How to Create a Distribution List in Outlook 365 in 2025?

Learning how to create a Distribution List in Outlook 365 is the single best way to reduce errors and save time while sending bulk emails. That is why any IT administrator whose organization subscribes to the Microsoft 365 business plan should follow our guide and set up Distribution lists for the entire organization.

If you are a user, don’t worry, we have just the right equivalent for O365 DLs that you can use for your own clean bulk emailing tasks. Let us start by analysing the requirement in more detail.

What is a Distribution List in O365? Why Create & Use Them?

Distribution Lists, or DLs for short, are a group of email addresses that admins can make for their organization. These are accessible to any member of an organization, as a genuine address that can be added to the To/CC/BCC field in place of a regular email address.

This is a single value that helps to spread emails to multiple recipients at once without having to add each recipient individually.

Using distribution lists for email communication offers many advantages. Some of them are listed below.

Less risk of both sending the email to the wrong person and missing the person to whom the email was supposed to go. When sending a copy of an email to many people at once, it is possible that you fail to include a name or two, or you may accidentally add a person who wasn’t supposed to get the email. Distribution lists help to avoid such awkward instances.

Check Out: My Thoughts on Microsoft Conditional Access Policy 

You can send announcements to the entire team at once without cluttering the “To” field in your email draft. Saving both time and the effort it takes to send mail. Using DL, group contacts encourage role-based communication, which brings professionalism to your emails.

How to Create a Distribution List in Outlook 365 Admin Center?

Step 1. Log in to Microsoft 365 Admin Center >> Expand Teams & groups in left pane >> Select Active teams & groups.

Step 2. Switch to the Distribution list tab >> Select Add a distribution list.

Step 3. On the Set up the basics screen, type a Name (Mandatory) + Description (Optional), then press Next.

Step 4. On Assign owners page: Click + Assign owners >> Select owners (at least 1, Microsoft recommends 2 in case one is absent, plus you can add up to 20 owners at the time of creation and can later increase it from Active teams & groups section) >> Click on Add(#) >> Press Next.

Step 6. On the Add members page: Click + Add members >> Select up to 20 members >> Click on Add(#) >> Press Next. (Note: Adding an owner is mandatory, and owners by default become members of the list, so you can skip member addition.).

Step 7. Then, on the Edit settings page:

• Set a group email address (e.g., [email protected]).
• Choose whether to allow people outside your organization to send emails to this group.

Step 8. Review your settings (make sure the Group type is Distribution) and click Create group. It may take a few minutes for the new distribution list to be available in the Outlook address book for all users.

Admins Can Use PowerShell to Build a Distribution List in Outlook 365

Step 1. Launch a fresh PowerShell instance and connect to Exchange Online by typing:

Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName [email protected]

A sign-in window appears. Type in the password and log in.

Step 2. To create a basic distribution list in M365, type:

New-DistributionGroup -Name "Company Announcements" -Alias "announcements"

A more advanced version of the same command will look something like this:

New-DistributionGroup -Name "Company Announcements" -Alias "announcements" -PrimarySmtpAddress "[email protected]" -ManagedBy "[email protected]" -MemberJoinRestriction "ApprovalRequired"

Step 3. Currently, the only active member of the DL is the owner. Distribution groups should be multi-member; otherwise, they serve no purpose. So, to add more members, type.

Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "Project Alpha Team" -Member "[email protected]"

You can even set up a mini script that checks for members within a CSV and adds them to the member list. Something along the lines of:

$groupName = "Project Alpha Team"
$members = Import-Csv -Path "C:\path\to\your\members.csv"
foreach ($member in $members) {
    Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity $groupName -Member $member.EmailAddress

}

Apart from creation and member addition, there are other useful PowerShell commands that admins can use to manage the Distribution list. Some of them are:

• View group members:

Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "Group Name"

• Remove a member:

Remove-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "Group Name" -Member "[email protected]"

• Set sending permissions (e.g., allow external senders):

Set-DistributionGroup -Identity "Group Name" -RequireSenderAuthenticationEnabled $false

• Delete a distribution group:

Remove-DistributionGroup -Identity "Group Name"

Can I Create a Distribution List in Outlook on My Own?

Creation of Distribution lists is an admin task. What you can do instead is create a personal equivalent of a distribution list in Outlook called the Contact list.

To make it Outlook for the Web or the New Outlook Desktop Client, follow these steps:

Step 1. Log in/launch the Outlook interface >> Switch to People tab >> Expand the New Contact option >> Select New contact list.

Step 2. In the New contact list window, type in a Contact list name (This should be unique) >> Add the email IDs >> Type in a description (Optional) >> Click Create.

If you use the Classic Client, the steps are mostly the same, with just a slight change.

Step 1. Open the client >> Switch to people tab >> Click on Contact Group (if you use the simplified tab, then expand the New contact dropdown, you will find Contact Group there).

Step 2. Type in a Name for the Group >> Add Members >> Save and Close.

When I was adding an existing contact to a new distribution (contact) list in the new Outlook/Web, I found a frustrating interaction.

If a contact had more than one email ID, I was not able to tick the checkbox and add that contact to the Contact list.

Also Read: Steps to migrate Enterprise Vault to Office 365

One workaround I found that resolved this issue for me is as follows:

• Step 1. Open the contact you want to add.
• Step 2. Copy their email address.
• Step 3. Go to the contact list and click the Edit option.
• Step 4. Paste the email address in the Add field and press Add, then press Save.

I hope it helps you if you face the same issue.

Conclusion

Now you know how to create a distribution list in Outlook 365. Microsoft’s naming convention makes it confusing at times. I know that. However, with this guide, all the issues and problems you were facing in creating a multi-destination address are over. We have included the complete guide for admins in both GUI and PowerShell methods. Moreover, with the personal Group contacts, even users can make their distribution list equivalent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. I added a contact to a distribution list, but when I try to find that contact in my Outlook People section, I am not able to locate it. Why?
This happens because contacts that are added to a distribution list don’t automatically sync with your saved contacts. You must add that account manually to your saved contacts.

Q. How do I send an email to a single member of a distribution list?
If you want to send an email to a single contact in a distribution list, add the distribution list in the To/CC/BCC field, click on the small + icon to expand the list, and then remove all other contacts except the one you want to email.

Q. Can a Contact list become part of another Contact list?
No, if you select a Contact list, the “Add to list” option grays out. Moreover, you cannot force-add a distribution list into another because a personal distribution list (contact group) does not have its email address.

Q. Is it possible to merge two distribution lists?
No, it is not possible to merge two distribution lists directly. If you want to join two or more distribution/contact lists, you have to add the members of one list to another one by one.

Q. Do I need to add contacts to my Outlook account before I can add them to a distribution list?
No, you can add contacts directly into a distribution list even if they are not in your regular contacts.

Q. How many people can be in a single distribution list?
The maximum number of unique email addresses in a personal distribution list (contact group) is typically less than for an admin-created one, but for Microsoft 365 distribution lists, the recipient limit can be up to 100,000 members.