Everyone in it stays in your contacts.

1. Go to the People tab in Outlook.
2. Right-click the contact group and select Delete, or select the group and click Delete on the ribbon.
3. In Outlook on the web and New Outlook, open People, click All contact lists, right-click the list, select Delete, then select Delete again to confirm.

What deleting breaks — and what it does not. Microsoft is explicit on this: the contacts are not deleted, only the list. Everyone who was in the group is still in your Contacts afterwards, and you can build a new group from the same people in a couple of minutes.

One thing does stop working. Type the old group name in the To field and Outlook no longer resolves it to a set of recipients, so any habit built around that name needs rebuilding before your next group email. Because a Contact Group lives in your own mailbox and nobody else can use it, deleting one takes nothing away from your colleagues — a shared address such as [email protected] behaves differently, and only an admin can remove that.

Troubleshooting

TIP

Contact Groups are stored in your personal mailbox, not on the server. If you need a group that other people can also use, ask your IT department to create a shared Distribution Group or Microsoft 365 Group. Not sure which to ask for — or whether your team actually needs a shared mailbox everyone can reply from? Understanding Distribution Lists, Microsoft 365 Groups, and Shared Mailboxes explains what each one does.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Contact Group does not appear in auto-suggest	Group not saved properly	Open People, verify the group exists, and try typing the exact name in the To field.
Some members do not receive the email	Incorrect email address in group	Open the Contact Group and verify each member's email address is correct.
Cannot find Contact Group option in Outlook	Using Outlook on the web	In Outlook on the web, Contact Groups are called Contact lists — look for New contact list in the People section.

Related Articles

• How to Create a Distribution List in Microsoft 365
• Understanding Distribution Lists, Microsoft 365 Groups, and Shared Mailboxes
• Understanding Mailbox Access Types in Microsoft 365
• How to Import and Export Contacts in Outlook
• How to Create Email Rules in Outlook
• How to Create an Email Signature in Outlook
• How to Add a Shared Mailbox in Outlook

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