If you are using Notion to Calendar with Google Calendar, you might notice that changes in Notion do not appear immediately. You update an event title in Notion, but Google Calendar still shows the old name hours later.
This is not a bug with our service. It is how Google Calendar handles external calendar subscriptions.
How external calendar sync works
When you subscribe to a calendar URL in Google Calendar (or any calendar app), the app periodically fetches the calendar data from that URL. Our service generates a fresh calendar every time it is requested.
The timing of those requests depends entirely on the calendar app, not on us:
- Apple Calendar: Typically refreshes frequently and allows manual refresh
- Outlook: Refreshes periodically throughout the day
- Google Calendar: Refreshes on its own schedule with no manual refresh option, and no documented frequency
Google Calendar is generally the slowest, and there is no way to force it to refresh sooner.
Why Google Calendar is slower
Google Calendar limits how often it fetches external calendars. Google does not document the exact frequency, only that they query external calendars "periodically."
Based on user reports and our observations, Google Calendar can take several hours to refresh subscribed calendars. Sometimes it is faster, sometimes slower. You cannot predict or control it.
This means:
- If you have a Premium plan with 5-minute sync on our end, Google Calendar might still show data that is hours old
- If you change an event in Notion and immediately check Google Calendar, you probably will not see the change
- Deleting an event in Notion does not make it disappear from Google Calendar until the next refresh
What this means for Premium features
Our Premium plan offers 5-minute sync intervals. This means we generate an updated calendar within 5 minutes of any change in Notion. But if your calendar app only checks once every 12 hours, that fast sync does not help much.
Here is how different apps handle our sync:
- Apple Calendar: Frequent, manual refresh available - Full benefit
- Fantastical: Frequent, manual refresh available - Full benefit
- Outlook: Periodic, varies by version - Partial benefit
- Google Calendar: Infrequent, no manual refresh - Limited benefit
Premium sync still matters for Google Calendar users because:
- When Google finally does refresh, it gets the latest data
- If you share the calendar link with others using different apps, they get faster updates
- Our server-side caching means faster response times even when Google requests data
But if real-time updates are critical for you, Google Calendar may not be the best choice.
Alternatives if you need faster updates
Use Apple Calendar or Fantastical on Mac/iOS. These apps let you manually refresh and check for updates much more frequently than Google Calendar.
Use Outlook desktop app. The desktop version of Outlook has better refresh behavior than the web version.
Share links directly. If you are sharing calendars with your team, they can subscribe directly rather than going through Google Calendar. Apps like Fantastical, BusyCal, or Apple Calendar will give them faster updates.
Accept the delay. For many use cases, a few hours delay is fine. If you are tracking project deadlines or content schedules, events are usually planned days or weeks ahead anyway.
How to check when Google Calendar last refreshed
Unfortunately, Google Calendar does not show when it last synced an external calendar. You can only observe it indirectly by making a change in Notion and waiting to see when it appears.
If you add a test event in Notion and want to know when Google Calendar picks it up, that is the only reliable method.
We wish it were different
Trust us, we would love to offer instant sync to Google Calendar. But Google does not expose any API to trigger a refresh, and they rate-limit how often they fetch external calendars.
This is a Google Calendar limitation, not something we can fix on our end. The calendar URL we provide always returns the latest data. The bottleneck is Google's refresh schedule.
Bottom line
Notion to Calendar works great with Google Calendar for most use cases. Just know that updates will take a few hours to appear. If you need faster updates, Apple Calendar, Fantastical, or other apps that respect refresh intervals more closely are better choices.
The good news: your events will always be accurate when Google Calendar eventually refreshes. You just need a bit of patience.