How to migrate from Gmail to Proton Mail

Migrating from Gmail to Proton Mail is a step toward a more private inbox, but you don’t have to leave everything behind overnight. With Easy Switch, you can bring your Gmail data into Proton Mail, keep receiving messages sent to your Gmail address, and send emails from it — including end-to-end encrypted emails when your recipients are on Proton Mail. When you’re ready, you can leave Gmail behind for good and make Proton Mail your home.

• Migrate from Gmail using Easy Switch
  • Recommended setup
  • Start an import
  • Set up a Gmail connection
• Troubleshooting Easy Switch issues
• Make Proton Mail your home

Migrate from Gmail using Easy Switch

Easy Switch is a tool built into Proton Mail, which helps you easily migrate your emails (including attachments), calendars, and contacts from Gmail. It can also connect your Google account, so you can send and receive Gmail messages without leaving Proton Mail.

Sending messages from your Gmail account using Proton Mail is a step forward in your privacy journey, as Proton Mail can automatically protect your emails with end-to-end encryption, which Gmail cannot do on its own. This depends on your recipients’ email addresses:

• End-to-end encrypted: Emails you send from your connected Gmail address to Proton Mail users are end-to-end encrypted. This includes recipients using @proton.me addresses, custom domains, or @gmail.com addresses connected to a Proton account. Ask friends and family to connect their Gmail account to Proton Mail so you can stay in touch privately, without Google seeing your messages.
• Not protected by end-to-end encryption: Emails you send to non-Proton users from your connected Gmail address are sent through Gmail’s servers without end-to-end encryption, so they are readable by Google. These messages will also appear in your Gmail Sent folder.

This migration from Gmail to Proton Mail can include:

• Import: Easy Switch transfers your existing Gmail data to Proton Mail.
• Connection: Easy Switch forwards future emails from Gmail to Proton Mail and lets you send messages from your Gmail address directly inside Proton Mail.
• Recommended setup: Easy Switch imports your existing data and connects your Gmail account, so your past emails and future messages are all available in Proton Mail.

Recommended setup

1. Open Proton Mail settings.
2. Go to Import via Easy Switch and select Google.

3. Click Connect to Gmail to start the OAuth authorization process.

4. Grant Easy Switch all requested access to your Google Account by clicking Select all and then Continue. If you don’t grant all requested permissions, the setup will cause an error later.

Once setup is complete, Easy Switch automatically starts importing Gmail data, using up to 80% of your available Proton storage. Your Gmail address is also connected to Proton Mail, so you can send and receive messages from that address directly in Proton Mail.

Notes

• By default, Easy Switch imports your most recent Gmail messages, up to 80% of your available Proton storage. This helps keep space available for new incoming messages while bringing your recent conversation history into Proton Mail. You can’t change this setting during the initial setup.
• After the initial import is complete, you can select More import options to import all Gmail messages.
• If you don’t want to keep the initial email import, you can undo it later without breaking the Gmail connection to Proton Mail. See more details about imports.
• You can check the status of your Gmail connection in the Import via Easy Switch or Identity and addresses tabs in settings, which can be useful for troubleshooting. To manage the connection, go to Identity and addresses.
• If you joined Proton through Proton VPN or Proton Pass using your Gmail address, you currently can’t set up Gmail connection with that Gmail account. We’re working on supporting this.

Start an import: transfer existing emails, calendars, and contacts

You can start an import without setting up a Gmail connection. This is useful if a previous Easy Switch setup imported only some of your Gmail messages and you now want to import the rest.

1. Open Proton Mail settings.
2. Go to Import via Easy Switch and select More import options.

3. Choose Google and select which data to import between Emails, Contacts, and Calendars.

4. Grant Easy Switch all requested access to your Google Account by clicking Select all and then Continue. Depending on whether you’ve already used this Gmail account with Proton, some permissions may already be granted. If you don’t grant all requested permissions, the setup will cause an error later.

5. Review the import summary and click Start import, or click Customize under any data type to adjust what gets imported:
   • Emails: Change the label applied to imported messages (useful if you plan to migrate data from more email accounts using Easy Switch), limit the time range (import all messages, or the last 1, 3, 6, or 12 months), or deselect folders to exclude.
   • Calendar: By default, Easy Switch creates a new calendar in Proton Calendar. To merge with an existing one, select it under Merge with calendar.
   • Contacts: Imported as-is, up to 10,000.

Notes

• Triggering the same import more than once won’t duplicate messages in Proton Mail. Easy Switch detects emails that have already been imported and skips them automatically.
• If the folder you import includes subfolders that don’t already exist in Proton Mail, Easy Switch creates them.
• Deselecting a parent folder also deselects all of its subfolders, so they won’t be imported.
• In some cases, Easy Switch may ask you to customize your import before continuing. This can happen if:
  • A folder name in your old account is longer than 100 characters, including spaces.
  • Your old account has more than 2,000 folders.
  • A folder or label from your Gmail account conflicts with an existing Proton Mail folder or label. For example, Proton Mail already has a folder named “Admin”, and the Gmail account you’re importing from also has a label named “Admin”.
• Contacts and contact groups from Google will be added to your Proton contacts.

Set up a Gmail connection: email forwarding and sending

Setting up a Gmail connection without import lets you send and receive emails using your Gmail address in Proton Mail, without bringing in your existing conversation history from Google. This is useful if:

• You already have Gmail forwarding set up and want to upgrade it to a Gmail connection that also lets you send. Easy Switch will automatically skip the import — no additional action needed.
• You want to connect your Gmail account but start with a clean inbox, leaving your existing Gmail messages behind.

To set up a Gmail connection without import:

1. Complete the Recommended setup steps. Easy Switch will run a brief automatic import as part of the connection process.
2. Go to Import via Easy Switch and click Undo import next to your Gmail account under Imports.

This removes imported emails and folders, but keeps your Gmail-to-Proton Mail connection active.

Free users can connect one Gmail account, while paid plans support up to three. Legacy forwarding connections count toward the same limit.

Troubleshooting Easy Switch issues

For help with common issues such as failed imports, missing messages, folder structure changes, or Gmail connection problems, see our Easy Switch troubleshooting guide.

Make Proton Mail your home

When you feel ready to leave Gmail behind for good, Proton Mail has everything you need to make the switch: apps for all your devices, support for custom domains, hide-my-email aliases, and more. And because you have already set up your Gmail connection and imported your messages, you’re closer than you think. Here are some simple steps:

1. Update your online accounts: Start with important accounts, such as banking, healthcare, government services, and anything tied to a payment method. Once a Gmail connection is set up in Proton Mail using Easy Switch, you can use Newsletters view to easily organize your subscriptions and spot accounts you may have missed.
2. Download your personal data from Google: Use Google Takeout to export a copy of your emails, contacts, and any other Google services you use, such as Drive and Photos. You can easily transfer your Google Photos or Google Drive files to Proton Drive.
3. Disconnect Gmail from Proton Mail: Go to Settings ⚙ → All settings → Import via Easy Switch and remove your Gmail connection.

4. Delete your Gmail Account.