How to export Gmail emails

You can export Gmail emails in bulk with Google Takeout, which writes every message of a label or the whole account into an MBOX file. One message exports as an .eml from the three-dot menu, and a mailbox bound for Outlook goes out as a PST through Outlook itself. The MBOX and the EML both open in your browser with the converter, where you can save any message as PDF without uploading anything.

Export Gmail emails in bulk with Google Takeout

Takeout is Google's own export and the only built-in way to get every message out at once. It runs on Google's side, so your computer does not need to stay on, and it includes attachments, labels and the original headers.

1. Open takeout.google.com and sign in to the account you want to export.
2. Click Deselect all, then tick Mail.
3. Click All Mail data included. Leave it as is for the whole account, or untick it and select only the labels you need (for example Sent and one client label).
4. Click Next step. Pick Send download link via email, Export once, file type .zip, and a part size.
5. Click Create export and wait for the email. Download every part before the link expires (a week).

Unzipped, you get one .mbox file per label, or a single All mail Including Spam and Trash.mbox for the whole account. The file size is close to the storage your mailbox uses, so a 15 GB account becomes roughly 15 GB of MBOX.

Have the email as a file (EML, MSG, MBOX)? Convert it to PDF in your browser: nothing is uploaded.

Export one email or a handful

For a few messages, Takeout is overkill. Open each email, click the three dots at the top right of the message and choose Download message. Gmail saves an .eml file with the attachments inside. If the goal is something a colleague can read without a mail client, use the printer icon and Save as PDF instead; the details are in how to save Gmail as PDF.

A search filter narrows what you open. For example from:accounting@example.com has:attachment after:2026/01/01 lists exactly the invoices to download, one Download message each.

Export Gmail to Outlook, or Outlook to Gmail

Gmail has no PST export. The route to Outlook runs through Outlook desktop: add the Gmail account to Outlook over IMAP (Gmail Settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP, Enable IMAP), wait until the folders finish downloading, then use File, Open and Export, Import/Export, Export to a file, Outlook Data File (.pst). Step by step in Gmail to PST.

The opposite direction is built into Gmail. In the Gmail account open Settings, See all settings, Accounts and Import, Import mail and contacts, and sign in to the Outlook.com or other account; Gmail copies the mail over a few hours or days. For a PST file you already have, see PST to Gmail. Moving between two Gmail accounts has its own options in move emails to another Gmail account.

Open the exported MBOX and save messages as PDF

An MBOX is plain text, but at mailbox size nothing on a normal computer reads it well. Drop the file on SaveMail and the tool lists every message inside; click one and it renders with its header block (From, To, Cc, Date, Subject, Message-ID), body, inline images and attachments. Press Save as PDF for the message you need, download its attachments as a ZIP, then move to the next.

The whole thing happens in the browser tab. There is no upload: the File API reads the file on your device, parsing runs in JavaScript, and closing the tab removes everything. Files of a few hundred MB open, though listing thousands of messages takes a few seconds. It is one message at a time, so a label of 300 emails means 300 Save as PDF clicks, and there is no merged multi-message PDF. The dedicated page is MBOX to PDF.

Which export fits which job

Export limits worth knowing

Takeout exports what Gmail stores, so Spam and Trash are included unless you untick them under the Mail options, and chat history from Google Chat is a separate product. Labels survive as an X-Gmail-Labels header on each message; the converter does not display that header, so note the label in the file name if you need it. Export of a Google Workspace account may be disabled by the administrator; the admin can run a domain-wide export instead.

The export is a snapshot. Mail that arrives after you click Create export is not in it, and there is no built-in incremental export, so for an ongoing copy pair a Takeout with a forwarding filter or a scheduled export, as described in backup Gmail emails.

Frequently asked questions