Send an automatic reply when you're out of office

To let others know when you’re out of office or on vacation, you can create a vacation responder in Gmail. When someone sends you a message, they receive an automatic reply.

Set up a vacation responder

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
3. Under the “General” tab, go to the "Vacation responder" section.
4. Select Vacation responder on.
5. Fill in the date range, subject, and message.
6. Optional: To send the reply to your contacts only, under the message, check the box.
7. At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.

Tips:

• If you have a signature, it shows below the reply.
• When your vacation responder is on, a banner shows across the top of your inbox. To turn it off, click End now.

Learn how an automatic reply works

Your automatic reply starts at 12:00 AM on the start date and ends at 11:59 PM on the end date, unless you end it earlier.

In most cases, your reply is only sent to people the first time they message you.

Someone can get your reply more than once if:

• The same person contacts you again after four days and your automatic reply is still on.
• You edit the automatic reply.
  • If someone gets your initial automatic reply, then emails you again after you edit the reply, they get the updated email.

Tips:

• To prevent an automatic reply in a conversation thread, add a subject line to your reply. When you add a subject line, the recipient receives your reply in a separate email.
• Emails sent to your spam folder or addressed to a mailing list you subscribe to don't get your reply.

Related resources

• Change your Gmail settings
• Set your working hours & location