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Creating Calendar Event QR Codes

Generate QR codes that, when scanned, add events directly to a user's calendar. This is useful for event promotions, conference schedules, webinar invitations, and any situation where you want to make it easy for people to add your event to their calendar.

Calendar Event QR Code Format​

Calendar event QR codes use the iCalendar (iCal) format which follows a specific structure:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Event Title
DTSTART:Start Date and Time
DTEND:End Date and Time
LOCATION:Event Location
DESCRIPTION:Event Description
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

The dates need to be in the format: YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ where:

  • YYYY is the year
  • MM is the month (01-12)
  • DD is the day (01-31)
  • T is a literal character separating the date from time
  • HH is the hour in 24-hour format (00-23)
  • MM is the minutes (00-59)
  • SS is the seconds (00-59)
  • Z indicates that the time is in UTC time zone

For example:

https://quickchart.io/qr?text=BEGIN%3AVCALENDAR%0AVERSION%3A2.0%0ABEGIN%3AVEVENT%0ASUMMARY%3AAnnual%20Conference%0ADTSTART%3A20240520T090000Z%0ADTEND%3A20240520T170000Z%0ALOCATION%3A123%20Main%20St%2C%20Conference%20Center%0ADESCRIPTION%3AAnnual%20company%20conference%20with%20keynote%20speakers%20and%20networking%20events.%0AEND%3AVEVENT%0AEND%3AVCALENDAR

Creating Calendar Event QR Codes in Spreadsheets​

You can generate calendar event QR codes in bulk using spreadsheets. Here's an example formula that creates a QR code URL:

="https://quickchart.io/qr?text=" & ENCODEURL("BEGIN:VCALENDAR" & CHAR(10) & 
"VERSION:2.0" & CHAR(10) & 
"BEGIN:VEVENT" & CHAR(10) & 
"SUMMARY:" & A2 & CHAR(10) & 
"DTSTART:" & B2 & CHAR(10) & 
"DTEND:" & C2 & CHAR(10) & 
"LOCATION:" & D2 & CHAR(10) & 
"DESCRIPTION:" & E2 & CHAR(10) & 
"END:VEVENT" & CHAR(10) & 
"END:VCALENDAR")

Where:

  • Column A contains the event title
  • Column B contains the start date and time in the format YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ
  • Column C contains the end date and time in the format YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ
  • Column D contains the location
  • Column E contains the description

For more details on using spreadsheets, see our guide on generating QR codes in Excel and Google Sheets.

Advanced Calendar Properties​

You can add more properties to your calendar events:

Adding Organizer Information​

ORGANIZER;CN=Event Organizer:mailto:[email protected]

Adding Reminder/Alarm​

BEGIN:VALARM
TRIGGER:-PT1H
ACTION:DISPLAY
DESCRIPTION:Reminder
END:VALARM

This creates a reminder 1 hour before the event.

Adding Event URL​

URL:https://example.com/event-details

Recurring Events​

For a weekly recurring event:

RRULE:FREQ=WEEKLY;COUNT=10

This creates an event that repeats weekly for 10 occurrences.

Customization Options​

You can customize your calendar event QR codes using any of the standard QR code parameters. Here's an example with custom styling:

https://quickchart.io/qr?text=BEGIN%3AVCALENDAR...&dark=4285f4&caption=Add to Calendar&captionFontSize=15

Full Example​

Here's a complete example for a conference event:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Tech Conference 2024
DTSTART:20240610T090000Z
DTEND:20240612T170000Z
LOCATION:San Francisco Convention Center
DESCRIPTION:Annual technology conference featuring workshops, keynotes, and networking opportunities. Don't forget to bring your laptop!
ORGANIZER;CN=Tech Conference Team:mailto:[email protected]
URL:https://techconference.example
BEGIN:VALARM
TRIGGER:-P1D
ACTION:DISPLAY
DESCRIPTION:Conference starts tomorrow!
END:VALARM
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

To convert this to a QR code URL, URL-encode the entire content and append it to:

https://quickchart.io/qr?text=

Tips​

  1. Test your QR codes - Always scan your QR codes with different devices to ensure they work correctly.
  2. Keep event details concise - The more text in the QR code, the more complex it becomes, which might affect scannability.
  3. Consider time zones - The 'Z' suffix indicates UTC time. Make sure to convert your local time to UTC or specify a time zone.
  4. URL encode special characters - Make sure to URL encode the entire calendar event string.

Need help?​

For questions about generating calendar event QR codes, visit our community forum.

To learn more about QR code customization options, check out the QR code API documentation.

Ian Webster

About the author

Ian Webster is a software engineer and former Googler based in San Mateo, California. He has helped Google, NASA, and governments around the world improve their data pipelines and visualizations. In 2018, Ian created QuickChart, a collection of open-source APIs that support data visualization efforts.

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