How to Make a Google Meet Meeting in 2026: Now or for Later

To make a Google Meet meeting, go to meet.google.com, click New meeting and pick Create a meeting for later (a link to share), Start an instant meeting (join now) or Schedule in Google Calendar (an event with a Meet link). On a phone, open the Meet app and tap New. All you need is a Google account, per Google's Meet help page.

The hard part is rarely the button. It's picking the right kind of meeting for the moment: a call that starts in thirty seconds, a link to drop into a chat, or a proper invite that lands on everyone's calendar with a reminder. This guide covers each one on a computer and a phone, how to keep strangers out, the free-account time limit, and why a link you shared months ago can stop working.

Which way to make a Google Meet meeting

Google Meet gives you three kinds of meeting from the same New meeting button, and each one suits a different moment. The table matches the situation to the option, using the labels on Google's help page.

For anything with more than two people or a fixed time, the Calendar route wins. Guests get the invite, the calendar entry and the link in one place, and nobody has to dig through chat to find it.

How to start a Google Meet meeting right now

An instant meeting opens a Google Meet call and puts you in it immediately; you share the link once you're inside. Google's steps on a computer:

1. Open meet.google.com while logged in to the account that should host the call.
2. Click New meeting.
3. Click Start an instant meeting.
4. Once you're in the call, share the meeting link with the people you want to join.

There's a faster route, too: typing meet.new into your browser's address bar opens a new Meet session, and adding a number such as meet.new/2 picks a different signed-in account, as Pocket-lint's write-up of the shortcut explains. I keep the work version bookmarked, because a call started from the wrong account is the kind of small mistake guests notice.

How to create a Google Meet link for later

Create a meeting for later gives you a Google Meet link without starting a call or making a calendar event. It's the right choice when you want to paste a link into a Slack message, a text or a document. Per Google's help page:

1. Go to meet.google.com and click New meeting.
2. Click Create a meeting for later.
3. Copy the meeting link and share it.
4. When it's time, paste the link into your browser or into the Enter a code or link box on the Meet home page, then click Join.

A link made this way isn't on anyone's calendar, which is both the point and the risk. When I send one to a client, I put the date and time in the same message, so the link and the plan can't drift apart.

How to schedule a Google Meet meeting in Google Calendar

Scheduling in Google Calendar creates an event with a Google Meet link attached, and sends the invite to your guests so it lands on their calendars. Google's steps on a computer:

1. Open Google Calendar and click Create, then Event.
2. Add a title, date and time.
3. Click Add guests and enter their names or email addresses.
4. Click Add Google Meet video conferencing.
5. Optional: next to Join with Google Meet, click Video call options to set who can get in.
6. Click Save, then Send to email the invite to your guests.

You can also start from Meet: New meeting → Schedule in Google Calendar opens a new Calendar event for you. One catch from Google's help page: people on Google Workspace Essentials can't schedule meetings in Google Calendar.

Add a Meet link to every event automatically

Google Calendar can attach a Google Meet link to each event you create. Google Calendar's help page lists the setting: click Settings (the gear) → Settings → Event settings, then turn on Automatically add Google Meet video conferences to events I create. An event holds one conference only, so don't also paste a Zoom link into the description; that's how people end up in two different calls.

On a team calendar I leave this on. On a personal calendar full of dentist appointments and school pickups I turn it off, because a stray Meet link on a lunch booking just confuses whoever opens it.

How to make a Google Meet meeting from Gmail

Gmail on a computer has a Meet button in the left sidebar that creates a meeting link without leaving your inbox. Google's help page gives these steps:

1. Open Gmail on your computer.
2. In the left sidebar, click Meet, then New meeting.
3. Click Send invite, then Copy meeting invite to copy the details, or Share via email to send them in an email.
4. Click Join now to enter the call.

When a client replies "can we just talk this through?", this is the route I take: create the link from the sidebar, paste the invite into my reply, and the call can start before the thread grows another three messages.

Gmail's chat side works too. In Google Chat on a personal account, open a one-to-one chat and click Start a video call, or in any chat click Google Workspace tools → Send a Meet link, according to the same Google page. Business and Enterprise accounts find Call, Send a Meet link and Start a huddle under More options instead.

How to make a Google Meet meeting on your phone

On an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, the Google Meet app makes a link with New → Create link, and schedules a meeting with New → Schedule, which hands off to the Google Calendar app. The steps below come from Google's Android and iPhone and iPad help pages.

Start or share a meeting in the Meet app

1. Open the Google Meet app.
2. Tap New at the bottom right.
3. Tap Create link.
4. Tap Copy to paste the link into a text or email, or Share to send it from another app.
5. Tap Join meeting to go in yourself (on iPhone and iPad, then tap Join).

Schedule a meeting from your phone

1. In the Meet app, tap New, then Schedule. The Google Calendar app opens a new event.
2. Set the title, time and guests.
3. Tap Save at the top right.
4. Go back to Meet. The meeting shows on the Meet home screen and in the calendar event.

Starting from Calendar on the phone works too: tap Add (the plus at the bottom right), then Event, add guests, then tap Done and Save.

How to make a Google Meet meeting from Outlook

Microsoft Outlook can create Google Meet meetings through Google's Meet add-in. Google's Outlook page says it works with Outlook 2016 or 2019 for Windows, Outlook 2016 for Mac and Outlook on the web, but not on phones.

1. Install the Google Meet Add-In from Microsoft AppSource (click Get it Now and follow the prompts). Work and school users on Windows can get it with Google Drive for desktop instead.
2. Open a new Outlook calendar event or email.
3. Click the Meet icon. Outlook may ask for your Google login the first time.
4. The Meet joining details are added to the invite. Send it as usual.

Guests don't need the add-in to join; anyone invited can click the link. If your calendar lives somewhere else entirely, Google's advice is simpler: start a meeting in Gmail or Meet, open Meeting details, click Copy joining info and paste it into your event, per the Meet help page.

Control who can join your Google Meet meeting

Google Meet's Host controls decide who walks straight in and who has to ask. You can set them before the meeting from the Calendar event's video call options, or during it from Host controls at the bottom right. Google's guide to meeting access describes three types:

• Open: whoever has the meeting link gets straight in, and nobody has to knock.
• Trusted: people in the host's organization, and outside guests invited through the Calendar event, join without knocking. Everyone else has to ask.
• Restricted: only people invited through the Calendar event or by a host during the meeting can join; the rest must knock. Restricted isn't available on personal Google accounts.

New meetings start as Trusted for most accounts, Google says, and the same page lists Host must join before anyone else for calls where you want to be first in the room. Before a call with outside guests I check access in the Calendar event rather than once the call is live, because the moment to sort out a knock request is not while you're presenting.

The same settings area holds Meeting records, where a host can switch on recording, transcripts and notes ahead of time on accounts that have them. Recording has its own guide on this blog.

Google Meet time limits on a free account

A free Google account can host group meetings of up to 60 minutes and invite up to 100 participants, according to Google's Meet product page. One-to-one calls and mobile calls run with no time limit even without paying, while certain paid Google One and Google Workspace plans allow group calls of up to 24 hours.

If you're weighing whether a paid plan is worth it for meetings alone, our Google Meet vs. Zoom comparison lays out both free tiers side by side.

Why your Google Meet link stopped working

Google Meet meeting codes expire, and how long they last depends on where the meeting was made. Google's page on meeting codes lists the rules:

• Google Calendar events: the code stays valid while it's tied to a future event in the calendar; it lapses only after it has gone unused and has no future events attached.
• meet.google.com, Gmail, Google Chat and Google Classroom: the code expires 365 days after it was last used.
• Outlook and other third-party apps: 365 days, and each use adds another 365.
• Workspace meeting nicknames and breakout rooms: gone as soon as the meeting (or, for breakout rooms, the main meeting) ends.

For a standing meeting, the fix is to make it a recurring Calendar event. Then the code is tied to future events and stays put. That's how I run my weekly one-on-ones: one recurring event, one link, no hunting for last month's message.

Two other things trip people up. An event created in Apple Calendar or another app with a Meet code pasted in may get a new code from Google, which emails you about it, per the Meet help page. And if a guest is stuck knocking, check the access type: on Trusted or Restricted, someone who wasn't on the invite has to be let in by a host.

A short checklist before you send the invite

• Is it on a calendar? If people need a reminder, schedule it in Google Calendar instead of sending a bare link.
• Is the right account hosting it? A personal account caps group calls at an hour and can't use Restricted access.
• Does the title say what it's for? "Q4 budget review" gets prepared for; "Sync" doesn't.
• Is access set for who's coming? Outside guests on the invite join without knocking on Trusted; anyone forwarded the link will have to ask.
• Is there only one video link? One conference per event, and nothing extra pasted into the description.