How to Migrate Gmail to Outlook (Google Takeout to PST)

Why Migrate From Gmail to Outlook

There are several practical reasons to move your email from Gmail to Outlook. Organizations adopting Microsoft 365 often require employees to consolidate onto Outlook as the standard communication platform. Some users prefer Outlook’s integrated calendar and task management for productivity workflows. Others need to comply with data residency regulations that require storing email locally or within specific jurisdictions rather than in Google’s cloud infrastructure.

Whatever the motivation, the migration path from Gmail to Outlook is well-established. Gmail provides a built-in export mechanism through Google Takeout that produces standard MBOX files. These files can then be converted to PST format, which Outlook imports natively. The process works for personal Gmail accounts and, with some additional considerations, for Google Workspace business accounts.

Understanding the full workflow before you begin will help you avoid common pitfalls like incomplete exports, oversized files, or missing folder structures.

How Gmail Exports Work: Google Takeout

What Google Takeout Produces

Google Takeout is Google’s data export service, available at takeout.google.com. It allows you to download a copy of your data from any Google service, including Gmail. When you export your Gmail data, Takeout generates one or more MBOX files containing your email messages, attachments, and metadata.

Each MBOX file preserves the original email headers (sender, recipient, date, subject), the message body in both plain text and HTML formats, and any file attachments encoded within the message. Gmail labels are mapped to MBOX headers, so messages tagged with multiple labels may appear in the export with corresponding label metadata.

Step-by-Step Export Process

To export your Gmail data through Google Takeout, follow these steps.

First, navigate to takeout.google.com and sign in with the Gmail account you want to export. Click “Deselect all” to clear all Google services, then scroll down and select only “Mail.” Click the “All Mail data included” button if you want to filter specific labels rather than exporting the entire mailbox.

Second, choose your export settings. Select “Export once” for a one-time download. For the file type, choose .zip. For the file size, select the largest option available (typically 50 GB) to minimize the number of archive parts. If your mailbox exceeds the selected size, Google will split the export into multiple zip files.

Third, click “Create export” and wait. Google processes the export in the background. Depending on your mailbox size, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to several days. You will receive an email notification when the export is ready for download.

Fourth, download all zip files from the link provided in the notification email. The download links expire after one week, so retrieve them promptly.

Understanding the MBOX Output

After extracting the zip archive, you will find your email data in one or more MBOX files inside a “Mail” directory. If you exported all mail, there will typically be a single large file named “All mail Including Spam and Trash.mbox.” If you selected specific labels, each label generates its own MBOX file.

The file naming follows your Gmail label structure. Nested labels use a forward slash as a separator. This structure becomes relevant during conversion, as you will want to preserve it in your Outlook folder hierarchy.

Convert Your Gmail MBOX to PST

With your MBOX files downloaded and extracted, the next step is converting them to PST format for Outlook import. Outlook cannot read MBOX files directly, so this conversion step is necessary.

Upload your MBOX file to MailtoPst’s MBOX to PST converter. The tool processes the file and produces a PST file that preserves your email content, folder structure, attachments, and message metadata including dates and read/unread status.

For users migrating a complete Gmail account, the “All mail” MBOX file is the best starting point. It contains every message in your mailbox regardless of label. If you exported individual labels and want to preserve that folder structure in Outlook, convert each MBOX file separately or use a batch conversion approach.

The converter handles Gmail-specific MBOX quirks, including the X-Gmail-Labels header that maps labels to folder assignments. Messages with multiple labels are deduplicated so you do not end up with duplicate emails in your Outlook mailbox.

You can also find additional guidance on our Gmail to Outlook use case page and our broader email migration resources.

Import the PST Into Outlook

Once you have your PST file, importing it into Outlook is straightforward.

In Outlook for Windows, go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export. Select “Import from another program or file,” then choose “Outlook Data File (.pst).” Browse to your converted PST file and select it. You can choose to import into the current mailbox or into a separate top-level folder.

If you import into the current mailbox, Outlook will merge the imported folders with your existing folder structure. If a folder with the same name already exists, messages are added to it. If you prefer to keep the imported mail separate for review, choose to import into a new top-level folder.

For Outlook for Mac, the process differs slightly. Go to File > Import, select “Outlook for Windows archive file (.pst),” and follow the prompts. Note that Outlook for Mac handles PST import well for email but may not import all calendar or contact entries from the PST.

After the import completes, verify that your email count is consistent with your expectations. Check a few messages from different time periods to confirm that attachments, formatting, and dates are intact.

Handling Large Gmail Archives

Gmail accounts that have been active for years can easily accumulate 10 GB or more of email data. Large archives create specific challenges during migration.

Google Takeout may split your export into multiple zip files. Download and extract all of them before starting the conversion. In some cases, the MBOX data spans across the split archives, so you need all parts.

For MBOX files larger than a few gigabytes, processing time increases proportionally. Our guide on converting large email archives provides strategies for handling oversized mailboxes, including splitting by date range and running incremental migrations.

Outlook itself has performance considerations with large PST files. Microsoft recommends keeping individual PST files under 20 GB. If your Gmail archive exceeds this threshold, consider splitting the conversion into multiple PST files organized by year or by folder.

MailtoPst offers 100 MB free credit, which allows you to test the conversion process with a subset of your archive before running the full migration. This is especially valuable for large accounts where you want to verify the output quality before committing.

Google Workspace Business Accounts

If you are migrating a Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) business account rather than a personal Gmail account, there are additional considerations.

Workspace administrators can use Google Vault or the Admin Console data export to extract email for the entire organization. Individual users can still use Google Takeout unless the administrator has disabled it. Check with your IT department before proceeding.

Workspace accounts may have additional data types including Google Groups messages, shared drive content, and organizational-specific labels. The email export follows the same MBOX format as personal accounts, but the volume is often larger and may include shared mailbox data.

For bulk migrations involving multiple users, consider exporting each user’s mailbox separately and converting them individually. This preserves per-user folder structures and makes it easier to import each PST into the correct Outlook mailbox.

For related guidance, see our article on importing MBOX into Outlook, which covers additional scenarios beyond Gmail-specific exports.

Contacts and Calendar

Gmail to Outlook migration goes beyond email. Most users also need to transfer their contacts and calendar events.

Google Contacts can be exported directly from contacts.google.com in CSV or vCard format. Outlook imports both formats through File > Open & Export > Import/Export. The CSV format maps well to Outlook’s contact fields, but review the field mapping during import to ensure phone numbers, addresses, and custom fields land in the correct places.

Google Calendar can be exported from calendar.google.com in ICS (iCalendar) format. Each calendar exports as a separate .ics file. In Outlook, you can import ICS files through File > Open & Export > Import/Export or by double-clicking the file and choosing to import all events.

Note that recurring events, event invitations, and shared calendar permissions may not transfer perfectly between platforms. After importing, review your calendar for the next few weeks to catch any discrepancies.

These exports are separate from the Google Takeout email export. You will need to visit each Google service individually to download contacts and calendar data.

Migrate Your Gmail Now

The Gmail to Outlook migration path is proven and reliable. Export your Gmail data through Google Takeout, convert the resulting MBOX files to PST format, and import into Outlook. The entire process can be completed in an afternoon for most personal accounts, or over a few days for large enterprise mailboxes.

MailtoPst handles the critical conversion step, transforming your MBOX files into Outlook-compatible PST while preserving your folder structure, attachments, and message metadata. Start with 100 MB free credit to verify the process works for your specific archive.

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