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How to Schedule an Email in Outlook (Desktop, Web & Mobile)
Outlook's built-in send-scheduling feature takes about ten seconds to use once you know where to look. Whether you're composing a cold outreach email at 11 PM or queuing up a follow-up for Tuesday morning, scheduling lets you control exactly when your message lands in someone's inbox.
Quick answer: Compose your message, click the dropdown arrow next to the Send button, and select "Schedule send." Choose a preset time or set a custom date and time, then confirm. Outlook holds the email in your Outbox and sends it automatically at the scheduled time. This works in Outlook on the web, the desktop app (Microsoft 365), and the mobile app.
How Do You Schedule an Email in Outlook on the Web?
Outlook on the web (outlook.com and Microsoft 365 web) has the most straightforward scheduling flow:
- Click New mail to open the compose window.
- Write your email as normal - subject line, body, recipients.
- Next to the Send button, click the dropdown arrow (a small chevron or arrow icon).
- Select Schedule send from the dropdown menu.
- Choose one of the preset options (Tonight, Tomorrow morning, etc.) or click Custom time to pick any date and time.
- Click Send to confirm. The message moves to your Scheduled folder (found in the left sidebar) and fires automatically at the specified time.
To cancel or edit a scheduled email: Open the Scheduled folder, find the message, and either delete it or edit the send time before it goes out.
How to Schedule an Email in the Outlook Desktop App (Windows & Mac)
If you're using the Outlook desktop app on Windows or Mac as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription, the scheduling feature is in a slightly different spot depending on your version.
New Outlook (Microsoft 365, 2024+)
Microsoft rolled out the redesigned Outlook for Windows and Mac in 2024. In the new version:
- Open a new email and compose your message.
- Click the dropdown arrow next to the Send button.
- Select Schedule send.
- Pick a preset time or choose a custom date and time.
- Confirm to queue the email - it appears in your Scheduled folder.
Classic Outlook (2019, 2021, older builds)
In the classic Outlook desktop app, the scheduling option lives inside the message options:
- Compose your email.
- Go to the Options tab in the ribbon at the top of the compose window.
- Click Delay Delivery.
- In the dialog box that opens, check Do not deliver before and set your date and time.
- Click Close, then Send. The message stays in your Outbox until the scheduled time - your computer (or Exchange server) must be running for it to send.
Important caveat for classic Outlook: If you're connecting through an on-premises Exchange server rather than Microsoft 365, the email only sends if Outlook is open and connected at the scheduled time. Microsoft 365 cloud accounts handle scheduling server-side, so your machine doesn't need to stay on.
How to Schedule an Email in the Outlook Mobile App
On iOS and Android, the Outlook mobile app added schedule-send in recent versions:
- Tap Compose to start a new email.
- Tap the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the compose window.
- Select Schedule send.
- Choose a preset time or set a custom date and time.
- Tap Schedule to confirm.
The email appears in your Scheduled folder in the mobile app and sends automatically via the server - no need to keep the app open.
Why Timing Matters More Than You Think
Sending at the right time isn't just a courtesy - it directly affects open rates. According to Cognism (2025), emails sent on Tuesday between 10 AM and 11 AM see the highest open rates for B2B outreach. HubSpot's email research (2024) found that emails sent during business hours (9 AM–3 PM, recipient's local time) outperform off-hours sends by up to 23% in reply rate.
For cold email specifically, send-time optimization is one of the highest-leverage adjustments you can make without touching the copy at all.
According to Salesloft's pipeline data (2024), reps who schedule follow-up emails within 24 hours of an initial outreach are 47% more likely to receive a reply than those who send on a different day. Manual scheduling in Outlook gives you this control - but it becomes a bottleneck the moment you're managing more than a handful of active prospects.
Outlook's Built-In Scheduling vs. Cold Email Automation Tools
For one-off emails, Outlook's native schedule-send is fast and free. But if you're running sales outreach at any real volume, you'll hit its limits quickly.
| Feature | Outlook Schedule Send | Cold Email Automation (e.g., Klipy) |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule individual emails | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Multi-step sequences | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Auto-follow-ups if no reply | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| AI-generated draft content | ❌ No | ✅ Yes (AI follow-up drafts) |
| CRM sync & contact tracking | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Send-time optimization | ❌ Manual only | ✅ Automated |
| Bulk personalization | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Reply detection to stop sequences | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
If you're sending more than 10–15 cold emails per week and managing replies manually, Outlook scheduling alone is creating a hidden time tax on your pipeline. A dedicated cold email automation system handles sequencing, reply detection, follow-up drafts, and CRM logging - so no lead goes cold just because a rep forgot to queue the next touch.
Klipy's AI follow-up drafts go a step further: after every meeting or email interaction, Klipy automatically drafts the next follow-up based on what was said, so you're not starting from a blank compose window every time.
What Happens If You Need to Cancel a Scheduled Email?
This is one of the most searched follow-on questions - and the answer is simple:
In Outlook on the web and new Outlook desktop: Go to the Scheduled folder in your left sidebar, open the email, and either delete it or click the clock icon to reschedule.
In classic Outlook: Go to your Outbox folder, open the message, and either delete it or change the delivery time in Options → Delay Delivery.
If you need to unsend an email that has already gone out, that's a different process - Outlook's Recall feature works only in certain conditions. For a full breakdown, see our guide on how to unsend an email in Outlook.
Smarter Follow-Up: Beyond Manual Scheduling
Manual scheduling in Outlook solves the "send at the right time" problem. It doesn't solve the "remember to follow up, draft the right message, and log it in your CRM" problem.
According to Klipy's internal data from 2.3M tracked emails (2025), the median time between a first email and a first follow-up is 47 hours - nearly two full business days. Deals that see a follow-up within 5 minutes of a prospect's reply close at 3.5x the rate of deals where the rep waits hours.
That gap isn't laziness. It's that sales reps are switching contexts, managing inboxes manually, and trying to remember who needs what next. That's exactly the workflow Klipy's unified inbox is built for - all your conversations in one place, with AI surfacing who to contact next and what to say.
If you handle a lot of out-of-office replies when scheduling cold emails (a common pain point), our guide on how to handle OOO replies as a sales team covers the playbook for keeping sequences alive.
Quick Reference: Scheduling an Email in Outlook
| Platform | Where to Find It |
|---|---|
| Outlook on the web | Dropdown arrow next to Send → Schedule send |
| New Outlook (Windows/Mac) | Dropdown arrow next to Send → Schedule send |
| Classic Outlook (Windows) | Options tab → Delay Delivery |
| Outlook mobile (iOS/Android) | Three-dot menu → Schedule send |
Scheduled emails appear in the Scheduled folder (web/new Outlook) or Outbox (classic Outlook) until they fire. You can edit or cancel them any time before the send time.
