The Ultimate Guide to Maximizing Your Free

Calendly Account

By Calendly
We’ve seen thousands of our free users find success with Calendly and we want to share
how. If your current scheduling needs only require one event type, our free plan may be a
perfect fit. In this guide we’ll cover some of the best ways to make the most of your free
account:
On Calendly’s basic plan, you can have one active event type at a time. For some people,
this is all they need, and we’ve noticed two trends that work best for them.

Our recommended configurations:

two ways to embrace a single event type
The first step towards getting more out of your free plan is fully setting up your one-and-
only event type. We have two recommended setups, depending on how you’re going to
be using your Calendly. Choose the version that makes the most sense for you!

Old faithful.
Use if:  you schedule the same kind of meeting over and over
Recommended settings:
Date Range  – 20 Rolling Days
Availability Intervals  – Tuesdays & Thursdays 1pm-4pm (for example)
Buffers – 10 minutes before & after
If you have one kind of event that you schedule the most, take full advantage of
Calendly’s free plan to automate scheduling every time its booked. What is the one
meeting you have to schedule all the time? Interviews? Sales demos? Support calls?
Office hours? Set up your event type so the description, duration and availability are
specific to that one kind of meeting and use it every day.

Set Up Your Event Type

Set Up Your Event Type

One size fits all.

Use if: you schedule different types of meetings and
want to automate as many as possible

Recommended settings:
Date Range  – 5 Rolling Days
Availability Intervals  – Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm (for example)
Event Max Per Day – 5
If you generally offer 30 minutes for a meeting, you can keep the description of your
event vague and send this link to anyone who would like to meet with you. Depending on
how you share this link, open your available hours so people can find time between your
other meetings. Keeping the rolling days lower allows you to be sure your connected
calendar is up-to-date so you’ll never be double booked!

Set Up Your Event Type

Set Up Your Event Type

Harness the power of Calendly for Chrome

Our free plan got a lot more flexible with the addition of Calendly for Chrome. There are
two huge reasons why, as a free user, you should be using our Chrome extension.
 Everything at your fingertips
Calendly for Chrome gives you instant access to your link, no matter what site you’re on.
You can also choose to share a single-use version of that link to avoid unwanted meetings
in the future.
Make your own rules
Use ad hoc meetings to set up custom, one-off events that can have any duration or
location. Ad hoc meetings allow you to offer a time to meet that is outside of your
existing event types’ availability. Suggest a handful of times and embed them directly in
an email!

Calendly 4 Chrome
Get the Extension

Pro tips for success

1. Use this email template to share your link Make scheduling with your Calendly link
more personal by setting the tone in your email. Use this template to show invitees that
you value their time:
Want to schedule a time for a 30 minute call at calendly.com/YOURLINK so we
can avoid the back and forth of finding a time? Let me know if you can’t find a time
that works for you.
2. Ask questions for more efficient meetingsCollect information from invitees so you
know what they’d like to discuss, any additional contact details and answers to specific
questions about your meeting. Their responses will be conveniently located in your
calendar event and from your Calendly Dashboard. Learn more!
3. Embed Calendly on your websiteCalendly provides 3 different embed options for
your scheduling page so you can reach the widest audience in style. Embedding your
availability directly on your webpage allows visitors to book time with you without ever
having to leave your site! Let people schedule at the height of their interest so you can be
sure every meeting is productive.
4. Add your link to your email signatureAre you scheduling meetings where you want
to be available to anyone in your network? Maximize the number of meetings you receive
by adding your scheduling link to your email signature.
For more sales insight, be sure to check out our latest post on inside vs outside sales. And
read this if you're ready to take your account management software skills to the next
level.
If you’re ready to take advantage of team features, customizations, integrations and
more, check out our other plans here. You can upgrade at any time from your billing
page, but in the meantime, make the most of your Calendly account — it’s free!
Do you have a cool, free Calendly hack? Let us know how you make the most of your
basic account!