Zapier Free Stops at 100 Tasks and Two Steps

Zapier free costs $0 and gives 100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps and Tables, but each Zap can only have two steps, polling runs every 15 minutes, and premium apps are locked. Professional at $19.99 a month adds multi-step Zaps, webhooks, filters, paths and unlimited premium apps.¹

A two-step Zap is a trigger and one action. Anything that needs a filter, a lookup or a second action is out, and most real automations need at least three steps.

So the free tier is best understood not as a smaller version of the product, but as a demonstration of it.²

What the free plan actually includes

Tables and Forms are included on free, with unlimited projects and 2,500 records per account, which is more than the automation allowance would let you maintain.

What a task is

A task is one successful action taken by a Zap, not one Zap run. A three-step Zap that completes consumes three tasks.

That means 100 tasks is not 100 automations. On a two-step Zap it is 50 completed runs per month, assuming both steps always succeed.

Polling every 15 minutes matters here too. A trigger checking a form every quarter hour will fire whenever it finds new data, and a burst of submissions can consume the monthly allowance in an afternoon.

Two steps is the harder limit

Filters, Paths, Formatter and Code by Zapier are all paid features. Without filters, a Zap cannot decide whether to act on a record; it acts on everything the trigger sees.

That makes free usable only for unconditional pipelines: new row in a sheet becomes a Slack message, new form response becomes an email. Any conditional logic disqualifies a free Zap entirely.

Webhooks are also paid, which removes the most flexible trigger. Anything that can post to a URL could drive a Zap through a webhook, and on free that door is closed.

Code by Zapier runs at one second per step on free against 30 on paid, so even the escape hatch of writing a small script is limited.

What the AI features do on free

Zapier Copilot is available with a daily message limit rather than being blocked outright. AI fields and AI troubleshooting are paid.

Zapier's pricing model now applies task-based billing across AI steps, code and SDK calls, so an AI-heavy workflow consumes tasks the same way a normal action does.

For comparison within this series, Make gives 1,000 credits and allows multi-step scenarios on free, and n8n is free without limits if you host it yourself.

When the free plan is enough

One or two simple, unconditional pipelines that run a handful of times a week. A form submission to a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet row to a chat message.

It is also useful for checking whether the app you want is supported and whether its trigger works the way you expect, before paying for anything.

Anyone automating a personal workflow under 50 runs a month can stay on free indefinitely.

When it stops being enough

The first time you need a filter, which is usually within the first week of real use.

Professional at $19.99 is the entry point and the base tier only includes 750 tasks, so high-volume workflows push the price well above that. Team at $69 adds shared workspaces and 25 users, which is a different purchase altogether.

For anyone technical enough to self-host, n8n's Community Edition removes both the task count and the step limit at the cost of running a server.

Frequently asked questions

Is Zapier free?
Yes, permanently, with 100 tasks a month and no card required.

How many steps can a free Zap have?
Two, being one trigger and one action. Multi-step Zaps require a paid plan.

What counts as a task in Zapier?
Each successful action a Zap performs. A multi-step Zap consumes one task per step.

How often do free Zaps run?
Triggers poll every 15 minutes, against 2 minutes on Professional.

Can I use webhooks on Zapier Free?
No. Webhooks are a paid feature.

How much is Zapier Professional?
From $19.99 a month at 750 tasks, rising with higher task tiers.

Task allowances, step limits, polling intervals and pricing verified against Zapier's pricing page and task-usage documentation on 20 October 2026.

Sources

1. Zapier pricing: zapier.com/pricing. Used for: 100 tasks, two-step Zaps only, 15-minute polling and the paid ladder.
2. Zapier help: how task usage is measured: help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496196837261-How-is-task-usage-measured-in-Zapier.

All sources are the vendor's own plan or documentation pages, checked on 20 October 2026. Plan terms change without notice, so confirm current limits before you rely on them.