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Nearly every webmail provider supports importing and exporting contacts using the CSV format (this stands for "Comma-separated values
" - a plain-text format that can be read on any operating system). Google is no exception, and this tutorial shows you how to export your Gmail contacts so that you can import them into your Outlook.com account. The whole process doesn't take more than five minutes, after which you'll have all your Google contacts' name and email addresses available as auto-complete inside Hotmail! Quick note for beginners: exporting your Gmail address book doesn't affect your contacts in any way - they all remain there, only a copy of their information is exported, as a downloadable file.
Quick Steps to import Gmail contacts into Outlook.com:
First, log into your Gmail account; once in your inbox, click on the "Gmail" dropdown button (top left corner) and choose "Contacts". This will load your "Google Contacts" page, which is -in effect- your Gmail address book.
On the next screen, select the contacts you want to export; since you probably want to export your entire address book, click on the checkbox in the dropdown arrow button to select everyone (see screenshot on the right). Unlike other webmail providers, Gmail lets you selectively export, which is awesome.
Note: make sure that the correct group of contacts is selected in the left pane ("starred
", "friends
", "imported
", "most contacted
", or "other contacts
"). Within the selected grouping, you can choose which of those people to pick, using the global or individual checkboxes!Once you've made your selection, click on the "More" dropdown button and select "Export" from the menu. In the popup that opens, keep the "Selected contacts" option, and choose "Outlook CSV format
" at the bottom - this is the setting to use to export from Google to any webmail provider (except another Gmail account), or any desktop email client. Now click on the Export button: 
Within a few seconds, you'll see a download dialog appear, or info bar at the bottom (depending on the browser you are using). Save the exported CSV file on your desktop, or any easy-to-find download folder; consider renaming the file to something less generic than the default "contacts.csv
" (example: "Gmail contacts - November 2014 export.csv
") - you'll thank yourself in six months :) 
The next step is easy: sign into your Hotmail / Outlook.com account. From your inbox, click on the grid icon (top left corner of the page), and click on the People tile / button. Once your contact list has loaded, scroll all the way to the bottom of the right pane, and click "Start import".
On the next screen, click on the "Google" button, for example (all buttons do exactly the same thing - the difference is only in the instructions you are given to export your contacts from the particular webmail service). Since you've already exported the contacts you wanted, just click on the Browse button (which may be labeled differently, depending on your web browser and operating system). Navigate to the folder where you saved your contacts, select the file, and click OK / Open: 
The rest of the process is fairly simple, and doesn't vary from one provider to another: if you need extra help (especially when it comes to dealing with duplicate contacts, and selecting importing), have a look at our "Import contacts into Hotmail / Outlook.com" tutorial, which covers the topic in depth!
Once you've finished importing your Google contacts, click on the grid button once more (top left corner), and click "Outlook.com" to go back to your inbox. From there compose a new message, and start typing the name or email address of one of the Gmail contacts you just imported: it should immediately be visible as auto-complete suggestion in the recipient fields (To / Cc / Bcc).
Related Tutorials: Import Yahoo contacts | Import AOL contacts | Import old Hotmail contacts
Tip: if you want to edit your CSV file and don't have Excel, Numbers, or a LibreOffice / OpenOffice productivity suite installed on your computer, you can download "Gnumeric". It's a free, standalone spreadsheet app that can handle CSV files - and many other formats. (I use it all the time on PCs that don't have some version of Office installed - it's an awesome program, especially for the price :) The latest version compiled for Windows is available