What BCC does and why you might use it

BCC stands for "blind carbon copy" — it lets you send an email to someone without the other recipients knowing that person received it. When you put someone in the BCC field, their address does not appear anywhere in the email that others see. The people in the To and CC fields cannot see who is in BCC.

You might use BCC to send a copy to yourself for your records, to loop in a manager without the main recipient knowing, or to send the same message to a group of people without showing all their email addresses to each other. BCC is different from CC (carbon copy), where everyone can see who else got the message.

Key Takeaways

  • The BCC field is hidden by default in Outlook — you have to show it first before you can use it.
  • On the web version of Outlook, click Options in the compose window to reveal the BCC field.
  • In the desktop version of Outlook, click the BCC button in the ribbon at the top of the compose window.
  • Once you add someone to BCC, they receive the email but their address stays invisible to everyone else on the message.
  • You cannot add BCC recipients after you send the email — you have to set it up before clicking Send.

How to show the BCC field in Outlook on the web

If you use Outlook through your web browser (outlook.com or your work email through a browser), the BCC field starts hidden. Open a new email by clicking Compose. In the message window that opens, look for the word Options near the top right, just above where it says To. Click Options.

A small menu drops down. Click Bcc from that menu. The BCC field now appears on your compose screen, below the CC field. You can now type email addresses directly into the BCC box, or click inside it and select contacts from your address book.

How to show the BCC field in Outlook desktop

If you use the Outlook process on your computer (not the web version), open a new email by clicking New Email or pressing Ctrl+N. At the top of the compose window, look for the ribbon with buttons like To, Cc, Subject, and Attach. You should see a button labeled Bcc in that ribbon.

Click the Bcc button. The BCC field appears below the CC field in your message. Type the email address of the person you want to send a blind copy to, or click the button next to the BCC field to select from your contacts.

What happens after you add someone to BCC

Once you type an address into the BCC field and send the email, that person receives the message just like anyone in the To field would. They see the subject line, the body of the email, and everyone listed in the To and CC fields — but they do not see themselves or anyone else in the BCC field. The other recipients see the To and CC fields as normal, but they see no BCC field at all.

The person in BCC cannot reply-all to include other BCC recipients, because they do not know who else received the message. If they click Reply All, the message goes only to the people in To and CC, not to other BCC recipients.

Common reasons to use BCC instead of CC

Use BCC when you want to keep someone's involvement private. For example, if you are forwarding a customer complaint to your manager for review, you might BCC your manager so the customer does not know the manager is watching. Or if you are sending the same message to ten different people and do not want them to see each other's email addresses, put all ten in the BCC field instead of listing them in To.

BCC is also useful for sending yourself a copy of an important email for your records, without adding an extra visible recipient to the message. Some people BCC their own email address when they send something they might need to reference later.

Mistakes to avoid when using BCC

Do not assume BCC is completely anonymous — your email administrator or IT department can still see BCC addresses in the message logs, even though regular recipients cannot. If you work for a company, treat BCC as private from other employees, not as secret from the organization itself.

Do not add someone to BCC and then mention them by name in the email body. If you write "I am copying my manager on this," the main recipient will know someone else got the message, which defeats the purpose of using BCC. Also remember that you cannot add BCC recipients after you hit Send — you have to set them up before sending the message.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I BCC someone on a reply to an existing email?

Yes. Open the existing email and click Reply or Reply All. The BCC field works the same way — show it using Options (web) or the Bcc button (desktop), then add the address. The BCC recipient receives your reply but does not appear in the thread to other people.

What if I forget to add BCC before I send?

You cannot add BCC after the email is sent. You would have to compose a new message and send it again with the BCC field filled in. This is why it helps to set up BCC before you write the body of the email, so you do not forget.

Does the person in BCC see the entire email thread?

If you BCC someone on a reply to an existing conversation, they see only the message you are sending and the quoted text below it — they do not see the earlier messages in the thread unless you include them in the body of your reply.

Can I BCC a group or distribution list?

Yes. If your organization has a distribution list set up, you can type the list name into the BCC field just as you would a single email address. Everyone on that list receives the message, but their individual addresses do not appear to other recipients.