How to Send Read Receipts in Outlook

How do I request a read receipt for one email in Outlook?

In classic Outlook for Windows, you request a read receipt one message at a time from the compose window. Microsoft's support page "Add and request read receipts and delivery notifications in Outlook" lists these steps:

1. 1 Select New Email and write the message as usual.
2. 2 Open the Options tab in the ribbon of the message window.
3. 3 In the Tracking group, tick Request a Read Receipt. Tick Request a Delivery Receipt too if you also want to know the message reached the mailbox.
4. 4 Select Send. If a receipt comes back, it lands in your inbox as a separate message.

The two checkboxes answer different questions. A delivery receipt says the receiving system accepted the message into the mailbox. A read receipt says the recipient's client marked it as read and agreed to tell you. You can get one without the other, and getting neither proves nothing: a missing receipt doesn't mean the email wasn't delivered or wasn't read.

How do I turn on read receipts for every email in Outlook?

Classic Outlook for Windows can attach the read receipt request to every message you send. According to Microsoft's support documentation, the setting sits in the Mail options:

1. 1 Open the File menu and select Options.
2. 2 Select Mail in the left-hand list.
3. 3 Scroll down to the Tracking section.
4. 4 Tick "Read receipt confirming the recipient viewed the message". The "Delivery receipt confirming the message was delivered to the recipient's email server" box is right next to it.
5. 5 Select OK. New messages carry the request from now on. Messages you've already sent don't change.

Think before you switch it on globally. Every recipient whose client supports receipts gets a prompt asking whether to send one, and that includes customers, colleagues and anyone you've never written to before. For a first email to a stranger, a dialog asking them to report back when they read it is a strange thing to open with. Most people use the per-message checkbox for the few emails where a confirmation actually matters, like a contract, a deadline or a notice.

Where is the read receipt option in new Outlook, Outlook.com and mobile?

The option isn't in the same place in every version of Outlook, and in some versions it doesn't exist at all. The table sums up what Microsoft's own pages say. Check the Microsoft page for your version, because menu labels change between updates.

Outlook version	Can it request a read receipt?	Where to look / source
Classic Outlook for Windows	Yes, per message and for all messages	Options tab > Tracking group; File > Options > Mail > Tracking (Microsoft Support)
New Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web, work or school account	Yes, per message	The message options in the compose window (Microsoft Support, same article)
Outlook.com, personal account in the browser	Not directly	A Microsoft Q&A answer on learn.microsoft.com says Outlook.com can't request read receipts itself, but Outlook.com mail sent through Outlook for Windows can
Outlook for Android and iOS	Announced by Microsoft	Microsoft's Insider blog on techcommunity.microsoft.com covers delivery and read receipts in the mobile apps

If you have a personal Outlook.com address and need receipts, the workaround in Microsoft's answer is to add the account to classic Outlook for Windows and request the receipt there. Gmail works differently: its receipts depend on a Google Workspace account and an admin setting, which our guide to Gmail read receipt setup and limits covers.

What happens technically when you request a read receipt?

When you tick the box, Outlook adds a header to the outgoing message asking for a message disposition notification. On internet mail that's the Disposition-Notification-To header from the IETF standard for message disposition notifications. The header holds the address the receipt should go to. Nothing else about the email changes: same body, same sender, same route.

Everything after that happens on the recipient's side. The IETF standard leaves it to the receiving mail client whether to send a notification, and it expects the user to be able to refuse. So a read receipt is a request, not a measurement. Delivery receipts follow a different path. Inside one Exchange organisation, including Exchange Online, the server reports delivery itself. Across the internet, delivery status notifications are an SMTP extension, and they only come back if every server along the way supports it. Many don't.

You can check this yourself: send yourself a message with the box ticked, open the raw headers in the receiving client, and look for the Disposition-Notification-To header with your address in it.

Why didn't I get a read receipt in Outlook?

A missing read receipt has several possible causes, and in most cases you can't tell which one it was:

• The recipient declined. Classic Outlook asks whether to send the receipt, and No sends nothing.
• The recipient's Outlook is set to Never send. Under File > Options > Mail > Tracking, recipients choose Always send, Never send or Ask each time for incoming requests.
• The recipient's client ignores the request. Many webmail services and mobile apps never show a prompt, so no receipt is sent.
• An admin turned receipts off for the organisation. Exchange admins can block outgoing read receipts for everyone in the tenant.
• You sent from Outlook.com in the browser, where Microsoft's Q&A answer says the request can't be added.
• The message went to junk and was never opened, so there was nothing to confirm.
• The receipt itself got filtered. It's an email sent back to you, and spam rules can catch it like any other message.

Since each of these looks the same from your side, don't treat silence as "not read". If you need a confirmation, ask for a reply in the email itself.

Can you get a read receipt in Outlook without the recipient knowing?

Not with Outlook's read receipt feature. The request travels in the message header, and supporting clients either ask the recipient or follow a setting the recipient (or their admin) chose. Tracking that recipients can't see is a different technique: a tiny remote image, called a tracking pixel, that reports back when it loads. Outlook's checkbox doesn't do that.

Pixels come with their own problems. Clients that block remote images by default never load them. Proxies that fetch images ahead of time can record an "open" that didn't happen. And in the EU, the ePrivacy Directive generally requires consent before you store or read information on a user's device, which is why pixel tracking is a consent question there and not just a technical one. Our article on email tracking with pixels and clicks explains the mechanics and their limits.

Do read receipts make sense in cold outreach from your own domain?

For cold B2B outreach, read receipts rarely fit. The prompt asks a stranger for a favour before they know who you are, and most of the signal never comes back. They also only apply to mail you write in Outlook. Once outreach goes through a sending platform, the Outlook checkbox isn't part of that message at all.

That's how EmailFlow OS works. You record one video and upload it to EmailFlow OS, connect your own Brevo account and sending domain, and import your prospect list into EmailFlow OS. EmailFlow OS then personalises that one recording for each recipient, so every person on the list gets their own version, not a copy per company. Each version is sent from your own inbox, through your Brevo account and your sending domain, never through a shared platform sender. Your domain's SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, and the reputation that builds on them, stay under your control. There's more on the mechanics on the EmailFlow OS page for personalised video email for B2B outreach.

Related questions cold senders ask

How to read DMARC reports

DMARC aggregate reports are XML files that receiving mail providers send to the address in the rua tag of your DMARC record. Each record row lists a source IP, a message count, the disposition the receiver applied, and the SPF and DKIM results with their alignment to your From domain. Read them by sorting rows by source IP: known senders like your Brevo account should pass aligned DKIM, and unknown IPs sending as your domain are what you look into. These reports show who sent mail as your domain, not who read it. Our walkthrough on how to read a DMARC report goes through each XML field.

How to send a follow-up email after no response

Send the follow-up as a reply in the original thread, not as a new message with "Re:" typed into the subject line. A real reply carries In-Reply-To and References headers pointing to your first email, so the recipient's client groups the two together and the context is right there. Add one new fact or angle instead of repeating the first email, end with a single question, and stop the sequence as soon as they answer. Templates for different situations are in our guide to the follow-up email after no response.

When to send a follow-up email after no response

Choose the interval before you send the first email, not after. Base it on how soon the ask matters: a quote with an expiry date justifies an earlier nudge than a general introduction. Count business days in the recipient's time zone so the follow-up doesn't land on their weekend. What doesn't work is reading silence or a missing read receipt as a cue. Neither tells you whether the first email was seen, so timing shouldn't depend on them.

Best times and days to send cold emails

We don't publish a best hour or weekday, and we cite no study claiming one. The factor you control is the recipient's local working day: schedule by their time zone, not yours, and keep sends out of their night and weekend. Spreading sends over time also avoids a sudden spike in volume from your domain, which receiving servers can treat as suspicious. Our article on the best time to send cold emails covers scheduling by days and hours in more detail.

Can you send a GIF in an email?

Yes. Insert the GIF as an inline image, for example with Insert > Pictures in Outlook, or reference a hosted file in the HTML. The catch is playback: some versions of classic Outlook for Windows show only the first frame, so put the key message in that first frame. A large animated file also makes the message heavier, and it's another remote or embedded image that clients may block.

Questions people ask

? Can someone with read receipts off see if I read their message?

Not through read receipts. If your Outlook is set to Never send, or you decline the prompt, no disposition notification goes back to the sender. That only covers the receipt feature, though. A tracking pixel in the sender's email can still report an open when your client loads remote images. Blocking remote images by default stops most pixels.

? How do I send a read receipt back to someone in Outlook?

When you open a message that requests a receipt, classic Outlook asks whether to send one. Select Yes and Outlook emails a notification to the address in the request header. If you never see a prompt, check File > Options > Mail > Tracking: Never send or Always send skips the question. Your organisation's admin may also block outgoing receipts.

? How do I turn on read receipts in Outlook?

There are two sides to it. To request receipts, tick Request a Read Receipt under Options > Tracking for one message, or turn on the read receipt option in File > Options > Mail > Tracking for all of them. To decide how you answer other people's requests, pick Always send, Never send or Ask each time in the same Tracking section.

? Do Outlook read receipts work when the recipient uses Gmail?

Usually not. Outlook adds the request header, but the recipient's client decides what to do with it. Gmail handles read receipts only for Google Workspace accounts where an admin has enabled them, so personal Gmail users generally never see a prompt and nothing comes back. A delivery receipt across providers also depends on the receiving server supporting delivery status notifications.