How to Create an Autoresponder for Gmail

Last Updated: September 16, 2021

Most of us are tethered to our emails these days, but if you get a chance to go on vacation and leave your email inbox behind, setting up an autoresponder is a good idea. This sends an automatic reply of your choice to anyone who emails you while you're offline. Setting up an autoresponder in Gmail only takes a couple of minutes.

Steps

1
Log into your Gmail account.
2
Click on the cog icon and then select Settings.

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3
Scroll down in the General settings menu, until you hit Vacation responder.
4
Select the radio button next to Vacation responder on.
5
Enter the time details. You need to set a First day (even if it's today's date, for an immediate start), but the Last day is optional.
- If you want to keep the responder on indefinitely, don't check the box next to Last day and leave that field blank; then you can just come back and turn off the auto-responder at any time.
6
Write a subject and message. You'll probably want this include some basic information for anyone emailing you, including:
- how long you'll be offline/away from email
- when you can be expected to respond to them
- to whom they should write if they have an urgent situation
7
Decide if it should go to everyone or just your Contacts list. If you want to send it only to your contacts, check the box saying so.
8
Click Save Changes at the bottom of the menu. Then try to stay away from checking your email while you're on vacation!