How to Sync Google Calendar with Outlook

If you use Google Calendar for personal life and Outlook for work (or the other way around), you’ve probably been double-booked. Someone schedules a work meeting during your personal appointment because they can’t see your other calendar. This guide covers three ways to keep Google Calendar and Outlook in sync.

Option 1: Subscribe to a calendar (read-only)

Both Google and Outlook let you subscribe to an external calendar via its ICS URL. This gives you a read-only overlay of events from the other calendar.

Google → Outlook

1. In Google Calendar, go to Settings > [Calendar name] > Integrate calendar
2. Copy the Secret address in iCal format
3. In Outlook, go to Add calendar > Subscribe from web
4. Paste the URL and click Import

Outlook → Google

1. In Outlook, go to Settings > Calendar > Shared calendars
2. Under Publish a calendar, select the calendar and choose Can view all details
3. Copy the ICS link
4. In Google Calendar, click + > From URL and paste it

Limitations

• Read-only — you can see events but can’t edit them from the subscribed view
• Slow updates — ICS subscriptions refresh every 12–24 hours depending on the provider
• No privacy controls — all event details are visible, or nothing is
• One direction only — you need to set up both sides separately
• No bi-directional sync — changes don’t flow back to the source

This works for a quick overview of your other calendar, but it’s not a real sync.

Option 2: Use Hetk for automatic two-way sync

Hetk connects to both Google Calendar and Outlook via their official APIs and syncs events between them in real time.

Setup

1. Go to app.hetk.io and sign in with your Google account
2. Add your Microsoft account
3. Select which Google and Outlook calendars to sync
4. Choose the sync direction — one-way or bi-directional
5. Configure privacy settings (optional — mark synced events as private, show as busy only)

Events sync automatically within seconds via webhooks. When you create, update, or delete an event in one calendar, the change appears in the other.

What you get

• Real-time sync — changes appear in seconds, not hours
• Bi-directional — edit in either calendar and changes flow to the other
• Privacy controls — choose to show full event details, just “Busy”, or strip all content
• Identity transform — synced events show your target calendar’s email as the organizer
• Duplicate detection — Hetk won’t create duplicate events if the same meeting exists in both calendars

Pricing

The Personal plan covers up to 3 calendars for $15/year. If you only need Google ↔ Outlook sync, that’s all you need.

Option 3: Manual ICS export/import

You can export events from one calendar as an .ics file and import them into the other.

Steps

1. In Google Calendar, go to Settings > Import & export > Export
2. Download the .ics file
3. In Outlook, go to Add calendar > Upload from file
4. Select the .ics file

Limitations

• One-time snapshot — you need to repeat this every time events change
• No sync — there’s no ongoing connection between the calendars
• Duplicates — importing the same file twice creates duplicate events
• No deletions — if you delete an event in the source, the imported copy stays

This is only useful for a one-time migration, not ongoing sync.

Which option should you use?

For most people who use both Google Calendar and Outlook daily, a real sync solution like Hetk saves time and prevents double-booking. The 21-day free trial lets you test it before committing.