The song was released on November 25, 2000 as the third single in the United States and the fourth single in Europe from their second studio album, No Strings Attached, in 2000.
The song was composed by pop singer Richard Marx, who would later record the song twice, first for the Japanese release of his album Days in Avalon similar to the NSYNC version, and again as a rock song for the European version of his Stories to Tell album.
Marx used the Days in Avalon version of "This I Promise You" for his Now and Forever: The Ballads album as a duet with Asian singer Sabrina.
"This I Promise You" was the group's fifth top-ten single in the U.S., reaching number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the autumn of 2000.
The song spent 13 weeks at number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, the group's first song to do so.