---
title: Set up an email autoresponder
description: Create an automatic reply for one of your mailboxes in cPanel, set how often it repeats, and schedule the start and stop times.
date: 2026-10-06
updated: 2026-10-06
tags: [email, cpanel]
url: "https://drivenhost.com/kb/kb-set-up-email-autoresponder"
author: DrivenHost
---

An autoresponder sends an automatic reply to anyone who emails one of your addresses, which is useful for holidays, parental leave, or a mailbox you no longer monitor. The reply comes from the mail server, so it keeps working whether or not your computer is on. To follow this guide, log in to cPanel. You will also need the email address already created on your account; if it does not exist yet, create the mailbox first from Email Accounts.

## Open the Autoresponders tool

1. In cPanel, find the Email section on the home screen.
2. Click Autoresponders.
3. If your account holds more than one domain, choose the domain you want from the drop-down above the list, then click Add Autoresponder.

The page lists any autoresponders already running, so it is worth a look before you add a new one. Two autoresponders on the same address will both reply, and senders get two messages.

## Write the reply

Fill in the form, working down the page:

1. Character Set can stay at utf-8. That setting covers accented characters and most punctuation.
2. Interval is the number of hours to wait before replying to the same sender again. Zero means every message gets a reply, which can look noisy on a long thread. A value between 8 and 24 is a reasonable starting point.
3. Email is the part of the address before the @, and Domain is the part after it. Together they make the address that will reply.
4. From is the name shown to the recipient, such as your name or your company name.
5. Subject is the subject line of the reply. Something plain like "Out of office" reads better than a blank one.
6. Leave the HTML box unticked unless your message contains HTML markup. With it unticked, your text is sent as plain text and line breaks are kept.
7. Body is the message itself. Keep it short, say when you will be back, and give an alternative contact if there is one.

You can insert the sender's details into the reply with the tags `%subject%`, `%from%`, and `%email%`. They are replaced with the values from the incoming message when the reply goes out.

## Set the start and stop times

1. Under Start, choose Immediately to begin now, or Custom to pick a date and time.
2. Under Stop, choose Never if you want it to run until you remove it, or Custom and set the date and time you return.
3. Click Create/Modify to save.

A stop time is usually the better choice. It means you do not have to remember to switch the autoresponder off, and nobody gets an out-of-office reply from you a month after you got back. To change or remove one later, return to Autoresponders and use Edit or Delete beside it in the list.

## If it didn't work

- No reply arrived during a test. Many mail servers suppress automatic replies to your own address or your own domain. Test from an outside address instead.
- The reply arrived once, then stopped. That is the Interval doing its job. The same sender will not get another reply until the interval has passed.
- Nothing happens at all. Check that the address in the Email and Domain fields matches the mailbox exactly, and that the start time has already passed. Check the domain drop-down too, since an autoresponder added under the wrong domain will never fire.

If the autoresponder still does not reply after those checks, open a ticket at [/support](https://drivenhost.com/support) with the address and the time of your test, and we will look at the mail logs for you.