You’ve got recurring tasks on your plate: sending reminders, updating sheets, and posting weekly check-ins. They’re simple, but they eat up time. And forgetting even once can throw your whole routine off.
The problem? Most tools don’t give you a clean way to automate these repeating jobs. You either end up copying and pasting the same thing over and over, or worse, setting calendar alerts that still require manual work. That’s not real automation, it’s just shifting the burden around.
This is where Schedule by Zapier saves the day. It acts like your personal clock inside Zapier. You set the time, and it kicks off your workflow exactly when you want. No reminders, no manual clicks. Just a reliable trigger that runs your automations on schedule.
Read on to discover how Schedule by Zapier can automate recurring tasks. Learn how it works, how to schedule a Zap, and see examples.
What is Schedule by Zapier?
Schedule by Zapier is a built-in app inside Zapier that helps you start workflows at set times. It’s not a separate tool you install. It comes bundled with Zapier, and its only job is to run Zaps based on the schedule you set. Think of it like a timer that tells Zapier when to begin.
When you create a Zap, you normally start with a trigger like “new email in Gmail” or “new row in Google Sheets.” But with Schedule by Zapier, the trigger isn’t another external app. You tell Zapier when to run, and it kicks off your workflow automatically. For example, you can have it run every day at 9 a.m., every Friday afternoon, or once an hour.
This is useful for tasks that don’t depend on outside events. Say you want a daily reminder message in Slack. Or maybe you want a weekly report sent to your email. Instead of waiting for something else to happen first, Zapier just runs it on schedule.
The app gives you five main options:
- Every Day: pick a time once per day.
- Every Week: pick a day of the week and time.
- Every Month: pick a day of the month and time.
- Every Hour: triggers every hour
- Custom Frequency: useful when the basic presets don’t match the timing you need.
It’s important to remember that Schedule by Zapier only works as a trigger. You can’t use it in the middle or end of a Zap. Its job is to get things started. Once the schedule kicks in, you can connect it to any other app Zapier supports, like Google Sheets, Slack, Trello, or Gmail.
How to Schedule a Zap in Zapier
Creating a Zap with Schedule by Zapier is simple. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
- Log in to Zapier and click “Create Zap.”
- Choose your trigger app: search for “Schedule by Zapier.”
- Select your schedule type: pick from “Every Day,” “Every Week,” “Every Month,” or “Every Hour.”
- Set the exact time: choose the time of day, day of week, or hour interval depending on what you picked.
- Test your trigger: Zapier will confirm when it will run next.
Once your trigger is set, it’s time to add the action step. This is where the real work happens. For example, you can:
- Post a message in Slack at 9 a.m. each day.
- Add a row to Google Sheets every Monday with a note.
- Send an automated reminder email to your team.
You can also chain multiple actions together. Maybe you want to create a task in Trello and send a matching message in Slack at the same time. Zapier will do both in the order you set.
Schedule by Zapier Example
Here’s a simple example: you want a Slack message every Monday morning to remind your team about the weekly meeting. Here’s how you’d do it with Schedule by Zapier.
- Set the trigger: Choose “Schedule by Zapier” as the trigger app. Pick “Every Week.” Select Monday at 9:00 a.m.
- Add the action: Choose Slack as the action app. Select “Send Channel Message.” Select the right channel.
- Write the message: Something like “Don’t forget: weekly team meeting today at 9 a.m. in the main conference room.”
- Test and turn on the Zap: Zapier will confirm that it will post to Slack every Monday at 9 a.m.
- Rename the zap.
The point of Schedule by Zapier is consistency. Humans forget or get busy. Automations don’t. By using it, you can free up mental space and trust that routine tasks happen when they should.
Why You Don’t See “Schedule by Zapier” as an Action
A common question is why Schedule by Zapier doesn’t appear as an action step. You may see “Schedule by Zapier No action available” when you try to add it later in a Zap. That’s not an error. It’s just how the app is designed.
Schedule by Zapier is only a trigger app. Its role is to start things, not respond to them. That’s why you’ll never see it listed under actions. After the schedule fires, you connect other apps to do the work.
If you’re looking for a way to delay or pause a Zap in the middle, you’ll need to use Delay by Zapier instead. Delay lets you set a pause between steps. For example, you can say: “Wait 2 hours before sending this email.” That’s different from scheduling, which is about starting at fixed times.
Here’s the key difference:
- Schedule by Zapier = tells Zapier when to begin.
- Delay by Zapier = tells Zapier how long to wait between steps.
So if you’re building a Zap and wondering why “Schedule” isn’t showing up as an action, it’s because it can’t be one. You can only add it as the very first trigger.
If you find yourself needing both, that’s fine. You can use Schedule by Zapier to start a workflow at 9 a.m. each day, and then add Delay by Zapier inside that same Zap to stagger tasks throughout the morning.
So don’t worry if you see “No action available.” That’s normal. Schedule by Zapier isn’t broken. It’s just built to be the trigger that keeps your automations running right on time.
👉 Looking for more ways to streamline your Zaps? Check out our full blog post that lists all the built-in Apps by Zapier. You’ll discover other powerful tools, like Delay by Zapier and Filter by Zapier, that make your automations smarter and more flexible.
And if you’re aiming for end-to-end automations or want to implement your tasks, processes, or projects directly into project management tools like Monday, ClickUp, Wrike, etc, get in touch.