Including yourself in the CC or BCC when sending emails is a smart way to keep a copy of the message in your inbox, simplifying record-keeping and email management. Below, we share the steps of doing so in the two most popular email clients; Gmail and Outlook.

How to Automatically CC or BCC Yourself in Gmail

To automatically BCC or CC yourself (or any other email address for that matter) in Gmail, you will need a browser extension. The feature is not native to Gmail, and many third-party extensions require pretty extensive permissions to access your email.

The Auto BCC for Gmail from CloudHQ is one of the must-have Chrome extensions for Gmail with the least permissions required. It does not access browsing history outside the Gmail domain. Add this extension to the Chrome browser and create an account on CloudHQ.

Once the extension of your choice is installed and has access to your Gmail account, you can create a rule using the following steps:

  1. Click the Compose button to create a new email.
  2. Click the envelope icon next to the send button.
  3. In the dialog box that opens, click Add New Rule.
    Clicking on the Add New Rule button in Gmail
  4. Under When emails are sent from, you should see your email address already filled in.
  5. In the drop-down menu beneath that, select the to anyone option.
  6. In the then automatically drop-down list, select BCC (or CC if you prefer) and enter your email address.
    Set up new rules for Auto BCC in Gmail
  7. Click Save Rule.
  8. Click Close and compose your email as normal.

If you no longer want to use this extension, you can uninstall it via myaccount.google.com/permissions.

If you're not a Chrome user or don't want to grant third-party access to your email, a good workaround to automatically BCC is to use Gmail's filter and forwarding features.

How to Automatically CC or BCC Yourself in Outlook

Outlook users can automatically CC or BCC themselves using the email program's rules feature. Before you proceed, make sure that Outlook rules are enabled. You might also want to delete the unwanted Outlook rules to prevent any potential conflicts with the new rules.

Once all is set, follow these steps:

  1. In the Home tab, click Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts.
    Manage rules and alerts in Outlook
  2. Click New Rule.
  3. Under Start from a blank rule, click Apply rule on messages I send and hit Next.
    Choose to apply the rules on sent messages in Outlook
  4. Now, click on the Through the specified account option and select the account you want to use to send these emails.
  5. Once the account is selected, click Next.
  6. Choose the Cc the message to people or public group option in the following dialog.
  7. In the same dialog, click on the people or public group link and hit Next.
    Choose who to CC in Outlook
  8. Now, enter the email addresses of all the recipients in the text field associated with To.
  9. You can add optional exceptions to the emails to which you don't want to apply this rule. Click Next when done.
    Add exceptions for your Outlook rule
  10. Enter a name for your rule and check the Turn on rule option.
    Create a new rule on Outlook
  11. Click on Finish.

Keep Outlook and Gmail Neat and Tidy

Once you've created these rules in Gmail or Outlook, you won't need to tweak them again. They will run automatically indefinitely until you turn them off. It's far quicker than manually adding yourself to the CC or BCC for every email.

Whether you use Gmail or Outlook, be sure to use features like labels and folders to keep your inbox organized—copying yourself into everything can get messy quickly.