Cancel a meeting in Outlook by opening the event, selecting "Cancel Meeting," and choosing whether to send a cancellation notice to attendees

To cancel a meeting you organized, open your calendar, find the event, and use Outlook's built-in cancellation tool. The process takes about 30 seconds and automatically notifies everyone who was invited. If you simply delete the event without using the cancel function, attendees won't receive notice that the meeting is off — they'll only see it disappear from their calendar, which can cause confusion.

The steps differ slightly depending on whether you're using Outlook on the web, Outlook desktop for Windows, or Outlook for Mac. In all versions, the goal is the same: formally withdraw the meeting invitation so attendees know it's cancelled rather than wondering if it was a technical glitch.

Key Takeaways

  • Use the "Cancel Meeting" button instead of deleting the event, so attendees receive a cancellation notice rather than seeing the event vanish.
  • You can only cancel meetings you organized; if someone else scheduled it, you can only decline or remove it from your calendar.
  • Outlook lets you add a message to the cancellation notice explaining why the meeting is off, which is useful for last-minute changes.
  • A cancelled meeting stays in your calendar history marked as cancelled, so you have a record of what was scheduled and when you called it off.

Cancel a meeting in Outlook desktop (Windows)

Open Outlook and go to your calendar. Find the meeting you want to cancel by clicking on the date or searching for it by name. Once you've located the event, click on it to open the details pane on the right side of the screen.

At the top of the details pane, you'll see a "Cancel Meeting" button. Click it. Outlook will open a compose window where you can add a message to attendees explaining the cancellation if you want to. You can leave the message blank if the reason is obvious, or type something like "This meeting has been rescheduled to next Tuesday" or "We'll cover this topic in an email instead." Click "Send Cancellation" to notify everyone and remove the meeting from the calendar.

Cancel a meeting in Outlook on the web

Log into Outlook.com or your organization's Outlook web portal. Click "Calendar" in the left sidebar to view your scheduled events. Find the meeting you want to cancel and click on it to open the event details.

In the event details window, look for the "Cancel Event" button near the top. Click it, and you'll see options to add a cancellation message and choose whether to send the notice to all attendees or just some of them. After you've written your message (or decided not to), click "Send Cancellation." The meeting will be marked as cancelled in your calendar and attendees will receive the notice.

Cancel a meeting in Outlook for Mac

Open Outlook and navigate to your calendar. Find the meeting you want to cancel by scrolling through your calendar view or using the search box at the top. Double-click the meeting to open it.

In the meeting details window, click the "Cancel Meeting" button in the toolbar at the top. A compose window will appear where you can type a cancellation message if needed. Click "Send" to notify attendees and cancel the meeting. The event will remain in your calendar marked as cancelled so you have a record of it.

What happens when you cancel a meeting

When you click "Cancel Meeting" and send the notice, Outlook sends an email to every attendee with the subject line "Cancelled: [Meeting Name]." The original meeting invitation is withdrawn, and the event is removed from attendees' calendars. On your own calendar, the meeting stays visible but is marked with a strikethrough or "Cancelled" label depending on your Outlook version.

If you added a message to the cancellation notice, attendees will see that message in the email they receive. This is useful if you're rescheduling and want to tell people when the new meeting will be, or if something unexpected came up and you want to apologize or explain briefly.

The difference between cancelling and deleting

If you delete a meeting without using the cancel function, Outlook removes it from your calendar but doesn't send any notice to attendees. They'll still see the meeting on their calendars until it passes, or they might see it suddenly disappear, which can be confusing. Always use "Cancel Meeting" instead of the delete key when you want to call off an event you organized.

The only time you might delete instead of cancel is if you created a meeting by mistake and caught it before sending the invitation — in that case, no one has received it yet, so there's nothing to cancel. For any meeting that attendees have already seen, use the cancel function.

Cancel a meeting you didn't organize

If someone else scheduled the meeting and invited you, you don't have the option to cancel it. Instead, you can decline the invitation or remove the event from your calendar. To decline, open the meeting and click "Decline" or "Decline All" (if it's a recurring meeting). To remove it without declining, right-click the event and select "Delete" — this removes it from your calendar only and doesn't notify the organizer.

If you need the meeting cancelled and the organizer isn't responding, contact them directly by email or message and ask them to cancel it. Only the person who created the meeting can formally cancel it for everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I cancel a meeting after attendees have already joined?

Yes, you can cancel a meeting at any time using the same steps. However, if people are already in the meeting, they won't see the cancellation notice until after they leave. It's better to end the meeting directly if people are already there, then send a follow-up message explaining why.

What if I want to cancel just for some attendees, not everyone?

Outlook doesn't have a built-in way to cancel for specific attendees. You'll need to cancel the entire meeting, then create a new meeting with only the attendees who should still attend. Alternatively, send a separate email to the attendees you want to exclude, explaining that they don't need to attend.

Will attendees see that I cancelled the meeting?

Yes. Attendees receive an email with "Cancelled:" in the subject line, and the meeting disappears from their calendar. They'll also see the cancellation message you included, if you wrote one.

Can I undo a cancellation?

No, you cannot undo a cancellation once it's sent. If you need to reschedule, create a new meeting invitation and send it to attendees. You can reference the original meeting in your message if it helps explain what happened.

What if the meeting is recurring?

When you cancel a recurring meeting, Outlook asks whether you want to cancel just this one occurrence or the entire series. Choose based on what you need — if only one session is off, cancel that occurrence; if the whole series is cancelled, cancel all occurrences.