How to Add Outlook to Google Calendar

Toggling between Outlook and Google Calendar gets tiring. Maybe your office uses Outlook, but your phone reminders come from Google. Or you’ve got meetings in one and personal plans in the other. Either way, checking both feels like extra work.

Solve this problem once and for all by syncing your Outlook calendar with Google Calendar, so every commitment shows up in one spot. It saves time, cuts down on confusion, and ensures you are always on track.

In this guide, we show you the steps to add Outlook to Google Calendar. And if that doesn’t appeal, we have ClickUp as one of the best Outlook and Google Calendar alternatives for you.

How to Add Outlook to Google Calendar

Why Sync Google Calendar With Outlook?

Managing multiple calendars can get frustrating fast. You add something to Microsoft Outlook, forget to copy it to Google Calendar, and your schedule goes out of sync.

Meetings clash with errands, reminders come from the wrong app, and you are left piecing your day together instead of focusing on the actual tasks. It’s not just annoying but also makes staying organized way harder than it needs to be.

Here’s why syncing Outlook to Google Calendar helps:

You can see all your Outlook and Google Calendar events in one project management calendar
It saves time since you don’t have to check both
You are less likely to miss meetings
It’s easier to plan your personal and professional commitments in one place
You can set one reminder instead of two
Your phone and laptop stay in sync

🧠 Fun fact: The first Roman calendar had only 10 months, starting with March and ending in December. Later, January and February were added by King Numa Pompilius to better align with the solar year.

How to Add Google Calendar to Outlook (Step-by-Step Guide)

Now that you know the benefits of syncing your Google Calendar with Outlook, here are the steps to do it:

Step 1: Open your Outlook calendar settings

Go to Outlook and sign in
Click the calendar icon in the left menu

Select Settings from the top menu bar

Navigate to Calendar and then click on ‘Shared calendars’
Under ‘Publish a calendar’, choose the calendar you want to sync and set permissions to ‘Can view all details’
Click Publish, then copy the ICS link

💡 Pro Tip: Color-code calendars in Google. Assign a unique color to your Outlook calendar in Google to visually separate work vs. personal events. This makes scheduling at a glance much easier.

Step 2: Head to Google Calendar

Open Google Calendar in your browser

On the left sidebar, click the + next to Other calendars
Select From URL

📮 ClickUp insight: 83% of knowledge workers rely primarily on email and chat for team communication. However, nearly 60% of their workday is lost switching between these tools and searching for information.

With an everything app for work like ClickUp, your project management, messaging, emails, and chats all converge in one place! It’s time to centralize and energize!

Step 3: Add your Outlook calendar to Google

Google Calendar Settings — via Google Calendar

Paste the ICS link you copied from Outlook into the URL field
Click ‘Add calendar’

Your Outlook calendar will now appear under Other calendars in Google Calendar
You can download the Microsoft Outlook desktop app or mobile app and follow the same steps to sync the two calendars as well.

👀 Did You Know? 70% of people use a digital calendar as their primary tool for managing life, with 46.7% relying mainly on their mobile calendar and 23.3% preferring to use a desktop calendar.

📚 Also read: Best Online Meeting Tools for Teams (Free & Paid)

Limitations of Syncing Google Calendar With Outlook

Syncing Google and Outlook Calendars can be helpful, but it’s not perfect. Here are some limitations to consider before you start using the synced calendar as your primary planner:

Changes can take hours to appear in the other calendar
The sync is one-way only, so you will see Outlook events in Google, but not the other way around
Two-way sync usually needs third-party tools or shared calendar apps
If you stop using the ICS link, the sync will eventually break without any warning
Reminders and notifications may not carry over between calendars

Plus, even with Outlook integration, you may not get proper two-way syncing. And even if you download the Microsoft Outlook mobile app or the desktop app, these limitations persist. So, if you rely on this to stay organized, those small gaps can cause serious oversights in scheduling.

🧠 Fun Fact: Ancient Sumerian astronomical records or MUL.APIN tracked constellations such as Sirius and Arcturus to organize their calendar, one of the earliest known star-based time systems.

ClickUp as a Smarter Alternative for Calendar Management

Tweaking calendar settings just to get a one-way sync isn’t ideal. You are still checking multiple apps, hoping updates actually show up.

Instead of patching two tools together, it’s often easier and faster to just switch to Google and Microsoft Outlook alternatives built for smarter scheduling, ones that don’t need workarounds, delays, or third-party fixes.

ClickUp is the everything app for work—for projects, docs, tasks, and yes, calendars. It gives you a built-in calendar with two-way syncing, so you can schedule, edit, and reschedule without bouncing between tools.

This platform supports Outlook integration, lets you subscribe to any internet calendar, offers AI-powered features and schedule templates, and pulls everything into one clean, flexible view.

Whether you are managing deadlines, meetings, or your team’s entire week, ClickUp makes it easier to stay on top of it all, with no copy-pasting ICS file links required.

Kartikeya Thapliyal, Product Manager at smallcase, shares his experience:

Use of calendars to complete tasks before deadlines is always critical. With ClickUp this is very easy as your deadlines are visible on your calendars along with the tasks so planning your day/week bandwidth is super easy and fast.

Kartikeya Thapliyal, Product Manager at smallcase

All-in-one calendar integration: Sync multiple calendars in one place

ClickUp Calendar: How to Add Outlook to Google Calendar — Stay on track with all your tasks, deadlines, and meetings with ClickUp Calendar

ClickUp Calendar is a full AI-powered scheduling command center that brings together all your calendars, tasks, and events into a single, editable view. Whether you are managing deadlines or hopping between meetings, ClickUp keeps everything synced across platforms automatically.

But it doesn’t stop at syncing. Here are a few things you can achieve with ClickUp

Turn any task with a due date into a calendar event and block time without copying things over manually, thanks to automatic task syncing
Automatically receive action items and summaries from scheduled meetings in real-time with the ClickUp AI Notetaker
Switch between daily, 4-day, weekly, and monthly layouts with multi-calendar views, or filter by team, project, or status
Send scheduling links straight from the calendar and join Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams from the calendar event
Get real-time visibility into what’s scheduled, who’s working on what, and what’s due, instantly
Sync public and private calendars and subscribe to external or internet calendars, like national holidays or shared team schedules
Access daily planner templates and other project management templates for easy scheduling

Two-way sync: Updates reflect instantly across Google Calendar and Outlook

The biggest challenge in syncing Outlook Calendar with Google Calendar is that you can only view the Outlook events on Google Calendar, not the other way around. That means you still have to manage two calendars to an extent.

Integrate your Outlook Calendar with a two-way sync with the ClickUp Calendar

ClickUp solves that with complete two-way Outlook Integration, meaning updates made in Outlook are instantly reflected in your ClickUp calendar, and vice versa. No waiting hours for changes to appear, no missed edits, and no double entry.

You can:

Reschedule a task in ClickUp and see it move on your Outlook Calendar
Make changes on mobile or desktop, and everything stays updated across devices
Avoid conflicts by seeing personal and work events in one calendar view
Connect your calendars in a few clicks using ClickUp’s built-in Outlook integration and Internet calendar support
Trust that your reminders, events, and deadlines are always in sync

ClickUp also lets you create a Google Calendar integration with two-way sync. This makes the platform especially handy for managing both work tasks and personal life, without ever wondering if your calendar is telling the whole story.

📮 ClickUp Insight: 18% of our survey respondents want to use AI to organize their lives through calendars, tasks, and reminders. Another 15% want AI to handle routine tasks and administrative work.
To do this, an AI needs to be able to: understand the priority levels for each task in a workflow, run the necessary steps to create tasks or adjust tasks, and set up automated workflows.
Most tools have one or two of these steps worked out. However, ClickUp has helped users consolidate up to 5+ apps using our platform!

Experience AI-powered scheduling, where tasks and meetings can be easily allocated to open slots in your calendar based on priority levels. You can also set up custom automation rules via ClickUp Brain to handle routine tasks. Say goodbye to busy work!

Try ClickUp Now

AI-powered scheduling: Optimize meetings and tasks with AI recommendations

ClickUp takes the guesswork out of planning your day. With built-in ClickUp Brain, the calendar processes your priorities, deadlines, and availability to recommend the best time slots for your tasks and meetings.

Instead of manually shuffling things around, you can let ClickUp suggest when to tackle work, whether that’s blocking time for deep focus or fitting in a team meeting between two calls.

Unlike Google and Outlook, ClickUp Calendar can:

Recommend smart time slots based on urgency and availability
Respect existing events from Google Calendar or Outlook
Answer your questions about your schedule with the built-in AI
Automatically adjust when deadlines shift
Suggests ideal meeting times with fewer scheduling conflicts between teams

👀 Did You Know? Knowledge workers maintain an average of 6 daily connections at their workplace. This probably entails multiple pings back and forth across emails, chat, and project management tools.

Simplify Your Calendar Management With ClickUp

Syncing Outlook and Google Calendar can work if you are okay with delays, limitations, and juggling tabs. But if you want your schedules, tasks, and meetings to live in one place, with real-time updates and smart scheduling, ClickUp is the simpler option.

It brings true two-way sync, AI-powered scheduling, and even Outlook and Google Calendar templates to save time. Add in support for any internet calendar app, built-in meeting notes, and smart task automation, and you have a calendar that’s easy to manage and actually helps you get things done.

Sign up with ClickUp today and start planning on a calendar that makes both your personal and professional commitments easy to manage.