Export Canvas assignments to Google Calendar

Canvas publishes your calendar as a subscribable feed, so Google Calendar can mirror your assignments automatically. It takes about two minutes to set up. The steps are below, followed by the four limitations worth knowing before you rely on it.

Step 1: copy your Canvas calendar feed

In Canvas, open Calendar from the global navigation. Scroll to the bottom of the sidebar on the right and click Calendar Feed. Canvas shows you a long URL. Copy it.

Before you paste that anywhere, read this. The feed URL contains a personal access token. Anyone who has it can read your entire course schedule without logging in as you and without your knowing. Do not post it in a group chat, do not put it in a shared doc, and do not hand it to a third-party site that offers to tidy up your schedule. If you think it has leaked, use the reset option that Canvas offers next to the feed, which invalidates the old URL.

Step 2: add it to Google Calendar

Open Google Calendar on a computer. This cannot be done from the Google Calendar mobile app, which is a Google limitation rather than a Canvas one. Once the calendar is added it will sync to your phone normally.

• In the left sidebar, find Other calendars and click the plus sign next to it
• Choose From URL
• Paste the Canvas feed URL
• Click Add calendar

Step 3: rename it

Google will name the new calendar after the feed URL, which is unreadable. Open its settings from the sidebar and rename it to something like Canvas. While you are there you can set its colour, so coursework is visually distinct from the rest of your week.

What the feed will not do

Four limitations, in rough order of how often they cause a problem.

It is read-only

You cannot edit, complete or reschedule an item from Google Calendar and have it affect Canvas. Anything you change will be overwritten on the next refresh. Treat it as a display of Canvas, not a place to work.

It updates on Google's schedule, not instantly

Google decides how often to re-fetch a subscribed URL, and it is not immediate. A new assignment can exist in Canvas for a while before it appears in Google Calendar. This is the single most common complaint about this setup, and there is no setting to force it. If a deadline matters today, check Canvas directly.

It only carries dated items

The feed is generated from your Canvas calendar, so it inherits that calendar's blind spot: an assignment with no due date is not in the feed, because there is no date to place it on.

It cannot contain what Canvas never knew

If a deadline only ever existed in a syllabus PDF, a module page or an announcement, it is not a Canvas calendar item, so it is not in the feed either. Exporting does not add information. It moves the information Canvas already had.

If you use Apple Calendar or Outlook instead

The same feed URL works. In Apple Calendar choose File, then New Calendar Subscription, and paste it. In Outlook, look for the option to add a calendar from the internet. The same four limitations apply, because they come from the feed rather than from Google.