Microsoft To Do vs Google Tasks in 2026: which is better?

Microsoft To Do and Google Tasks solve the same problem for free, so the deciding factor is rarely a single feature. It's where the rest of your day happens: Outlook and Microsoft 365, or Gmail and Google Calendar.

We checked every fact below against Microsoft's and Google's own help pages on 3 Oct 2026.

Microsoft To Do vs Google Tasks at a glance

Which one fits your apps and devices?

🥇 Verdict: Microsoft To Do, if you want a desktop app. Google Tasks has none, but it opens right inside Gmail, Calendar and Docs.

Microsoft To Do is a standalone app on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and the web. Its tasks are stored in Exchange, the same place Outlook keeps its tasks, so they show up in Outlook too.

Google Tasks has mobile apps for Android and iPhone. On a computer, it opens inside Google Calendar or in the side panel of Gmail, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides. There is no Windows or Mac app. Our Google Tasks guide walks through the basics.

A personal account is enough for either app. On a work or school account, your administrator controls access to Google Tasks, while To Do needs an eligible Microsoft 365 plan and an Exchange Online mailbox.

Google caps Tasks at 100,000 tasks across all lists and 20,000 open tasks per list. Microsoft doesn't publish limits for To Do.

Which one puts tasks on your calendar?

🥇 Verdict: Google Tasks, clearly. Its tasks appear on Google Calendar on their own, with a time and a length if you want one.

A Google task can have a date and time, a separate deadline, and a repeat rule. Any task with a date appears on Google Calendar. When you create the task in Calendar, you can also set how long it takes and show yourself as busy for that block.

Notifications follow the time you set. A task with a date but no time notifies you at 9 AM, and so does a deadline on its day.

The Do not disturb and Automatically decline meetings options for task blocks are limited to work or school accounts. Our guide to tasks in Google Calendar covers the setup.

Microsoft To Do treats dates and times separately. A due date is a day with no time, and only Remind me takes a date and time. Repeats can be daily, weekdays, weekly, monthly, yearly or custom.

To Do has no calendar view, and tasks don't appear on your Outlook calendar by themselves. In new Outlook and Outlook on the web, you drag a task from the My Day pane onto the calendar to create an event.

An answer on Microsoft Q&A in February 2026 calls dragging "currently the supported way".

What To Do offers instead is My Day, a daily list you fill from your other lists. It clears at midnight without deleting any task, which suits planning by list rather than by the clock.

Which one turns email into tasks?

🥇 Verdict: the one that matches your inbox. Gmail's version works with any Gmail address; To Do's needs a mailbox hosted by Microsoft.

In Gmail, open an email and click Add to Tasks, or drag the email into the Tasks side panel (Google's steps). Google Chat works the same way for direct messages.

In Outlook, you flag an email and it appears in To Do's Flagged email list, with a preview of the message and an Open in Outlook link. From there you can rename it, give it a due date and reminder, add it to My Day or mark it important.

Microsoft's flagged email page lists three limits:

• Microsoft-hosted mail only. It works with Outlook.com, Hotmail.com and Live.com addresses, and with custom domains hosted by Microsoft. A Gmail account added to Outlook doesn't feed it.
• A 30-day start. Turning it on pulls in the 100 most recently flagged emails from the last 30 days, then every new flag.
• Primary mailbox only. Flags in shared mailboxes and shared folders don't sync.

How do To Do's steps compare with subtasks?

🥇 Verdict: Microsoft To Do holds more detail per task, while Google Tasks is better at breaking a task into pieces.

Google Tasks has real subtasks nested under a parent task. One catch from Google's own help: a task with subtasks can't repeat.

Microsoft To Do uses steps instead. A step is a checkbox inside the task's detail view, with no date or reminder of its own, so it works as a checklist rather than as a smaller task.

To Do also gives each task more room (Microsoft's help):

• Files: any file type, up to 25 MB per task.
• Tags: a hashtag such as #work in the title, which you can then search for.
• Categories: the same color categories you use in Outlook.

Google Tasks has no tags or categories. It keeps notes, a star and five sort orders: My order, Date, Deadline, Starred recently and Title. Both apps mark priority with a single star, and neither has priority levels.

Which one is better for sharing?

🥇 Verdict: Microsoft To Do. It has shared lists and Google Tasks doesn't.

In To Do, you can share a list and assign tasks to any member, including yourself. Sharing works between personal Microsoft accounts, or between accounts in the same organization, which suits a family list or a team inside one company.

Google Tasks has no shared lists, but you can hand out tasks in two places:

• Google Chat spaces: add a space task and assign it to a member, who gets an email and sees the task in their own list (Google).
• Google Docs: type @task to assign a task to yourself or someone else, on eligible Google Workspace plans.

Which should you choose?

• Choose Google Tasks if you work in Gmail and Google Calendar, plan your day in time blocks, and are happy with a browser and a phone app.
• Choose Microsoft To Do if you work in Outlook or Microsoft 365, want a desktop app on Windows or Mac, or share lists with family or coworkers.
• Keep both if your job runs on Microsoft 365 and your personal life on Gmail. Neither app syncs with the other, so the next section shows one way to see both lists in one place.

If the choice is really about the whole ecosystem, our Outlook Calendar vs Google Calendar comparison covers the calendar side. If you need projects, filters or board views that neither app has, see Microsoft To Do vs Todoist and Todoist vs Google Tasks.

Using both? Put work and personal tasks in one Notion database

Plenty of people don't get to choose: the employer runs Microsoft 365, and personal life runs on Gmail. The two task apps never talk to each other, so you end up checking two lists.

One fix is a single database in Notion, a workspace app that can show the same tasks as a table, a board or a calendar.

2sync syncs Notion two-way with Microsoft To Do and Google Tasks, and with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Todoist, Gmail, Outlook Mail and your contacts. You create one automation per app and point both at the same database:

1. Connect Microsoft To Do and choose the lists to sync.
2. Connect Google Tasks and choose its lists.
3. Add a Source property to the database and give each automation a filter, so each one only handles its own tasks (how to run several automations on one database).

What syncs from each side:

• Microsoft To Do: title, notes, due date, start date, reminder, importance, categories, status, completion and list sync both ways. Steps and flagged emails arrive in Notion too.
• Google Tasks: title, notes, due date, completion and list sync both ways, and subtasks keep their parent as a Notion relation.

Conclusion

Both apps are free, so pick the one that matches where you already work. Gmail and Google Calendar point to Google Tasks, especially if you plan your day in time blocks.

Outlook, a Windows or Mac desktop and shared family lists point to Microsoft To Do. If you need both, keep both and sync them into one Notion database.

FAQ