3. Delay after queue

The Delay After Queue option allows you to create a queue of actions to run. 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.

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.
• Select Delay.
• In Choose app & event, click the Action Event dropdown menu and select Delay After Queue.
• Click Continue.
• In the Time Delayed For (value) field, enter the amount of time (in numbers) the Zap should hold a task for. You can either enter a fixed number or use a number field from a previous step.
• Click the Time Delayed For (unit) dropdown menu and select a unit of time.
• Click Continue.

The maximum time a task can be held for is for one month (31 days). Since tasks will be queued, the maximum number of tasks in the queue depends on the Time Delayed For (value) value. For example, if you set the delay to one day, the maximum number of tasks in the queue will be 31. If a 32nd task is created within that period, it will error on the delay step because the scheduled time it will be released is too far away.

Note

• Multiple Zaps can share the same queue if they use the same queue name.
• 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.