CSV to ICS Converter
Convert CSV files (or Excel exports) into iCalendar (.ics) files for Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar. Free, in-browser, supports multiple date formats and timezones.
Free CSV to ICS Converter – Turn Spreadsheets Into Calendar Files
CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is the most universal way to maintain event lists in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, or LibreOffice Calc. But spreadsheets cannot be imported directly into a calendar — every modern calendar app expects an iCalendar (.ics) file. This CSV to ICS converter bridges that gap. Upload a CSV exported from Excel, Google Sheets, Outlook, or any custom workflow, and download a fully RFC 5545-compliant .ics file ready to import into Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Calendar, Mozilla Thunderbird, or any other calendar service. The conversion happens entirely in your browser, so your event data never touches a server.
Which CSV Columns Are Recognized
The converter automatically detects column names that match the standard Microsoft Outlook calendar export, so most spreadsheets work without renaming anything. Required columns: Subject (or Title) and Start Date. Optional columns: Start Time, End Date, End Time, All Day Event, Description, and Location. Spanish header names like Asunto, Fecha de inicio, Hora de inicio, Ubicación, and Descripción are also recognized. If your headers do not match, rename them to one of the supported aliases and re-run the conversion.
Date and Time Formats Supported
Real-world CSV files come from many sources, so the parser is tolerant of multiple date layouts. ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) is preferred and always unambiguous, but US-style MM/DD/YYYY and European DD/MM/YYYY are both detected. Times can be 24-hour (15:30) or 12-hour with AM/PM (3:30 PM). When a row has only a date and no start time, or when the All Day Event column is set to True, the event is generated as a VALUE=DATE all-day entry. Otherwise, times are anchored in UTC inside the resulting .ics so the events appear at the correct local time when imported into any calendar.
How to Convert Excel to ICS in One Click
Open your Excel file, choose File → Save As, and pick "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)". UTF-8 is important — it preserves accents, non-Latin characters, and emoji that the legacy CSV format would drop. Drag the resulting .csv into this tool, and you will receive an .ics file with the same name. To import into Google Calendar, open Google Calendar, click the gear icon → Settings → Import & Export → Select file from your computer. For Outlook desktop, double-click the .ics file. For Apple Calendar, simply drop the .ics into the Calendar app dock icon.
Use Cases: Bulk Event Creation From a Spreadsheet
Class schedules built in Excel, conference agendas tracked in Google Sheets, training programs maintained in Airtable exports, work-rotation rosters from HR tools — all of these typically live in tabular form. Instead of typing each event into a calendar by hand, export the table to CSV, run it through this converter, and import the resulting .ics. This workflow is especially powerful for repeat events: maintain the master in a spreadsheet, regenerate the .ics, and re-import. Teachers, project managers, event coordinators, and operations teams reclaim hours per month with this one transformation.
Privacy and Security: 100% Browser-Side Conversion
Your CSV may contain personal information — meeting attendees, addresses, internal project codes, client names. None of that ever leaves your device. The CSV to ICS converter uses pure JavaScript that runs in your browser; you can verify it by opening the browser developer tools and watching the Network tab during conversion (you will see zero outbound requests). The same client-side architecture powers every other tool on iCalConverter.com. No accounts, no logs, no analytics on the file content itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What columns does the CSV file need to have?
At a minimum, two columns: Subject (or Title) and Start Date. Optional but recommended: Start Time, End Date, End Time, All Day Event, Description, and Location. The header names match the standard Outlook calendar CSV export, and Spanish equivalents (Asunto, Fecha de inicio, etc.) are also recognized.
Can I convert an Excel (.xlsx) file directly to ICS?
Not directly — Excel uses a proprietary binary format. Open your spreadsheet in Excel and choose File → Save As → CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited). Then drop the resulting .csv into this converter. The same applies to Google Sheets (File → Download → Comma-separated values) and Apple Numbers (File → Export To → CSV).
Which date formats are supported?
ISO (YYYY-MM-DD), US (MM/DD/YYYY), European (DD/MM/YYYY), and several variants with dashes, slashes, or dots as separators. Two-digit years are interpreted as 2000–2099. For times, both 24-hour (HH:MM or HH:MM:SS) and 12-hour with AM/PM are accepted.
How are all-day events handled?
A row is treated as an all-day event if its Start Time column is empty or the All Day Event column contains True, Yes, 1, or Sí. The resulting VEVENT uses the iCalendar VALUE=DATE syntax (DTSTART;VALUE=DATE), which is recognized by every major calendar app and prevents the event from being shown with a time.
Will the imported events keep their timezone?
Times are written in UTC (Z-suffixed) inside the .ics, so when you import the file the calendar app will display each event at the correct local time for the importer. If you need a specific TZID per event, run the resulting .ics through the Fix / Clean ICS tool, or open it in a text editor and add a TZID parameter manually.
Can I import the resulting ICS into Google Calendar?
Yes. In Google Calendar, click the gear icon → Settings → Import & Export → Select file from your computer, choose the .ics file, pick the destination calendar, and click Import. Google Calendar accepts the file produced by this converter without modification. The same .ics also works in Outlook, Apple Calendar, Thunderbird, and Yahoo Calendar.
Is there a row limit?
No hard limit. The converter runs in your browser, so performance scales with your device. Files with several thousand rows convert in a few seconds on modern hardware. For very large CSVs (50k+ rows), consider splitting them in advance.