How to create a shared Google Calendar

Make a new secondary calendar, invite the people who need it, and choose exactly what each person can see or change.

To create a shared Google Calendar, open Google Calendar on the web, make a new secondary calendar in the left sidebar, then add the email addresses of the people you want to share it with and choose a permission level for each. Creating a brand-new calendar only works in a browser, not in the phone apps, so start there. (The Android app can set sharing in-app, but the iPhone and iPad app cannot.)

Here is the full walkthrough, including how to set permissions and what to do if you are on a phone.

Create the new calendar first

A shared calendar is just a normal calendar that other people have access to. Make the calendar before you worry about sharing.

1. Go to calendar.google.com in a browser and sign in.
2. In the left sidebar, find “Other calendars” and click the plus (+) icon next to it.
3. Choose Create new calendar.
4. Give it a clear name (for example “Garland Family” or “Q3 Launch”), add a short description, set the time zone, and click Create calendar.

Give it a few seconds. The new calendar appears in the left sidebar under “My calendars.”

Keeping a separate calendar for a group is worth the small effort. You can toggle it off when you want to look at just your own day, and everyone shares one source of truth instead of forwarding invites.

Share it with specific people

Now hand out access. Sharing with named individuals is the safest option for a family or small team.

1. Hover over the new calendar in the left sidebar, click the three-dot menu, and choose Settings and sharing.
2. Scroll to Share with specific people or groups.
3. Click Add people and groups, type each person’s email address, and pick a permission level from the dropdown.
4. Click Send. Each person gets an email with a link to add the calendar.

If someone has both a personal Gmail and a work account, share with the address they actually open Calendar with, or they will not see it.

Pick the right permission level

This is the part most people rush. Google offers four levels, from least to most access:

• See only free/busy (hide details). They see that you are busy, not what you are doing. Good for coworkers who only need to find open slots.
• See all event details. Read-only access to titles, times, and notes. The usual choice for a family calendar that one person manages.
• Make changes to events. They can add, edit, and delete events. Use this for co-organizers.
• Make changes and manage sharing. Full control, including re-sharing the calendar with others. Give this to almost nobody.

You can set a different level per person, and you can change or revoke any of them later from the same screen.

Optional: share with a link or make it public

If you want everyone in your organization or the public to see the calendar without inviting each person, scroll to Access permissions for events on the same settings page. There you can make it available to everyone in your Google Workspace organization, or fully public. Be careful with “public,” since it puts your events on the open web. For a family or team, stick with sharing to named people.

If you are on an iPhone or Android

You cannot create a new calendar from the Google Calendar mobile apps in 2026, so that screen lives only on the web on both platforms. Sharing is more mixed: the Android app can set a calendar’s sharing and permissions in-app (Menu, Settings, pick the calendar, then “Add people or groups”), but the iPhone and iPad app cannot, so iOS users need a browser for sharing too. Open calendar.google.com in your phone’s browser, request the desktop site if the layout looks cramped, and follow the steps above. Once the calendar exists and is shared, it appears in the mobile app, where you and everyone else can add events normally.

Planning your own day around a shared calendar

A shared calendar is great for the group, but it can clutter your personal view fast. Toggle it off in the sidebar when you want to focus on just your own commitments, and keep your time-blocking separate. If you want help turning a busy calendar into a realistic daily plan, see how to plan your day or grab a time-blocking template.

That is where ClaroCal fits in. It is a personal AI planner that reads your Google Calendar with two-way sync and builds a time-blocked plan for your day, so the shared events your family or team add still get planned around without you sorting it out by hand.

Last reviewed June 2026.