Guide
Google has a proper import tool for this — but only for companies using Google Workspace, run by an administrator. For a personal Microsoft account and a personal Google account there is no button that connects the two. So the move is either done by hand through your computer, or by a service that copies between the clouds for you. Both are covered here, in plain language.
Fine for a small OneDrive, and worth trying first.
What to expect: Photos, videos, PDFs and Office files arrive exactly as they were, and Google Drive opens Word, Excel and PowerPoint files without converting them. Files that other people shared with you are not included — they belong to their owners.
Both services offer a desktop app that keeps a copy of your cloud on your computer. Put them next to each other and the move becomes a copy-paste.
Google accepts about 750 GB per day into one account. A 2 TB archive therefore takes three days at the very least, no matter how fast your connection is. The upload simply pauses until the next day and continues — that's normal, not a failure. Your computer needs to stay on and awake the whole time.
If Drive for desktop seems stuck for hours, check your free space in Google Drive before anything else: a full quota is the most common reason a transfer quietly stops.
If you have hundreds of gigabytes, or you'd rather not leave a computer running for days, a transfer service connects to both accounts and copies directly between them. Nothing goes through your machine, and daily limits are handled for you.
That's what DriveFerry is built for. You connect Microsoft and Google, tell us what to move, and we run the transfer — for as many days as it takes — and send you a report listing what arrived, which shared files were included, and anything that needs a second look. It's a flat one-time price, and early access is open now with a founder discount.
See DriveFerry →Whichever method you used, keep OneDrive alive for a while. Transfers can look finished with files missing, and you only notice when you go looking. Give it 30 days, and check these seven things first:
7 things to know before moving files between cloud services →
Under 20 GB: an afternoon. A few hundred GB with the desktop apps: one to three days, mostly waiting. Multiple terabytes: several days with any method, because Google limits how much it accepts per day. A service gives you an estimate upfront.
Very likely. A free Google account has 15 GB shared with Gmail and Google Photos, while Microsoft 365 gives you 1 TB. Compare before you start — if Google fills up, the transfer stops.
Yes. Google Drive stores them as they are and can open and edit them in Docs and Sheets without converting. If you later convert them to Google's own formats, complex spreadsheets may lose some formatting.
Not directly. Shared items belong to their owners. Copy them into your own OneDrive first (open the shared item → Copy to → your OneDrive), then move them like any other file.
Not right away. Keep it for at least 30 days after you're confident everything arrived. Cancel the Microsoft 365 renewal if you have one, but leave the account alive as a safety net.