When I started using Outlook to view all my email accounts in one place, I didn’t realize that signing out would be so tricky. While Outlook’s website provides an easy sign-out option, its Windows and mobile apps don't offer a clear way to sign out of your account.

What’s more, if you’ve added multiple accounts, such as adding your Gmail accounts to Outlook, you can’t just sign out of all of them at once. If you just want to sign out of Outlook, here’s everything you need to know.

How to sign out of Outlook on a browser

The simplest way to sign out

You can only log into your Microsoft or Outlook account when using the Outlook website on your browser.

While the web is similar, it’s missing a few notable features. For instance, I can’t see the Gmail accounts I have linked to my desktop app, and it also lacks a button to easily add another email account.

Regardless of what the browser version is lacking, signing out is simple. Click on your initials in the top right bar and select Sign out. That’s easy enough. However, the process is trickier if you use Windows or mobile apps.

How to sign out of the Outlook app on Windows 11

Remove email accounts individually

Unlike the web application, the Outlook app doesn’t offer a direct sign-out option. Since the app allows you to sign in to multiple accounts, like Gmail, it also requires you to remove them individually to log out of Outlook completely.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the left pane where your email accounts are listed, hover over the email account you want to sign out of and click on the three dots that appear.
2. Select Manage account. This will open a window with all your linked email accounts.
3. Click Manage next to the account you want to sign out of.
4. On the next page, select Remove.
5. Choose whether to remove the account from just your Windows computer or from all devices where you’re signed into, then click OK.

Once you remove your account, Outlook will sign you out. If you want to use the Outlook app with the account again, you will need to re-link it.

How to sign out of Outlook on the mobile app

Using the Remove Account option

When signing out of Outlook on the mobile app, you’ll encounter the same issue — there’s no simple sign-out option. You have to remove the email account from the app. For this guide, I used the Android app for the demonstration.

To sign out of an email account on the Outlook mobile app:

1. Tap the email account icon at the top left of the app.
2. Select the cog icon at the bottom.
3. Scroll down to General and tap on Accounts.
4. Select the account you want to remove.
5. Scroll down to Remove Account.
6. In the popup menu, tap Remove.

Get control over your Outlook accounts

It turns out that signing out of Outlook is not as simple as it should be unless you’re using the web version. But once you know the process, you can easily add and remove accounts without getting lost in the abundance of menus on the app.

Since signing out is less simple on the apps, use the website if you just want to quickly sign in and out of your main Outlook account while using a temporary device to check your emails. Save the apps for your main devices so you don’t have to regularly add and remove accounts since this requires you to go through the setup process again.