How to Add a BCC in Outlook (Desktop, Web, and Mobile)

BCC — Blind Carbon Copy — is one of those email features that's easy to overlook but genuinely useful once you understand what it does. Whether you're sending a company-wide announcement, a newsletter, or just want to protect recipients' privacy, knowing how to use BCC in Outlook is a practical skill worth having.

What Does BCC Actually Do?

When you add someone to the BCC field, they receive a copy of your email — but their name and address are hidden from everyone else on the thread. Recipients in the To and CC fields won't see who was BCC'd, and BCC recipients won't see each other.

This is different from CC (Carbon Copy), where all recipients can see the full list of who received the message.

Common reasons people use BCC:

• Sending a mass email without exposing everyone's address to strangers
• Quietly keeping a manager or colleague in the loop
• Forwarding a conversation to yourself for record-keeping
• Protecting client or contact list privacy

Why Isn't the BCC Field Visible by Default?

In most versions of Outlook, the BCC field is hidden until you enable it. This is by design — Microsoft keeps the compose window clean, assuming most emails are simple back-and-forth exchanges. You have to manually reveal the BCC field each time you open a new message window, or enable it persistently depending on your version.

How to Add BCC in Outlook Desktop (Windows)

This applies to Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2019, Outlook 2021, and most recent standalone versions on Windows.

1. Open Outlook and click New Email to compose a message
2. In the compose window, go to the Options tab in the ribbon at the top
3. Click BCC in the Show Fields group
4. The BCC field will now appear beneath the CC field in your message
5. Type the recipient's email address into the BCC field as you normally would

📌 Once you enable BCC this way, it stays visible for all future new messages in that session — and in many cases, it persists across sessions until you hide it again.

How to Add BCC in Outlook on Mac

The process is slightly different on Outlook for Mac:

1. Open a new email compose window
2. Go to Options in the top menu bar
3. Select BCC Field to toggle it on
4. The BCC field will appear in your compose window

Alternatively, you can use the View menu within the compose window if the Options tab isn't visible in your version.

How to Add BCC in Outlook on the Web (Outlook.com / Microsoft 365 Web)

If you use Outlook through a browser at outlook.com or your organization's Microsoft 365 portal:

1. Click New message to open the compose panel
2. In the To field area, look for the BCC link — it typically appears as small text on the right side of the To field
3. Click BCC and the field will expand below your CC line
4. Add recipients as needed

The web version tends to be more straightforward here since the BCC toggle is visible without navigating into a separate tab.

How to Add BCC in the Outlook Mobile App

On iOS and Android, the process is quick:

1. Tap the compose icon to start a new message
2. Tap inside the To field
3. Look for a small BCC (or CC/BCC) label that appears — usually to the right of the To field or just below it
4. Tap it to expand the BCC field
5. Add your recipient(s)

The exact placement of the BCC toggle varies slightly between iOS and Android versions of the app, and can also differ based on which version of the Outlook mobile app you have installed.

Key Differences at a Glance

A Few Things Worth Knowing About BCC Behavior

BCC recipients can reply — but only to you. If a BCC recipient hits "Reply All," their reply goes only to the sender, not to everyone on the thread. This is intentional and protects their identity.

BCC is not foolproof for privacy — it protects addresses from other recipients, but your email server and the recipient's email server still process the full message metadata. For sensitive communications, BCC alone isn't a security measure.

Some email clients reveal BCC — if a BCC recipient opens the message in certain clients, they may see a note indicating they were BCC'd (though not who else was). This varies by client.

Group emails and BCC — if you're sending to a large list and privacy matters, BCC is the standard approach. Putting dozens of contacts in the To or CC field exposes everyone's address to everyone else, which is considered poor email etiquette in most professional contexts. 📧

The Variables That Affect Your Experience

How BCC works in practice depends on factors specific to your setup:

• Which version of Outlook you're running (desktop vs. web vs. mobile behave differently)
• Whether your organization uses Exchange or Microsoft 365 — some enterprise mail policies affect how BCC is logged or processed
• Your email account type — personal Outlook.com accounts, work Microsoft 365 accounts, and accounts from other providers connected via IMAP may have slightly different behaviors
• Mobile app version — the Outlook mobile app updates frequently, and UI placement of the BCC field has shifted between versions

The mechanics are consistent, but where exactly you find the toggle and how persistently it stays enabled comes down to the specific environment you're working in.