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Zapier tasks explained: what counts, which steps are free, and what happens at the limit (checked November 2026)
Zapier sells its plans by tasks. A task is one action step that runs successfully. The trigger that starts a Zap never uses a task, and neither do a set of built-in steps such as Filter, Formatter, Paths, Delay, Looping and Digest. So two Zaps that do the same job can use very different numbers of tasks, depending on how they are built. This page sets out what counts and what doesn't, works out how much the free steps change the plan you need, and covers what happens when a month runs past your plan's tasks. At the end, the same work is counted on n8n and Make.
The short answer
- A task is a successful action step. A Zap with a trigger and 5 actions uses 5 tasks each time it runs. Steps that fail, halt or don't run use none.
- Checking for new data is free. Polling triggers never use tasks: a Zap that polls every 2 minutes makes 21,600 checks in a 30-day month at no cost in tasks.
- Built-in steps are free: Filter, Paths, Formatter, Delay, Looping, Digest, Storage, Zapier Manager, and Zapier Tables and Forms steps. A 6-step Zap where 4 steps are built-in uses 2 tasks a run.
- Loops multiply. Every action after a Looping step runs once per item and uses a task each time: a loop over 50 rows with one action uses 50 tasks.
- At your plan's limit, Zaps keep running on pay-per-task billing, at a higher rate per task, up to 3 times the plan's tasks. With pay-per-task turned off, new runs are held until your usage resets.
- From December 1, 2026, Next Gen Zaps and the Zapier SDK also use tasks, at the same rates as Classic Zaps.
What counts as a task
From Zapier's help center (How is task usage measured in Zapier?, updated November 13, 2026):
| Step | Tasks |
|---|---|
| An action step that runs successfully | 1 each run |
| A successful step in an error handler path | 1 each run |
| A successful step that runs again when you replay an entire Zap run | 1 each run |
| A search step that finds a result | 1 |
| A search step that finds nothing, set to carry on | 1 |
| A search step that finds nothing, set to stop | 0 |
| An action step inside a loop | 1 for each item |
| AI by Zapier | 1, 3 or 5 per run by model tier, plus the same again per tool call |
| Code by Zapier | 1 per run, plus 1 per 30 seconds over the plan's standard runtime |
| Zapier MCP | 2 per successful tool call |
| Zapier Lead Router | 5 per lead routed |
The steps that don't count, from the same page and the pricing page's FAQ:
- Every trigger, including polling triggers however often they check.
- Filter and Paths steps, and every step that doesn't run because a filter or path condition stopped it.
- Formatter, Delay, Looping, Digest, Storage and Zapier Manager steps, and steps for Zapier Tables and Zapier Forms.
- Steps that error or halt, and the steps after them that never run.
- Testing in the Zap editor, even though testing an action step really performs the action in your app.
Sub-Zaps: Zapier's pages disagree. The pricing page's FAQ and the help center's list of free apps both include the Sub-Zap app. But the help center's table of what counts lists the Call a Sub-Zap step, the Return From a Sub-Zap step and each action step inside a sub-Zap at 1 task per successful run; only the Start a Sub-Zap trigger is listed as free. Until Zapier makes them match, count the call and the return as tasks, and check one run in your Zap history.
How much the free steps save
Take a Zap with 6 steps after the trigger, say a lead form that is tidied up and passed on: two Formatter steps clean the name and phone number, a Filter drops test entries, a Delay waits five minutes, then the Zap creates a contact in a CRM and posts in Slack. Built like that, 4 of the 6 steps are free. Built with app steps for the same clean-up, more of them count.
Each cell is tasks a month · the cheapest Zapier tier that holds them, for one user, billed annually. Every run is assumed to pass the filter.
| Runs a month | All 6 steps count | 4 count, 2 free | 2 count, 4 free |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 600 · Professional 750, $19.99 | 400 · Professional 750, $19.99 | 200 · Professional 750, $19.99 |
| 250 | 1,500 · Professional 1.5K, $39.00 | 1,000 · Professional 1.5K, $39.00 | 500 · Professional 750, $19.99 |
| 500 | 3,000 · Professional 5K, $89.00 | 2,000 · Professional 2K, $49.00 | 1,000 · Professional 1.5K, $39.00 |
| 1,000 | 6,000 · Professional 10K, $129.00 | 4,000 · Professional 5K, $89.00 | 2,000 · Professional 2K, $49.00 |
| 2,500 | 15,000 · Professional 20K, $189.00 | 10,000 · Professional 10K, $129.00 | 5,000 · Professional 5K, $89.00 |
| 5,000 | 30,000 · Professional 50K, $289.00 | 20,000 · Professional 20K, $189.00 | 10,000 · Professional 10K, $129.00 |
| 10,000 | 60,000 · Professional 100K, $489.00 | 40,000 · Professional 50K, $289.00 | 20,000 · Professional 20K, $189.00 |
How to read it:
- Moving right, the bill falls a tier or two. At 1,000 runs a month, the same Zap is $129.00 with every step counted and $49.00 with 4 free steps.
- None of these fit the Free plan. Free allows only two-step Zaps (a trigger and one action) and 100 tasks a month.
- Billed monthly, every price in the grid is 1.5 times as much: Professional 750 is $29.99 instead of $19.99, and Professional 10K $193.50 instead of $129.00.
- More than one person on the account needs Team (up to 25 users), which starts at $69 a month for 2,000 tasks billed annually.
Put the filter before the actions
A filter saves tasks twice: it is free itself, and the steps after it don't run for the items it stops. Say 1,000 leads arrive in a month and 300 of them are worth a CRM contact, a Slack post and a follow-up email. With the filter in front of the 3 actions, they run 300 times: 900 tasks, Professional 1.5K at $39.00. Without it, all 1,000 leads run all 3 actions: 3,000 tasks, Professional 5K at $89.00.
Batch with Digest
Digest collects entries and releases them together on a schedule; Zapier's Digest page says the tool doesn't count toward task usage. Posting each of 1,500 form entries a month to Slack is 1,500 tasks (Professional 1.5K, $39.00). Sending one Slack summary a day instead is 30 tasks in a 30-day month: the Digest step is free and the Slack step runs only when the digest is released. A digest holds at most 1 MB, and an account (on Team, each user) can keep up to 1,500 records across all its digests.
Searches that find nothing
A search step has a setting for when nothing is found. If it is set to stop, the step halts and uses no task; if it is set to carry on, it uses 1 task even with no result. A Zap that checks a CRM for an existing contact before creating one can use the stop setting to skip the empty runs.
Where tasks multiply: loops
Every action after a Looping step runs once per item and uses a task each time. Zapier's own tip: put an action that only needs to run once before the loop, or behind a filter that passes only on the last item, where it uses 1 task.
The job from our n8n vs Make comparison shows how fast this adds up: every hour, read the new rows of a spreadsheet (50 each time) and create a CRM contact for each. In a 30-day month that is 720 runs:
- Zapier: the schedule trigger is free, the search for new rows is 1 task, the Looping step is free, and the 50 contacts are 50 tasks. 51 tasks × 720 runs = 36,720 tasks a month: Professional 50K at $289.00 a month billed annually ($433.50 billed monthly).
- n8n: 720 executions, however many rows each run handles. That fits Starter's 2,500 at 20€ a month billed annually.
- Make: 1 credit for the search and 1 per contact, the same 36,720 a month, but in credits. Make's price for that size wasn't in its pricing page's text; the break-even against n8n is in the n8n vs Make comparison.
A Zap that triggers on each new row instead (one run per row, one action) comes to 36,000 tasks: the same tier. On Zapier, the way to cut this is fewer actions per item, not fewer runs.
Polling is free on Zapier
Zapier never charges a task to check for new data. How often a polling trigger checks depends on the plan:
| Plan | Polling interval | Checks in a 30-day month | Tasks for the checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 15 minutes | 2,880 | 0 |
| Professional | 2 minutes | 21,600 | 0 |
| Team | 1 minute | 43,200 | 0 |
This is where Zapier differs most from Make, whose polling triggers use 1 credit per check whether they find anything or not: 2,880 credits a month at every 15 minutes (Make credits explained). On n8n, a polling trigger counts as an execution only when it finds new data (n8n executions explained).
Two limits that come with polling: on Free and trial plans, a Zap's polling trigger is held if it makes more than 200 requests in 10 minutes, and on any plan, if 100 or more new items arrive in one poll, flood protection holds them until you confirm they should run. Instant triggers aren't subject to flood protection, apart from a few that also poll (Google Sheets and Google Calendar event triggers).
What happens at the task limit
Zapier emails you as you approach your plan's tasks for the month and when you reach them. Then one of two things happens:
- Pay-per-task on (the default for accounts that joined after January 2024; older accounts may need to turn it on): your Zaps keep running and each extra task is billed at a higher rate than your plan's tasks, up to a maximum of 3 times your plan's task limit. Then runs are held until the end of the billing cycle. On Professional and Team, only the account's main holder can turn pay-per-task on or off.
- Pay-per-task off: new runs are held until your usage resets. Held runs aren't lost: you can replay them from your Zap history once you have tasks again, within 60 days of the trigger event. Upgrading also resets your usage.
The pricing page's text says only that pay-per-task is charged "at a higher per-task rate than your base subscription tasks", and the help center says to check your billing settings for the exact rate. The plan data inside the pricing page lists a rate for every tier. For the smaller tiers:
| Tier | Plan price per task (billed annually) | Pay-per-task (billed annually) | Pay-per-task (billed monthly) | Most pay-per-task adds in a month (billed annually) | Pay-per-task costs less than the next tier for up to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional 750 | 2.67¢ | 3.34¢ | 5.00¢ | $50.10 | 569 extra tasks |
| Professional 1.5K | 2.60¢ | 3.25¢ | 4.88¢ | $97.50 | 307 extra tasks |
| Professional 2K | 2.45¢ | 3.07¢ | 4.60¢ | $122.80 | 1,302 extra tasks |
| Professional 5K | 1.78¢ | 2.23¢ | 3.34¢ | $223.00 | 1,793 extra tasks |
| Professional 10K | 1.29¢ | 1.62¢ | 2.42¢ | $324.00 | 3,703 extra tasks |
| Professional 20K | 0.95¢ | 1.19¢ | 1.78¢ | $476.00 | 8,403 extra tasks |
| Professional 50K | 0.58¢ | 0.73¢ | 1.09¢ | $730.00 | 27,397 extra tasks |
| Team 2K | 3.45¢ | 4.32¢ | 6.47¢ | $172.80 | 1,157 extra tasks |
| Team 5K | 2.38¢ | 2.98¢ | 4.47¢ | $298.00 | 1,677 extra tasks |
| Team 10K | 1.69¢ | 2.12¢ | 3.17¢ | $424.00 | 3,773 extra tasks |
How to read it:
- Pay-per-task costs about a quarter more per task than the plan's own tasks on the same tier: 3.34¢ against 2.67¢ on Professional 750.
- The most it can add is 2 times the tier's tasks at that rate, because the cap is 3 times the plan's tasks including the plan's own.
- The last column compares one month: your tier plus pay-per-task against the next tier up, both billed annually. Below that many extra tasks, staying put and paying per task costs less.
Worked example: a month that runs over
You are on Professional 750 at $19.99 a month, billed annually, and a month uses 1,000 tasks. The 250 over the limit cost 250 × 3.34¢ = $8.35, so that month comes to $28.34. The 1,500-task tier is $39.00 a month, so even if every month ran to 1,000 tasks, staying on 750 and paying per task would cost less. Moving up starts to pay once a month runs more than 569 tasks over. If pay-per-task is off, the Zaps would instead stop at 750 tasks and wait for the next cycle.
Replays, errors and tests
- Errors: an action that errors uses no task. Neither do the steps after it that never run.
- Replay a whole run: it is a new run, and every successful step counts again, even if it counted the first time. Zapier needs enough tasks left to cover it, and replays have to happen within 60 days of the trigger event.
- Autoreplay retries errored runs automatically. Each retried step that succeeds uses a task, as it would have the first time.
- Tests in the Zap editor are free, even when they create real records in your apps.
AI, code and other steps with their own rates
- AI by Zapier: tasks per run = (1 + tool calls) × the model tier's rate: Standard 1, Advanced 3, Premium 5, or 1 with your own AI provider's API key. New steps on paid plans start on Premium, so a step with no tools uses 5 tasks a run until you choose a lower tier, and a Premium step that calls 2 tools uses 15. A step stops for your approval when it reaches its per-run limit, 75 tasks by default (up to 500).
- Code by Zapier: 1 task per run, plus 1 task for every 30 seconds (or part of 30 seconds) beyond the standard runtime: 1 second on Free, 30 seconds on Professional and Team, 2 minutes on Enterprise. On Free, code that runs longer than 1 second fails instead.
- Zapier MCP: 2 tasks per successful tool call, from the same tasks as your Zaps.
- Zapier Lead Router: 5 tasks per lead routed.
- Zapier Agents use their own activity allowance, not tasks.
Changes on December 1, 2026
Zapier's help center (How Next Gen Zaps and the Zapier SDK are billed, updated November 13, 2026) says that from December 1, 2026 at 17:00 UTC:
- Next Gen Zaps use tasks at the same rates as Classic Zaps: 1 per app action, plus 1 per external call (a request your code makes to an app through Zapier). Their trigger, filters, formatting, loops and branching stay free, and so does code that doesn't contact an app.
- The Zapier SDK uses tasks: 1 per action, external call or inbox-lease trigger when it runs outside Zapier, and on top of the step's own task inside a Classic Code by Zapier step.
- Zapier Tables and Forms are free everywhere, including through Zapier MCP and the SDK, and AI by Zapier uses its own rates there too.
Until then, Next Gen Zaps are free. Most Classic Zaps aren't affected. When we read it, the pricing page's FAQ still said the SDK "is free while in beta"; the help center's date is the later of the two.
The same work on Zapier, n8n and Make
| What happens | Zapier | n8n | Make |
|---|---|---|---|
| One run: a trigger, then 5 action steps | 5 tasks | 1 execution | 6 credits with an instant trigger: 1 for the trigger, 1 per action |
| A polling trigger checks and finds nothing | Not counted | Not counted | 1 credit |
| Filters and branches | Filter and Paths: 0 | Part of the execution | Routers and filters: 0 |
| One run handles 50 items with 1 action each | 50 tasks (the Looping step is free) | Still 1 execution | 50 credits, plus 1 for an Iterator if the items arrive as one array |
| A schedule fires and there's nothing to do | 0 if the search is set to stop | 1 execution | 1 credit for the first module |
From Zapier's pages above, n8n's Understand executions page and Make's How features use credits page. Priced with our calculator, 1,000 runs a month of the 6-step Zap from the grid, with an instant trigger:
| Zapier | n8n | Make | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All 6 steps count | 6,000 tasks: Professional 10K, $129.00 | 1,000 executions: Starter 2.5K, 20€ | 7,000 credits: Core 10K, $9.00 |
| 4 of the 6 steps free on Zapier | 2,000 tasks: Professional 2K, $49.00 | 1,000 executions: Starter 2.5K, 20€ | 7,000 credits: Core 10K, $9.00 |
The Make column counts all 6 steps as modules, as the calculator does. On Make, a filter sits between modules and uses no credits, so a Make version with a filter would use fewer. The counting rules side by side are in n8n vs Make, and each product's own rules in n8n executions explained and Make credits explained.
How to estimate your tasks
- For each Zap, count the action steps that will run and aren't on the free list.
- Multiply by the runs a month. For a step after a loop, multiply by the items per run as well.
- Add AI, code and MCP steps at their own rates.
- Add them up across your Zaps; all of them share one task allowance. Pick the tier that holds the total with some room, or a smaller tier if pay-per-task for the occasional busy month costs less (the table above).
To compare the result with n8n and Make, use the automation cost calculator: put the free steps under "Of those, Zapier steps that don't count".
Check the current numbers
- Zapier pricing, and your billing settings for your own pay-per-task rate
- The other two: n8n pricing and Make pricing
- All three side by side: n8n vs Make vs Zapier pricing
Sources
- Zapier pricing page (plans, plan data, comparison table, FAQ) — https://zapier.com/pricing, checked
- Zapier Help Center: How is task usage measured in Zapier? — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496196837261, checked
- Zapier Help Center: How pay-per-task billing works in Zapier — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/15279018245901, checked
- Zapier Help Center: Zap limits — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496181445261, checked
- Zapier Help Center: How Zap triggers work — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496244568589, checked
- Zapier Help Center: Loop your Zap actions — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496106701453, checked
- Zapier Help Center: Compile data in a digest in Zap workflows — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496309901453, checked
- Zapier Help Center: Add delays to Zap workflows — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496288754829, checked
- Zapier Help Center: Search for existing data in Zap workflows — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496241402253, checked
- Zapier Help Center: What is replay? — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/19220226086797, checked
- Zapier Help Center: Create reusable Zap steps with the Sub-Zap app — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496308527629, checked
- Zapier Help Center: AI by Zapier model tier pricing — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/46425475442829, checked
- Zapier Help Center: How is Code by Zapier usage measured? — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/45885581698573, checked
- Zapier Help Center: How Next Gen Zaps and the Zapier SDK are billed — https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/49965546559117, checked
- n8n pricing page (plans and prices used in the comparison) — https://n8n.io/pricing/, checked
- n8n docs: Understand executions — https://docs.n8n.io/build/understand-workflows/understand-executions, checked
- Make pricing page (plans and prices used in the comparison) — https://www.make.com/pricing, checked
- Make Help Center: How features use credits — https://help.make.com/how-features-use-credits, checked