How to Migrate from 1Password to Bitwarden in 2026: Step-by-Step

By the end of this guide, your entire 1Password 8 vault — logins, secure notes, identities, credit cards, TOTP seeds, and custom fields — will live in Bitwarden, with every device signed in, two-factor authentication enabled, and the old account safely closed. Plan for about 45 to 60 minutes of active work if your vault holds a few hundred items. A thousand items adds another 20 or 30 minutes of spot-checking.

The short version of why people are making this move in 2026: Bitwarden Free still covers unlimited devices and the full feature set most individuals need, Bitwarden Premium remains $10 a year, and 1Password's subscription has continued its drift upward while dropping the standalone license years ago. We took the same path ourselves; if you have not already read our 1Password vs Bitwarden comparison for 2026, that piece explains which features move cleanly and which ones you will actually miss.

This guide uses the official Bitwarden import tooling with the .1pux (1Password Unencrypted Export) format, which preserves far more fields than the older .csv path. Verified against Bitwarden's import-from-1Password documentation and 1Password's export documentation as of April 2026.

What You'll Need

• An active 1Password 8 account with the desktop app installed (Mac or Windows)
• A working internet connection
• 45 to 60 minutes of uninterrupted time
• A modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari) for the Bitwarden web vault
• Your phone or an authenticator app for setting up Bitwarden 2FA
• Optional: the Bitwarden CLI if you prefer a scripted import

You do not need a Bitwarden account yet — you will create one in Step 3.

Prepare Your 1Password Vault

Before exporting, take 10 minutes to clean house. The cleaner your source vault, the less junk you have to sort through afterward in Bitwarden.

Open 1Password and walk through the sidebar category by category:

• Logins: delete dead entries for services you no longer use. Combine duplicates where the same site has three variations from different browsers.
• Secure Notes: 1Password lets notes mix with arbitrary attachments. Bitwarden's importer will bring the note text but not file attachments — flag any note whose attachment you actually need and save those files separately to your local disk.
• Items with TOTP (one-time codes): confirm the little clock icon is present on each entry you expect. The .1pux export does preserve TOTP secrets for entries where 1Password stored a totp field — but not QR codes stored as images. If any 2FA setup lives only as a screenshot, recapture it into the TOTP field now.
• Shared vaults: exports include only the vault you are logged into. If you use a family account, export each vault you own access to separately.

Empty the Trash inside 1Password before exporting so deleted items do not come along for the ride.

Export Your 1Password Data

1Password 8 produces two export formats: 1Password Unencrypted Export (.1pux), which includes every field type, and CSV, which includes only Login and Password items. Use .1pux unless you have a specific reason not to.

On macOS

1. Open and unlock 1Password.
2. In the menu bar, choose File → Export → [Your Account Name].
3. Enter your account password when prompted.
4. Select 1PUX as the file format.
5. Click Export Data and choose a destination on your local disk.

On Windows

1. Open and unlock 1Password.
2. Click the ellipsis (…) at the top of the sidebar and choose Export.
3. Select the account to export.
4. Enter your account password.
5. Select 1PUX as the file format.
6. Click Export Data and choose a destination.

On the 1Password CLI

If you run op on the command line, the CLI does not produce .1pux directly — export still has to happen from the desktop app. The CLI can, however, list and read items if you want to cross-reference what made it into the archive afterward.

The exported file is plaintext. Save it somewhere only your user account can read — not a synced cloud folder — and set a calendar reminder to delete it once you have finished verification.

Create a Bitwarden Account

Go to bitwarden.com and click Get Started. The Free tier is genuinely complete for individuals: unlimited items, unlimited synced devices, and optional self-hosting. Premium at $10 per year adds built-in TOTP generation inside the Bitwarden client, attached file storage, emergency access, and hardware security key support. Families at $40 per year covers six users.

Enter your email, master password, and a password hint. Your master password is unrecoverable — write it down on paper and store it somewhere you could access in an emergency, because Bitwarden cannot reset it for you. The Bitwarden registration page includes a password strength meter; aim for at least a 14-character passphrase.

Verify the email they send you, then log in at the web vault (vault.bitwarden.com or your self-hosted instance). Leave 2FA for later — you want to import first and secure after.

Import Your Data into Bitwarden

The web vault is the most reliable import path. Browser extensions and desktop apps can also import, but the web UI surfaces import errors most clearly.

1. Sign in at vault.bitwarden.com.
2. In the left navigation, click Tools → Import Data.
3. For Vault: leave it as "My Vault" unless you have already set up an Organization.
4. For Folder: optionally choose an existing folder, or leave as "No Folder" to preserve the 1Password tag structure.
5. For File format: select 1Password (.1pux).
6. Click Choose File, pick the .1pux file you exported, and click Import Data.

Bitwarden will process the archive and show a green success message with an item count. Large vaults of 1,000+ items may take 30 seconds to a minute. If you see a red error, scroll up — the banner usually names the specific item that failed to parse, and you can import the rest and handle that one manually.

Verify Your Import

Do not delete the 1Password account yet. Work through a verification checklist in the Bitwarden web vault:

• Item count: the number of items Bitwarden reports after import should match the item count shown in 1Password's sidebar, minus any you deleted.
• Login credentials: open 8 or 10 random logins and confirm that the URL, username, and password are correct. Copy a password from Bitwarden and confirm it logs in to the actual service.
• TOTP codes: for every item that had a TOTP code in 1Password, open it in Bitwarden and confirm the Authenticator Key (TOTP) field is populated and generating a 6-digit code that matches your phone's authenticator. TOTP generation in the Bitwarden client requires Premium; the seed itself is imported regardless.
• Custom fields: open an item you know had custom fields (security questions, PINs, membership numbers). These land under "Custom Fields" at the bottom of the Bitwarden item detail — confirm they survived.
• Secure notes, identities, credit cards: spot-check one of each category.
• Attachments: these do not import. Re-upload important attachments manually (Bitwarden Premium includes 1 GB of attachment storage).

Flag any missing items in a throwaway text file and re-enter them manually from 1Password. This is the single most common spot to discover gaps, especially for items with unusual field types.

Set Up Bitwarden on All Devices

Once your web vault looks right, install Bitwarden everywhere you used 1Password. Use your master password to log in on each; the encrypted vault syncs from the server on first unlock.

• Browser extensions: install from the Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons, Edge Add-ons, or the Safari App Store. Pin the extension to your toolbar.
• iOS: install Bitwarden from the App Store. Open Settings → General → AutoFill & Passwords and enable Bitwarden (you can disable 1Password at the same time).
• Android: install from Google Play. Enable autofill under Settings → System → Languages & input → Autofill service and pick Bitwarden.
• Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux): grab the installer from bitwarden.com/download. The desktop app is handy for biometric unlock and for bulk edits.
• Terminal: brew install bitwarden-cli on macOS, choco install bitwarden-cli on Windows, or download the binary. bw login then bw unlock gives you scriptable access.

Enable biometric unlock on mobile and on the desktop app so you are not typing the master password all day.

Secure Your New Vault

With items and devices in place, turn on every security feature Bitwarden offers.

In the web vault, go to Account Settings → Security → Two-step Login. Bitwarden Free includes email and authenticator app (TOTP) 2FA. Premium adds YubiKey, Duo, and FIDO2 WebAuthn. At minimum, enable the Authenticator app method with a TOTP code stored in a second authenticator (not inside Bitwarden itself — never inside the thing it is protecting).

Print or write down the recovery code Bitwarden shows you. Store it with your master password somewhere physical.

Run the Data Breach Report and Vault Health Reports (Premium) and work through reused, weak, and exposed passwords. Now that everything is in one place, this is the best time to fix the tail of bad passwords you have been ignoring for years.

Set your vault timeout: Settings → Security → Vault timeout — a five-minute timeout plus biometric unlock is a reasonable balance.

Delete Your 1Password Account

Give yourself a 7-day cooling-off period. Use Bitwarden for all logins during that week; you will discover any missing items through normal use much faster than by audit.

Once you are confident nothing is missing:

1. Sign in at my.1password.com.
2. Open your profile menu and go to Manage Profile.
3. Scroll to Delete Account and follow the confirmation flow. 1Password will email you to confirm — the account is not deleted until you click the link.
4. Cancel the recurring subscription if it is not automatically closed.
5. Remove the 1Password browser extensions, iOS, Android, and desktop apps.

Finally, securely delete the .1pux export from your local disk. On macOS and Linux, move it to the Trash and empty, or use rm followed by shred on Linux. On Windows, delete and then empty the Recycle Bin, and run a secure-delete utility if the drive is not full-disk encrypted.

Troubleshoot Common Migration Issues

"Unable to parse import data" error: Bitwarden's parser sometimes chokes on .1pux exports from very old 1Password vaults. Re-export from the latest 1Password 8 client — the format revision matters. As a last resort, export as CSV; you lose custom fields and item types but logins and passwords import cleanly.

TOTP codes not generating: The seed imported but Bitwarden Free does not generate codes in the client. Either upgrade to Premium ($10/year) or use a standalone authenticator such as Aegis or Raivo and keep the seeds in Bitwarden as a backup.

Duplicate items after import: Did you run the import twice? Use Tools → Export Vault in Bitwarden, then Tools → Purge Vault, and re-import cleanly. There is no built-in dedupe.

Folder structure lost: 1Password tags and vaults map to Bitwarden folders only partially. Rebuild the folder tree once under Vault → Folders and bulk-move items using the web vault's multi-select checkboxes.

Autofill not working in a browser: Check that the Bitwarden extension is enabled, that the URL in the item matches the site exactly (including protocol), and that the browser's built-in password manager is disabled — Chrome and Safari will otherwise fight Bitwarden for the autofill prompt.

Are TOTP Codes Migrated from 1Password to Bitwarden?

Yes. The .1pux export preserves the underlying TOTP secret for every item where you stored one in 1Password, and Bitwarden imports them into the Authenticator Key (TOTP) field. Actually generating the 6-digit code inside Bitwarden requires Bitwarden Premium; on the Free tier, the seed is stored but you generate codes with a separate authenticator app.

What to Do Next

Your migration is complete. A few natural next steps:

• Read our full 1Password vs Bitwarden 2026 comparison for a feature-by-feature look at where Bitwarden still trails and where it has pulled ahead.
• Consult the official Bitwarden import documentation if you hit an edge case this guide did not cover.
• Consider self-hosting Bitwarden (via the lightweight Vaultwarden server) on your own infrastructure — our Proxmox VE home server guide is the right starting point.

Reminder: securely delete the .1pux file now. It contains every password you have ever stored, unencrypted.