Your calendar is packed, but you still forget that one appointment. Or you’re trying to schedule a meeting with five colleagues and lose track in endless email exchanges. Google Calendar is Google’s free online calendar designed to solve those kinds of hassles. It automatically syncs across all your devices, integrates with Gmail and Google Meet, and lets you share calendars with anyone you want.
Who’s behind Google Calendar?
Google Calendar comes from Google LLC, the tech company that Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded in 1998 in Mountain View, California. But the calendar itself wasn’t their brainchild. It started as a so-called ‘20% project’ – an internal Google initiative where engineers could spend one day a week working on their own ideas. Engineer Mike Samuel saw an opportunity to build a user-friendly, shareable calendar that would integrate directly with Gmail and the web. That idea got the green light and was launched in 2006.
Since then, Google Calendar has grown into one of the most widely used calendar tools in the world. It has more than 500 million users and is part of Google Workspace, the suite of business tools that together serves over 3 billion users. Over the years, Google has expanded the tool with AI features for smart scheduling suggestions and automatic event creation based on your emails. It remains one of the few Google products available both free and paid, depending on whether you need the business features.
Who is Google Calendar for?
Google Calendar has a broad audience: from freelancers who want to track client appointments to large companies that need to coordinate team calendars. Students use it for classes and deadlines, teams for collaborative planning. The tool is especially suited for people already in the Google ecosystem – think Gmail, Google Drive, or Google Meet. Then everything works together automatically.
Google Calendar isn’t suitable for those who fundamentally don’t want to use cloud services. If you want to keep your calendar locally on your own computer without data going to external servers, you’ll need to look for a different solution. Also, those specifically looking for advanced project management or task management are probably better off with specialized tools.
What can Google Calendar do?
The free version of Google Calendar already offers the essentials: scheduling appointments, setting reminders, sharing calendars, and syncing across devices. For business features like advanced booking pages, more extensive management options, and priority support, you’ll need a Google Workspace subscription. Here are the main capabilities:
- Schedule events and appointments: You create an appointment with a title, time, location, and description. The interface works with drag-and-drop, so you just drag events to another time. You can set recurring appointments (weekly, monthly, yearly) and invite guests who automatically receive an email invitation.
- Shared calendars for teams: Create separate calendars for projects, teams, or departments and determine who can view or edit them. Useful when you want to see when colleagues are available without needing to know their private appointments. You can display multiple calendars simultaneously in different colors.
- Google Meet video integration: For every appointment, you can automatically add a Meet link. Guests just need to click the link to join the video call. This works directly from the calendar without having to switch to another app.
- Appointment Schedules: Set up time slots when others can book an appointment with you, similar to Calendly. You share a link and people choose an available time themselves. This feature is included in the paid Workspace plans and saves endless back-and-forth emailing about availability.
- Tasks and reminders integration: Connect Google Tasks to your calendar to see to-dos between your appointments. Reminders appear as notifications on your phone or computer. You can also set goals that Google automatically schedules in your calendar at times when you have availability.
- Mobile apps with offline access: The iOS and Android apps let you view and edit your calendar without an internet connection. Changes sync as soon as you’re back online. The iOS widget gets a lot of praise because you can see your entire week at a glance on your home screen.
- Automatic events from Gmail: Google reads your emails and automatically adds flights, hotel bookings, and restaurant reservations to your calendar. You don’t have to do anything yourself – the appointment appears automatically with all relevant information like confirmation numbers and addresses.
How much does Google Calendar cost?
The personal version of Google Calendar is completely free. You get all the basic features without limitations: unlimited events, calendar sharing, mobile apps, Google Meet integration. For most individuals and small freelancers, this is more than enough.
If you want business features like appointment scheduling pages, advanced management options, and expanded storage space, you’ll need a Google Workspace subscription. Business Starter costs $1 per month with annual billing ($1.40 per month). Business Standard is $1 per month ($1.80 monthly) and Business Plus is $1 per month ($1.40 monthly). These prices are per user.
Google offers a 14-day trial for business plans. You can try all the features before paying. Note: the calendar itself is the same across all plans, but you do get additional Google Workspace tools like more Drive storage, advanced Gmail features, and better security.
What should you watch out for?
Google Calendar’s design feels dated. While tools like Notion and Cron (now part of Notion) have a modern, sleek interface, Google Calendar still looks like a tool from 2010. Google adds few innovative features – the basics work well, but innovation is lacking.
There’s no native desktop app for Windows or macOS. You always have to work through the browser, which feels less convenient than a dedicated program for some people. The Chrome extension does help with offline access, but it remains a web application.
Task management is limited. Google Tasks does integrate with the calendar, but the functionality is basic compared to real task management tools. For complex projects or GTD systems, it falls short. You can’t create subtasks, priorities are simple, and the overviews are sparse.
Synchronization sometimes merges accounts unintentionally. Users complain that the mobile app mixes up personal and work calendars or has difficulty keeping them separate. This can be confusing if you want to keep both strictly separate.
There are persistent bugs. A frequently mentioned one: the app sometimes freezes when editing a location. Another: the time zone spontaneously jumps to GMT, causing all your appointments to suddenly show at the wrong time. Google is slow to fix these kinds of problems. Also, removing specific holidays from your calendar turns out to be unnecessarily complicated.
Google Calendar alternatives
Google Calendar is popular, but not the best choice for everyone. Depending on your situation, these alternatives might be a better fit:
- Outlook Calendar: Choose this if your organization uses Microsoft 365. The integration with Outlook Mail, Teams, and other Office apps is deeper than what Google offers. The desktop app is also more mature.
- Apple Calendar: Suitable if you only use Apple products. The app is simpler and works natively on iPhone, iPad, and Mac without a browser. Fewer features, but faster and more pleasant if you’re in the Apple ecosystem.
- Calendly: Choose this if you need to schedule a lot of external appointments with clients or candidates. The scheduling options are much more advanced than Google’s Appointment Schedules, with more customization options and better workflows.
Frequently asked questions
Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions about Google Calendar:
Is Google Calendar free?
Yes, the personal version is completely free and offers all the basic features most people need. For business features like advanced booking pages and extensive management, you need a Google Workspace subscription, but for personal use you pay nothing.
Can I share my calendar with others?
Yes, you can share specific calendars with colleagues, friends, or family. You decide what permissions they get: view only, make changes, or full control. This works well for team calendars or family schedules where multiple people need access.
Does Google Calendar work offline?
Yes, through the mobile app on iOS and Android you can view your calendar offline and make changes. In the Chrome browser, you can also work offline with an extension. As soon as you have internet again, all changes sync automatically.
Conclusion
Google Calendar is a reliable, free calendar tool that works well if you already use Gmail or other Google services. The automatic integration with emails, the ease of sharing, and the solid mobile apps make it a logical choice for many people. The design does feel dated and true innovation is lacking, but the basics are just right. For those who need complex task management or advanced external scheduling, there are better alternatives. But if you want a no-nonsense calendar that just works and costs nothing, Google Calendar is hard to beat.
