Written by Jennifer Walsh. Reviewed for technical accuracy by Shubham Dixit, Independent Expert in Email Forensics and Data File Conversion.
Shubham is an independent external reviewer and not an employee of PCDOTS.
Quick answer. An Outlook email statistics report shows the shape of a mailbox, top senders and recipients, emails sent versus received, volume by date and mailbox size. Outlook alone shows folder sizes but not these breakdowns. Export to Excel and pivot, run PowerShell as an admin, or use a tool that reports straight from a PST without Outlook.
On this page
What an email statistics report shows?
When people look for Outlook analytics or an email statistics report, they usually want to see the shape of a mailbox rather than any single message. That means a few clear numbers, who you send to and hear from most, how many emails go out versus come in, how the volume rises and falls over time, how large the mailbox and its folders are, and how many contacts, calendar entries and tasks sit inside.
Put together, those figures answer practical questions. Which senders fill your inbox, whether a mailbox is growing toward its limit, how activity changed across a year, and what to keep for compliance or a review. The rest of this guide is about getting those numbers out of Outlook, starting with what it can and cannot show you by itself.
The numbers most people mean by Outlook analytics.
“Mailbox statistics are bread and butter in any review, item counts, top correspondents, size by folder and activity over a date range are the first things you pull to understand what a mailbox contains. The point worth stressing is that you do not need Outlook running to get them. A PST is a self contained file, so reading it directly is both the fastest route and the right one when the account is gone and only the file remains, which is exactly the situation an investigator meets most often.” Shubham Dixit, Email Forensics reviewer (draft, pending approval)
What Outlook shows you on its own?
It helps to be honest about the ceiling here. Outlook has no built in analytics dashboard. What it does give you natively is size. Right click any folder, choose Properties and then Folder Size to see the size of each folder, or go to File, Tools, Mailbox Cleanup and View Mailbox Size for the whole account. That is genuinely useful for spotting what is filling a mailbox.
What Outlook will not do on its own is chart emails per sender, or volume by month, or a sent versus received split. A quick note on read receipts and delivery reports too, since other guides list them here, those only tell you whether one particular message was opened or delivered, they are not a mailbox statistics report. For the real breakdowns you need one of the routes below.
Outlook answers how big. A report answers who, when and how much.
The free way, export and pivot in Excel
If you have Outlook and a bit of patience, this costs nothing and gives you real per sender and per date numbers.
Export the folder to CSV. Go to File, Open and Export, Import/Export, choose Export to a file, then Comma Separated Values, and pick the folder such as your Inbox. Our guide to save PST data in CSV format walks through this in full.
Pivot it in Excel. Open the CSV, insert a PivotTable, and drag the From field into rows with a count to rank your top senders, or group the date field by month to see volume over time. It is manual, but it turns a plain export into the statistics report you were after, for free.
For admins, PowerShell and Microsoft 365
If you manage the mail server rather than a single mailbox, two routes give you numbers directly.
PowerShell on Exchange or Microsoft 365. Get-MailboxStatistics returns the item count and total size for a mailbox, and Get-MailboxFolderStatistics breaks that down by folder. These are the quickest way to pull counts and sizes across many mailboxes at once.
Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Under reports, the usage section shows emails sent and received per user across the organisation. It is an admin and org level view rather than a deep per mailbox breakdown, but it is built in and needs no extra tool.
The full report from a PST, with a tool
The routes above need either Outlook, a spreadsheet or admin access. When you just have a PST file, or you want a tidy report to save and share without any of that setup, a dedicated reporter reads the file directly. The PCDOTS PST Reporter opens a PST and builds a report of top senders and recipients, emails sent versus received, per folder counts, attachment details, and item counts for contacts, calendars and tasks, with a date range filter for a given year or period, then exports it to PDF or HTML. Two things make it genuinely useful, it works without Outlook installed, reading the PST on its own, which suits an orphaned file, and it produces a shareable report Outlook will not chart for you. The free version shows the last seven days so you can see the layout before deciding.
The tool route, a shareable report straight from the PST file.
Here are the steps with the screens.
Step 1. Install and run PST Reporter on Windows.
Step 2. Click Open and select your PST file.
Step 3. Read the report, top senders, counts, sizes and more.
Step 4. Open Advance Settings to apply a date range, then export to PDF or HTML.
For related mailbox work you can also search emails in a PST, or open a file first with a free PST file viewer.
The methods compared
Match the route to what you have and how far you need to go.
| Method | Best for | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Outlook size views | Folder and mailbox size, free | Size only, no sender breakdown |
| Export and Excel pivot | Per sender and per date, free | Manual, needs Outlook and Excel |
| PowerShell or 365 reports | Admins across many mailboxes | Needs admin access |
| PST Reporter tool | A shareable report from a PST | No Outlook needed, demo is 7 days |
Frequently asked questions
Does Outlook have a built in email statistics report?
Not really. Outlook shows mailbox and folder size natively, but it does not chart emails per sender or volume over time. For those breakdowns you export to Excel, use PowerShell as an admin, or use a reporting tool.
How do I get Outlook analytics for free?
Export a folder to CSV through Import/Export, open it in Excel and build a PivotTable to count by sender or group by date. Admins can also run Get-MailboxStatistics in PowerShell for counts and sizes.
Can I get a report without opening Outlook?
Yes. A PST is a self contained file, so a tool that reads the PST directly can build a full report with no Outlook installed, which is ideal for an orphaned or archived file.
How do I see my top senders in Outlook?
Export the folder to CSV and pivot on the From field in Excel, or use a PST reporting tool that lists top senders and recipients with counts and sizes automatically.
Can I get statistics for a specific year?
Yes. In Excel you group the date field by year. In a reporting tool you apply a date range in the settings to produce a year by year or period report.
What about read receipts and delivery reports?
Those track whether a single message was opened or delivered. They are not a mailbox statistics report and will not tell you counts, senders or sizes across your mail.
Start with what you already have
Work outward from your situation. For sizes, Outlook already tells you, no tool required. For a real breakdown of senders and dates, export a folder and pivot it in Excel, which is free if you do not mind a little spreadsheet work. If you run the mail server, PowerShell and the Microsoft 365 reports hand you counts across mailboxes. And when all you hold is a PST, or you want a clean report to save and pass on, let a reporter read the file directly and export it. Pick the lightest route that answers your question, and reach for a tool only when the free ones cannot.
