How to Share Your Availability with a Bookable Schedule in Google Calendar

Scheduling meetings can often devolve into a frustrating, multi-day email thread of proposing times, checking conflicts, and rescheduling. Google Calendar offers a built-in solution designed to eliminate this back-and-forth: Appointment Schedules. This feature allows you to set up a dedicated booking page where clients, colleagues, or students can view your real-time availability and instantly book a time slot that works for both of you, directly injecting the meeting into your Google Calendar.

Creating an Appointment Schedule

To create a bookable schedule, you must use Google Calendar on a desktop computer; the setup process is not fully supported on the mobile app.

1. Open your web browser and navigate to Google Calendar (calendar.google.com).
2. In the top-left corner of the screen, click the large + Create button.
3. From the dropdown menu, select Appointment schedule.
4. A configuration panel will open on the left side of your screen. First, give your schedule a Title (e.g., “Client Consultations” or “Office Hours”). This title will be visible to anyone booking a time with you.

Setting Your Availability

The next step is defining exactly when people are allowed to book you.

1. Appointment Duration: Select how long each meeting should last (e.g., 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or a custom duration).
2. General Availability: Use the weekly grid to set your standard working hours. For example, you can set your availability to 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays. If you need a lunch break, click the + icon next to a day to add a split shift (e.g., 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM).
3. Scheduling Window: Determine how far in advance someone can book. You can prevent people from booking a meeting 10 minutes before it starts by setting a minimum notice period (e.g., 12 hours minimum notice), and cap how far into the future they can book (e.g., 30 days maximum).
4. Click Next at the bottom of the panel.

Finalizing the Booking Page

On the second page of the configuration panel, you can customize the actual booking experience.

1. Location and Conferencing: Choose how the meeting will take place. You can select “Google Meet video conferencing” to automatically generate a meeting link for every booking, “In-person,” or “Phone call.”
2. Booking Form: By default, Google requires the person’s first name, last name, and email address. You can click Add an item to require them to answer a custom question before booking, such as “What is the topic of our meeting?”
3. Click Save.

Sharing Your Booking Link

Once saved, a popup will appear with a button labeled Open booking page. Clicking this allows you to see exactly what your clients will see. To share this page, simply click the Share button to copy the unique URL. You can paste this link into your email signature, your website, or directly in a message to a client.