The fastest way to add a birthday

Open Google Calendar on your computer or phone, click the Create button (the plus sign), and select Event. Type the person's name in the title field, set the date to their birthday, then toggle All day event to on. Before you save, click Does not repeat and change it to Yearly — this way the birthday shows up every year without you having to re-enter it. Hit Save and you're done.

If you're on your phone, the steps are the same: tap the plus button, choose Event, fill in the name and date, turn on All day event, set it to repeat yearly, and save. The birthday will now appear on your calendar every year on that date.

Key Takeaways

  • Create a new event, type the person's name, set the date to their birthday, and turn on All day event so it doesn't block your schedule.
  • Change the repeat setting from Does not repeat to Yearly so the birthday shows up automatically every year.
  • You can add birthdays from your phone or computer — the process works the same way on both.
  • Google Calendar will send you a notification on the day if you want one, which you can turn on in the event details.

Adding birthdays from your contacts

If you already have someone's birthday saved in Google Contacts, you don't have to type it into your calendar manually. Open Google Calendar, click the Settings gear icon in the top right, and select Settings. Scroll down to Other calendars and look for Birthdays — if you don't see it, click the plus sign next to Other calendars and search for "Birthdays".

Once you add the Birthdays calendar, any birthday you've entered in Google Contacts will show up automatically on your calendar. This saves you from typing the same information twice. If you add a new contact with a birthday later, it will appear on your calendar within a few hours.

Setting up reminders so you actually remember

Adding the birthday to your calendar is only half the work — you also need to make sure you get a reminder. When you create or edit a birthday event, scroll down to Notifications and click Add notification. You can choose to be notified by email, popup, or both, and you can set it to remind you a day before, a week before, or on the day itself.

If you want to be reminded multiple times, click Add notification again. Many people set one reminder a week before (so they have time to buy a gift or plan something) and another on the morning of the birthday itself. You can change these settings anytime by opening the event and editing the notification section.

Sharing birthday calendars with family or friends

If you want other people to see the birthdays on your calendar, you can share your calendar with them. Click Settings, find your calendar in the list on the left, and click on it. Scroll to Share with specific people and click Add people. Type in their email address and choose whether they can only see the calendar or also edit it.

Alternatively, if you only want to share birthdays and not your whole calendar, you can create a separate calendar just for birthdays. Click Create new calendar in the left sidebar, name it "Birthdays" or whatever you like, and add birthday events there instead. Then share only that calendar with the people who need it.

Fixing or deleting a birthday you entered wrong

If you typed in the wrong date or want to remove a birthday, click on the event in your calendar. A popup will appear — click the pencil icon to edit it. You can change the date, the person's name, or the repeat settings. If you want to delete it entirely, click the trash icon at the bottom of the popup.

If you added the birthday from your Contacts and want to remove it from your calendar, you have two choices: delete the contact itself (which removes it from Contacts and the calendar), or just hide the Birthdays calendar by unchecking it in your calendar list. Unchecking it hides all birthdays without deleting anything, so you can turn it back on later.

Why birthdays sometimes don't show up

The most common reason a birthday doesn't appear is that the Birthdays calendar isn't turned on. Open your calendar, look at the list on the left side under Other calendars, and make sure Birthdays has a checkmark next to it. If it's unchecked, click it to turn it back on.

Another reason is that the birthday was entered in Google Contacts but hasn't synced yet — this usually takes a few hours, but can take up to a day. If you just added a contact's birthday and it's not showing up yet, wait a few hours and refresh your calendar. If a birthday still doesn't appear after a day, check that the contact's birthday field is actually filled in by opening the contact in Google Contacts and looking at the birthday line.

Using color coding to organize birthdays by group

If you have a lot of birthdays on your calendar, you might want to color-code them by group — family in one color, friends in another, coworkers in a third. To do this, create separate calendars for each group instead of putting all birthdays in one event list. Click Create new calendar, name it "Family Birthdays", and add only family members' birthdays there. Repeat for other groups.

Once you've created separate calendars, you can assign each one a different color. Click Settings, find each calendar in the list, and look for the color option. This makes it easy to see at a glance which birthdays are coming up and who they belong to. You can also hide or show each group separately by checking or unchecking them in your calendar list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add someone's birthday if I don't know the year?

Yes. When you create the event, you can enter just the month and day without the year. Google Calendar will still show the birthday every year on that date. If you find out the year later, you can edit the event and add it.

What happens if I delete a birthday event by accident?

If you created the event manually, it's gone unless you undo it immediately (Ctrl+Z on Windows, Command+Z on Mac). If the birthday came from your Contacts, you can just turn the Birthdays calendar back on and it will reappear. You can also recreate the event by clicking Create and entering the information again.

Can I see other people's birthdays on their shared calendars?

Only if they've shared their calendar with you and the birthday events are on that calendar. If someone shares their calendar with you, you'll see all events they've marked as visible to you, including birthdays. You can add those birthdays to your own calendar by creating new events with the same dates.

Do I need the Birthdays calendar turned on to see birthdays I created manually?

No. Birthdays you create as regular events will show up whether the Birthdays calendar is on or off. The Birthdays calendar only controls birthdays that come from your Google Contacts. You can turn it off and still see manually created birthday events.