What is Zapier? How it works, what counts as a task, and its limits

Zapier in three lines

Zapier is a hosted, no-code automation service: when something happens in one app (a form is submitted, an order is paid), it runs a series of actions in others. The vendor, Zapier, Inc., is a US company and hosts everything itself. It bills “tasks”: one for each successful action, never the trigger.

This page analyzes Zapier’s public pricing and documentation as recorded on the date shown. Nobody here has run the product.

What Zapier actually does

An automation is called a “Zap”. It starts with a trigger, the event being watched, and continues with one or more actions. Example: a new form entry creates a contact in your CRM, adds a row to a spreadsheet, then pings your team in chat. Between steps, built-in tools sort and prepare the data: Filter (the Zap stops if a condition isn’t met), Paths (branches for different cases), Formatter (reshaping text, dates and numbers), Delay and Looping.

On the catalog, the pricing page says: More than 9,000 apps ("9,000+ apps"); "premium" apps reserved for paid plans source.

Two settings shape how a Zap behaves:

• How often it checks. Many triggers work by polling: Zapier looks for new data at a fixed interval. The interval depends on the plan: 15 minutes (Free); 2 minutes (Professional); 1 minute (Team, Enterprise).
• Webhooks. A webhook is an address the source app calls the moment the event happens, with no wait for the next check (see our webhook guide). On Zapier they are reserved for paid plans.

For cases the connectors don’t cover, there is a code step: Code by Zapier: 1 second per step (Free), 30 seconds (Professional, Team), 2 minutes (Enterprise). Around Zaps, the vendor also provides Tables (data storage) and Forms, included on every plan with per-plan caps.

What Zapier bills: the task

The rule fits on one line: one successful action = one task. The trigger doesn’t count, even when Zapier polls an app every two minutes and finds nothing. Filter, Paths, Formatter, Delay and Looping steps don’t count either.

Run the numbers on the form example. The Zap has one trigger and three actions (CRM, spreadsheet, chat message). With 400 entries a month:

• trigger: 0 tasks;
• 3 actions × 400 runs: 1,200 tasks.

That is above the entry quota of the Professional plan (750 tasks per month). The same Zap cut down to a single action would use 400 tasks. On Zapier, the number of actions per Zap drives the bill, not the number of Zaps.

The vendor’s pages contradict each other on one point: the “Task usage rates” page describes the standard step as a trigger or action step at 1 task, while the pricing page FAQ and the help article say triggers never use a task. Our database follows the help article, which is the most detailed.

Other tools count something else: Make also counts the trigger, and n8n counts one whole execution however many steps it has. The guide to billing units puts these rules side by side.

The plans at a glance

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Zapier plans

Plan	Monthly price	Monthly price, billed annually	Monthly quota included	Limits
Freesource	$0	$0	100tasks	Two-step Zaps, polling every 15 minutes, 1 user. Tables: 2,500 records; Forms: 10 pages.
Professionalsource	$29.99	$19.99	750tasks	1 user, multi-step Zaps, unlimited "premium" apps, webhooks, Filters and Paths, Formatter, AI by Zapier, polling every 2 minutes, pay-per-task billing beyond the quota. Email support, chat from the 2,000-task tier; Code by Zapier 30 seconds per step; Tables 100,000 records; Forms 50 pages. Volume levels from 750 to 2,000,000 tasks per month.
Teamsource	$103.50	$69	2,000tasks	25 users included, shared Zaps and folders, shared app connections, SAML SSO, priority support, polling every minute. Tables 500,000 records; Forms 150 pages, custom domain, logo removal. Volume levels from 2,000 to 2,000,000 tasks per month.
Enterprisesource	custom pricing	custom pricing	—	Custom pricing ("Contact for pricing"). Unlimited users, advanced admin permissions and app controls, annual task limits, observability. Code by Zapier 2 minutes per step; technical account manager above a threshold or as an option.

Four levels: Free, Professional, Team and Enterprise (custom pricing). Professional starts at $29.99 per month billed monthly, or $19.99 per month billed annually, for 750 tasks. That price is only the first rung: Professional and Team are sold in volume tiers up to 2,000,000 tasks per month, each with its own price (see the volume tiers further down).

The free plan includes 100 tasks per month and two-step Zaps only: one trigger, one action. Every new account also gets a free 14-day trial of the Professional plan, with no credit card.

Past the quota, paid plans switch to pay-per-task billing, up to a cap of three times the quota, and then Zaps are paused. The Zapier pricing page walks through that mechanism and three scenarios counted in tasks; the cost calculator does the math for your own volume.

Hosting and data

Zapier exists only as a service hosted by the vendor. Its answer on self-hosting: No: no self-hosted plan; the vendor hosts data on AWS servers in the United States source. On where data lives: AWS servers in the United States; no EU-only storage option ("Zapier does not support this option"). The vendor states that it is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

If you serve European customers and need data kept in the EU, or on your own servers, look at n8n or Activepieces, which both offer hosting in Frankfurt and an edition you install yourself.

AI, agents and MCP

Three building blocks, three meters:

• AI by Zapier: AI steps inside a Zap, on paid plans. Each step counts 1, 3 or 5 tasks depending on the model tier.
• Zapier Agents: an add-on billed separately, in “activities” rather than tasks. The free tier includes 400 per month; a paid tier exists (its price is in the notes at the bottom of this page). Once the allowance is used up, agents stop running. The help center says Agents is moving into AI by Zapier.
• Zapier MCP: MCP is a protocol that lets an AI assistant call outside tools. Zapier MCP available on every plan; 2 tasks per successful tool call.

One change is announced for December 1, 2026: according to the help article, the Zapier SDK will start using tasks, while the “Task usage rates” page still lists it as “Free in beta”.

What the documentation doesn’t say

• The exact rate for an extra task. The help article points to your account’s billing settings, and the figures found elsewhere on the vendor’s site don’t match.
• Enterprise pricing, which is quote-only.
• Interface languages. None of the pages we read lists them, so that point stays “not recorded”.

Alternatives worth a look

• Weighing it against Make, which counts every module it runs, trigger included: Make vs Zapier.
• You’d prefer to pay per execution, or to host the tool yourself: n8n vs Zapier.
• You want the same counting rule (actions only) with a larger entry quota: Pabbly Connect, covered in the comparison below.
• The wider picture: Zapier alternatives and workflow automation tools compared.