How to use Notion Calendar: setup, Notion databases, and what it can't do

Notion Calendar is a free calendar app from Notion that signs into the calendar accounts you already have (Google, Microsoft Outlook, or Apple iCloud) and shows them in one window next to your Notion work. To use it, download the app, connect your calendar accounts, link your Notion workspace, and add the databases whose dates you want to see.

Setup is quick. The parts that trip people up come later:

• what the app does with your Notion databases;
• what the phone app can't do yet;
• where your events actually end up.

This guide covers setup, the features worth learning first, and the limits to know before you plan your week around it.

What Notion Calendar is (and what it isn't)

Three things to know before you start:

• It started as Cron, a calendar app Notion acquired in 2022 and relaunched under its own name in January 2024.
• It's a separate app from Notion, with its own download and its own settings.
• It stores no events of its own. Every event you see belongs to a Google, Outlook, or iCloud account you connected, and edits you make in Notion Calendar are saved back to that account.

Two things share the word "calendar" in Notion, and they're easy to confuse:

• The calendar view is a way to display any Notion database by date, inside Notion itself. It needs no extra app.
• Notion Calendar is the standalone app this guide is about. It shows your real calendar accounts and can lay your dated database items over them.

If you came looking for calendar view layouts, our roundup of Notion calendar templates is the better starting point.

How to set up Notion Calendar in 5 steps

Notion's own getting-started guide uses the same order. Doing it in this sequence avoids the most common confusion, which is adding a database before the workspace is linked.

Step 1: Download the app

Notion Calendar is a free download from Notion's Notion Calendar download page, or straight from your platform:

• Mac (macOS 11 or later): download Notion Calendar for Mac.
• Windows: download Notion Calendar for Windows.
• Web: open calendar.notion.com in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, or Arc, including on ChromeOS and Linux. Nothing to install.
• iPhone: Notion Calendar on the App Store.
• Android: Notion Calendar on Google Play.

The mobile apps include home screen widgets (iOS 14+, Android 8+) and a lock screen widget (iOS 16+).

Start on desktop or web. Several setup tasks, including adding databases, aren't available on mobile.

Step 2: Sign in

1. Sign in with your Notion account or with Google.
2. Turn on notifications when the app asks. On desktop, you also get a countdown to your next meeting in the menu bar.

Two tips from Notion's help center:

• If you already use Notion, sign in with that account. The two apps share one session, so signing in or out of one does the same in the other.
• Use an email you'll always have access to. The account you sign up with becomes your primary account, and you need it to open Notion Calendar.

Step 3: Connect your calendar accounts

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Calendar accounts.
3. Select Add calendar account and pick your provider.

From there, each provider works a little differently.

Google Calendar

1. Pick Google.
2. Sign in with your Google account and allow access.

Every calendar in that account then appears in the left sidebar, where you can hide, reorder, and recolor them.

Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft 365

1. Pick Microsoft Outlook.
2. Sign in with your Microsoft account.
3. Authorize Notion Calendar. A work account may need approval from your IT admin first.

Once connected, you can:

• create Microsoft Teams meetings;
• edit recurring Outlook events;
• open calendars delegated to you.

One catch: Notion's setup guide says mobile support for Outlook calendars is still coming soon, so plan on using Outlook from desktop and web.

Apple iCloud

Apple requires an app-specific password instead of your normal Apple Account password.

1. Sign in at account.apple.com.
2. Open App-Specific Passwords and create a new one.
3. In Notion Calendar, pick iCloud under Add calendar account.
4. Paste the app-specific password when it asks for your iCloud password.

Notion Calendar reads the calendars stored in your iCloud account. A calendar kept only on your iPhone, under On My iPhone, isn't in iCloud and won't appear.

Two limits apply to every provider:

• Around five calendars at most. Notion Calendar may stop you from adding more, because Notion says performance suffers past that number.
• No subscribing from inside the app. Subscribe to a calendar feed in Google Calendar instead, and it shows up in Notion Calendar.

Step 4: Link your Notion workspace

1. On desktop or web, open Settings.
2. Under Notion workspaces, select Add Notion workspace.
3. Give Notion Calendar access. The workspace then appears in your settings.

If you belong to several workspaces, repeat this for each one.

Good to know:

• Connecting a workspace doesn't give your company access to your calendars.
• An admin can't switch Notion Calendar on for everyone; each person connects their own account.

Once the workspace is linked, you can attach meeting notes to any event:

1. Open the event.
2. Select Add AI meeting notes.
3. Create a new meeting page in Notion, or add the note to an existing page.

Step 5: Add your Notion databases

1. At the bottom of the left sidebar, hover over your Notion workspace.
2. Select •••, then Add Notion database (or press O).
3. Search for the database and select it.
4. If it has several date properties, choose the one that fills the calendar.

You can also start from Notion:

1. Open the database in Notion.
2. Click the name of the view.
3. Choose Manage in Notion Calendar.

A few rules apply:

• The database needs a date property.
• You can add up to 20 databases, and only from desktop or web.
• You need Can view access to add a database and Can edit content access to change its pages from the calendar.

Once a database is added, its items behave like this:

• Items with a start and end time appear as timed events.
• Items with only a date appear as all-day events at the top of the grid.
• Dragging an item to a new time updates its date property in Notion.
• Clicking an item opens a side panel where you can edit its title, date, status, and select properties.
• Dates from a formula, created time, or last edited time property are read-only.

Click the database's name in the sidebar to open a list of all its pages. From there you can:

• drag undated tasks onto the grid;
• create a new page with +.

Features worth learning in your first week

Most of Notion Calendar's value comes from a handful of features. These are the ones that change how a week feels.

Time blocking from a task database

Once your task database is added, there are two ways to block time for a task:

• Give it a start and end time in Notion. It appears on your calendar as a timed block.
• Drag an all-day task onto a time slot in Notion Calendar. Its date in Notion updates to match.

Plan the work in Notion, then see what actually fits in the day. Our roundup of time blocking templates has ready-made task databases to start from.

Scheduling links

A scheduling link lets others book time with you. Two types are available:

• One-off links for meeting a specific person at a specific time.
• Recurring links for things that repeat with different people, like interviews or sales calls.

To create one:

1. Press S, or open Scheduling in the left panel.
2. Pick a one-off or a recurring link.
3. Add the details you need: expiration date, location, video link, booking window, and description.
4. Turn on Avoid conflicts so your availability updates as your calendar fills.
5. Share the link, or the ready-made message listing your open slots.

Scheduling links are a desktop and web feature.

Event blocking between calendars

If you keep separate work and personal calendars:

1. Click your personal calendar in the left sidebar.
2. Turn on event blocking.

Notion Calendar then adds busy blocks to your work calendar for personal events, so colleagues stop booking over your dentist appointment.

Conferencing and time zones

• Conferencing: new events can carry a Zoom or Google Meet link, and Outlook or Microsoft 365 events can use Microsoft Teams.
• Time zones: to plan across regions, click the time zone in the top left corner and add another one.

Keyboard shortcuts

Notion Calendar is built for the keyboard. These come from Notion's own guides:

Notion Calendar on iPhone and Android

The mobile apps are good for checking your day and adding quick events. They're not a full replacement for the desktop app yet.

Here's what you can't do on mobile at the moment, according to Notion's help center:

• Search events or contacts.
• Edit events, unless you created them on your phone and you're the organizer.
• Create scheduling links.
• Create meetings with auto-generated conferencing links or attached Notion pages.
• Set Notion Calendar as your default calendar app.
• Switch to week, month, or agenda views (mobile shows one, two, or three days).
• Create Out of office or Focus events.
• Show Outlook calendars (Notion says this is coming soon).
• Add Notion databases (desktop or web only).

The widgets are the mobile strength. In the app's settings, you can:

• pick how many days of events to show;
• hide all-day events;
• remove event titles from the lock screen for privacy.

Is Notion Calendar free?

Yes. Notion describes Notion Calendar as a free-to-use tool, and every version (Mac, Windows, web, iPhone, Android) is a free download.

The calendar accounts behind it follow their own rules. Focus time and Out of office events, for example, only work with Google Workspace work or school accounts.

What Notion Calendar can't do

Every calendar app has gaps. Notion Calendar's matter most if you were hoping it would merge your calendar with your Notion databases.

Two limits matter most:

• Your database items stay inside Notion Calendar. Notion's help center puts it plainly: "At the moment, you can only view your Notion database in Notion Calendar, not in Google or iCloud calendar." Your phone's default calendar, your colleagues, and any tool that reads your Google or Outlook calendar never see those items.
• Your calendar events never become Notion pages. Meetings stay in your Google, Outlook, or iCloud account, and Notion's help center confirms you can't bring calendars like Google Calendar into Notion.

There is one partial exception: you can make a Notion database your default calendar.

1. Open Settings > Calendars > Default calendar.
2. Pick the database.

New events you create in Notion Calendar are then saved as pages in that database. Those pages exist only in Notion, though: they never reach your Google, Outlook, or iCloud calendar.

The other limits come straight from Notion's documentation and are worth knowing before you commit:

• Up to 20 databases, added from desktop or web only.
• Around five calendars at most: Notion may block a sixth because performance suffers past that number.
• No calendar subscriptions from inside the app.
• No travel time on events.
• Focus time and Out of office events only with Google Workspace work or school accounts.
• Outlook calendars on desktop and web only, for now.
• A reduced mobile app, as listed above.

For a side-by-side with the calendar most people connect first, see Notion Calendar vs Google Calendar. If these limits rule it out for you, our list of Notion Calendar alternatives compares the apps that fill different gaps.

When you need your events inside a Notion database

Some workflows need the meeting itself as a row in a database:

• a client log that fills in with every call;
• a CRM that knows when you last met someone;
• a content calendar your Google Calendar can see;
• hours you want to roll up per project.

That's the job of a sync, not a calendar app. To get your Google Calendar or Outlook events into a Notion database, 2sync writes each Google Calendar or Outlook event into a Notion database as an editable page, with the fields you choose mapped to properties, and keeps both sides in two-way sync every two to five minutes depending on your plan. Change the page in Notion and the event updates in your calendar.

The two tools work together well. Once your events are rows in a database, you can add that database to Notion Calendar and see everything in one grid.

To set it up:

• Google Calendar: start with the Google Calendar integration. The guide to syncing Notion and Google Calendar covers every method.
• Outlook or Microsoft 365: start with the Outlook Calendar integration. The guide to syncing Notion and Outlook covers every method.
• Still deciding: 2sync vs Notion Calendar breaks down exactly where each one fits.

Conclusion

Notion Calendar is worth installing if you already plan in Notion. To get the most from it:

1. Set it up on desktop or web.
2. Connect your calendar accounts.
3. Add your task database.
4. Learn three shortcuts: T, S, and N.

You'll get one window for meetings and tasks at no cost.

Just keep its scope in mind. It shows your Notion databases next to your calendar; it doesn't merge the two. When you need meetings as Notion pages, a two-way sync handles that part.

FAQ

The Notion Calendar screenshots in this article are from Notion.