Switch from Gmail to Microsoft 365 Business: step by step
How to move your mail, contacts and address from Gmail to Microsoft 365 Business without losing anything. Most moves take an evening to set up, then a few weeks of forwarding.
Watch out for
- Gmail labels become folders elsewhere, so an email with several labels can be copied more than once.
- Importers usually need IMAP turned on in Gmail's settings, and an app password, which needs 2-Step Verification.
- Google may delete a personal account that hasn't been used for two years, so sign in now and then while forwarding is on.
- Microsoft's IMAP migration brings mail only, not contacts or calendars, and skips any single email over 35 MB.
Before you start
- Check where your address lives. If it ends in @gmail.com, it belongs to Gmail and stays there: you'll forward your mail and tell people your new address.
- Check the space you need. See how much mail you have in Gmail, and compare it with Microsoft 365 Business's plans (the cheapest is Business Basic, £5.40 per user a month, yearly, ex VAT, with 50 GB).
- Read the small print. Microsoft 365 Business's page covers exporting, cancelling and refunds under "Before you sign up".
Open your Microsoft 365 Business account
Sign up on Microsoft 365 Business's website (One month free on some plans), and turn on two-step sign-in straight away. You'll find the link on Microsoft 365 Business's page: Microsoft 365 Business.
Bring your mail across
Use Microsoft 365 Business's importer. An admin copies mail in with an IMAP migration in the Exchange admin centre. Microsoft 365 Business's guide ↗
If it asks for a password, make a Gmail app password rather than using your normal one.
Your old mail stays where it is while it's copied, so nothing is lost if you need to start again.
Move your contacts and calendar
Export your contacts as a .vcf file and each calendar as an .ics file from Gmail, then import them into Microsoft 365 Business. Most providers have both options in their contacts and calendar settings.
Keep your @gmail.com address working
- Forward new mail. In Gmail on a computer, open Settings, then Forwarding and POP/IMAP, and add your new address. Gmail sends a code to the new address to confirm it. Gmail's guide ↗
- Tell people. Send your new address to the people who matter, and add it to your email signature.
- Update your sign-ins. Change the email address on your bank, shopping, social and work accounts. A password manager's list of saved sign-ins is the quickest checklist.
- Keep the old account open for a while. Mail will keep arriving there for months. Sign in now and then so it isn't closed for not being used.
Check everything arrived
- Compare the number of emails in each folder on both sides.
- Send a test email to your new address from another account, and reply to it.
- Check that mail forwarded from Gmail is arriving, and isn't going to spam.
Close Gmail, when you're ready
Wait at least a month, until nothing new arrives there. On a free account you can leave it open with forwarding on instead. Before you close a paid account, download a last copy of your mail.
From Gmail's page: Gmail.
I checked the providers' help pages on 24 October 2026. Menus move, so if a step doesn't match what you see, tell me and I'll update it.
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