If there's an empty slot on the calendar, someone will inevitably book a meeting. So your morning resolve to "focus on coding today" vanishes without a trace by 3 PM. Reclaim AI is a tool that tackles this problem head-on. It's a calendar where AI "defends" your focus time from meetings.
What is this?
Reclaim AI is an AI calendar tool created in 2019 by Henry Shapiro and Patrick Lightbody. The core question was simple: "Why do teams have so little time for important work?" Traditional calendar apps just "record" events — they don't "protect" your time. Reclaim adds an AI layer that automatically places and defends focus time, habits, and meetings based on priority.
In August 2024, Dropbox acquired Reclaim. At the time, over 320,000 users across 43,000+ companies were using it, with backing from Index Ventures and Calendly. Dropbox CEO Drew Houston had a vision since 2018 for "work transformation through intelligent calendaring" — Reclaim was exactly that puzzle piece.
Post-acquisition, the entire 22-person team joined and maintains an independent roadmap. In August 2025, they launched official Microsoft Outlook support. Currently used by 600,000+ people at 70,000 companies, maintaining a G2 rating of 4.8.
Key features at a glance
- AI Focus Time
Set a weekly focus time goal, and AI automatically slots blocks between meetings and defends them from other events. - AI Habits
Automatically schedules recurring routines like lunch breaks, email checking, and exercise. Set priority levels 1–4 and AI auto-negotiates when conflicts arise. - AI Smart Meetings
Analyzes all attendees' calendars and auto-suggests optimal times. Even moves recurring meetings to the best slot each week. - AI Scheduling Links
A Calendly alternative. Converts lower-priority events into "available time," showing 524% more bookable slots. - AI Chat Assistant (beta)
Beta launched December 2025. Chat "book me 30 minutes of focus time tomorrow afternoon" and AI schedules it instantly.
What changes?
The AI calendar market has strong competitors beyond Reclaim, like Motion and Clockwise. But these three actually target very different users.
| Comparison | Reclaim AI | Motion | Clockwise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positioning | AI layer on top of calendar | All-in-one project + calendar | Team meeting optimization |
| Core strength | Focus time defense, habit automation | Task, project & calendar integration | Org-wide meeting compression |
| Task management | Integrates with Asana, Jira, ClickUp, etc. | Built-in (powerful) | Basic level |
| Calendar support | Google + Outlook (official) | Google + Outlook | Google (Outlook beta) |
| Mobile app | None | iOS/Android | None |
| Free plan | Yes (generous) | None | Yes |
| Paid starting at | $8/mo | $19/mo | $6.75/mo |
| Best for | Meeting-heavy individuals & teams | Small teams wanting all-in-one | Large organizations |
Which one should you pick?
Already using PM tools like Asana, Jira, or ClickUp? → Reclaim. Want to combine project management into one tool? → Motion. Want to transform your entire org's meeting culture? → Clockwise.
Reclaim's unique differentiator is the philosophy of "layering on top of existing tools instead of replacing them." Motion tries to replace your existing tools, but Reclaim works alongside the Google Calendar, Asana, and Slack you already use. Changing tools is one of the hardest things to do in an organization.
| Traditional calendar management | With Reclaim AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus time | Protected by willpower alone | AI auto-defends it |
| Maintaining habits | Manual blocking every time | Auto-placed by priority |
| Meeting scheduling | Back-and-forth DMs | Optimal time auto-suggested |
| Weekly time reclaimed | 0–2 hours | Average 7.6 hours |
| Work-life balance | Overtime is the norm | 41.9% improvement |
The essentials: how to get started
- Sign up at reclaim.ai
Connect directly with your Google or Microsoft account. Start with the free Lite plan. - Connect calendar + set priorities
Link your existing calendar and set priorities (P1–P4) for what matters most. - Set Focus Time goals
Set a goal like "8 hours of focus time per week" and AI auto-places blocks in calendar gaps. - Add Habits
Register routines you want to maintain: lunch breaks, email checking, exercise, etc. Up to 3 on the free plan. - Connect PM tools (optional)
Link Asana, Jira, Todoist, Linear, etc. and tasks automatically appear on your calendar.
Note
There's no dedicated mobile app yet. Primary use is via web browser or desktop, and calendar changes sync in real-time to the Google/Outlook app.
