How to auto add contacts from an email when replying in Outlook?

Author: Kelly Last Modified: 2025-01-17

When replying to emails, you might want to automatically add the sender or recipients to your Outlook contacts. This can save time and ensure you never lose important contact information. While Outlook doesn’t natively support auto-adding contacts when replying, I’ll walk you through two methods to auto-add contacts from an email, including a Kutools for Outlook feature.

Auto add contacts from an Outlook email when replying with VBA

Batch add multiple senders and recipients from selected messages to contacts with Kutools

Auto add contacts from an Outlook email when replying with VBA

This VBA will automatically add the sender and all recipients of an email as new contacts when you replying the email in Outlook. Please do as follows:

1. Press Alt + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Expand the Project1, and double click ThisOutlookSession to open it, and then paste below VBA code into the ThisOutlookSession window. See screenshot:

the screenshot of auto adding contacts from an outlook email when replying with vba

VBA: Auto Add Contacts from an email when replying in Outlook

Public WithEvents xExplorer As Outlook.Explorer
Public WithEvents xMailItem As Outlook.MailItem
Sub Application_Startup()
Set xExplorer = Outlook.Application.ActiveExplorer
End Sub

Private Sub xExplorer_SelectionChange()
On Error Resume Next
Set xMailItem = xExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
End Sub

Private Sub xMailItem_Reply(ByVal Response As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Dim xNameSpace As NameSpace
Dim xSenderAddress As String
Dim xContactItems As Outlook.Items
Dim i, k As Long
Dim xFilterAddress As String
Dim xContact As Outlook.ContactItem
Dim xNewContact As Outlook.ContactItem
Dim Arr() As String
Dim ArrName() As String
Dim xArrCount As Integer
On Error Resume Next
ReDim Arr(xMailItem.Recipients.Count + 1)
ReDim ArrName(xMailItem.Recipients.Count + 1)
xSenderAddress = xMailItem.SenderEmailAddress
Arr(0) = xSenderAddress
ArrName(0) = xMailItem.SenderName
For i = LBound(Arr) + 1 To UBound(Arr) - 1
Arr(i) = xMailItem.Recipients.Item(i).Address
ArrName(i) = xMailItem.Recipients.Item(i).Name
Next i
Set xNameSpace = Outlook.Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set xContactItems = xNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderContacts).Items
For i = LBound(Arr) To UBound(Arr) - 1
For k = 1 To 3
xFilterAddress = "[Email" & k & "Address] = " & Arr(i)
Set xContact = xContactItems.Find(xFilterAddress)
If Not (xContact Is Nothing) Then
Exit For
End If
Next k
If xContact Is Nothing Then
Set xNewContact = Outlook.Application.CreateItem(olContactItem)
With xNewContact
.FullName = ArrName(i)
.Email1Address = Arr(i)
.Categories = "From Email"
.Save
End With
End If
Next i
End Sub

3. Save the VBA code, and restart your Microsoft Outlook.

From now on, when you reply an email in Outlook, this email’s sender and all recipients will be saved as new contacts automatically into the default contact folder of default email account.

Batch add multiple senders and recipients from selected messages to contacts with Kutools

Kutools for Outlook simplifies adding contacts with its Add Senders and Multiple Recipients of the Selected Emails to Contacts feature. This allows you to batch-add contacts from one or more emails.

👉 Kutools for Outlook has a free version now, whose 70+ features are free for a lifetime. Download the Free Version Now.

Step 1. Download and install Kutools for Outlook. Then, go to the Sent Items folder (or another folder) and select the messages for which you want to add the senders and recipients to contacts.

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

Step 3. In the Add Contacts from Messages dialog,

Select a Contact Folder: Choose the folder where you want to save the new contacts.
Select the Addresses: By default, all addresses are selected except for existing ones. Review the list and uncheck any addresses you don’t want to add.
Click OK: Confirm your selection and save the contacts to the chosen folder.