How to end an email: closing lines, sign-offs and examples

To end an email, finish with a closing line that tells the reader what happens next, then a sign-off that matches the greeting and the relationship, then your name. “Best,” “Thanks,” and “Kind regards,” cover most work email. “Sincerely,” belongs on job applications and formal letters. If you need something, put the request and its deadline in that last line, because it is the sentence people act on. Deep in a fast thread, you can drop the sign-off altogether.

The four parts of an email ending

An email ends in up to four pieces, and each has a different job. Mixing them up is how people end up expecting “Best regards” to do the work of a request.

• The closing line is the last sentence of the message. It carries the ask, the deadline, the next step, or a thanks that names what you’re grateful for.
• The sign-off, also called the complimentary close or valediction, is one to three words and a comma. It sets the tone on the way out and carries almost no information.
• The name is the one you want people to use. If you sign “Elizabeth,” nobody will risk “Liz.”
• The signature block holds your contact details, set apart from the message so it can be skipped.

1. Decide what the reader should do next

   Reply, decide, approve, read the attachment, or nothing at all. Decide this before you write the ending. If the answer is nothing, the ending should say so.

2. Put it in the last line, with a date

   Write the request as a direct question and give a deadline with a weekday and a date. Where it helps, add what happens if they don’t answer, so silence becomes an answer too.

3. Match the sign-off to the greeting

   “Hi Sam” pairs with “Best,” or “Thanks,”. “Dear Ms. Patel” pairs with “Kind regards,” or “Sincerely,”. Once someone has replied, mirror their sign-off rather than your own habit.

4. Check what sits under your name

   Make sure the right signature is attached for this account, the phone number is current, and a reply isn’t dragging a full signature and a logo into the tenth message of a thread.

Closing lines that get a response

The closing line is the last thing someone reads before deciding what to do with your email, which makes it the best place for the request. Skimmers jump to it. A good one is specific about what you need, by when, and what happens otherwise. A weak one asks for “thoughts.”

What the line should say depends on what you need. These are starting points to adapt, grouped by situation.

When you need a reply or a decision

• “Could you confirm by Thursday at noon whether we print 500 or 1,000 copies?”
• “Which works better for you, Tuesday the 9th or Wednesday the 10th?”
• “If you can sign the contract by the 15th, the edit can start on the 18th.”
• “If I don’t hear back by Monday, I’ll go ahead with the second option.”

The last line on that list is the most useful pattern in work email. A default turns a reply into something the reader can skip when they agree, which is usually what they wanted to do anyway.

When you don’t need anything back

• “No need to reply. This is for your files.”
• “Nothing to do on your end. I’ll send the next draft on the 20th.”
• “Just keeping you in the loop. I’ll flag anything that needs a decision.”

Saying it plainly saves the other person a “Thanks, got it” and saves you reading one.

When you’re saying thank you

Thanks that names the help lands better than a generic one, and it tells the person their effort was noticed.

• “Thank you for reading the whole draft over a weekend. Your note on the opening scene changed the chapter.”
• “Thanks again for the introduction to Priya. We’re meeting next week.”
• “I appreciate the quick turnaround on this.”

When you’re following up

Make the follow-up easy to answer, including with a no. People sit on emails when every answer feels like work.

• “Following up on my note from March 2. If the answer is no, a one-line reply is completely fine.”
• “I’m bumping this in case it got buried. Is a decision by the 30th still realistic?”
• “If the timing is wrong, I’ll check back in June.”

When the news is bad or you’re apologizing

Apologize once, in the body. End on the fix or the next step, not on a second apology.

• “I’ll have the corrected file to you by 5 p.m. tomorrow.”
• “If a call is easier, I’m free Thursday afternoon.”
• “I can suggest two editors who take memoir, if that would help.”

When it’s a first contact

Cold emails, pitches and applications end with one small, concrete ask, or with a courteous close when the next move belongs to the reader. “Thank you for your time and consideration” is a common close for cover letters and for a query letter to a literary agent, where the agent’s guidelines already set out what happens next.

• “Would a 15-minute call next week be useful? I’m free Tuesday or Thursday afternoon.”
• “I’ve pasted the first ten pages below, as your guidelines ask. Thank you for your time and consideration.”
• “If this isn’t your area, could you point me to the right person?”

How to choose a sign-off

Choose by formality first, then mirror the other person. The table runs from most to least formal. For a longer list sorted by situation, see email sign-offs for every occasion.

Does the sign-off change the reply rate?

There is one well-known data point. In January 2017, Boomerang, which makes an email add-on, analyzed more than 350,000 threads from the public archives of over twenty mailing lists. Messages that closed with “thanks in advance” got a reply 65.7 percent of the time, “thanks” 63 percent and “thank you” 57.9 percent, against 47.5 percent across the whole sample. “Best” came last of the eight common closings it tracked, at 51.2 percent.

Mailing lists aren’t your inbox, and the study can’t show that the sign-off caused the replies. An email that ends in thanks is usually an email that asks for something. Still, the practical advice holds: when you’re asking, close with thanks.

Replies and long threads

Sign-offs fade as a thread goes on. Keep one for the first message and the first reply, then drop to your name or initial, then to nothing. Follow the other person’s lead: if they stop signing off, you can too. Bring the full sign-off back when the thread turns formal again, such as when a contract, an invoice or bad news arrives.

Outside the US

British letter convention pairs “Yours sincerely” with a named greeting (“Dear Ms Patel”) and “Yours faithfully” with “Dear Sir or Madam,” and formal British email often keeps the pairing. In US military email, “Very respectfully” goes to someone who outranks you and “Respectfully” to someone junior. Across cultures in general, start one notch more formal than you would at home and mirror once they reply.

Endings to avoid

Most bad endings fall into a handful of patterns, and each is easy to fix once you see it.

• Apologizing for the email. “Sorry for the long email” or “Sorry to bother you” undercuts the request just above it. Cut the apology, or cut the email down.
• Asking for thoughts with no date. An open-ended request goes to the bottom of the pile. Say what kind of answer you need and when.
• Two closings in a row. “Thanks so much for your help. Thanks,” Choose one. If the closing line already thanks them, sign off with “Best,” or just your name.
• Lines that read as passive-aggressive. “Per my last email,” “As previously stated” and “Thanks in advance for your prompt attention to this matter” all signal irritation. If you need to point back, quote the key line and restate the ask.
• Abbreviations. “Thx,” “Rgds” and “BR” save two seconds and look hurried. Spell the word out.
• Personal sign-offs at work. “Love,” “xo” and hugs are for family and close friends, whatever your mood that day.
• A signature bigger than the message. Quotes, banner images and three phone numbers bury a two-line reply. Keep any disclaimer your employer requires and drop the rest on replies.
• The default mobile line as your only sign-off. “Sent from my iPhone” tells people where you were, not who you are. Change it to your name in the phone’s mail settings.

Signature, punctuation and your name

Capitalize only the first word of the sign-off (“Best regards,” not “Best Regards,”), follow it with a comma in American usage, and put your name on the next line. Use your first name with people who know you and your full name the first time you write to someone. The signature block below it needs about four lines:

Name, role, one way to reach you, one link. Add pronouns, a time zone or your working days if people need them to work with you. Leave out quotes and large images, which often arrive as attachments or don’t load at all.

Most mail apps let you keep two signatures. Gmail lets you choose separate defaults for new emails and replies, and classic Outlook for Windows has separate settings for new messages and for replies and forwards. Use the full block on new emails and a one-line version, or nothing, on replies. Gmail allows up to 10,000 characters in a signature, which is about 9,900 more than you need.

In plain-text email, the traditional separator above a signature is a line with two hyphens and a space (“-- ”). It started on Usenet, is described in the plain-text email standard RFC 3676, and mail programs use it to recognize a signature and trim it from quoted replies. Most people never type it, but it’s why some signatures arrive with a stray “--” on top.

Example endings for common emails

Each example shows the final paragraph, the sign-off and the name. The note under each says why it works. Several come from a writer’s working life: asking beta readers for notes, sending a manuscript to an editor, chasing a pitch.

For whole messages rather than endings, see the professional email examples, and for job applications sent as email, the cover letter template.

Drafting the hard ones in Strokes

Most email is best written in the mail app and sent. The exceptions are the ones you reread five times: a fee negotiation, a pitch to an editor you admire, a note turning down work from a client you want to keep. Those deserve a draft with room around it.

Strokes doesn’t send email, but it is a good place to get those words right. Write the draft as a document, select only the closing paragraph and press ⌘K to ask for a version that is firmer, shorter or warmer, then keep whichever line is better. The AI Assistant beside the document can read the whole draft and tell you whether the request is clear and where the deadline is. Version history saves versions as you go, so the draft you liked an hour ago is one click away. When it reads right, copy it into your mail app.