How to copy free/busy times out of Outlook as text
Outlook shows free/busy everywhere but exports it nowhere. Here's how to get your open slots out as clean, copyable text.
On this page
Outlook displays free/busy in a dozen places — the calendar grid, Scheduling Assistant, people cards — and exports it in exactly zero of them. There is no "copy my open times" button. If you've searched for one, this page is the answer to why you couldn't find it, and what to use instead.
What people try first
Screenshotting the calendar (unreadable on phones, leaks meeting details), forwarding the calendar itself (overshares everything), or the classic: reading the week view and typing. Microsoft's own "share calendar availability" features are built around granting access, not producing text.
Free/busy to clipboard
OpenSlot exists precisely for this gap. It authenticates with your Microsoft 365 account, reads free/busy (read-only — it uses only availability and stores no calendar data), inverts it into free slots inside your working hours, and formats the result as text:
All times in US/Eastern • Today 07/08 03:30 PM - 04:00 PM 05:00 PM - 05:30 PM • Thursday 07/09 09:30 AM - 10:30 AM 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM 02:30 PM - 03:00 PM
One button copies it; another downloads a .txt. It works for your own calendar, for colleagues, or for the merged intersection of a whole group — which turns the unanswerable "when are all four of us free in the next month?" into the same single click.
Why Outlook has no button for this
It is not an oversight so much as a different model. Microsoft's calendar sharing is built around granting access: you give someone permission, and their Outlook renders your availability in their client. Everything follows from that — the Scheduling Assistant grid, the people card, the little coloured bars. The artefact is always a view inside someone's Outlook, never a string of text that can travel into an email to a person who does not have Outlook at all.
Which is fine until the other party is a client, a candidate or a supplier. They cannot be granted access, they are not in your directory, and the thing you need to hand them is words. There is no supported path from the grid to those words except reading it and typing.
What free/busy is, exactly
One status per time interval, and nothing else: free, tentative, busy, out of office, working elsewhere. Microsoft Graph returns it as a single string with one character per interval — 30 minutes by default, and anywhere from 5 minutes to a full day if you ask. There are no subjects, attendees or locations in that string; it is the calendar reduced to a shape.
That shape is all a list needs. Inverting the busy blocks gives the gaps; filtering the gaps by working hours and a minimum length gives the slots worth offering; formatting those gives the text. Full detail on what the statuses mean and who can read yours is in Outlook free/busy explained.
What the app asks for, and what it uses
The Microsoft sign-in requests read-only scopes — there is no write permission anywhere in the set, so nothing can create, move or delete an event on your calendar even in principle. None of the scopes requires an administrator by default, which is why, wherever an organization lets employees approve apps, an ordinary employee can sign in without raising a ticket.
From the availability response, the app uses one field: the availability string itself. For calendars you can already see in detail, Microsoft includes subjects and locations in the same response; they are discarded, never stored and never shown. The generated text is dates, times and a timezone header (on the free plan and during the trial, plus one closing line that links to OpenSlot), which is what makes it safe to paste into a thread with someone outside your company.
Common questions
Is there a 'copy my free times' button in Outlook?
No, and there never has been. Outlook displays free/busy in a dozen places and exports it from none of them. If you have searched for that button and not found it, this is why.
Why doesn't Microsoft provide one?
Because the calendar-sharing model is built around granting access rather than producing text. You give someone permission and their Outlook renders your availability for them. The artefact is always a view inside somebody's Outlook, never a string that can travel to a person who does not use Outlook at all.
Can I export my free times to a file?
You can download the generated list as a .txt, or copy it to the clipboard with one button. Both contain the same thing the email would: a timezone line, day headings and the open slots underneath them.
Does it read my meeting titles or details?
The list is built from free/busy — one status per interval, with no subject, attendee or location in it — and the app uses only that availability string. For calendars you can see in detail, Microsoft includes subjects and locations in the same response; the app discards them and stores nothing from your calendar. The sign-in requests read-only scopes, so nothing can create, move or delete an event on your calendar.
Does this work for other people's calendars too?
Yes, for anyone whose free/busy you can already read, which inside one Microsoft 365 organization is normally every colleague. It also works on the merged intersection of a group, which is what turns 'when are all four of us free next month?' into a single click.
OpenSlot
Skip the retyping
OpenSlot reads Outlook free/busy and hands you the merged, paste-ready list in any timezone: up to 40 people and 60 days out on Pro, you plus one person and 7 days free.
Try OpenSlot freeWorks with Microsoft 365 work and school accounts. No card to start.