How do I set my calendar availability hours?
Steps to set my calendar availability hours.
Availability hours control when the AI SDR offers meeting times to prospects. They work on top of your connected Google or Outlook calendar's free/busy and your meeting buffers, so the AI only proposes times that are inside your availability window, clear on your actual calendar, and not too close to another meeting.
Availability is a workspace setting, set per user.
How to set availability
- Open Settings (workspace sidebar) - Availability (in the Profile group, alongside Email & Calendar and Conferencing).
- For each day of the week, pick the start and end time the AI is allowed to offer. Example: Mon–Fri, 10:00–16:00.
- In Buffer Times, choose optional before-meeting and after-meeting buffers.
- Save. New booking offers follow the updated window and buffers on the next AI reply.
How availability interacts with your real calendar
| Layer | What it does |
|---|---|
| Connected calendar (Settings → Email & Calendar) | Tells the AI which specific slots are already busy. |
| Availability hours (Settings → Availability) | Tells the AI which time-of-day ranges are on the table in the first place. |
| Buffer Times (Settings → Availability) | Blocks extra time before and/or after meetings so prospects are not offered back-to-back slots. |
| Scheduling window | The AI searches the next 14 days for open slots. If a prospect requests a date further out, the window extends up to 60 days. |
| Final offer to prospect | Intersection of all four. A slot has to fall within the scheduling window, inside your availability hours, clear on your calendar, and respect buffer times. |
| Fully-booked fallback | When no slots pass all filters, the AI SDR asks the prospect to share times that work for them instead of proposing times. |
If your calendar is fully booked within the 14-day scheduling window, the AI won't offer any times — it will instead ask the prospect for their preferred times. It never double-books.
Buffer time options
You can set separate buffers for Before meeting and After meeting:
| Option | Use when |
|---|---|
| No buffer | Back-to-back calls are fine |
| 5 minutes | You only need a quick reset between calls |
| 15 minutes | You want normal prep, notes, or bio break time |
| 30 minutes | You need meaningful prep, travel, or follow-up time |
Buffers also appear as blocked time around meetings in the CRM calendar view. They can apply around appointments and synced external calendar events.
Set availability narrower than your real calendar
Treat availability hours as your "I'll take sales calls during these hours" window, not your whole workday. If your real day is 8–18:00 but you only want discovery calls 10–13:00, set availability to 10–13:00 so prospects aren't offered your heads-down time.
What happens when your calendar is fully booked
When the AI SDR can't find any open slots in the next 14 days that match your availability hours, buffer settings, and your calendar's free/busy, it asks the prospect to share times that work for them rather than proposing specific times.
This typically happens when:
- Your availability window is very narrow (e.g. one hour per day) and every slot in that window is booked for the next two weeks.
- Your calendar is packed with back-to-back events during your availability hours.
- Meeting buffer times (before/after each call) leave no room for new bookings.
How to fix it
If the AI SDR is asking prospects for their times instead of offering them:
- Widen your availability hours — open more hours per day in Settings → Availability so the AI has more windows to work with.
- Free up calendar space — clear, reschedule, or shorten events in the next 14 days so open slots appear.
- Reduce meeting durations — if your connected calendar's default event length is 30 minutes, consider switching to 15 minutes to fit more calls into narrow windows (see Why is the AI SDR booking 30-minute events?).
Related pages in settings
Two sibling pages in the same settings group:
- Settings → Email & Calendar - connect Google or Outlook calendar here.
- Settings → Conferencing - set your static meeting link or connect Zoom for dynamic links.