How to Make a Google Calendar Public — or Keep It Private

Making a Google Calendar public lets anyone with the link — or anyone searching — see your events, which is great for a team schedule but risky for personal calendars. Google also lets you choose whether the public sees full event details or just free/busy times. This guide walks through making a calendar public, the visibility options, and how to revert.

Before you start

Public sharing is configured per calendar and is a web-only setting — the Google Calendar mobile app can't change access permissions. You also can only make calendars you own public; you can't change sharing on calendars others shared with you.

How to make a calendar public

1. Open Google Calendar on a computer.
2. In the left sidebar under My calendars, hover over the calendar and click the three-dot menu (Options).
3. Choose Settings and sharing.
4. Scroll to Access permissions for events.
5. Tick Make available to public.
6. Google shows a warning that your calendar will be visible to everyone, including in Google Search. Confirm if you're sure.

Once public, anyone can view it via the Public address link in the Integrate calendar section. See how to find your public .ics URL for that link.

Choosing what the public sees

Next to Make available to public there's a dropdown controlling how much outsiders see.

Choose See only free/busy if you want people to know when you're available (for scheduling) without revealing what you're doing. Choose See all event details only for calendars that are genuinely meant to be public, like a community events calendar.

Sharing publicly vs. sharing with specific people

Making a calendar fully public is broad and irreversible-feeling. If you only need a few people to see it, sharing with individuals is safer and more controllable.

How to revert (make it private again)

You can turn public access off at any time.

1. Return to Settings and sharing for that calendar.
2. Under Access permissions for events, untick Make available to public.
3. The public link stops returning event data almost immediately, though cached copies in third-party apps may linger briefly.

For extra safety after a calendar has been public:

• Go to Integrate calendar and click Reset next to the Secret address in iCal format to invalidate any subscribe links that may have leaked.

Privacy tips

• Public means searchable. A fully public calendar can appear in Google Search, not just to people you hand the link to.
• Free/busy is the safe default when you only need availability sharing.
• Audit periodically. Open Settings and sharing now and then to confirm nothing is public that shouldn't be.

If you manage several calendars and want a single private view across accounts, nocal brings your Google and Outlook calendars together without making anything public — see how.