Resources · Make integration

Cloudinary Make integrationAutomate Cloudinary with Make.

Your media already lives in Cloudinary, so why keep moving it by hand? The Cloudinary Make integration gives you 9 modules, the bricks you chain together into an automation: 2 triggers, 6 actions, 1 search. This page shows what each one does and what to build first.

Try the Cloudinary integration on MakeSee the 9 modules

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What you can automate

What can the Cloudinary Make integration actually do?

It links your Cloudinary account to a scenario, the automation you build in Make by chaining modules one after another. Make then watches your library, reads or uploads files, builds delivery URLs and pulls the account usage figures, with nobody opening the Cloudinary interface. You connect the account once, and every Cloudinary module in the scenario reuses that connection.

Three shapes come back again and again. The first sorts at the door: Watch Tagged Resources only wakes up for files uploaded with the tag you picked, so a campaign gets its own chain without a filtering step. The second one is the delivery line: Watch Uploaded Resources spots each new file, Transform a Resource turns it into a URL, and the scenario drops that URL where your team reads it. The third does the housekeeping: Search Resources finds what matches, then Get a Resource or Delete a Resource acts on one item at a time.

What Make will not do here is react the second something happens. Cloudinary has no instant trigger in Make, the kind where the app calls Make the moment a file lands, so both watchers run on a schedule and the scenario is the one asking. The app also stops at these 9 modules. The rest of the Cloudinary API, the door one program uses to drive another, goes through Make an API Call.

The same app lives on the other side too. If the tool is not settled yet, the n8n vs Make comparison lays out the criteria, and the Cloudinary n8n integration page covers the equivalent node in detail. If you would rather learn the editor before building anything serious, Make training walks through scenarios step by step.

Connect

How do you connect Cloudinary to Make?

  1. 01

    Copy your three Cloudinary values

    Log in to Cloudinary and click Dashboard in the left sidebar. Copy the Cloud Name, the API Key and the API Secret, then keep them somewhere safe. All three sit on that one screen, so take them in a single pass.

  2. 02

    Open the connection window in Make

    Add a Cloudinary module to your scenario and click Create a connection. The Connection name field stays optional, though a clear name pays off as soon as more than one Cloudinary account runs through your scenarios.

  3. 03

    Paste the credentials and save

    Fill the API Key, API Secret and Cloud Name fields with what you copied, then click Save. If Make asks you to authenticate and confirm access, accept, and the module is usable straight away.

First scenario

Your first scenario: a URL for every new file

GoalWhen a new file is uploaded to Cloudinary, Make builds its delivery URL.

  1. 01

    Create the scenario

    Open the Scenarios page, create a new scenario and click the + to place the first module. Search for Cloudinary by name, then pick Watch Uploaded Resources from its list.

  2. 02

    Link your account

    The module asks for a connection. Click Create a connection, paste the Cloud Name, API Key and API Secret you copied, and save. Every Cloudinary module you add later picks it up on its own.

  3. 03

    Add the action and map the file

    Click the + on the right of the trigger and add Transform a Resource. Map the file coming out of the first module into it instead of typing anything by hand.

  4. 04

    Test it with Run once

    Click Run once, then upload a test file to Cloudinary. Make runs the chain a single time and shows the bundle each module received, the item that travels from one module to the next.

  5. 05

    Schedule it and switch it on

    Set the clock on the first module. A brand new scenario checks every 15 minutes, which is also the floor on the Free plan. Flip the switch and the scenario keeps running without you.

Triggers

What starts a Cloudinary scenario?

2 modules start a scenario when something happens in Cloudinary. A scheduled trigger is checked by Make on the scenario's schedule; an instant one is called by Cloudinary as soon as it happens.

Cloudinary1Watch Tagged Resources

Watch Tagged Resources

Scheduled trigger

In Make“Watches for newly uploaded resources by a given tag.”

Watch Tagged Resources keeps its eye on a single tag and starts your scenario for each new file uploaded with it. The sorting happens at the door, so nothing downstream has to filter anything.

How it fires
on a schedule. Make asks Cloudinary at the interval set on the first module of the scenario, every 15 minutes on a brand new one.
When to use it
a photographer drops a whole shoot into your library under one agreed tag, and only those files should go down the chain.
Watch out
it reacts to uploads, not to tags added afterwards. A file that was already in the library when you tagged it will not wake the scenario.
Cloudinary2Watch Uploaded Resources

Watch Uploaded Resources

Scheduled trigger

In Make“Watches for newly uploaded resources.”

Every new file that lands in the account starts the scenario here, whoever sent it and whatever it holds. Each one arrives as a bundle, the single item one module hands to the next.

How it fires
on a schedule as well. Cloudinary never calls Make for this app, so the scenario does the asking, at the rhythm of the clock on the first module.
When to use it
a shared library where anything new deserves the same treatment, a URL built, a record written, a notice sent.
Watch out
it catches everything, and each file costs one operation per module it passes through, an operation being one module run counted on your plan. When only part of the library matters, the tagged watcher is the cheaper door.
Modules

What Cloudinary can do inside a scenario

Cloudinary gives you 7 modules. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

Cloudinary1

Create a Usage Report

Action

In Make“Creates a usage report.”

Create a Usage Report pulls your Cloudinary account usage figures into the scenario, and the rest of the chain carries them somewhere readable.

When to use it
you want those numbers to reach the person who watches the budget, without that person logging in to hunt for them.
Cloudinary2

Delete a Resource

Action

In Make“Deletes a specified resource.”

Point Delete a Resource at one file and it goes out of the library, then the scenario moves on to the next step.

When to use it
a visual pulled from a campaign that should not stay available once the campaign stops.
Watch out
nothing in Make brings a deleted file back. Try the chain with Run once on a file you can afford to lose before you switch anything on.
Cloudinary3

Get a Resource

Action

In Make“Returns a specified resource.”

You give Get a Resource one reference and it brings back the matching file, so the steps that follow work from the real record instead of a guess.

When to use it
a form or a spreadsheet hands you a reference, and the scenario needs the Cloudinary item behind it before deciding anything.
Cloudinary4

Make an API Call

Action

In Make“Performs an arbitrary authorized API call.”

Make an API Call reaches any endpoint of the Cloudinary API through the connection you already created, which keeps the scenario from being boxed in by the module list.

When to use it
Cloudinary can do the thing, and no module on this page covers it.
Watch out
this one assumes the Cloudinary API reference is open next to you. Keep it for the gap, not for everyday steps.
Cloudinary5

Transform a Resource

Action

In Make“Creates a Cloudinary URL that can be used to transform, manipulate, and share the resource.”

Transform a Resource builds a Cloudinary URL for a file, the address you use to display it or hand it to someone outside the team.

When to use it
a product page, a newsletter or a partner is waiting for a link to the asset, and nobody should be copying it out of the interface.
Cloudinary6

Upload a Resource

Action

In Make“Uploads a new resource.”

A file arriving from elsewhere in the scenario, an email attachment or a form submission, goes into your Cloudinary account through Upload a Resource.

When to use it
as the first rung of an intake chain, so what people send you stops living in an inbox.
Cloudinary7

Search Resources

Search

In Make“Searches for resources.”

Ask Search Resources for what matches and it hands back the library's answer. That answer can be empty, a single item, or a long run, and each item travels on through the scenario by itself.

When to use it
a clean-up or an inventory pass, where the scenario has to find the files before touching them.
Watch out
the number of items is never known in advance, so the modules behind it must survive an empty result as well as a busy one.
Need help

Need help automating Cloudinary with Make?

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FAQ

Questions that come up next

01Is the Cloudinary Make integration free?
On the Make side, yes. Cloudinary is a standard app, so it works from the Free plan and no upgrade is needed to drop its modules into a scenario. The Free plan is where the ceilings sit: 2 active scenarios, a gap of at least 15 minutes between two scheduled runs, 5 minutes of run time per execution, files up to 5 MB and 512 MB of transfer. Paid plans bring the gap down to 1 minute, lift the cap on active scenarios and stretch run time to 40 minutes. What Cloudinary itself costs you is a separate question this page does not answer.
02What do you need to connect Cloudinary to Make?
Three values and an account, nothing else. Log in to Cloudinary, open the Dashboard from the left sidebar and copy the Cloud Name, the API Key and the API Secret. In Make, add any Cloudinary module, click Create a connection, paste the three values into their fields and save. Naming the connection is optional. If Make asks you to authenticate and confirm access, accept. From then on every Cloudinary module in every scenario reuses that connection, so the step happens once.
03Does the Cloudinary trigger work in real time?
No. Both Cloudinary triggers in Make are scheduled ones, which means Make asks Cloudinary whether anything new turned up, at the interval set on the clock of the first module. A brand new scenario looks every 15 minutes, also the shortest gap on the Free plan, while paid plans go down to 1 minute. Cloudinary never calls Make on its own for this app, so nothing here behaves like a webhook, the call an app makes to Make the moment something happens. A reaction measured in seconds will not come from these two modules.
04What if a Cloudinary module is missing from the list?
Make an API Call is the answer, and Cloudinary ships it. That module reaches any endpoint of the app's API with the connection you already created, so a gap in the list rarely becomes a wall. The price is your own work: read the Cloudinary API reference, build the call, test it with Run once before trusting it. For anything the listed modules already handle, stay on the listed modules, because they are far easier to hand over when someone else inherits the scenario.
05Make or n8n for Cloudinary?
It depends on who keeps the scenario alive. Make draws the chain as modules you drag and connect, which suits a team where the builder is not a developer, and Cloudinary sits there from the free plan. n8n gives you a node for the same app and more room to write your own logic once the automation turns unusual. Both are honest choices for Cloudinary. Decide on the person who will open the editor in six months, not on a feature list, and build a small scenario on each before you commit.
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