How to Turn On the Vacation Responder in Gmail

You are going to be away and want people who email you to know when you will be back. Gmail's vacation responder sends an automatic reply to incoming mail between the dates you set, then switches itself off.

Open Gmail settings

In Gmail on the web, click Settings (gear icon) at the top right, then See all settings. Stay on the General tab.

Scroll to Vacation responder

Scroll to the bottom of the General tab. The Vacation responder section is the last one before the Save Changes button.

Turn it on and set the dates

Select Vacation responder on. Enter the First day. Tick Last day and enter a date if you want it to stop on its own; leave it unticked and the responder runs until you turn it off. Replies start at 12:00 AM on the first day and stop at 11:59 PM on the last day.

Write the subject and message

Fill in Subject and Message. Say when you will be back and who to contact in the meantime. The message box supports the same formatting as a normal email. If you have a signature set up, Gmail adds it to the bottom of the reply automatically.

Choose who receives it

Tick Only send a response to people in my Contacts if you do not want to reply to strangers, which also keeps you from confirming your address to cold outreach. Google Workspace accounts see an extra option to reply only to people inside the organization.

Click Save Changes

Scroll down and click Save Changes. While the responder is active, a banner across the top of Gmail shows the subject line with an End now link, so you can switch it off without going back into settings.

How replies are sent. Gmail replies at most once every 4 days to the same sender, and editing the message resets that so the sender gets the new version. It does not respond to mailing lists or to messages that land in Spam. The Gmail app has the same setting under Settings, your account, then Vacation responder, and changes made there sync with the web.