Google Calendar Colors: How to Change Them, Color-Code Your Time Blocks, and 12 Palettes (With Hex Codes)
To change a color in Google Calendar, right-click an event and pick a new color, or point to a calendar in the left sidebar, open its three-dot menu and choose one. For a color that isn't in the list, use the plus icon to add a custom color on the web. Google's June 2026 update gave events 24 built-in colors and up to 200 custom ones, on personal accounts too.
Key takeaways
- Right-click an event to recolor it. Use a calendar's three-dot menu to recolor a whole calendar.
- Custom colors are new: 24 built-in event colors plus up to 200 custom ones, created on the web with an RGB picker.
- For time blocking, color by type of work (deep work, meetings, admin, personal) and use 4 to 6 colors, no more.
- Never let color carry the meaning alone. About 1 in 12 men have a color vision difference, so add a short text tag to titles.
- Copy any of the 12 palettes below: click a swatch to copy its hex code.
On this page
- How to change colors in Google Calendar
- Calendar color or event color: which should you use?
- Four color-coding systems for time blocking
- Write your legend down once
- 12 color palettes with hex codes
- Make it work for color vision differences
- Common color-coding mistakes
- When colors aren't the bottleneck
- Frequently asked questions
- Sources and further reading
Color is the cheapest upgrade you can make to a time-blocked calendar. A week of identical grey-blue blocks is a wall of text. The same week with a color per kind of work is something you can read in two seconds. This guide covers the mechanics (how to change colors, and how to add your own), then the part most articles skip: which system to use, and palettes you can paste in. If you're still setting up the basics, start with how to use Google Calendar for time blocking.
How to change colors in Google Calendar
There are three things you might want to do, and they're all on the web version of Google Calendar.
| I want to change | How | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| One event | Right-click the event and choose a new color. Or open the event, click the pen (edit) icon, then the round color icon. | Only that event changes. |
| A whole calendar | Under My calendars in the left sidebar, point to the calendar, open the three-dot menu and pick a color. | New events on that calendar start with this color. |
| Add a custom color | In the same three-dot menu, click the plus icon (Add custom color), pick a shade or enter a hex code, and save. | Web only. You can then use it on new or existing events. |
Google changes its menus now and then. If a step looks different, search Google Calendar Help for "change event colors".
Google announced custom event colors in June 2026 and rolled them out gradually, starting June 17 for Rapid Release domains and June 29 for Scheduled Release ones, with rollouts that can take more than 15 days. If your menu only shows the older presets, the update hasn't reached your account yet.
Before that update, events were limited to 11 preset colors. Now you get 24 built-in colors, plus up to 200 custom colors you define yourself with a full RGB picker. Google says it's available to all Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers and people with personal Google accounts. Defining new colors is a web feature, though Google's announcement says the custom colors also work in its mobile apps.
Calendar color or event color: which should you use?
Both work. The difference is where the decision lives.
| One calendar per category | One calendar, colors per event | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Create calendars like Deep work, Admin and Personal, each with its own color. Blocks inherit the color. | Keep everything on one calendar and recolor each event yourself. |
| Setup | A few minutes, once. | None, but a few clicks per event. |
| Hide a whole category | One click on the checkbox | No, colors aren't a filter |
| Shades available | One per calendar | 24 built-in plus up to 200 custom |
| Best for | People who want color to be automatic | People who want the most flexibility |
If you time block every day, the calendar-per-category route saves the most clicks. If you only color a few things, per-event is simpler. You can also mix them: calendars for your main categories, event colors for exceptions.
Four color-coding systems for time blocking
The best palette is the one that matches a system you'll actually follow. These are the four that hold up in practice, with the one we'd start with first.
| System | Colors mean | Example legend | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| By type of work | What kind of task it is | Deep work, meetings, admin, personal | Almost everyone. Start here. |
| By energy | How demanding the block is | Peak focus, steady, light, recovery | People whose energy swings decide the day |
| By priority | Urgent vs important | Urgent and important, important, routine | When everything feels urgent and you need to see the split |
| By project or client | Who the work is for | Client A, Client B, admin and billing | Freelancers and consultants who bill by client |
Pick one system and stay with it for at least two weeks before you judge it. Mixing systems ("blue means deep work, but red also means urgent, and green is the Henderson project") is how color coding stops meaning anything.
Write your legend down once
A color you have to remember is a color you'll misuse. Keep a short legend somewhere you can see it, and add a two-letter tag to each title so it still works without color (more on why below).
| Category | Color (from palette 1) | Title tag | Example event title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deep work | #2B59C3 | DW | DW: Draft Q3 report |
| Meetings | #7B61A8 | MT | MT: Design review |
| Admin | #6B7A8F | AD | AD: Client emails |
| Breaks | #3E9B6B | BR | BR: Lunch walk |
| Personal | #D9822B | PE | PE: Pick up parcel |
| Health | #C8483A | HE | HE: Gym |
12 color palettes with hex codes
These are our own palettes, not Google's built-in colors. To use one, add each shade as a custom color (steps above) by entering its hex code. Click or tap any swatch to copy the code. All 12 palettes together are 72 colors, so they fit inside Google's 200 custom-color limit.
Very light colors can make event titles hard to read, and very dark ones can blend into each other. After you add a color, look at a real block on your calendar and adjust the shade if the title strains your eyes.
1. Work-day essentials
The one to start with. Clear, distinct categories for a normal workday.
2. Warm earth
Calm, natural tones that are easy to look at all day.
3. Cool ocean
Blues and teals for people who like a quiet, focused-looking calendar.
4. Soft pastel
Gentle and light. Check that titles stay readable on these.
5. Bold and high contrast
Strong, saturated colors that read fast from across a busy week.
6. Colorblind-safe
The Okabe-Ito set, designed to stay distinguishable with common color vision differences.
7. Student
One color per course, plus study and life.
8. Energy levels
Color by how demanding the block is, not what it is.
9. Priority (Eisenhower)
The Eisenhower matrix (do, schedule, delegate, drop) plus routine and rest.
10. Freelancer and clients
A color per client, with admin and marketing kept separate.
11. Muted and calm
Low-saturation shades that keep the calendar from shouting.
12. Monochrome plus one accent
Greys for everything, one warm accent for the work that matters most.
Make it work for color vision differences
Red and green are the pair most often confused, and a lot of calendars put them side by side ("done" and "urgent," for example). Two easy fixes:
- Use a tested palette. Palette 6 above is the Okabe-Ito set, published by Masataka Okabe and Kei Ito to stay distinguishable across the common forms of color vision deficiency. It also includes yellow (#F0E442) and black (#000000), which we left out to keep six swatches.
- Never let color be the only signal. The two-letter tags in the legend above mean a block still reads correctly in a screenshot, a printout or a color-blind viewer's eyes.
Common color-coding mistakes
What goes wrong
- 10 or more colors, so nothing stands out
- Two blues that look identical on a busy week
- Red for everything that feels important
- A color per project, growing every month
- No legend, so the meaning drifts
What holds up
- 4 to 6 colors, decided once
- Shades that are clearly different at a glance
- Red kept for genuinely urgent items
- Color by type of work, project in the title
- A written legend and a title tag
When colors aren't the bottleneck
Color makes a plan readable. It doesn't keep the plan alive. If you're recoloring blocks and also moving yesterday's unfinished ones by hand every morning, the upkeep is the real cost, and it's covered in the "where doing it by hand breaks" section of our Google Calendar time blocking guide. Whether it's worth paying to remove is a fair question, and we answer it plainly in do you need a time blocking app if you already use Google Calendar?
Frequently asked questions
How do I change the color of an event in Google Calendar?
Right-click the event and choose a new color. You can also open the event, click the pen (edit) icon, click the round color icon and choose a color. Only that event changes.
How do I change the color of a whole calendar?
In the left sidebar under My calendars, point to the calendar, open its three-dot menu and pick a color, or click the plus icon to add a custom one. New events on that calendar start with the color.
Can I use a custom or hex color in Google Calendar?
Yes. Google's June 2026 update added up to 200 custom event colors, defined on the web with a full RGB picker, and available on personal accounts as well as Workspace ones. In the three-dot menu for a calendar, click the plus icon, pick a shade or enter a hex code, and save.
How many colors does Google Calendar have?
Events used to have 11 preset colors. After Google's June 2026 update they have 24 built-in colors, plus up to 200 custom colors you can define yourself.
Why don't I see custom colors in my Google Calendar?
Google rolled the update out gradually from mid-June 2026, and full rollout could take more than 15 days for some domains. If you only see the older preset colors, it hasn't reached your account yet. Check again in a few days.
Can I add custom colors on my phone?
Defining a new custom color with the RGB picker is a web feature. Google's announcement says custom colors work in its mobile apps too, so create them on the web first, then use them on your phone.
What is the best color-coding system for time blocking?
Color by type of work: deep work, meetings, admin and personal. It's easy to remember and it shows at a glance whether your week is balanced. Coloring by energy or by client works better only if those are what actually drive your day.
How many colors should I use?
Four to six for most people. Beyond that, colors start to look alike and stop carrying meaning. Put finer detail (the project, the client) in the title instead.
Is color coding accessible for people with color blindness?
Only if color isn't the sole signal. About 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have a congenital color vision deficiency. Use a tested palette such as Okabe-Ito and add a short text tag like DW or MT to event titles.
Sources and further reading
- Custom event colors in Google Calendar Google Workspace Updates. 24 built-in colors, up to 200 custom colors, the RGB picker and rollout dates.
- Personalize Calendar Google Workspace Learning Center. Changing the color of an event or a whole calendar.
- Google Calendar Colors: Everything you need to know in 2026 OneCal. A third-party walkthrough of the event edit flow for choosing a color.
- Color Universal Design (CUD): Colorblind Barrier Free Masataka Okabe and Kei Ito. The origin of the colorblind-safe palette used as palette 6.
- Congenital colour vision deficiency in healthcare professionals: a scoping review protocol BMJ Open (2025). The 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women figures.