How do I send an email to multiple recipients without them seeing each other?

Put your own email address in the To field and add everyone else in the Bcc field. Each person receives the message but cannot see who else got it. For a group you email regularly, a group email service does this automatically and also handles replies, joins, and leaves.

How do I hide recipients in Outlook?

Start a new message, click Bcc (at the right of the To line in new Outlook and Outlook on the web, or on the Options tab in classic Outlook), put your own address in To and your recipients in Bcc, then send. Recipients see only your address.

Is there a limit to how many people I can BCC?

Yes. Personal Gmail allows about 500 recipients a day (100 per message from a mail app), Outlook.com about 500 per message with a daily cap that is lower on new accounts, Yahoo 100 per message, and iCloud 500 per message. Spam filters get suspicious well before those numbers. A group email address has no recipient limit.

Can recipients tell they were BCC'd?

They see only your address, or "undisclosed recipients", in the To field, and their own address is not shown, which tells an attentive reader they were BCC'd. They cannot see who else received the email.

What does BCC stand for?

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. People added to BCC receive the email but are hidden from everyone in To and Cc, and from each other.

Can recipients see BCC in Gmail?

No. BCC recipients in Gmail cannot see who else was BCC'd. They can see To and Cc, but BCC addresses stay hidden.

How do I send to undisclosed recipients in Outlook?

Create a contact named Undisclosed Recipients with your own email address, put it in To, and place the real recipients in Bcc. Recipients then see an intentional group label instead of your personal address.

Is BCC safe for large mailing lists?

BCC works for small groups, but it is not ideal for large lists. Providers often flag large BCC sends as spam, and every provider has recipient limits (for example, Gmail around 500 a day).

How do I send a mass email individually to each recipient?

For a one-off personalised send, use mail merge (Gmail with Google Workspace, or Word with Outlook). For a group you email regularly, a group email service sends every member their own individual copy of each message, with no other addresses visible and replies managed for you.

Private Group Email Guide

How to Send a Group Email Without Showing Recipients (Gmail, Outlook, or Any App)

To send a group email without showing recipients, put your own address in the To field and every recipient in BCC. Each person sees only your address. This works in Gmail, Outlook and any email app, up to each provider's recipient limit (about 500 in Gmail, 500 in Outlook.com). For regular group emails, a group address is simpler and has no limit.

You need to email a group - a neighbourhood watch, a club, a parent mailing list, a church group - but putting everyone's address in the To field means every recipient can see every other recipient's email. That's a privacy issue, it looks unprofessional, and depending on your group, it might even violate data protection rules.

Emailing the same group every week (a club, a board, a congregation, a class)? BCC is the wrong tool. Skip to the simpler option ↓

Table of contents

How BCC works
How to hide recipients in Gmail
How to hide recipients in Outlook
Recipient limits: when BCC stops working
Why BCC fails for regular group emails
The alternative: a group address
What to do next
FAQ

How BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) Works

Every email has three address fields: To, Cc (carbon copy), and Bcc (blind carbon copy). People in To and Cc can see each other. People in Bcc are invisible to everyone, including each other.

That makes BCC the go-to method for sending a group email without exposing addresses — and it's built into every email app you already use.

How to Hide Recipients in Gmail

Open Gmail and click Compose to start a new email.
In the compose window, click Bcc on the right side of the To field.
The BCC field appears below To and Cc.
Put your own email address in To.
Add recipients in Bcc, either as individual addresses or a contact label if you already created a group email in Gmail.
Write your subject and message, then click Send.

Hiding recipients in Gmail: the Bcc field revealed in the compose window, with the sender's own address in To — Click Bcc in Gmail compose to reveal the BCC field and keep addresses hidden.

Each recipient sees only your address in To, not who else received the email.

Note: replies to a BCC email come back to you alone, and there is no way for people to unsubscribe. A group email address fixes both.

How to Hide Recipients in Outlook

The Bcc field is hidden by default in Outlook, which catches a lot of people off guard. Where it hides depends on which Outlook you have.

Hide recipients in new Outlook and Outlook on the web

Click New mail.
Click Bcc at the right-hand end of the To line (beside Cc).
Put your own email in To and your recipients, or the name of a contact list, in Bcc.
Write your message and click Send.

Hiding recipients in Outlook: the Bcc field revealed in a new message, with the sender's address in To and the group in Bcc — In Outlook, reveal Bcc first, then place your address in To and your group in Bcc.

Hide recipients in classic Outlook

Click New Email.
Open the Options tab, then click Bcc. The field stays visible for future messages.
Add your own address in To and recipients in Bcc.
Write your message and click Send.

If you've created a distribution list in Outlook - or you'd rather create an email group in Outlook first - you can type the group name in Bcc to add all members at once.

Note: replies to a BCC email come back to you alone, and there is no way for people to unsubscribe. A group email address fixes both.

The “Undisclosed Recipients” Trick

You may have seen emails showing "Undisclosed Recipients" in To. This is a polished variation of BCC, especially common in Outlook:

Create a contact named Undisclosed Recipients using your own email address.
Save the contact.
Use that contact in To when composing.
Add actual recipients in Bcc.

Recipients see "Undisclosed Recipients" in To instead of your personal address, which looks cleaner and signals private sending. It's still BCC underneath, though, so the limits and drawbacks below still apply.

Recipient Limits: When BCC Stops Working

BCC does not scale. Every provider caps how many people you can put on one message and how many you can email in a day, and the caps are lower than most group organisers expect. Go over them and the message is rejected. Get near them regularly from a personal account and spam filters start treating you as a bulk sender, so your emails land in junk folders even when they do send. The published limits, as of September 2026 (check the provider's own help page, because they change):

Provider	Recipients per message	Recipients per day	Documented in
Gmail (personal account)	500 from the web; 100 from a mail app (IMAP/SMTP)	500	Google's "Gmail sending limits" help page
Outlook.com	About 500	Daily cap, lower on new accounts	Microsoft's "Outlook.com sending limits" help page
Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online)	500 by default; varies by plan and admin settings	10,000	Microsoft's "Exchange Online limits" page
Yahoo Mail	100	500	Yahoo's "Sending limits in Yahoo Mail" help page
iCloud Mail	500	1,000	Apple's "iCloud Mail sending limits" support page

A group email address has none of these caps: the service sends each member an individual copy from its own infrastructure, so a 2,000-member list is as easy to reach as a 20-member one.

Why BCC Fails for Regular Group Emails

BCC is a workaround for not having a mailing list. It works for a one-off announcement, but if you email the same group every week — a committee, a congregation, a neighbourhood list — its drawbacks add up fast. Each one has a fix:

Key limitations of BCC

With a group address

Replies only go to you. Recipients cannot reply to the whole group, so there is no discussion — just a broadcast.

Replies reach the group. Or just you, if you prefer; it is a setting, not a workaround.

No unsubscribe. People have to ask you to be removed, and you have to remember to edit the list.

Self-service leave (and join). Every message carries an unsubscribe link, and new members can sign themselves up.

You hit recipient limits. 100 to 500 addresses per message, and spam filters get suspicious well before that.

No limit. Each member gets an individual copy from the service's own servers, whatever the size of the group.

No history. A new member cannot see what was sent before they joined, and neither can you once it leaves your sent folder.

A searchable archive. Every message is kept where any member can find it.

The Alternative: A Group Address That Hides Everyone by Default

This is exactly the problem a group email service solves. Your group gets one shared address, like neighbourhood@gaggle.email. Members email that address and the service delivers each member their own individual copy — no addresses exposed, replies managed, and people can join or unsubscribe themselves.

✓

How it helps

How Gaggle Mail Handles This

Free plan available

Gaggle Mail has a free plan for groups of up to 200 members and is built specifically for group email.

Privacy is automatic. Member addresses are never visible to each other.
Replies can go to the group. Configure whether replies go to everyone or only the sender.
Members can self-manage. People can join and leave without manual list maintenance.
Shared archive. Messages are stored in a browsable history.
Moderation. You can approve messages before delivery.
Digest option. Members can choose daily or weekly summaries.

It works with Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and other providers. Members keep their existing inbox.

Create your free group

Takes 2 minutes • No credit card

How Does It Compare?

Feature	Gaggle Mail	BCC	Undisclosed Recipients
Hides recipient addresses	✓ (automatic)	✓	✓
Replies go to the group	✓ (configurable)	✗	✗
Self-service join/leave	✓	✗	✗
Shared message archive	✓	✗	✗
Recipient limit	None	100-500 per message	100-500 per message
Spam risk with large groups	Low	High	High
Moderation	✓	✗	✗
Digest emails	✓	✗	✗
Setup time	2 minutes	None	2 minutes
Works for ongoing groups	✓	Poorly	Poorly

For more detail on alternatives, see our comparison of group email services.

What to do next

A one-off email to fewer than 100 people? Use BCC, following the steps above.
Recurring emails to the same people? Set up a group address, free for up to 200 members.
Sending on behalf of an organisation? A group address on your own domain, so messages come from an address like announcements@yourclub.org.

Weighing up the group email services themselves? See our comparison of group email services.

Frequently asked questions

: Put your own email address in the To field and add everyone else in the Bcc field. Each person receives the message but cannot see who else got it. For a group you email regularly, a group email service does this automatically and also handles replies, joins, and leaves.
: Start a new message, click Bcc (at the right of the To line in new Outlook and Outlook on the web, or on the Options tab in classic Outlook), put your own address in To and your recipients in Bcc, then send. Recipients see only your address. The Outlook steps above cover each version.
: Yes. Personal Gmail allows about 500 recipients a day (100 per message from a mail app), Outlook.com about 500 per message with a daily cap that is lower on new accounts, Yahoo 100 per message, and iCloud 500 per message. Spam filters get suspicious well before those numbers. See the recipient limits table. A group email address has no recipient limit.
: They see only your address, or "undisclosed recipients", in the To field, and their own address is not shown, which tells an attentive reader they were BCC'd. They cannot see who else received the email.
: BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. People added to BCC receive the email but are hidden from everyone in To and Cc, and from each other.
: No. BCC recipients in Gmail cannot see who else was BCC'd. They can see To and Cc, but BCC addresses stay hidden.
: Create a contact named "Undisclosed Recipients" with your own email address, put it in To, and place real recipients in Bcc. Recipients then see an intentional group label instead of your personal address.
: BCC works for small groups, but it is not ideal for large lists. Providers often flag large BCC sends as spam, and every provider has recipient limits (for example, Gmail around 500 a day).
: For a one-off personalised send, use mail merge (Gmail with Google Workspace, or Word with Outlook). For a group you email regularly, a group email service sends every member their own individual copy of each message, with no other addresses visible and replies managed for you.

What people are saying

Join thousands of communities using Gaggle Mail

“Gaggle Mail transformed how our neighborhood association communicates. It's so intuitive that even our less tech-savvy members participate actively. The moderation tools are exactly what we needed.“

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Community Organizer

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“Amazing alternative to google groups, which forces you to have a gmail account and is complex to join as a user.“

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Boy Scout Troop

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