Add an email account to Outlook for Windows

There are many different types of email accounts you can add to Outlook, including an Outlook.com or Hotmail.com account, the work or school account you use with Microsoft 365, Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, and Exchange accounts.

Select a tab option below for the version of Outlook you're using. What version of Outlook do I have?

Note: If the steps under this New Outlook tab don't work, you may not be using new Outlook for Windows yet. Select the Classic Outlook tab and follow those steps instead.

In this article:

Add a new account | Set as primary account | Remove account | Troubleshoot password issues

Add a new account in new Outlook

On the View tab, select View settings.
Select Accounts > Email accounts. You can now add a new account.
Under Email accounts, select Add Account, and select a suggested account from the dropdown menu or enter a different email address. Click Continue.

Note: Some non-Microsoft email providers, like Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud, require you to change some settings on their websites before you can add these accounts to Outlook.
If prompted, enter your password for the account and select Done.

Set as primary account in new Outlook

On the View tab, select View settings > Accounts > Email accounts.
In the Email accounts section, find the account you want to make changes to or delete. Beside the account name, select Manage.
Under Account details, select Set as primary account.
When you're finished, select Return to accounts page, or close the Settings window

Remove an account in new Outlook

On the View tab, select View settings > Accounts > Email accounts.
In the Email accounts section, find the account you want to delete. Beside the account name, select Manage.
Under Account details, select Remove to remove this account from Outlook. Any offline cached content for this account will be deleted when you remove the account.

Note: This step only removes the account from the Outlook app, it doesn't delete the account. To delete an account, get help from your email provider.
For accounts where Microsoft isn't the email provider (for example, Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, and non-Microsoft IMAP and POP accounts), the Remove Account window appears. Select an option to remove the account from only this device or from all devices. If you select, Remove from all devices, your account will be removed from all devices where you added your account to Outlook.
When you're finished, select Return to accounts page, or close the Settings window.

Troubleshoot password issues when adding an account in new Outlook

Forgot your password

If you forgot the password for a Microsoft account, use our sign-in helper to get back into your account, or see Reset a forgotten Microsoft account password.

If you forgot your password for a work or school account, see Reset your work or school password using security info.

App password message

If you know you’re using the correct password for your email account, and you see a message such as:

Please create an app password for Outlook on your email provider's site.

App passwords are randomly generated one-time use passwords that provide temporary access to your online accounts. Temporary passwords act as a security layer, preventing the need to share your main account credentials with potentially less secure or unknown applications.

Depending on your email provider, an app password may be necessary to add certain account types to Outlook such as IMAP or iCloud accounts.

To add an app password, do the following:

Go to your email provider to get the app password. Your email provider will provide instructions for how to generate an app password to use in email applications such as Outlook in place of your regular password.
After you get the app password from your provider, copy it, and then paste it when prompted for your account password in Outlook.

For specific help with adding a Gmail or iCloud account, see Add a Gmail account or Add or manage an iCloud email account.