How to bulk add contacts to contact group in Outlook?

Author Siluvia Last modified 2025-04-09

Creating and managing contact groups (distribution lists) in Outlook can save you time when sending emails to multiple recipients. While Outlook provides a basic method to add contacts to a group, Kutools for Outlook offers a more efficient solution, especially when you want to bulk-add contacts from emails. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you throbulk-addmethods to bulk add contacts to a contact group in Outlook.

Bulk add contacts to contact group in Outlook

Bulk add senders and recipients to contact group from selected emails in Outlook

Bulk add contacts to contact group in Outlook

Outlook allows you to add contacts to a group manually, but this method can be time-consuming if you have many contacts to add.

1. Shift to the "Contacts" or "People" view and create a new contact group by clicking "New Contact Group" under "Home" tab in Outlook 2010 and 2013.

Note: If you want to bulk-add contacts to an existing contact group, please double-click to open it.

2. In the "Contact Group" window, click "Add Members" > "From Outlook Contacts" under "Contact Group" tab.

In the "Distribution List" window in Outlook 2007, click "Select Members" under "Distribution List" tab.

3. In the "Select Members" dialog box, you need to:

1). Select the contact folder which the contacts exist in the "Address Book" drop-down box;

2). Hold the "Ctrl" key to select the contacts individually if the contacts are discontinuous. Or click the first contact, hold the "Shift" key and click the last contact if the contacts are continuous in the contacts folder;

3). Click the "Members" button;

4). Click the "OK" button.

4. Then the contacts are bulk added to the contact group. Click the "Save & Close" button to save it.

Note: If that’s a newly created contact group, you need to type a name in the Name box before saving it.

Bulk add senders and recipients to contact group from selected emails in Outlook

If you want to directly add senders and recipients from selected emails to a contact group, Kutools for Outlook's "Add Senders and Multiple Recipients of Selected Emails to Contact Group" feature will be a good hander.

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Step 1. Download and install Kutools for Outlook, open Outlook, select emails that you want to add the sender and recipients to a distribution.

Step 2. Click "Kutools" > "Add Contacts" > "Add the Senders and Multiple Recipients of the Selected Emails to a Contact Group".

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Step 3. In the Add people to contact group,

Select a Folder: Pick the folder where you want to save the new contact group.
Create a New Contact Group: Click Create New Contact Group.
Name the Group: Enter a name for the new contact group and click "OK".
Select the Contacts: Choose the contacts you want to add to the distribution list.
Select the New Created Contact Group: Choose the contact group that you created just now.
Confirm: Click "OK" again to finalize the creation of the group.