Add a data source to a Zapier Central assistant

Beta

Zapier Central is a beta product. It’s available for use, but still in active development and may change.

Data sources are documents that your assistant can use to complete tasks or answer questions. The assistant will use any data source you provide, like a Google spreadsheet, to help generate a response. Use them to provide the assistant with information specific to your business or use case. When you add a data source, the assistant can answer questions that are related to the content of the data source, such as giving you an average of all values on a spreadsheet or a summary of a text. 

Add a data source

1. From the assistant Chat screen, click Data sources.
2. Click + Add data source.
3. In the dialog box, select the app for the data source from the available options.
4. Select an existing connection for the app. 
   • You can create a new connection by clicking the Settings icon . 
5. In the next dropdown field, select a document to use as the data source. 
   • After you select a document, it will have the label "Synced".
6. Click Add data source.

Data source synchronization

When you add a data source, Zapier will sync it with the assistant immediately. After that, it will sync regularly to retrieve new data. If you made changes and want the assistant to catch up before the next sync:

1. From the assistant Chat screen, click Data sources.
2. Click the three dot icon beside the data source you want to sync with your assistant.
3. Click Sync now.

Remove a data source

1. From the assistant Chat screen, click the data sources bar that appears above the messaging field.
2. Click the three dot icon beside the data source you want to sync with your assistant.
3. Click Remove from assistant.

Limitations for data sources 

Zapier Central can synchronize up to 75,000 rows/records at a time, across all data sources. This is an account-wide limit. Below you can see different limitations related to specific apps.

Note

If your data source is a spreadsheet that includes a formula, the assistant will always retrieve the formula's resulting value.

Automate more tasks with data sources

When you use data sources with your assistant, it can help streamline your work further. Here are some examples of tasks your assistants can perform:

• Lookup records that match a given criteria
  • Which of our Italian customers increased their spending in the last week?
• Aggregate data from a spreadsheet
  • What are the average sales for each salesperson by day?
  • What percentage of shipments were delayed in 2024?
  • What was the total weight shipped each week by mode of transportation?
• Rank records
  • Who are our top 10 customers, based on revenue?
• Create a time series analysis
  • Are there any seasonal trends for our top-selling product? 
• Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)
  • Summarize key statistics (mean, median, standard deviation, etc.) for last year's sales.
  • Generate a frequency table for lead generation for the past year.
• Perform general math computations
  • What was the total sales amount for December?

Provide feedback and get help

Submit a feature request, provide feedback on existing features, or get help from the Zapier Central team. You can also discuss Central with other users on Zapier's Early Access Program Slack.