Automated Email Response Examples: 24 Auto Replies to Copy

An automated email response is the message your inbox sends on its own when an email arrives. The good ones do three jobs in a few lines: confirm the email landed, say when a person will answer, and point to a faster route if it cannot wait. Below are 24 examples you can copy, grouped by the situation they cover, followed by where to switch each one on and the rules that keep them from misfiring.

If you are setting one up in Gmail, our guide to the Gmail auto reply, vacation responder and filter templates has the steps. For Microsoft 365, see how to automate emails in Outlook.

Key takeaways

• An auto reply sets expectations; it does not answer. Every example here confirms receipt and gives a time, a route, or both. See what a good one includes.
• Match the reply to the situation. Out of office, after hours, support, sales and order inboxes each need different wording. See the 24 examples.
• Where you set it up decides what it can do. Gmail's vacation responder runs in whole days; a filter can reply to specific emails; Outlook can time a reply to the hour. See the setup table.
• Most misfires come from four habits: promising times you miss, replying to automated mail, oversharing, and forgetting to switch it off. See the rules.
• Fixed text stops where the question starts. "Where is my order?" needs a reply drafted from your order data, which is a different tool. See where a fixed reply stops.

What a good automated response includes

Read a dozen auto replies and the useful ones share a shape:

1. Confirmation. One line saying the email arrived. People who hear nothing assume it went nowhere and write again.
2. A real time. "Within one business day" or "on Monday 6 October", not "as soon as possible". Only promise what the team actually meets.
3. The faster route. A colleague, a phone number, a help page or an order tracking link, for the sender whose question cannot wait.
4. One thing the sender can do now. Include the order number, attach the drawing, reply with the quantity. It shortens the thread when a person picks it up.

Leave out apologies for the auto reply itself, marketing, and anything you would not want a stranger to read, because an automatic reply goes to whoever writes in, spammers included.

24 automated email response examples

Replace the bracketed parts. Every example is written to stay true when sent to anyone, since that is what an auto reply does.

Out of office

1. Standard out of office

Hi,

Thanks for your email. I am out of the office until [day, date] and will reply when I am back.

If it is urgent, please contact [colleague name] at [email address].

[Your name]

2. Short out of office

Thanks for your message. I am away until [date] with limited access to email. For anything urgent, email [colleague] at [email address].

3. Holiday out of office

Hi,

I am on holiday until [date] and not checking email. I will reply to your message when I am back on [day].

For anything that cannot wait, [colleague name] is covering and can be reached at [email address].

[Your name]

4. Extended leave, with a named contact

Hello,

I am on leave until [month] and will not be reading this inbox. Your email will not be forwarded automatically.

For [account, project or topic], please write to [name] at [email address], who is looking after it while I am away. For anything else, [team address] reaches the rest of the team.

Thank you, [Your name]

5. Travelling or at an event

Thanks for writing. I am at [event or location] until [date] and reading email once a day, so replies will be slower than usual. If you need an answer before [date], please call [phone number] or email [colleague] at [email address].

The holiday and extended-leave versions name a colleague rather than a mobile number. That keeps a personal number out of every reply sent to spammers and mailing lists that slip through.

After hours and weekends

6. After hours

Thanks for your email. Our team works [hours], [days], [time zone], and it is outside those hours now. We will reply on the next working day.

If this is about an order, you can check its status any time at [tracking link].

7. Weekend

Thanks for getting in touch. We are closed for the weekend and will reply on Monday. Messages are answered in the order they arrive.

[Company name]

8. Office closed for a public holiday

Thanks for your message. Our office is closed on [date] for [holiday] and reopens on [date]. We will reply as soon as we are back.

Orders placed during the closure will ship from [date].

Receipt and acknowledgment

9. Thank you for your email

Thank you for your email. This is an automatic reply to confirm we have received it. A member of our team will get back to you within [one business day].

[Company name]

10. Acknowledgment with what happens next

Hi,

Thanks for contacting [Company]. Your message is with our [team name] team, and we usually reply within [time].

If you need to add anything, reply to this email and keep the subject line so it stays in the same thread.

11. Acknowledgment that asks for the missing detail

Thanks for your email, it has reached us. If you have not already, reply with your [order number / account email / invoice number]. It lets us look your request up straight away instead of writing back to ask.

For one-to-one acknowledgments written by a person rather than sent automatically, our 15 acknowledgment email templates cover documents, payments, complaints and requests you cannot answer yet.

Customer support

12. Support inbox

Hi,

Thanks for contacting [Company] support. We have your message and reply to every email within [one business day], usually sooner.

Many questions are answered in our help center: [link].

The [Company] support team

13. Busier than usual

Thanks for your patience. We are receiving more email than usual and replies are taking up to [time]. Your message is in the queue and does not need to be sent again.

If your question is about [delivery times / a known issue], the latest update is at [link].

14. Known issue or outage

Thanks for reporting this. We are aware of a problem affecting [feature or service] since [time] and are working on a fix. Updates are posted at [status page].

You do not need to reply. We will email you when it is resolved if your message was about this issue.

15. Refund or complaint received

Thank you for letting us know. Your message has gone to a member of our team who will look into it personally and reply within [time].

If you have photos or an order number that help explain what happened, reply to this email with them.

Refunds and complaints are where a fixed reply should stop at "we have it". The answer needs a person, or at least a draft a person checks.

Sales and quote requests

16. Sales inquiry received

Thanks for your interest in [product or service]. Your message has reached our sales team and someone will reply within [time].

If it helps us prepare, reply with your [company size / use case / timeline].

17. Quote request received

Thank you for your request for quote. We are reviewing it and will send pricing within [time].

To quote accurately we need the item numbers or specifications, quantities, delivery location and required date. If any of those were not in your email, reply with them and we will include them.

[Company name] sales

18. Demo or meeting request

Thanks for asking for a demo. You can pick a time that suits you here: [booking link]. If none of the slots work, reply with two or three times and we will confirm one.

Orders and shipping

19. Order question received

Thanks for your email about your order. We will reply within [time].

You can check the latest status any time at [tracking link] with your order number and email address.

20. Return or exchange request

Thanks for your return request. Please reply with your order number and the item you would like to return if they were not in your message.

Our returns policy, including the return window and how to send items back, is here: [link].

21. Holiday shipping cutoffs

Thanks for your message. We are answering email within [time] during the holiday period.

To arrive before [holiday], orders need to be placed by [date] for standard shipping and [date] for express.

Shared addresses and changes

22. General inbox (info@) that routes

Thanks for writing to [Company]. This inbox is read by our whole team and your message will reach the right person.

If your email is about an existing order, [orders@] is the fastest route. For invoices and payments, write to [accounts@].

23. No longer with the company

Thank you for your email. [Name] no longer works at [Company] and this inbox is not monitored.

Please send your message to [name] at [email address], who is now handling [area].

24. New email address

This address is no longer in use. Please resend your email to [new address] and update your contacts. Messages sent here are not forwarded.

On team addresses like support@ or info@, auto replies behave differently from a personal inbox, and some tools cannot run them at all. Our guide to shared mailbox auto-replies covers the options and why canned text often creates duplicate work for a team.

Where to set up each auto reply

Gmail's vacation responder replies to each sender once, and again only if they write after four days or you edit the message. It skips mail in spam and mail sent to a mailing list you are on, according to Google's help page on automatic replies. A filter has no such limits built in, so it answers whatever matches. The step-by-step setup for both, desktop and phone, is in our Gmail auto reply guide.

In Outlook, Microsoft warns that replies sent outside your organization go to everyone, newsletters and junk included, so write the external message with that in mind. The full walkthrough for new Outlook, classic Outlook and the web is in how to automate emails in Outlook.

Rules that keep auto replies from misfiring

Promise only what you meet. "We reply within 2 hours" sent on a Friday evening is a promise broken by Saturday morning. Use working-day language, or a time the team hits even on its worst week.

Keep automated senders out. Receipts, newsletters and other auto replies do not need an answer, and two auto replies answering each other can loop. Gmail's vacation responder skips mailing lists, but a filter will reply to anything that matches. Scope filters to the address people write to, and exclude senders like noreply@ where you can.

Say less than you think. An auto reply goes to everyone, including people you have never heard from. "Away until the 14th" is fine. Your travel plans, a personal phone number and your home time zone are not.

Test it from another account. Send yourself an email from a personal address and read what arrives. Typos and broken links in an auto reply get sent hundreds of times.

Switch it off, or set an end date. An out of office still running a week after you are back tells every sender you are away. Setting the last day when you turn it on avoids the problem.

Where a fixed auto reply stops

Every example above has the same limit: it sends the same words whatever the email says. That is right for "we have your message". It is wrong for the emails that make up most of a business inbox, such as "where is order 4521?", "can you quote 200 units of part 88-B?", or "is this in stock in blue?". Those need the answer, and the answer lives in your order system, price list or policies.

That is the job of an AI email tool that reads each message and drafts the reply from your own data. InboxPilot (we make it) does that inside Gmail and Outlook. It sorts incoming email by request type, then drafts replies from your documents, website, past replies and connected systems such as order data. Every draft waits in the inbox for a person to approve by default. Once a category is consistently right, you can let that one category send on its own and keep review on everything else. The customer service email automation page shows the before and after on a support inbox.

The free plan drafts up to 25 conversations a month, Starter is $39 a month for 300, and automatic sending is on Growth ($99 a month) and above (pricing). It works on a user mailbox, not a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox. For time away and after-hours notices, the vacation responder and the examples above are the right tool, and they are free.

Related reading

• Gmail auto reply: vacation responder, templates and AI: the setup steps for every Gmail auto reply, on desktop and phone.
• How to automate emails in Outlook: automatic replies, rules, Quick Steps, templates and Power Automate.
• How to acknowledge an email: 15 templates for acknowledgments written by a person.
• Shared mailbox auto-reply: what changes when the address belongs to a team.
• Customer service email automation: replies drafted from your orders and policies, with a person approving.

Gmail behavior is taken from Google's Gmail Help article "Send an automatic reply when you're out of office" and Outlook behavior from Microsoft Support, both checked September 2026. Names, dates and links in the templates are placeholders.