Export Outlook emails to Excel

By the Mail → Excel team · Updated 2026-10-18

Outlook has three exits: IMAP, a VBA macro inside Outlook, or PST export plus parsing. Each has a catch.

Option 1 — IMAP (works for Microsoft 365, Outlook.com and corporate)

Microsoft disabled basic auth for many tenants; app passwords still work for personal accounts with 2FA, while corporate accounts often need OAuth.

imap = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL("outlook.office365.com", 993)
imap.login("you@company.com", "app-password-or-oauth-token")
imap.select("INBOX", readonly=True)

Pros: no files to parse, works with any mailbox. Cons: OAuth setup on corporate tenants.

Option 2 — VBA macro (fast, but brittle)

Outlook can write its own table to Excel via VBA. It is fine for a few hundred messages.

Sub ExportInbox()
    Dim ns As Namespace: Set ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
    Dim inbox As Folder: Set inbox = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
    Dim xl As Object: Set xl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
    xl.Visible = True: xl.Workbooks.Add
    Dim i As Long: i = 1
    Dim item As Object
    For Each item In inbox.Items
        xl.Cells(i, 1) = item.ReceivedTime
        xl.Cells(i, 2) = item.SenderName
        xl.Cells(i, 3) = item.Subject
        i = i + 1
    Next
End Sub

Limits: slow on large folders, macro security policies, no attachment handling, and it stops if Outlook is closed.

Option 3 — PST export + parser

File → Open & Export → Import/Export → Export to a file → Outlook Data File (.pst). Then parse the PST with a library (e.g. libpff).

Best for archives and legal holds, worst for a quick spreadsheet.

Which one to pick