List Members of a Mail-Enabled Group Including Organizational Contacts

Using the Microsoft 365 admin center and Exchange admin center

Step 1 — Locate the group

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center as a Global Reader, Exchange Administrator, or Groups Administrator.
2. Navigate Teams & groups → Active teams & groups.
3. Select the tab matching the group type: Microsoft 365, Distribution list, Mail-enabled security, or Security.
4. Search for the group by name or SMTP address and open it.

Step 2 — Review members in the admin center

1. Open the Members tab. You will see internal users and guests listed with display name and email.
2. Note: organizational contacts (external mail contacts) often do not render here with full details. If the count looks lower than expected, continue in the Exchange admin center.

Step 3 — Verify full recipient list in EAC

1. Open the Exchange admin center → Recipients → Groups.
2. Select the group and open Members. EAC reliably shows mail contacts alongside users and nested groups.
3. Also check Settings → Delivery management to see whether external senders are allowed, and Message approval for moderation rules that can affect who ultimately receives mail.

Step 4 — Check nested groups

If any member is itself a group, click into it and repeat. The effective recipient list is the union of all leaf users and contacts across the tree.

Resolving all recipients via Microsoft Graph

Step 1 — Find the group by SMTP address

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/groups?$filter=mail eq 'group@contoso.com'&$select=id,displayName,mail,groupTypes,mailEnabled,securityEnabled

Response:

{
  "value": [{
    "id": "0049645a-e18c-46f6-86bc-1bc2a27d22c2",
    "displayName": "marketing-notif",
    "mail": "group@contoso.com",
    "groupTypes": [],
    "mailEnabled": true,
    "securityEnabled": false
  }]
}

An empty groupTypes array with mailEnabled: true indicates a classic distribution list.

Step 2 — List direct members

GET /v1.0/groups/{groupId}/members?$select=id,displayName,mail,userPrincipalName

Look at @odata.type on each entry. Values you will encounter:

• #microsoft.graph.user — internal user or guest
• #microsoft.graph.group — nested group
• #microsoft.graph.orgContact — organizational mail contact (often returns null fields without the right scope)

Step 3 — Resolve org contacts (requires OrgContact.Read.All)

When an orgContact entry returns null for mail and displayName, re-query each contact by ID against the contacts endpoint:

GET /v1.0/contacts/{contactId}?$select=displayName,mail,proxyAddresses,companyName

Or batch with a filter:

GET /v1.0/contacts?$filter=id eq '{id1}' or id eq '{id2}'&$select=displayName,mail,proxyAddresses

If you receive 403 Insufficient privileges, grant OrgContact.Read.All (admin consent required) and retry.

Step 4 — Expand nested groups transitively

GET /v1.0/groups/{groupId}/transitiveMembers?$select=id,displayName,mail,userPrincipalName

This flattens every level of nesting and returns the full leaf recipient set (users + contacts). Note that $select is still subject to the same orgContact caveat.

Step 5 — List owners

GET /v1.0/groups/{groupId}/owners?$select=displayName,mail,userPrincipalName

Owners do not receive group mail by default, but they manage membership and are useful context for the requester.

PowerShell with Microsoft.Graph

The script below accepts a group SMTP address, resolves the group, enumerates direct and transitive members, and re-queries any org contacts to pull their real mail addresses. It handles the common null-field gotcha automatically.

Prerequisites

• PowerShell 7+ and the Microsoft.Graph module: Install-Module Microsoft.Graph -Scope CurrentUser
• Scopes: Group.Read.All, OrgContact.Read.All, User.Read.All

Quick interactive run

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Group.Read.All","OrgContact.Read.All","User.Read.All"

$group = Get-MgGroup -Filter "mail eq 'group@contoso.com'"
$members = Get-MgGroupMember -GroupId $group.Id -All

# Split by type
$users    = $members | Where-Object { $_.AdditionalProperties['@odata.type'] -eq '#microsoft.graph.user' }
$contacts = $members | Where-Object { $_.AdditionalProperties['@odata.type'] -eq '#microsoft.graph.orgContact' }

# Re-query contacts for real mail addresses
$contacts | ForEach-Object { Get-MgContact -OrgContactId $_.Id }

For a reusable version with transitive expansion, CSV export, and error handling, download the full script below.