Use inbox rules in Outlook.com

Use inbox rules to automatically perform specific actions on email that arrives in your inbox.

For information about how to use Archive, Sweep, or other tools, see Organize your inbox with Archive, Sweep, and other tools in Outlook.com.

Create an inbox rule

Rules are applied to incoming messages and can be created from any folder.

To quickly create a rule that moves all email from a specific sender or a set of senders to a folder, right-click a message in your message list that you want to create a rule for, and select Create rule.
Choose the folder where you want all messages from that sender or set of senders to be moved, and then select OK.
Select OK.

If you'd like to do more than just move the message from a specific sender or set of senders to a folder, select More options.

To create a completely new rule, at the top of the page, select Settings> View all Outlook settings > Mail > Rules.
Click Add new rule.

Every rule needs at least three things: A name, a condition, and an action. Rules can also contain exceptions to conditions. You can add multiple conditions, actions, and exceptions at each step by choosing Add a condition, Add an action, and Add an exception.

If you don't want any more rules to run after this one does, select the Stop processing more rules check box. For more information, see Stop processing more rules in Outlook.com.

Press Save to create your rule or Discard to cancel rule creation.

Edit an inbox rule

At the top of the page, select Settings> View all Outlook settings.
Select Mail > Rules.
In the rule you want to edit, select Edit.
Select Save to save your edited rule.

Set the order in which inbox rules are applied to incoming messages

Inbox rules are applied to incoming messages based on the order they're in within the Inbox rules list. You can arrange the order in which the rules you create are applied to messages coming into your inbox.

At the top of the page, select Settings> View all Outlook settings.
Select Mail > Rules.
Select a rule, and then use the Up arrow or Down arrow to change the order in which the rule is applied to incoming messages.

Run inbox rules on existing messages

Currently, you can't run inbox rules on existing messages in the Outlook.com beta. A new rule is applied only to messages you receive after the rule was created. However, you can use Archive, Move to, and Sweep to automatically move or delete messages in your inbox. To learn more, see Organize your inbox with Archive, Sweep, and other tools in Outlook.com.

What else do I need to know?

You might have created a rule to forward or redirect messages you receive to another email address. If so, it's important to know the difference between forwarding and redirecting.

A forwarded message appears as a message you received and then forwarded to another recipient. When the recipient replies, the reply will go to the address the message was forwarded from.
A redirected message keeps the original sender on the From line. When a recipient that a message was redirected to replies, the reply will go to the original sender.