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Delay is a tool that allows you to put your Zap on hold for a specified amount of time before your actions run. You can use delays to set up scheduled emails, get notified of incomplete tasks, send automatic follow-ups, and automate other tasks on your timeline.
Using this tool doesn't count towards your task usage.
There are three types of Zap delays:
- Delay for
- Delay until
- Delay after queue
NoteAdding a delay step will not prevent throttling in your Zaps. Learn more about rate limits and throttling in Zapier.
Delay for
- In the Zap editor, click the Action step, or click the plus + icon to add an action.
- Search for and select Delay.
- In the App & event tab, click the Event dropdown menu and select Delay For.
- Click Continue.
- In the Time Delayed For (value) field, enter the amount of time (in numbers) the Zap should delay for before it moves on to the next step.
- You can enter a static number value or map a number field from a previous step.
- Click the Time Delayed For (unit) dropdown menu and select a unit of time.
- Click Continue.
Delay until
- In the Zap editor, click the Action step, or click the plus + icon to add an action.
- Search for and select Delay.
- In the App & event tab, click the Event dropdown menu and select Delay Until.
- Click Continue.
- In the Date/Time Delayed Until field, enter the date and time the Zap should delay until before it moves on to the next step.
- You can enter a static date and time or map a date/time field from a previous step.
- In the How Should We Handle Dates In The Past? field, select an option for how Zapier should handle instances where the date has already passed when the Delay Until step is reached:
- Continue if it’s up to 15 minutes.
- Continue if it’s up to one hour.
- Continue if it’s up to one day (default).
- Always continue.
- Click Continue.
Delay after queue
The Delay After Queue option allows you to create a queue of actions to run at a later time. When a Zap is triggered, it adds actions to the queue. The queue then plays the actions one at a time in the order that they were added to the queue. There is a delay between each set of actions for a Zap. The Zap will be delayed for a set time after the last delay in the queue.
This can be useful if you are running into limits with too many requests to an app, or if you have multiple Zaps that may try to update a record at the same time.
To use Delay After Queue:
- In the Zap editor, click the Action step, or click the plus + icon to add an action.
- Search for and select Delay.
- In App & event, click the Action Event dropdown menu and select Delay After Queue.
- Click Continue.
- In the Queue Title field, enter a title for your queue.
- In the Time Delayed For (value) field, enter the amount of time (in numbers) the Zap should hold a task for.
- You can enter a static number value or map a number field from a previous step.
- Click the Time Delayed For (unit) dropdown menu and select a unit of time.
- Click Continue.
Multiple Zaps can share the same queue if they use the same queue name. Zapier recommends you enter a static value for the queue title instead of mapping a field from a previous step.
The Delay After Queue action does not guarantee that the steps following it will never run simultaneously. Slowdowns in Zapier’s infrastructure and auto or manual Zap run replays after errors may cause some steps to still run at the same time.
Limitations
- Tasks can be held for a maximum time of one month (30 days).
- Your Zap must be on for the Delay to run. Any actions scheduled to run while a Zap is off won’t run when you turn your Zap on again.
- Delay releases instantly when:
- The Date/Time Delay Until value is set in the past.
- The Time Delayed For value is 0 or a negative number.
- If you change any part of your Zap during a delay, your Zap will not continue once the Zap resumes. We define change as switching actions, replacing apps, add steps or delete steps.
- If you replay a Zap run, any Delay For steps that did not run yet will start when the Zap is replayed.
After setting up your delay, click Test step and check if the date matches the delay conditions you’ve set up.
TipIf you want your action(s) to run based on a recurring event that doesn't occur at fixed intervals, you can create a recurring event in Google Calendar and add a Google Calendar action to schedule your action(s).