Asana gives you three ways to connect Outlook. The Asana integration with Outlook puts Create Task and Open Asana Add-in buttons in Outlook, so you can turn an email into a task or add it to one. The Outlook Calendar integration puts Asana tasks on your calendar. And you can forward email to an Asana address. Where it stops: each email is a click, shared mailboxes aren't supported, and the calendar sync runs one way, so a moved meeting never moves the task. AI agents read the inbox, make and update the tasks, and chase them.
What an Asana integration with Outlook has to do
Client requests and changes arrive by email. The work is planned in Asana. When the two don't meet, someone reads an email, opens Asana, types a task and pastes the details in, and the request that came in on Friday afternoon waits until someone remembers it.
A good connection turns each request into a task with an owner and a due date. It keeps the date right when the client moves it. And it makes sure someone answers the email that started it.
Three ways to connect Asana and Outlook
All three come from Asana. Its help center describes each one.
Asana for Outlook (the add-in)
- How it works
- You get the add-in from the Microsoft Marketplace. Two buttons show up in Outlook: Create Task turns an email into a new task with an owner, due date and project, and Open Asana Add-in adds the email to a task you already have as a comment.
- Good for
- People who get requests by email and want to make the task from the email in a few clicks.
- Where it breaks
- Each email is a click by a person. Asana's guide says you can set a due date only when you create the task, not change it later from Outlook. In Asana's forum, Asana support said the add-in isn't supported in shared mailboxes.
The Outlook Calendar integration
- How it works
- From Customize, then Apps, in My tasks or a project, you connect Outlook Calendar. Asana makes and updates calendar events for the tasks you set, like tasks assigned to you or all tasks in a project. It is on Starter plans and up.
- Good for
- Teams who plan their week in Outlook and want Asana due dates on the calendar.
- Where it breaks
- Asana's guide says changes go from Asana to Outlook, not back. Each person sets it up for their own account, and a Microsoft admin may have to allow it first.
Email to Asana
- How it works
- Forward an email to x@mail.asana.com to make a task in My tasks, or to a project's own address to make a task there. The subject becomes the task name and the email body becomes the description.
- Good for
- Shared inboxes and anyone who can't use the add-in, since any email program can forward.
- Where it breaks
- Someone still forwards each email. Asana's guide says to auto-forward you set up a separate forwarding account, and tasks land assigned to it until someone reassigns them. Emails over 30 MB don't go through.
Arkeo agents
- How it works
- Agents read new mail in the Outlook inboxes you allow, shared ones too, make the Asana task with the right owner, project and due date, and update the task when a later email moves the date. They follow up with the owner on late tasks and on emails nobody has answered.
- Good for
- Teams where client work arrives by email and has to be tracked in Asana without anyone retyping it.
- Where it breaks
- Anything your rules keep for a person, like a new project or a request outside the agreed work, goes to the owner in one message.
Set up the Outlook Asana integration: five steps
Asana's own guides have the full screens. These are the parts, in order.
- 1Check your Outlook and your Microsoft admin
You need a Microsoft 365 subscription and access to Microsoft AppSource. The add-in works in Outlook on the web, Outlook 2021 and later for Windows, and Outlook 2019 and later for Mac. Since February 2025 it also asks for permission to read the email and attachments you send to Asana.
- 2Install Asana for Outlook
Go to the Microsoft Marketplace, click Get it now, and follow the steps. Admins can install it for everyone at once. The Create Task and Open Asana Add-in buttons then show in Outlook's top bar.
- 3Turn one email into a task
Open a request email, click the Asana icon, then Create Asana Task. Set the owner, project and due date before you click Create task, because the add-in can't change the date later.
- 4Connect Outlook Calendar
In My tasks or a project, click Customize, then Apps, and open Outlook Calendar. In Data sync setting, use a new calendar group so Asana events don't mix with your meetings, and set which tasks go on the calendar.
- 5Give shared inboxes a project address
In the project, click Customize, then Emails, and copy the address under Add tasks via email. Forward requests from the shared inbox there, or set up the forwarding account Asana describes.
What the Asana Outlook integration leaves to people
Each of these gets an email into Asana or a task onto the calendar. The work left is the email nobody turned into a task, and the dates that change after.
Each task starts with a person. The add-in and forwarding both wait for someone to act on each email. Shared inboxes, where a lot of client requests land, are a gap: in Asana's forum, Asana support said the add-in isn't supported there, and other people in the thread said they had the same problem. Forwarding works, but each task lands on the forwarding account until someone gives it an owner.
Dates move one way. Asana's guide says the Outlook Calendar sync sends changes from Asana to Outlook, not back. If a client moves the meeting in Outlook, the Asana due date stays put. The add-in can't change a due date on a task that already exists either. Someone opens Asana and changes it by hand.
The older calendar link is slow. Asana's Sync to calendar link syncs only tasks with due dates, as all-day events, and Asana says updates after the first one can take up to a day. In one forum thread, more than a dozen people wrote that new tasks never showed in Outlook after the first sync.
And nobody chases the reply. The task exists, but nobody checks that the client got an answer, or tells the owner the task is three days late.
The agents that do it
Each agent does one job from start to finish in your own Asana and Outlook. Your team talks to them in Slack or Teams.
No request gets lost in an inbox.
- Reads requests from email and formsas they land
- Creates the task with an owner and due dateright away
- Tells the person who askedright away
Late work gets caught before the client notices.
- Finds tasks past their due dateevery day
- Asks the owner for an update in the tasksame day
- Tells the project lead what is at riskright away
Client email gets an owner and a reply.
- Reads new mail in your shared mailboxas it lands
- Files it and sends it to the right personright away
- Flags mail no one has answeredevery day
Questions
Is my customers' information safe?
Yes. Agents work in your own Asana and Outlook and see only what their job needs. Customer details never go into public AI. Agents connect to AI through business-grade connections audited under SOC 2.
Does Asana integrate with Outlook calendar?
Yes. The Outlook Calendar integration puts Asana tasks on an Outlook calendar group, on Starter plans and up. Changes go from Asana to Outlook, not back, and each person sets it up for their own account.
Does the Asana Outlook add-in work with shared mailboxes?
In Asana's forum, Asana support said the Outlook add-in isn't supported in shared mailboxes. You can forward email from a shared inbox to a project's Asana email address instead.
Why aren't my Asana tasks showing in Outlook?
If you used the Sync to calendar link, Asana says only tasks with due dates sync, finished tasks don't, and updates after the first can take up to a day. Asana staff in its forum suggest removing the calendar and adding it again.
What does it cost?
You get the price on the call, along with the hours it saves your team.