500 KB ICS sample

An ICS file of exactly 512,000 bytes. It is a valid iCalendar file file, generated by this site. Compare its checksum and test it with the parser used by your application. Use it wherever you need a 500 KB sample, test or dummy ICS file.

sample-ics-500kb.ics

500 KB512,000 bytes

Download 500 KB ICS

Created in your browser in a few seconds, then checked against the SHA-256 checksum. The file is not uploaded anywhere. No sign-up.

Type: text/calendar
SHA-256: 5980de0d65a5cc1c32448c5e55d7fb8a50d9cba8c6d246650a01ac216268b486
Delivery: Created in your browser from static generator assets (how it works).

What is in this file

A VCALENDAR with 1,502 one-hour events, each with a UID, start and end in UTC, a summary, a folded description and an escaped location. Extension properties (X-FIXTURE-PAD), which calendar programs ignore, bring the file to the exact size.

Events	1,502
Version	iCalendar 2.0 (RFC 5545)
Time zone	UTC
Line endings	CRLF, folded at 75 octets
Encoding	UTF-8 (ASCII characters only)

How the file begins

The opening lines of sample-ics-500kb.ics, exactly as they appear in the file.

00000000  42 45 47 49 4e 3a 56 43  41 4c 45 4e 44 41 52 0d |BEGIN:VCALENDAR.|
00000010  0a 56 45 52 53 49 4f 4e  3a 32 2e 30 0d 0a 50 52 |.VERSION:2.0..PR|
00000020  4f 44 49 44 3a 2d 2f 2f  53 61 6d 70 6c 65 54 65 |ODID:-//SampleTe|
00000030  73 74 46 69 6c 65 73 2f  2f 53 61 6d 70 6c 65 20 |stFiles//Sample |

Preview

Creates the file in your browser and shows the first 64 KB of it.

Where 500 KB matters

A 512,000-byte file: larger than most API body limits, smaller than most upload limits. These are the default limits a file of this size is useful for testing:

System	Limit	Note
Amazon DynamoDB items	400 KB per item	500 KB cannot be stored as a single item.
Express body parsers	100 KB by default	Rejected unless the limit is raised.
nginx request body	1 MB by default (client_max_body_size)	Accepted with room to spare.

All 500 KB sample files

Use this file for

Checking email size handling
Testing invitation processing
Testing calendar import and subscription

Testing notes for ICS

Importing the same UID twice should update an event, not duplicate it.
Time zones and recurrence rules are where calendar software fails. The samples use UTC and non-recurring events, so they work as a known-good baseline.

ICS format reference

Technical details

File name	sample-ics-500kb.ics
Format	ICS (iCalendar file)
Extension	.ics
MIME type	text/calendar
Size	512,000 bytes (500 KB)
Kind	Text
SHA-256	5980de0d65a5cc1c32448c5e55d7fb8a50d9cba8c6d246650a01ac216268b486
Created	2026-10-23
Validation	See the listed size and SHA-256. Small downloads are checked in the browser; verify streamed downloads manually. A hash match does not prove parser compatibility.
Preview	Available on this page
Source	Generated in your browser by this site's generator; not copied from elsewhere
Licence	Free to use, modify and redistribute (terms)
Category	Email & Calendar

Check the stated structure and checksum against your application requirements. As with any download, scan the file with your own security tools before opening it. How files are made and checked

Verify your copy

This file is created in your browser, so it has no direct URL for curl or wget. The generator is designed to produce reproducible bytes. After saving, compare the checksum with the SHA-256 value above.

sha256sum sample-ics-500kb.ics     # Linux
shasum -a 256 sample-ics-500kb.ics # macOS

On Windows, run Get-FileHash sample-ics-500kb.ics -Algorithm SHA256 in PowerShell. For scripts and pipelines, save the file once and keep your own copy.

Related files

Questions about this file

Is this file exactly 500 KB?: Yes. It is 512,000 bytes, which is 500 KB in the binary units that operating systems and server limits use (1 KB = 1,024 bytes).
What is inside the 500 KB ICS file?: A VCALENDAR with 1,502 one-hour events, each with a UID, start and end in UTC, a summary, a folded description and an escaped location. Extension properties (X-FIXTURE-PAD), which calendar programs ignore, bring the file to the exact size.
Do the events repeat?: No. Each event is a single one-hour meeting in UTC with its own UID.

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