Duration, buffers, and limits
Every event type has a set of timing controls that shape what slots appear on its booking page. The defaults are sensible, and most people only change one or two. You find them in the event-type editor (open it from Event Types): Duration is on the General tab; the rest are on the Limits & Buffers tab. See the editor overview.
The controls
| Setting | What it does | Default | Range / options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration | How long the meeting is. | 42 min | 10 min – 12 h |
| Buffer before | Padding kept free before the meeting (travel, prep). | 15 min | 0 / 5 / 10 / 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 min |
| Buffer after | Padding kept free after the meeting. | 15 min | 0 / 5 / 10 / 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 min |
| Minimum notice | How far ahead someone must book; no last-minute slots. | 4 hours | 0 min – 7 days |
| Date range | How far into the future bookings are allowed. | 15 days | 1–365 days |
| Start time increment | The spacing of offered start times (e.g. every 30 min on the hour/half-hour). | 42 min | 1–120 min |
| Meeting limits | Optional caps: max meetings per day / week / month for this event type. | none | your choice |
The Duration dropdown offers 15, 30, 42, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. For anything else (a 20-minute standup, a half-day workshop), pick Custom… at the bottom of the list and type the number of minutes: any whole number from 10 to 720 (12 hours). The value you type joins the dropdown in its sorted place, so you can switch back to it later. Note that the start time increment keeps its own 120-minute ceiling.
42min computes the booking page like this: start from the event type's schedule → remove your calendar's busy events → remove the before/after buffers around existing meetings → drop anything inside the minimum-notice window or beyond the date range → offer start times on the increment → respect any meeting limits.
When to change them
- Back-to-back meetings wearing you out → raise the buffers (or the increment).
- People booking you for 20 minutes from now → raise the minimum notice.
- You only want to be booked for the next two weeks → shorten the date range; for interviews scheduled a month out, lengthen it.
- Cap how much of your week one event type can eat → set a weekly meeting limit.
- Cleaner-looking slot grid → set the start time increment to 15 or 30 minutes.
Note
Buffers and meeting limits are per event type. If you have several event types sharing the same schedule, a big buffer on one of them doesn't pad the others, so set each one's timing for the kind of meeting it is.
Common pitfalls
- Slots disappeared after raising buffers. Large before/after buffers on a busy calendar can swallow most of a day. Step them down (try 10 or 15 min) and check the booking page again.
- "No times available" near-term. That's usually the minimum-notice window doing its job, or a date range that's too short. Both live on the Limits & Buffers tab of the event type.
- Odd start times. A 42-minute increment produces start times like 9:00, 9:42, 10:24… If you want them on the hour/half-hour, set the increment to 30.
- A long meeting shows no slots. The whole meeting has to fit inside one continuous block of availability on a single day. A 6-hour event type against a schedule that runs 9:00–12:00 and 13:00–17:00 never fits, so widen the schedule block, or shorten the duration.
Last updated August 25, 2026.