Migrate business email and calendar from Google Workspace

Note

The videos and content in this article provide a high-level overview of using an automated batch migration in the Exchange admin center to migrate your users' email, contacts, and calendars from Google Workspace. Use the linked resources for detailed instructions.

Automated batch migration overview

Watch this video and find more on the Microsoft 365 small business YouTube channel.

You can use the batch migration tool in the Exchange admin center to migrate email, contacts, and calendars from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. With it, you can:

Keep both environments active.
Migrate groups of email users to Microsoft 365 over time.
Close your Google Workspace environment when you're done moving your business.

Recommendations for migrating from Google Workspace

An automated batch migration does some of the migration tasks for you, so it's recommended over the manual batch migration. For more detailed information, see Perform a Google Workspace migration to Microsoft 365.

Note

You can also migrate your email from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 through an IMAP migration. You should compare methods to determine which is more suitable for migrating your email.
It's recommended that you get help from Microsoft or from a partner when planning to migrate with either of the above methods.
If you're a VSB (very small business) where you have a few users, you should migrate your email using a different method, such as importing to Outlook through a PST file.

Prerequisites for automated batch migration from Google Workspace

To successfully use the automated batch migration tool, it's important to correctly complete all of the prerequisite tasks. For more detailed information, see Google Workspace migration prerequisites.

In Exchange Online, the administrator performing these steps must have at least the Recipient Management role group.

These tasks include:

Creating a subdomain to correctly route email to users who were migrated to Microsoft 365.
Creating a subdomain to correctly route email from users you migrated to Microsoft 365 back to users who are in your Google Workspace environment.
Preparing the destination email accounts.
Verifying that the Google migration administrator has the required Google Cloud IAM roles and that a Google Workspace super administrator can authorize domain-wide delegation.

Note

Completing the prerequisite tasks might require you to sign in to your domain host to create subdomains and update DNS records. If you aren't comfortable doing this, seek assistance.

Create a subdomain for email going to Microsoft 365

Go to the Google Workspace admin console.
Select Add a domain.
Enter a domain name for your subdomain, such as m365.contoso.com.
Select User alias domain, select Add domain and start verification, and then select Continue. Follow the instructions to verify domain ownership.

Domain verification usually takes just a few minutes, but it can take up to 48 hours.
Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, in the left nav, select Show all, select Settings, select Domains, and then Add domain.
Enter the subdomain you previously created, then select Use this domain.
To connect the domain, select Continue.
Select Add DNS records. Depending on your domain host provider, Microsoft 365 tries to update your DNS records for the domain.
When complete, select Done.

Create a subdomain for mail routing to Google Workspace

Return to the Google Workspace admin console.
Select Add a domain.
Enter a domain name for your subdomain, such as gsuite.contoso.com.
Select User alias domain, select Add domain and start verification, and then select Continue. Follow the instructions to verify domain ownership.
At your DNS host, add the current Google Workspace MX record for this routing subdomain. See Set up MX records for Google Workspace.

DNS changes can take up to 72 hours to be recognized.

Before starting a batch, allow the required forwarding in Google Workspace and Exchange Online. Exchange outbound spam policies, Remote Domain settings, and mail flow rules can each block forwarding. Any exception needs your security administrator's approval.

Prepare mail user accounts

Mail users are Microsoft 365 accounts whose email is hosted externally. Use these steps to create new mail users. If accounts already exist, follow the Exchange recipient prerequisites before creating additional accounts.

In the Exchange admin center, select Recipients > Contacts, then Add a mail user.
On the Set up the basic information page, enter the user's name, display name, alias, user ID, and password.
- For External email address, enter the person's complete Google routing address, such as adeyoung@gsuite.contoso.com.
- For User ID and Domain, use the planned username and verified business domain, such as adeyoung@contoso.com.
- Enter and confirm a password that meets your organization's requirements.
Select Next. On Review mail user, check the details, then select Create.
On Status, wait for creation to finish, then select Done.

For details, see Manage mail users in Exchange Online.

Add Microsoft 365 routing aliases to mail users

For each mail user, add a proxy address for the Microsoft 365 routing domain.

In the Exchange admin center, select Recipients > Contacts. Select the display name of the entry with Contact type MailUser.
On Others, under Email addresses, select Manage email address types.
Add an SMTP proxy address using the person's alias and Microsoft 365 routing domain, such as adeyoung@m365.contoso.com.
Save the address changes, and repeat for the other mail users.

Verify that your Google migration administrators have the required permissions

The account that creates the Google Cloud project and service account needs these Google Cloud IAM roles:

Project creator
Service Account Creator

Creating the JSON key also requires Service Account Key Admin or equivalent permissions and an organization policy that permits key creation. See Create and delete service account keys. Ask your Google Cloud administrator to resolve a policy block for the migration project.

Domain-wide delegation is a separate Google Workspace authorization. A Google Workspace super administrator must authorize the API client and OAuth scopes.

Migrate your email, contacts, and calendars from Google Workspace

After successfully completing all the prerequisites, you can now use the batch migration tool to migrate your users from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. Here's a summary of the required steps. For more detailed information, see Perform an automated Google Workspace migration to Microsoft 365.

Important

Review the migration limitations and the Default MRM Policy and archival guidance before starting a batch. The archival guidance isn't an instruction to remove legal holds.

In the Exchange admin center, select Migration.
On the Migration batches page, select Add migration batch.
Give the migration batch a unique name, and from the Select the mailbox migration path menu, select Migration to Exchange Online. Then select Next.
For the Migration type, select Google Workspace (Gmail) migration. Then select Next.
On the Prerequisites for Google Workspace migration page, select Start.
Sign in with your Google admin account and password.
On the EAC Migration wants access to your Google Account page, select Continue.
EAC Migration involves four required tasks in Google Workspace that are needed for migration.
When all four tasks are complete, note the ClientID and Scope values. Then select Link.
On the API Clients page, select Add new.
Copy the ClientID and Scope values from the migration page, and paste them into the corresponding fields (Client ID and OAuth scopes) on the Add a new client page. Then select Authorize.
On the Prerequisites for Google Workspace migration page, select Next.
On the Set a migration endpoint page, select Create a new migration endpoint, then Next.
Enter a unique Migration endpoint name, and use the default values for Maximum concurrent migrations and Maximum concurrent incremental syncs, then select Next.
On the Gmail migration configuration page, enter the email address of the Google admin account you're using to perform the migration.
Select Import JSON and then browse to the location where the JSON key file was created and downloaded to your local computer. The JSON key file was created during the automated tasks configuration part of the migration (step 8) and should be found in your local Downloads folder. Select the file, select Open, and then Next.
Create a CSV file with a list of the mailboxes you want to migrate. Make sure the file follows this format:
```
 EmailAddress
 adeyoung@contoso.com
 awilber@contoso.com
```
On the Add user mailboxes page, select Import CSV file, and then choose the CSV file containing the users' email addresses. Select Next.
On the Move configuration page, enter the target delivery domain you created for routing email to Microsoft 365, such as m365.contoso.com. Then select Next.
On the Schedule batch migration page, you can:
1. Enter the email address of people you want a report to be sent.
2. Select how you want the batch to be started (manually, automatically, or at a specific time and date).
3. Select how you want the batch to be ended (manually, automatically, or at a specific time and date).
Select Save, then Done when the batch has been created.
In the Exchange admin center, select Migration. On the Migration batches page, you can see the status of your batch migration.
After the batch starts and mail users are converted to mailboxes, assign their Exchange licenses within 30 days. See batch completion and licensing.
When the batch shows Synced, select Complete migration batch, then Confirm.
Wait for the batch to show Completed.
Have migrated users check that their email, contacts, and calendars migrated successfully.

After all batches are complete, connect the primary domain to Microsoft 365 to change its production MX records.

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Last updated on 2026-10-02