CC vs. BCC in Email: What's the Difference?

CC and BCC are optional recipient fields in email, but they handle visibility differently. People added to CC are visible to the other recipients. People added to BCC receive the message without their addresses being shown to the other recipients. In both cases, they receive the same email message; CC and BCC do not create a separate message for each person.

What do CC and BCC mean?

CC stands for carbon copy, while BCC stands for blind carbon copy. The terminology comes from carbon paper, which was used to make a copy of a typed or handwritten document. The internet email standard RFC 5322 describes Cc as addresses of additional people who should receive the message and Bcc as addresses that should not be revealed to the other recipients.

CC vs. BCC: key differences

When should you use CC?

Use CC when someone needs to know about the conversation but is not the main person being addressed. Their inclusion is visible, so everyone can understand who is following the thread.

• Keeping a manager or teammate informed: For example, you might send a request to a project owner and CC a colleague who needs the outcome.
• Sharing information across teams: CC works well when another department needs context but does not need to take action.
• Maintaining transparency: If everyone should know who received the message, CC is clearer than BCC.

Avoid copying people simply to create pressure or to fill inboxes with information they do not need. If someone is expected to act on the message, putting them in the To field is usually clearer.

When should you use BCC?

BCC is useful when the recipient list should remain private. A common example is sending one message to a group of people who do not know one another, such as members of a club, event attendees, or customers receiving a one-off notice. Putting those addresses in BCC prevents the recipients from seeing each other's email addresses.

BCC can also be used to send a discreet copy to another person, but use that carefully in workplace conversations. Hidden recipients can change the tone of a discussion if their presence later becomes known. When transparency is more important than privacy, CC is usually the better choice.

BCC is not a security or encryption feature. It hides addresses from the other message recipients, but the sender and email systems handling the message can still know who received it. A BCC recipient can also reveal their involvement by replying or forwarding the message.

What happens with Reply and Reply All?

Reply behavior is one of the most practical differences. In common email clients, Reply All sends a response to the original sender plus recipients shown in the To and CC fields. Hidden BCC recipients are not automatically added to those replies. Google states that BCC recipients do not receive other people's Reply All responses, while Microsoft describes Reply All as sending to the sender and the visible To and CC recipients.

If a BCC recipient replies, their new message naturally identifies them as the sender of that reply. That can reveal that they had access to the original email, so BCC should not be treated as a guarantee of secrecy.

How to add CC or BCC in Gmail and Outlook

Most email services place CC and BCC next to the To field or behind a small recipient-options control.

• Gmail: In a new message, use the Cc or Bcc controls next to the To field, then enter the additional addresses. Google's current guidance also explains that BCC recipients cannot see other BCC recipients. See Google's Gmail sending instructions.
• Outlook: In Outlook on the web and Outlook.com, select Cc or Bcc on the right side of the To line. In some Outlook versions, BCC can be shown from message options. See Microsoft's BCC instructions for Outlook.

A simple rule to remember

Use To for the people the message is mainly directed to, CC for people who should be visibly kept in the loop, and BCC when an additional recipient should receive the email without their address being exposed to the rest of the recipient list.