How to send a calendar invite with Calendly

If you’ve ever had to coordinate a meeting the old-fashioned way, you know how frustrating it can be. You send over a few times, they don’t work for your client. They counter with their availability, you’re busy. Before you know it, you’ve got a whole email chain just to coordinate one 30-minute chat.

With Calendly, that back-and-forth is out the window. Here’s how it works:

1. You share your booking page

2. Your invitee — aka your client, prospect, colleague, or anyone else who wants to book a meeting with you — sees your real-time availability and picks a time that works best for them

3. Calendly automatically sends a calendar invite to you and your invitee

The resulting invite lands on both of your calendars, complete with meeting details and, if you connect your video conferencing tool, the meeting link. No extra steps from you.

To get that invitation on the calendar, you need to share your booking page. Here are some of the many ways you can invite people to book with you via Calendly.

Start by setting up your availability and booking page

To make sure your booking page shows your up-to-date time slots, you’ll need to set up your availability in Calendly. The open times shown on your booking page are based on your connected calendars, your working schedule, and your Event Type settings. (No one can see the details of your whole calendar — Calendly only shows the times you’re available.)

You’ll also want to customize your Event Type before sharing your scheduling link. An Event Type is a reusable template for your frequent meeting types, like a 30-minute intro call or hourlong client check-in.

When you set up an Event Type, you’ll add basic meeting details like the event name, duration, and location, so you don't have to manually enter them for every new event. You can also set how many days into the future invitees can schedule, add buffer time before or after meetings, set the minimum notice required before an event, and more. When someone books a meeting, Calendly automatically sends a calendar invite with all the details, saving you time and manual work before your meetings.

“My favorite part about Calendly is that you have full control over your calendar. You set the times you're available and everything else is blocked off, giving you space for focused work.”

Kate Nachazel

Business Coach at Fireproof Performance

Once your availability and booking page are squared away, you’re ready to start inviting people to book with you. There are several ways to do this, depending on whether you want to quickly drop a link in an existing conversation, offer specific time slots, or send a polished email directly from Calendly. Let’s walk through each option.

How to invite people to book time through your Calendly

1. Copy and paste your booking link

Sending a direct link to your booking page is the quickest, most common way to book. When sharing a Calendly link, you have several options:

1. Share the booking page for a specific meeting type, like a 30-minute intro call or a one-hour consultation

2. Share a landing page with all your available meeting types and let recipients choose which one they’d like to book 

3. Create a single-use link to share a scheduling link that expires after the first use

Once you decide which link to use, there are countless ways to share, from pasting the link in an email to creating a QR code. Here’s how to find and share your link:

Grab your link from the Calendly web app

Once you’re logged into the Calendly web app, you can easily copy your booking link and paste it wherever you’re communicating with people. 

From your Calendly homepage, click Copy link on any event type to copy the booking page link to your clipboard. To create a single-use link for an Event Type, hover over the 1x button, customize your link, then hit Create & copy link to share.

If you’d like to share your landing page, click View landing page on your homepage, then copy and paste the URL.

Pro tip

Add your booking link to your email signature, so your contacts can always book with you as soon as they’re interested. Include a clear call-to-action, like “Schedule a meeting with me” or “Find time on my calendar,” so people don’t have to ask for your link — it’s already in front of them.

Looking for email copy inspiration? Check out these meeting invitation email templates.

Use the Calendly browser extension

With the Calendly browser extension (available on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari) you can easily copy your booking links without switching tabs. 

From the Scheduling tab, you can find links for all your Event Types, create a single-use link, or locate your landing page by clicking the share icon by your name. Then simply copy and paste wherever you’re already working.

If you’re a Google or LinkedIn user, the extension also offers Gmail and LinkedIn Messaging integrations, so you can quickly insert your booking link in two clicks. 

Share your links on the go with the Calendly mobile app

If you need to quickly find your link while on the go, use the Calendly mobile app for iOS and Android. From there you can copy your link or share it via text, email, and other apps in just a few taps. 

Pro tip

For easier in-person booking, use the mobile app to create and share a custom QR code linking to your booking page. Whether you’re making new connections at a conference or professional event, a QR code is the quickest way to share your booking page and schedule meetings in the moment.

2. Offer clickable times through email

You want to make scheduling with you as easy as possible. Maybe your invitee is a busy potential customer or other VIP, or you want to highlight specific date and time options so they don’t have to click through your whole calendar.

In these cases, you can embed clickable time slots in your emails instead of sharing your scheduling link. Choose the dates and times you want to offer, then paste them into the body of the email. Your invitee can select whichever meeting time works best for them right from their inbox. (And if none of the curated times work, they can click through to your booking page to see additional options.) 

You can add these times to an email in a couple of ways:

Copy time slots from the web app

From your Calendly homepage, you can choose and copy available time slots by hovering over the Event Type you want to share, then clicking Offer time slots. Choose a preset date range or select specific dates. You’ll see a preview where you can remove any time slots or dates you don’t want to include. When you’re ready, copy to your clipboard then paste in your email composer.

Use the Calendly browser extension

With the extension, you can easily offer time slots for a chosen Event Type by clicking Offer time slots in email, selecting your time slots, then hitting Finish and share to copy the times to your clipboard. From there, you can paste the times in your email.

Once you offer times via email, recipients will see the time options as clickable buttons, making it easy for them to schedule with you in just a few clicks. Once they’re scheduled, they’ll receive a calendar invite to their inbox.

3. Send an invitation to book right from Calendly

If you’re on a paid plan, you can send a meeting invitation email directly from Calendly. Calendly’s email composer lets you send personalized emails, including your booking link or clickable time slots, straight to your contacts or invitees.

To send an invite from Calendly, head to your homepage and hover over the meeting type you want to share, then click Share availability. The email composer will be pre-populated with your booking link, and you can make additional customizations, including a reminder that will automatically nudge contacts with a follow-up email if they haven’t booked within a set timeframe.

More ways to invite people to meet with you

We’ve covered the most common ways to invite someone to book with you. There are a few more advanced options you might consider based on what other tools you use.

If you’re a LinkedIn Premium Business subscriber, you can add a custom “Book an appointment” button to your profile — which also appears with posts, messages, and search results — that links directly to your Calendly booking page.

With 100+ Calendly integrations, you can share your availability directly from your favorite tools and apps as well as create automations that include your Calendly link in sales outreach, email campaigns, surveys, and more.

Whether you set up integrations or simply copy and paste your scheduling link, it’s effortless for your contacts to find the right meeting time. And no matter how you reach out, Calendly always handles sending a calendar invite for you, which means less back-and-forth and more time to focus on conversations.