How to Add Google Calendar Events to Todoist as Tasks in 2026

Todoist can show your Google Calendar events, but it can't turn them into tasks by itself. To get a Todoist task for each new event, use Zapier: pick the Google Calendar trigger New Event and the Todoist action Create Task, then map the event title to the task and its start time to the due date. Make can do the same, and forwarding an invite email works for one-offs.

The gap shows up when a meeting needs work before it happens. The event sits on the calendar, the slides or the numbers it needs sit nowhere, and the to-do list has no idea. This guide covers what Todoist's own calendar connection does and doesn't do, the Zapier setup step by step, how to date the task so it's useful, which events to include, the Make and email options, and fixes for tasks that never arrive.

Can Todoist turn Google Calendar events into tasks on its own?

No. Todoist's built-in Google Calendar connection displays events in your Today and Upcoming views, but those events are read-only, can't be edited in Todoist and never become tasks, according to Todoist's calendar integration guide. The same guide says adding an event to the "Todoist" calendar doesn't create a task either.

What the integration does well is let you see meetings and tasks on one screen. It also works the other way: turn on Sync tasks to calendar and Todoist creates a calendar called "Todoist" in your Google account that mirrors tasks with a date, time and duration. The connection is included on every Todoist plan, including the free Beginner plan, per Todoist's pricing page.

To connect it on the web or desktop app, click your avatar, choose Settings, open the Calendars tab and click Connect Google Calendar. When I connected mine, the Upcoming view filled with meetings sitting between my tasks, and for most of them that was enough. A 30-minute catch-up doesn't need a task. A quarterly review that needs a deck does. Before you build an automation, decide which kind of events you're actually trying to catch.

Which way should you use?

For a task created automatically from every new event, Zapier is the simplest choice. Make suits people who already build scenarios there, and forwarding the invite email to Todoist is free and fine when only a few meetings a month need a task.

How to add new Google Calendar events to Todoist with Zapier

A two-step Zap watches one Google calendar and creates a Todoist task whenever a new event appears on it. Zapier's Google Calendar and Todoist page lists New Event ("triggers when an event is created") and Create Task as the two pieces. You need a free Zapier account and to be signed in to both Google and Todoist.

1. In Zapier, start a new Zap.
2. For the trigger, choose Google Calendar, then the New Event trigger event.
3. Sign in with Google and select the calendar the Zap should watch.
4. Test the trigger. Zapier pulls in a recent event, so add one to that calendar first if it's empty.
5. For the action, choose Todoist, then Create Task.
6. Connect your Todoist account and pick the Project. If you leave it alone, tasks go to your Inbox.
7. Map the fields (the table below shows what goes where), then test the step and check that the task appears in Todoist.
8. Publish the Zap to turn it on.

Zapier's own walk-through of this Zap is a good second reference if a screen looks different. One detail from it worth copying: put the date in Due Date (Raw Formatted), not Due Date (Human Formatted). The human field is built for phrases a person types, like "tomorrow at noon". A date coming from another app belongs in the raw field.

What to put in each Todoist field

I add one label to every task the Zap creates. On Friday afternoon I open that label, finish or delete whatever is left, and the list stays honest. Without it, automated tasks pile up quietly and the Todoist count stops meaning anything.

How to give the task a date you can act on

A task due at the same moment as the meeting is too late for prep. Zapier lets you shift any mapped date: type a space after the date, then a plus or minus sign, a number and a unit, per Zapier's date modifier guide. Units are s, m, h, d, mo and y, so Event Begins (Pretty) -1d is a day earlier and -3h is three hours earlier. Watch the letters: m is minutes and mo is months.

• -1d for meetings that need a document, slides or numbers.
• -3h for calls where rereading the last email thread is enough.
• -1d plus the real start in the Note field (type "Meeting at", then map Event Begins (Pretty) after it) when you want both the prep day and the real time in front of you.

If you'd rather see how long the meeting is, Todoist task durations help, but they're a Pro and Business feature, according to Todoist's duration guide. You can type one in when you edit the task: "Tomorrow 13:00 for 1h" sets a time and a one-hour length. The longest duration Todoist allows is 24 hours.

When a board meeting landed on my calendar for a Thursday, the task that showed up said "Draft board update" and was due Wednesday. That one-day gap is the whole point of the automation. A task due Thursday would have come due at the meeting itself, too late to prepare anything.

Which Google Calendar events should create a Todoist task?

The calendar you pick in the trigger is the main filter: the Zap only sees events on that one calendar. Watching your main calendar turns every focus block, lunch and dentist visit into a task, so narrow it in one of these ways.

• Use a calendar just for this. Create a Google calendar such as "Todo from calendar" and point the Zap at it. Putting an event on that calendar is the switch that creates a task.
• Use a search trigger. New or Updated Event Matching Search fires only for events that match your search term, such as a word you put in the title. Because it also fires on updates, editing a matching event can create a second task.
• Skip Google's own calendars. Zapier's Google Calendar help says Google-generated calendars, such as birthdays, can fire more than once because Google changes their event IDs, and it advises against using them as triggers.

Recurring meetings and subscribed calendars

Zapier's New Event trigger doesn't support repeating events, and it doesn't fire for events on calendars you subscribe to, according to Zapier's Google Calendar help. Repeating events have no end date, so they'd loop forever, and Google sends inaccurate creation dates for subscribed calendars.

For a weekly or monthly meeting, use the Event Start trigger instead. It fires a set amount of time before each event begins, which you choose with the time inputs in the trigger, so every occurrence gets its own task. On Zapier's Free plan, set the time before to at least 16 minutes, because Zapier checks every 15 minutes and a shorter window can miss events. For prep, a day ahead is more useful than 16 minutes.

How to do it with Make

Make offers the same pairing: its Google Calendar and Todoist page lists a Watch Events trigger and a Create a task action, along with Update a task and Delete a task. That last one matters if you want tasks to disappear when meetings are canceled, since Zapier's Todoist actions include completing a task but not deleting one.

1. In Make, create a new scenario and add the Google Calendar module Watch Events.
2. Sign in with Google, select which calendar the scenario reads, and make sure it reacts to new events only. Make's page says Watch Events can also fire when events are updated, deleted, started or ended, and each of those would make another task.
3. Add the Todoist module Create a task and connect your Todoist account.
4. Map the event's title to the task content and its start to the due date, and pick a project.
5. Run the scenario once with a test event, check Todoist, then switch the scenario on.

Make's pricing page gives Free plan accounts 1,000 credits a month. Make's builder takes longer to learn than a Zap, so it's worth it mainly if you already run other scenarios there or want the delete step.

How to add one event to Todoist without an automation

For a handful of meetings, forwarding the invite email is free and needs no setup beyond one address. Every Todoist project has its own email address, and the subject of the email you send becomes the task name, per Todoist's email forwarding guide. The body is attached in a comment, so the invite details come along.

1. In Todoist, open the project (or your Inbox) and click the three dots at the top right.
2. Choose Import & export, then Email tasks to this project, and click Copy email.
3. Save that address as a contact named after the project, which makes it easy to find next time.
4. Forward the invite to it. Before sending, edit the subject to what you need to do, and add a date such as <date tuesday>.

The word "date" is required: "<date tuesday>" works, plain "tuesday" doesn't. You can also add @ and a label, or p1 to p3 for priority. When a conference invitation arrived, I changed the subject to "Book hotel for the conference <date friday>" and forwarded it. The task landed on Friday with the invite attached, which beat leaving the email starred in my inbox for two weeks.

For an event you're looking at right now, Todoist's Quick Add is quicker still. Type the task followed by the date the way you'd say it, for example "Send agenda Fri 7pm", and Todoist reads the date as you type, as its dates and times guide shows.

Why isn't my Google Calendar event showing up in Todoist?

Most missing tasks come from the trigger, not from Todoist. The likeliest causes come first.

1. The event is on another calendar. The Zap watches one calendar. Open the trigger and check which one.
2. It's a repeating event. New Event skips them. Use Event Start for recurring meetings.
3. It's on a subscribed calendar. Calendars you subscribe to don't fire New Event. Copy the event to your own calendar, or use Event Start.
4. It existed before the Zap. The Zap reacts to new events from the moment you publish it. Add older events yourself with Quick Add.
5. You're waiting on Free plan timing. Zapier checks every 15 minutes on the Free plan, so a brand-new event can take that long to arrive.
6. You've hit the monthly limit. Check your task usage in Zapier. The Free plan includes 100 tasks a month, and a busy calendar can use them up.
7. The date is wrong or missing. Map Event Begins (Pretty) into Due Date (Raw Formatted), and check that your Zapier, Google Calendar and Todoist time zones agree.

A moved meeting is the other common surprise. A New Event Zap creates the task once, so rescheduling the meeting doesn't move the task. I check the task date whenever I accept a "new time proposed" email, because that's exactly when the two drift apart.

Related guides

If you're still choosing a task app, the Todoist alternatives comparison covers TickTick, Things and Microsoft To Do with 2026 prices. The same setup for Microsoft's app is in how to create Microsoft To Do tasks from Google Calendar, and how to automate Google Calendar covers the alerts and agenda settings worth changing first. If Zapier's task limits are the sticking point, see Zapier alternatives.