Every feature

Everything InstaCal actually does.

It's a small app with a long feature list, and all of it is included in the one price. This is the whole thing, grouped — start wherever your question is.

Download on theMac App Store

$9.99 once on the Mac App Store. No subscription, no account, no ads.

3Account types: Apple, Google, Microsoft
20+Meeting services joinable in a click
$9.99Once — every feature included
0Analytics or trackers

InstaCal at a glance

What it is
A calendar that lives in the macOS menu bar — month, agenda, reminders and invitations in a panel that opens with a keystroke.
Calendars
Works across Apple (iCloud and any calendar in the Calendar app), Google, and Microsoft 365.
Adding events
Type in plain English with a live preview. On macOS 26 Apple Intelligence parses on-device; earlier versions use InstaCal's own parser.
Meetings
InstaCal detects meeting links in an event's URL field, location, or notes across 20+ services including Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, FaceTime, Whereby, Jitsi, Around, GoToMeeting, BlueJeans and Discord.
Also included
A full calendar window with Day, Week, Month and List views, a real event editor, a reminder editor with geofences, Calendar Sets, weather in day headers, and themes.
Price
$9.99 once on the Mac App Store — a one-time purchase, not a subscription.
Requirements
macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.
Privacy
InstaCal is sandboxed by the Mac App Store and contains no analytics and no tracking. Account tokens stay in your Keychain and events sync directly between your Mac and your calendar provider — there is no server of ours in between.
The full list

Every feature, grouped by what you came for.

Menu bar

What happens in the one strip of screen you glance at all day.

Mac menu bar calendar

Month view, infinite agenda, reminders and invitations in one panel that opens with a keystroke.

Plain-English event entry

Type "Lunch with Sam Friday 1pm" and press Return. A live preview shows what you'll get.

Calendars

The accounts it reads, and what it does with them.

Google Calendar in the menu bar

Sign in through your browser, keep tokens in your Keychain, and get Google events in the menu bar.

Outlook calendar in the menu bar

Microsoft 365 events in the macOS menu bar, with Teams links turned into one-click Join buttons.

Meetings

Getting into the call without hunting for the link.

Next meeting in the menu bar

Your next event and a live countdown where you already look, with a one-click Join.

Compare

Honest comparisons, and what the one-time price covers.

A Fantastical alternative

The menu bar panel, plain-English entry and Calendar Sets — for one payment instead of a subscription.

A calendar without a subscription

One payment, every feature, no account and no tiers — including the features added later.

An Itsycal alternative

Itsycal's speed and restraint, plus direct Google and Microsoft accounts, quick add and meeting join.

Help

When something isn't working.

InstaCal support

Email support for InstaCal, answered by the person who writes it.
Beyond the menu bar

There's a whole calendar app behind the panel.

InstaCal's full calendar window in dark mode: the agenda sidebar, a month grid with Day, Week, Month, Year and List view options, and an event's details open in the right-hand inspector
The full window

Day, Week, Month, Year and List — when the panel is the wrong shape.

The panel answers "what's next". For everything else there's a real calendar window: the agenda still on the left, the month laid out properly, and any event's full detail in the inspector beside it.

  • Five views, switched from the toolbar
  • Search and week numbers
  • The inspector edits in place — times, alerts, repeat, availability
  • Weather in the day headers here too
InstaCal's event editor showing calendar selection, start and end times, duration chips, location, alert, invitees, notes, and repeat and availability options
The editor

A real event editor, not a stripped-down one.

Duration chips for the common cases, location autocomplete through Maps, attendees with invitations, multiple alerts, repeat rules and availability — all without leaving the panel you opened it from.

  • One-tap 30 min / 1 hr / 1.5 hr / 2 hr / All day
  • Invite people by name or email, with Contacts autocomplete
  • Multiple alerts per event
  • Repeat rules and Busy/Free availability
The rest of it

Small app. Long feature list.

All of it included — there is no Pro tier.

A real event editor

Duration chips, repeat rules, availability, attendees with invites, multiple alerts, and location autocomplete via Maps.

A real reminder editor

Due dates, priority, list and notes — including location-based geofence alerts.

Notifications that act

Snooze five ways, join the call, or answer an invitation straight from the banner.

A full calendar window

Day, Week, Month and List views with search and week numbers, when the panel isn't the right shape for the question.

Weather in the day header

Conditions, high and low from Apple Weather or The Weather Channel — or off, if you'd rather.

Made yours

Accent colour, panel background and height, day-header colours, two agenda layouts, per-calendar colour overrides, week numbers and a second time zone.

Built for the keyboard

Global hotkeys open the panel, start an event or jump to reminders from any app — and focus returns exactly where it was.

Native and quiet

Pure Swift, no web wrapper, launch at login registered the modern way, and no background bloat.

FAQ

Questions about InstaCal

What does InstaCal do?
It puts your calendar in the macOS menu bar. Press a hotkey or click the date and a panel appears with the month, an agenda that scrolls forever, your due reminders and any invitations waiting on a reply — then it disappears when you're done.
Which calendar accounts does it work with?
Apple (iCloud and any calendar in the Calendar app), Google, and Microsoft 365. Apple accounts come through the calendars macOS already has, and Google and Microsoft can also be signed in directly for faster incremental sync and invitation handling.
Is InstaCal only for the menu bar?
That's the main event, but there's also a full calendar window with Day, Week, Month and List views, search and week numbers, for when you need to look at a whole month properly.
What does InstaCal require?
macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. InstaCal is a native Swift app — not a web wrapper — so the panel opens instantly and uses very little power.
Does InstaCal collect any data?
No. InstaCal contains no analytics and no tracking. Your Google and Microsoft tokens live in your Mac's Keychain, and your events sync directly between your Mac and your calendar provider — there is no server of ours for your data to visit.
How much does InstaCal cost?
InstaCal is $9.99 once on the Mac App Store. It is not a subscription — there is no monthly or yearly fee, no account to create, and no in-app purchase. Updates, including new features, are included.
InstaCal app icon

The whole app, for one payment.

$9.99 once on the Mac App Store. No subscription, no tiers.

Download on theMac App Store

$9.99 once on the Mac App Store. No subscription, no account, no ads.