Out of Office Messages: Templates, Examples & Setup

Templates you can copy for every situation — short absences, client-facing replies, extended leave — plus what to include, what to leave out, and exactly where the setting lives in Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail and Yahoo.

Auto-reply on
Sent once per sender while you’re away
Out until [DATE] → Back Mon

What is an out of office message?

An out of office message is an automatic reply your email account sends on your behalf while you are away, telling senders that you are not reading email, when you will be back, and who to contact if something cannot wait. It is also called an OOO message, an away message, a vacation responder, or an automatic reply, depending on which email service you use.

It does three jobs, and only three:

  • Sets expectations. The sender learns immediately that a reply is not coming today, so they stop waiting and stop following up.
  • Routes anything urgent. A named alternative contact means a real problem reaches a real person instead of sitting in your inbox.
  • Protects your time off. A clear return date is what stops "just checking in" arriving on day two of your holiday.

An out of office reply is set at the email provider — Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo — not in a desktop email app. Your provider's servers keep answering while your computer is off, which is exactly what you want. The sections below cover what to put in the message, ready-to-use templates for the common situations, the mistakes that make an OOO message useless, and where the setting lives in each service.

What to include in an out of office message

Five elements cover almost every situation. The first three are essential; the last two depend on your role.

  1. The dates you are away — use actual dates, not "next week". A sender reading your reply in three days has no idea when "next week" started.
  2. When you will respond — the day you return is not the day you reply. If you come back on the 14th and need two days to dig out, say the 16th.
  3. Whether you are reading email at all — "I will have limited access" and "I will not be checking email" lead to completely different sender behaviour. Pick one and mean it.
  4. An alternative contact for urgent matters — a name and an email address. Optional for personal accounts, close to mandatory for client-facing or on-call roles.
  5. What counts as urgent — one line. Without it, everything becomes urgent and your stand-in gets your whole inbox.

Keep the whole thing to three or four sentences. An out of office reply is read in two seconds by someone who wanted something else; length works against it.

Ask permission before naming anyone. Listing a colleague as your backup redirects your workload onto them, sometimes for weeks. Tell them what you are handing over and roughly how much of it to expect.

Out of office message templates

Copy any of these and replace the bracketed fields. Each one is written for a specific situation — the differences between them are deliberate, not decorative.

1. Standard out of office message

The default. Use it when nothing unusual applies.

Subject: Out of office until [DATE]

Thank you for your email. I am out of the office from [START DATE] until [END DATE] and will not be checking messages during that time.

I will reply to your email when I return on [RESPONSE DATE]. For anything urgent before then, please contact [NAME] at [EMAIL].

Best regards,
[YOUR NAME]

2. Internal message, for colleagues

Colleagues can handle detail. Give them enough to work without you.

Subject: Away [START DATE] – [END DATE]

Hi — I am out until [END DATE] and back at my desk on [RESPONSE DATE].

While I am away: [NAME] is covering [AREA OF WORK], and [NAME] has context on [PROJECT]. Anything that can wait, leave it with me and I will pick it up on my first day back.

Thanks,
[YOUR NAME]

3. Client-facing or external message

Short, neutral, no personal detail. Clients need reassurance and a route through, nothing else.

Subject: Out of office — [YOUR NAME], [COMPANY]

Thank you for getting in touch. I am currently out of the office and will return on [RESPONSE DATE].

Your message is important and I will respond as soon as I am back. If you need immediate assistance, [NAME] ([EMAIL]) will be glad to help.

Kind regards,
[YOUR NAME]
[TITLE], [COMPANY]

4. Short absence — one or two days

For a single day, most of the standard structure is overkill.

Subject: Out of office today

I am out of the office today, [DATE], and will reply to your message tomorrow. For anything urgent, please contact [NAME] at [EMAIL].

Thanks,
[YOUR NAME]

5. Extended leave

For absences long enough that "I will reply when I am back" is not a useful answer.

Subject: Out of office until [MONTH]

Thank you for your email. I am on extended leave until [RETURN DATE] and will not be reading messages while I am away.

This inbox is not being monitored. Please redirect your message to [NAME] at [EMAIL], who is covering my responsibilities in full during this period.

Best regards,
[YOUR NAME]

6. Public holiday or company closure

Subject: [COMPANY] is closed for [HOLIDAY]

Thank you for your message. Our offices are closed for [HOLIDAY] and will reopen on [REOPEN DATE].

We will respond to your email in the order received once we are back. For urgent matters during the closure, please contact [EMERGENCY CONTACT / EMAIL].

[COMPANY] team

7. Personal or medical leave, without detail

You owe nobody an explanation. This version says nothing about why.

Subject: Out of office

Thank you for your email. I am away from work until [RETURN DATE] and not checking messages.

For anything that needs attention before then, please contact [NAME] at [EMAIL].

Best regards,
[YOUR NAME]

8. Travel or conference — reachable but slow

Subject: Travelling until [DATE] — slower replies

I am at [EVENT / travelling] until [DATE] with limited access to email. I am picking up messages once a day, so replies will be slower than usual.

If it is urgent, [NAME] at [EMAIL] can help immediately. Otherwise I will get to your message by [RESPONSE DATE].

Best,
[YOUR NAME]

What to avoid in an out of office message

  • Relative dates. "Back next Monday" is meaningless to someone reading it on Tuesday. Always write the date.
  • Promising a reply you cannot deliver. "I will respond within 24 hours of my return" sounds responsive and creates a complaint when you miss it by a day.
  • Naming a colleague who has not agreed. The fastest way to hand someone a fortnight of unexpected work.
  • Detail about where you are. An automatic reply announcing an empty house for two weeks goes to everyone who emails you, including senders you did not choose.
  • Jokes that outlive the mood. Humour can work internally, where people know you. On an external reply it reaches strangers, complaints, and prospective clients in the same breath.
  • Leaving it switched on. An out of office reply still running a week after you returned makes every sender assume you are still away. Check it on your first morning back.
  • No urgency threshold. Without a line defining urgent, every sender decides for themselves, and most of them decide yes.

How to set up an out of office reply

Automatic replies are a function of your email provider, not your email app. That is by design: the provider's servers keep sending the reply while your laptop is closed. Setting it anywhere else would mean leaving a machine running for a fortnight.

Where the setting lives:

  • Outlook and Microsoft 365 — Settings → Mail → Automatic replies, with separate messages for senders inside and outside your organisation, and an optional date range. Full walkthrough: out of office email in Outlook, step by step, or the shorter how to set up an auto-reply message in Outlook.
  • Gmail — Settings → See all settings → General → Vacation responder. Set a first and last day, and optionally restrict it to your contacts only.
  • Apple Mail — depends on the account. iCloud addresses have an automatic reply in iCloud Mail settings on the web; other accounts use whatever their provider offers.
  • Yahoo Mail — Settings → More Settings → Vacation response.

Two behaviours worth knowing before you rely on it. Most providers send the automatic reply once per sender over the period rather than answering every message, which is what stops a mail loop between two people who are both away. And an automatic reply generally does not fire for messages that land in spam — so if a sender never gets your OOO, that is usually where their email went.

Setting it up in Mailbird, and the inbox you come back to

Setting it up. Mailbird runs your Outlook, Gmail, iCloud and Yahoo accounts side by side in one desktop inbox, and each account keeps its own away message. Switch it on per account in that provider's settings — the exact path for each one is in how to set up an out of office reply above. Whichever accounts you manage through Mailbird, that is where the automatic reply is configured, and it keeps running whether Mailbird is open or not.

Writing the message. If you would rather not draft the wording yourself, Parakeet is Mailbird's free AI email-template generator — describe the situation, the tone you want, and how long you will be away, and it produces a draft you can edit and paste straight into the automatic-reply box. Free, no account needed.

Coming back. The real cost of time off is the first morning back, and it is worse when your accounts are scattered — work mail in one window, a shared team address in another, personal in a third, each with its own backlog. Mailbird brings every account into one unified inbox, so the return is a single triage pass rather than four. If your accounts are already stacking up, our guide to managing an email backlog after time away covers the triage order that works.

Frequently asked questions

How long should an out of office message be?

Three or four sentences. It needs your return date, whether you are reading email, and who to contact if something is urgent. Everything beyond that goes unread — the person receiving it wanted something else and is scanning for when they will get it.

Should I include an alternative contact?

Yes for any client-facing, on-call, or shared responsibility, and only after asking that person first. Add one line defining what counts as urgent — without it every sender decides for themselves, and your stand-in inherits your entire inbox rather than the genuinely time-critical parts of it.

Does the automatic reply go to every email I receive?

Usually not. Most providers send it once per sender for the duration rather than replying to every individual message, which prevents an endless loop between two people who are both away. Automatic replies also generally do not fire for messages filtered into spam.

Can I set an out of office reply in a desktop email client?

No — and that is the right behaviour. Automatic replies are sent by your provider's servers, which is why they keep working while your computer is off. A desktop client can only send while it is running, so an OOO set in an app would stop the moment you shut your laptop. Set it in Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo or iCloud directly.

Does Mailbird have an out of office feature?

No. Mailbird does not include an out of office feature or an autoresponder — automatic replies are configured at your email provider. Where Mailbird helps is on either side of the absence: Parakeet, its free template generator, drafts the message, and its unified inbox means the backlog waiting for you on your return is one list rather than one per account.

Should my out of office message be funny?

Internally, sometimes — colleagues know your tone and the audience is bounded. Externally, rarely. The same automatic reply goes to prospective clients, complaints, invoices, and strangers, and you do not get to choose which of them reads the joke. Neutral costs you nothing.

What should I do about the message when I get back?

Turn it off on your first morning, before anything else. An automatic reply still running after you return tells everyone who writes to you that you are still away, and they stop expecting an answer — which quietly undoes your first week back.