Email Sign-Offs: How to End a Professional Email (2026)
Your sign-off is two words, and it still changes how the email lands. “Thanks” gets more replies than “Best.” “Regards” can read cold in a tense thread. “Sent from my iPhone” on a client email reads like an afterthought.
The quick answer: End a professional email in three parts: a closing line that says what happens next, a sign-off, and your name. Use “Best regards,” for anyone you haven’t met, “Best,” or “Thanks,” for everyone else, and a thank-you closing when you need a reply. In Boomerang’s study of more than 350,000 email threads, emails with a thankful closing got a 62% response rate versus 46% for everything else. And if you send the same follow-ups and confirmations every day, Carly drafts and sends them from all your inboxes, signed the way you sign.
Email sign-offs by situation
| Situation | Sign-off | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Formal | Best regards, | First contact, senior people, anyone outside your company. Never wrong. |
| Formal | Kind regards, | The same formality with a touch more warmth. Common with UK and European contacts. |
| Formal | Sincerely, | Cover letters, formal complaints, legal or HR correspondence. Too stiff for everyday email. |
| Formal | Respectfully, | Writing to a judge, an elected official or a senior officer. Reads cold anywhere else. |
| Formal | With appreciation, | Formal thanks to someone senior who did you a favor. |
| Everyday | Best, | Colleagues and clients you already know. The neutral default. |
| Everyday | Thanks, | Any email that asks for anything, even “please take a look.” |
| Everyday | All the best, | Wrapping up a project or a long exchange. |
| Everyday | Regards, | Neutral and businesslike. Can sound curt when the thread is tense. |
| Warm | Cheers, | Friendly peers. Normal in the UK and Australia, casual for a first US email. |
| Warm | Warm regards, | Clients and partners you have a real relationship with. |
| Warm | Talk soon, | Only when a call or meeting is actually on the calendar. |
| Warm | Take care, | After someone mentions something personal: a move, a new baby, being sick. |
| Warm | Have a great weekend, | Friday afternoon emails. |
| Thank-you | Thank you, | Formal gratitude, or an email written only to say thanks. |
| Thank-you | Thanks again, | You already thanked them in the body. |
| Thank-you | Many thanks, | A notch more formal than “Thanks.” |
| Thank-you | Much appreciated, | A specific favor that’s already done. |
| Asking for something | Thanks in advance, | Small, reasonable asks you expect a yes to. Skip it for big favors. |
| Asking for something | Thanks for considering, | Bigger asks: a proposal, a budget request, an introduction. |
| Asking for something | Looking forward to hearing from you, | You need a reply. Put the deadline in the line above it. |
| Follow-up | Thanks, | The second nudge. Keep it light and let the closing line do the work. |
| Follow-up | Looking forward to your thoughts, | You sent a draft, a proposal or a deck. |
| Follow-up | Thanks for your time, | The last follow-up before you close the loop. |
| After a meeting | Thanks again for your time, | External recap after a call or demo. |
| After a meeting | Great talking today, | Same-day recap with someone you just met. |
| After a meeting | Looking forward to next steps, | Sales, hiring or partnership recaps with a clear next step. |
| After a meeting | See you Thursday, | The next meeting is already booked. |
| Declining | Thanks for thinking of me, | Saying no to an invite, a speaking slot or a role. |
| Declining | Wishing you the best with it, | Turning down a pitch or project you’d still like to see succeed. |
| Declining | All the best, | A no that keeps the door open. |
| Apology | Thank you for your patience, | After a delay or a mistake. Thank them instead of apologizing twice. |
| Apology | Thanks for bearing with us, | Customer emails after an outage or a late shipment. |
| Apology | With apologies, | A formal apology where you were clearly at fault. Once, not on every email. |
| Cold outreach | Best, | Keep it plain. The ask should be the last thing they remember. |
| Cold outreach | Thanks for reading, | A longer cold email to someone who owes you nothing. |
| Cold outreach | Thanks, | A short cold email with one clear question. |
| Internal | Thanks! | Teammates you email daily. The exclamation mark is fine here. |
| Internal | Your first name or initial | Fast back-and-forth with people who know you well. |
Declining a meeting has its own wording; there are full templates in how to decline a meeting request professionally.
Which sign-offs get the most replies
Boomerang looked at closings in more than 350,000 email threads from the mailing list archives of over twenty online communities, many of them people asking for help or advice. These were the eight closings that appeared more than 1,000 times each:
| Closing | Response rate |
|---|---|
| Thanks in advance | 65.7% |
| Thanks | 63.0% |
| Thank you | 57.9% |
| Cheers | 54.4% |
| Kind regards | 53.9% |
| Regards | 53.5% |
| Best regards | 52.9% |
| Best | 51.2% |
| All emails in the sample | 47.5% |
Two takeaways. Every common sign-off beat the sample average, so having a sign-off at all is better than ending cold. And thanks wins: emails with a thankful closing got a 62% response rate against 46% for the rest, a 36% relative lift. The data dates from 2017 and shows correlation, not cause, but the direction is consistent: thank the reader and more of them reply.
How to end a professional email: line, sign-off, name
The sign-off gets the attention, but the sentence above it decides whether you get a reply. A good ending looks like this:
Could you confirm the October 14 delivery date by Thursday
so I can lock in the install crew?
Thanks,
Josh
Josh Miller
Project Manager, Pella Windows & Doors
(312) 555-0142The closing line answers one question for the reader: what happens next? Swap vague endings for specific ones.
| Instead of | Write | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| ”Let me know." | "Can you confirm by Thursday at noon so I can book the room?” | A deadline and a reason get an answer. |
| ”Just checking in." | "Is the October 15 start still on? If it moved, I’ll shift the kickoff.” | The reader knows exactly what to answer. |
| ”Please advise." | "Should we go with the $4,200 quote or wait for the second one?” | A choice is faster to reply to than an open question. |
| ”Let me know if you have any questions." | "No reply needed. I’ll send the final deck Monday.” | Tells them clearly that nothing is required. |
| ”When are you free?" | "Does Tuesday at 2pm ET or Wednesday at 10am ET work?” | Two concrete times close it in one reply. |
| ”Hope this helps!" | "If the totals still look off, send me the cell and I’ll fix it today.” | Offers a real next step. |
For scheduling endings in particular, see how to send your availability in an email.
What goes under your name
Put your name on its own line: first name for people who know you, first and last for a first contact. Then a short signature with your title, company and one way to reach you. Three or four lines is plenty. Skip the inspirational quote, and add a disclaimer only if your company requires one.
Set it once per account so you never type it:
- Gmail: Settings, See all settings, then the Signature section. You can save several signatures, pick a separate default for new emails and for replies, and set a different signature for each “Send mail as” address. Signatures can run up to 10,000 characters. Step by step: how to add a signature in Gmail.
- Outlook: in new Outlook, Settings, Accounts, Signatures, then choose the account if you have more than one. Outlook supports a different signature for each email account. In classic Outlook, replies and forwards get no signature unless you pick one in the Replies/forwards box. Full steps: how to add a signature in Outlook.
- iPhone Mail: Settings, Apps, Mail, Signature. Tap Per Account to give each inbox its own signature. Mail signatures are text only, and this is where you replace “Sent from my iPhone.”
If people regularly ask when you’re free, a booking link in the signature saves a round of email. A Carly booking page checks all your calendars, and here’s how to add a booking link to your email signature.
Sign-offs to avoid at work
- “Sent from my iPhone” as the whole sign-off. Fine on a quick internal yes, careless on a proposal or a client reply.
- Abbreviations: “Thx,” “Rgds,” “BR.” They save three keystrokes and cost a little credibility.
- “Love,” “XOXO,” “Hugs.” For family and close friends, not for work.
- “Yours truly,” and “Yours faithfully,” Letter-writing formulas that look dated in an inbox.
- “Thanks in advance” on a big ask. It assumes a yes the person hasn’t given.
- “No worries if not!” It talks the reader out of your own request.
- “Sorry for the long email.” Apologizing for the email makes it easier to ignore. Cut it shorter instead.
- “Please excuse any typos.” Proofread instead.
- Emoji with someone new. Wait until they use one first.
- Nothing at all on a first email. A bare name with no sign-off reads abrupt to someone who doesn’t know you.
Capitalization and punctuation
- Capitalize only the first word. “Best regards,” not “Best Regards,”. “Thanks again,” not “Thanks Again,”.
- A comma after the sign-off, your name on the next line. Plenty of people drop the comma, and that’s fine. A period (“Best.”) reads curt.
- Exclamation marks only with people you know. “Thanks!” to a teammate is warm. To a new client, use “Thanks,”.
- One sign-off. “Thanks, Best, Josh” happens when a template stacks on top of a signature. Check before you send.
- Plain-text email has its own convention. Two dashes and a space (”— ”) on a line of their own mark where the signature starts. The plain-text email standard, RFC 3676, describes it as a long-standing Usenet convention that also appears widely in email.
Sign-offs in a reply chain
- First email of a thread: full sign-off, name and signature.
- After the first exchange or two: a sign-off becomes optional. Mirror the other person. If they’ve dropped theirs, you can drop yours.
- Fast internal threads: your first name or initial is plenty. With clients, keep a light “Thanks,” and your name.
- Bring the full sign-off back when someone new joins the thread, the topic changes, or the email gets forwarded to someone senior.
- Use a short reply signature. A nine-line signature with a banner on every message bloats the thread. Gmail lets you set a separate default for replies, and classic Outlook adds none to replies unless you set one.
- Let the other person set the temperature. If a client switches from “Best regards,” to “Thanks!”, you can loosen up. Don’t get more casual than they are.
More of the unwritten rules, from CC etiquette to response times, are in our email etiquette guide.
Let Carly send the follow-ups, signed like you
Most emails that end with “Looking forward to next steps” are the same handful of messages: confirmations, recaps, follow-ups, “making sure this didn’t get buried.” Carly is an AI assistant that writes and sends those for you.
- All your inboxes at once. Connect all your Gmail and Outlook accounts at carlyassistant.com/integrations, then just ask. Mail goes out from your own address and sits in your Sent folder.
- Each inbox keeps its own signature. For Gmail, Carly uses the signature you already set in Gmail, and you can edit any connected account’s signature in Carly’s integrations settings.
- Your voice, your usual sign-off. Tell Carly once (“sign client emails ‘Thanks, Michael’ and internal ones ‘M’”) and it remembers.
- Email it, CC it, or text it. CC Carly on a thread with “send Claire a confirmation and propose two times next week,” and it checks your calendars, replies and sends the invite.
- Follow-ups that run on their own. A free Zapier-style workflow can run every morning to nudge threads that went quiet, or after each calendar event to draft the thank-you.
When a client at Marriott confirms Michael’s site visit, Carly sends the invite and a confirmation signed “See you Thursday, Michael” from his work Outlook. The reply to his landlord goes out from his personal Gmail, signed “Thanks, Mike.” Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started with Carly.
FAQ
What is the most professional way to end an email? A closing line that states the next step, then “Best regards,” and your full name and signature. Once you’ve exchanged a few emails, “Best,” or “Thanks,” with your first name is just as professional.
Is “Best” a bad email sign-off? No. It’s neutral and safe. In Boomerang’s study it had the lowest response rate of the eight most common closings (51.2%), but that was still above the 47.5% average for all emails in the sample. If you need a reply, a thank-you closing does better.
Is “Thanks in advance” rude? Not for a small, reasonable ask, and it topped Boomerang’s study with a 65.7% response rate. It can read as presumptuous when the favor is large or the person hasn’t agreed to anything yet. “Thanks for considering,” is the safer version.
Should I use “Kind regards” or “Best regards”? Both work with people you haven’t met. “Kind regards” reads a touch warmer. Pick one and use it consistently rather than switching between emails to the same person.
Do I need a sign-off on every reply? No. After the first exchange, match the other person. Bring back the full sign-off when someone new joins the thread, the topic changes, or the email goes to someone senior.
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