How to run a Zap immediately in Zapier for testing purposes

Hey ​@jehsom welcome to Zapier!

There isn’t a true “run this live Zap right now” button for scheduled triggers in the same way you’re describing. Scheduled Zaps run based on their set interval, and you can’t manually force that trigger to fire on demand.

A few practical workarounds:

• Temporary schedule change: Edit the Schedule trigger to “Every 1 minute,” turn the Zap on, let it fire once, then switch it back to the original schedule.

• Test from Zap History: If you have a recent run, you can replay the Zap from Zap History to re-run the same data through your live steps.

• Add a manual trigger path: Some people add a secondary trigger (like a webhook or a manual app trigger) in a duplicate Zap just for controlled production testing.

If you need to follow execution step by step, Zap History is your best bet. It shows each step, the data in and out, and any errors, even for live runs.

It’s not quite the same experience, but with a short-term schedule change or replay from History, you can get very close.

Dr. Tanvi Sachar
Monday Certified Partner, Monday Wizard

Hi ​@jehsom 

There are 2 trigger types:

• Instant via webhooks
  • These will run instantly
• Scheduled via API polling
  • There is a [RUN] button at the top right next to the [EDIT ZAP] button
    • See screenshot below
    • Help link: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8495924437005-Control-when-your-Zap-runs#h_01JKC9KDS5ADMA5G0A6RSR43AV

Help link for how to use a previous Zap Run as a Zap trigger record example: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/35632951078029-Use-previous-Zap-runs-as-trigger-test-records

Thanks ​@drtanvisachar and ​@Troy Tessalone these are good answers. However I am definitely still missing the ability to do a test run and see the output of each stage right while I’m there in the editor, real time. It requires a lot of steps and/or waiting to achieve the same effect. I think this could be a nice feature to add to Zapier, speaking as someone who used this feature all the time in make.com and found it incredibly useful. 

By the way, where there is an instant trigger, the test execution will block/wait until the trigger is activated. Then the results of the execution will show real-time right in the editing view. 

​@jehsom 

In the Zap Editor, in the left rail, in the History section, there is a tab “TEST ZAP” with a button “TEST RUN”.

(see screenshot)

​@Troy Tessalone Yes but that’s a test run on test data. I want to execute on real production data. 

​@jehsom 

If the Zap trigger is instant (via webhook), then either…

• perform the event in the Zap trigger app that will fire the Zap webhook
  • in the Zap trigger step, in the TEST tab, use the [Find New Records] button to pull thru your new test record to use
  • then you can use that Zap trigger example record to perform a TEST RUN
• turn the Zap ON and test live by performing the event in the Zap trigger app that will fire the Zap to run

If the Zap trigger is scheduled (via API polling), then…

• Use the [RUN] button at the top right of the Zap Editor (see screenshot below)
  • that will run the Zap on demand to check for new data and process new data
  • Help link: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8495924437005-Control-when-your-Zap-runs#h_01JKC9KDS5ADMA5G0A6RSR43AV

​@Troy Tessalone OK mine is a scheduled zap but I guess in that case I can set it to run every minute and just wait. It’s not nearly as elegant as Make.com’s interface for this, but it will have to do. Thank you.

​@jehsom 

For Zap triggers that are scheduled…

If you want to run it on-demand, then use the [RUN] button at the top right of the Zap Editor (see screenshot below)

That will run the Zap to check for new data and process new data

Help link: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8495924437005-Control-when-your-Zap-runs#h_01JKC9KDS5ADMA5G0A6RSR43AV

Otherwise, depending on your Zapier plan, the Zap will run every N minutes to check for new data.

• Free: 15 minutes
• Pro: 2 minutes
• Teams: 1 minute