How to Sync Google Calendar with Outlook (2026 Guide)

You put a dentist appointment in Google Calendar. A coworker looks at your Outlook calendar, sees an empty slot and books a meeting on top of it. Google and Microsoft don't share calendars with each other, so each one only knows half your schedule.

This guide covers every way to connect Google Calendar and Outlook in 2026, what each method can and can't do, and how to set up sync that keeps both calendars accurate.

Short answer: adding your Google account to Outlook lets you see both calendars in one app, but nothing is copied, so coworkers still see you as free. An ICS subscription copies events one way as a read-only calendar, but it refreshes only every few hours. For events that actually appear on both calendars, use a sync service such as AllMyMeetings. The free plan covers one one-way Free/Busy sync, and two-way sync starts at $5 a month.

Why Google Calendar and Outlook don't sync on their own

Google keeps your events in Google Calendar. Microsoft keeps Outlook.com and Microsoft 365 events in Exchange. Neither company copies events into the other's service.

That matters because availability checks only read one side. When a coworker opens Outlook's Scheduling Assistant, or a booking tool connected to Microsoft 365 looks for open time, it reads your Microsoft calendar and nothing else. A Google event only counts at work if a copy of it exists on your Outlook calendar.

Method comparison

Method 1: Add your Google account to Outlook

New Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac and the Outlook apps for iPhone and Android all let you add a Google account. Your Google calendars then show up in Outlook next to your work calendar.

In new Outlook for Windows:

1. Go to Settings, then Accounts, and choose Add account.
2. Enter your Gmail or Google Workspace address and sign in with Google in the window that opens.
3. Allow Outlook to access your calendar.
4. Open the calendar view. Your Google calendars appear in the left-hand list.

What it does well: one place to look at everything, and you can create Google events from Outlook.

What it doesn't do: it shows two calendars side by side. Nothing is copied to your work calendar, so Microsoft 365 availability still ignores your Google events and coworkers can still book over them. It also only helps on devices where you've added the account.

Method 2: Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook

If your Google account is a Google Workspace account (work or school, not personal Gmail) and you use classic Outlook for Windows, Google's Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook (GWSMO) adds your Workspace mail, contacts and calendar to Outlook as a separate profile. Your administrator may need to allow it.

It's useful if your company runs on Google Workspace and you prefer working in Outlook. It doesn't merge anything into a Microsoft 365 calendar, it doesn't work with new Outlook, and it doesn't help with a personal Gmail account.

Method 3: Subscribe to Google Calendar in Outlook (ICS)

Every Google calendar has a private iCal link. Outlook can subscribe to it and show your Google events as a read-only calendar.

Get the link from Google Calendar:

1. Open Google Calendar in a browser.
2. Hover over the calendar under My calendars, click the three dots and choose Settings and sharing.
3. Scroll to Integrate calendar and copy the Secret address in iCal format.

Subscribe in Outlook:

1. In Outlook on the web or new Outlook, open the calendar and choose Add calendar.
2. Pick Subscribe from web and paste the link.
3. Name the calendar and select Import.

What it does well: it's free, needs no extra tool, and works with any Outlook version.

What it doesn't do:

• It's one-way. Events you create in Outlook never reach Google.
• It's read-only. You can't edit the Google events from Outlook.
• It's slow. Outlook.com and Microsoft 365 refresh subscriptions on their own schedule, roughly every few hours and sometimes up to a day, and you can't force an update in Outlook on the web.
• The events sit in a separate subscribed calendar, so most availability checks skip them.

Treat the secret address like a password. Anyone who has it can read the calendar. If it leaks, use Reset next to the address in Google's settings to replace it.

Method 4: Subscribe to your Outlook calendar in Google Calendar (ICS)

The same idea in the other direction, for when you want work meetings visible in Google Calendar.

Publish the Outlook calendar:

1. In Outlook on the web, open Settings, then Calendar, then Shared calendars.
2. Under Publish a calendar, choose the calendar and how much detail to share, then select Publish.
3. Copy the ICS link.

Many companies turn off calendar publishing for Microsoft 365 work accounts. If you don't see the option, your IT administrator has disabled it.

Subscribe in Google Calendar:

1. Open Google Calendar and click + next to Other calendars.
2. Choose From URL, paste the ICS link and select Add calendar.

The result has the same limits as Method 3: read-only, one-way, and refreshed on Google's schedule, which can mean many hours between updates.

Method 5: Sync Google Calendar and Outlook with AllMyMeetings

A sync service copies events between the two calendars as real events, so they count everywhere: in Microsoft 365 free/busy, in the Scheduling Assistant, in Google's "find a time", and in booking tools connected to either calendar. AllMyMeetings signs in to Google through the Google Calendar API and to Outlook through Microsoft Graph, using OAuth, so it never sees your password.

Connect your accounts:

1. Create an account. The free plan needs no credit card.
2. Open Calendar Accounts, choose Google and sign in.
3. Choose Microsoft and sign in with your Outlook.com or Microsoft 365 account.
4. Turn on the calendars you want to sync. Each account can have several, and you only sync the ones you pick.

Create the sync:

1. Open Sync Pairs and choose Create Pair.
2. Pick a source calendar and a destination calendar, for example personal Google to work Outlook.
3. Choose a direction. One-way copies source events to the destination. Bidirectional copies both ways.
4. Choose a privacy mode. Full Details copies titles, locations and notes. Free/Busy copies only a "Busy" block. Private blocks the time and marks the copy private.
5. Select Create Sync Pair. The first sync starts right away.

What to expect: Google and Microsoft both notify AllMyMeetings when something changes, so edits usually show up on the other calendar within seconds. Every calendar is also checked at least hourly as a safety net. Attendees are never copied, so a synced copy never sends invitations. Each copy carries a hidden marker naming its source event, so copies are never copied back, which is the usual cause of duplicate events when people wire up two-way sync themselves. If you delete a synced copy on the destination, it stays deleted.

What's on each plan: the free plan includes two calendar accounts and one one-way sync in Free/Busy mode. That covers the most common case: personal Google events blocking time on a work Outlook calendar. Two-way sync, Full Details and Private modes are on Pro ($5 a month or $50 a year), which also allows four accounts and six syncs. Every plan syncs the same way and at the same speed.

Method 6: Let an AI assistant set it up through MCP

AllMyMeetings runs an MCP server, the standard that AI assistants use to call outside tools. Once it's connected, you can manage the sync above by asking for it in plain language instead of clicking through the dashboard.

Connect it:

• Claude (claude.ai and Claude Desktop) or ChatGPT: add a custom connector with the URL https://allmymeetings.com/mcp/calendar, sign in to AllMyMeetings and approve access. No token needed.
• Cursor, VS Code and other clients: create a personal access token in AllMyMeetings, read-only or read-write, and add it to the client's MCP config.

Then ask something like:

"Connect my work Outlook and my personal Google Calendar, then sync Google to Outlook as Free/Busy so coworkers can't see my personal event titles."

The assistant calls the server's tools to check your connected accounts, start any missing connection, and create the sync pair. Every plan, including the free plan, gets the full set of read and write tools. Plan limits still apply, so on the free plan the assistant can create one one-way Free/Busy sync. The MCP setup page has the details, and our guide to syncing calendars with MCP walks through longer examples.

Method 7: Zapier, Make or n8n

General automation platforms can connect a Google Calendar trigger ("new event") to an Outlook action ("create event"), and the reverse.

What you gain: custom logic. You can sync only events longer than 30 minutes, rename them, or skip anything with a certain word in the title. It's a good fit when the calendar step is part of a bigger workflow, such as posting to Slack or adding a row to a spreadsheet.

What it costs you:

• Delay. Calendar triggers on these platforms usually check for changes on a schedule rather than receiving push notifications, so expect minutes, not seconds. How often depends on your plan.
• Updates and deletions. A basic "new event" flow copies new events only. Moved and cancelled events need more steps.
• Loops. Two-way sync needs at least two flows, and stopping each from re-copying the other's events is up to you.
• Privacy and usage. Titles are copied unless you build a "Busy" block yourself, and every copied event uses a task or operation.

Method 8: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 interoperability

Google Workspace has a Calendar Interop feature for organizations that use both systems. In May 2025 Google moved it to Microsoft Graph (Google Workspace Updates), because the older connection relied on EWS.

It lets people on one system see the availability of people on the other, which helps when two companies, or two halves of one company, book meetings with each other. It's set up by a Workspace administrator in the Admin console, not by individual users. It doesn't copy your events, and it doesn't help with the most common personal case: your own Gmail calendar next to your employer's Outlook.

Microsoft went on to retire EWS for Exchange Online on October 1, 2026 (Microsoft). Tools that still used it stopped working with Microsoft 365 calendars. AllMyMeetings uses Microsoft Graph and wasn't affected.

Which method should you choose?

• You only want to see both calendars in one app. Add your Google account to Outlook (Method 1).
• Your company runs on Google Workspace and you prefer classic Outlook. Use Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook (Method 2).
• You want personal events visible at work and can live with a delay of hours. Subscribe with an ICS link (Method 3 or 4).
• You need coworkers and booking tools to see you as busy. Use a sync service (Method 5). The free plan's one-way Free/Busy sync is enough for this.
• You edit events in both calendars. Use two-way sync on Pro (Method 5).
• You already work in Claude or ChatGPT. Connect the MCP server and set up the same sync by asking (Method 6).
• Calendar sync is one step in a bigger automation. Use Zapier, Make or n8n (Method 7).
• You're an admin connecting two organizations. Turn on Calendar Interop (Method 8).

If you have more than two calendars to keep straight, see how to stop double-booking across calendars and our roundup of the best calendar sync apps in 2026. If you also use an iPhone, we have guides for syncing iCloud with Outlook and syncing iCloud with Google Calendar.

Troubleshooting: Google Calendar not syncing with Outlook

New Google events take hours to show up in Outlook. That's the subscription refresh schedule, not a broken link. Outlook decides when to check a subscribed calendar again, and you can't make it check sooner. If you need changes within minutes, a subscription is the wrong tool.

The subscribed calendar is empty or shows the wrong events. Each Google calendar has its own iCal address. Check that you copied the link from the calendar that actually holds the events, not from a different calendar in the same account.

Outlook says it can't add the calendar. Use the Secret address in iCal format, not the public address, which only works for publicly shared calendars. If the secret address is missing, your Google Workspace administrator has turned off external sharing. If the address was reset, the old link stops working; copy the new one and subscribe again.

You can't publish your Outlook calendar. Your IT administrator has turned calendar publishing off. A sync service doesn't need it, because it signs in to each account directly.

Events appear twice. You probably have two paths copying the same calendar, for example an ICS subscription plus a sync service, or Google added to Outlook as an account and also synced. Keep one.

Times are an hour off. Check that the time zone matches in Google Calendar's settings and in Outlook's calendar settings. Subscribed calendars are the most likely to show this.

A sync service stopped updating. If you changed your Google or Microsoft password or removed the app's access, sign in to the account again under Calendar Accounts. AllMyMeetings emails you when an account keeps failing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sync Google Calendar with Outlook for free?

Yes, in a limited way. Adding your Google account to Outlook and subscribing to an ICS link are both free, but they're view-only or read-only, and subscriptions can lag by hours. The AllMyMeetings free plan includes one one-way sync in Free/Busy mode, so your Google events block time on Outlook (or the other way around). Two-way sync and full event details need the Pro plan at $5 a month.

Why isn't my Google Calendar syncing with Outlook?

If you subscribed with an ICS link, the most common cause is the refresh schedule: Outlook checks subscribed calendars every few hours, sometimes only once a day, and you can't force it. Other causes are subscribing to the wrong calendar, using the public address instead of the secret iCal address, or a Google Workspace admin blocking external sharing.

Does adding my Google account to Outlook sync the two calendars?

No. New Outlook, Outlook for Mac and the Outlook mobile apps can show your Google calendars next to your Outlook calendar, but nothing is copied between them. Microsoft 365 still reads only your Outlook calendar when coworkers check your availability.

Will people on my synced events get invitations?

No. AllMyMeetings never copies attendees, so a synced copy is just an event on your own calendar. No invitations or updates go out to the people on the original meeting.

How far back and ahead does AllMyMeetings sync?

By default, events from 30 days in the past to 180 days in the future. The window isn't something you set yourself.

Was my calendar sync affected by the EWS shutdown?

Microsoft retired Exchange Web Services for Exchange Online on October 1, 2026. Tools that still used EWS for Outlook calendars stopped working with Microsoft 365. AllMyMeetings uses Microsoft Graph, so it wasn't affected. If an older sync tool broke for you in October, that's the likely reason.

Can an AI assistant set up the sync for me?

Yes. AllMyMeetings has an MCP server that Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP clients can connect to. On every plan, including the free plan, the assistant can list your calendars, create sync pairs and report sync status. Plan limits still apply to what it creates.

Start with AllMyMeetings for free and have your Google events block time on Outlook in a few minutes.

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