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Cognito Forms Make integrationAutomate Cognito Forms with Make.

What happens to a form entry after someone clicks Submit? The Cognito Forms Make integration answers that with 15 modules: 3 instant triggers, 7 actions and 5 searches. This guide shows how to link your account, build a first scenario and pick the right module.

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What you can automate

What can the Cognito Forms Make integration do for you?

The Cognito Forms Make integration lets Make react to your forms and act on them without code. When an entry is submitted, updated or deleted, Cognito Forms alerts Make at once, and a scenario (the automation you build in Make, a chain of modules) carries the data where your team needs it.

Every request logged twice, typed once. A public request form fires Watch new entries, and Create entry writes the same answers into an internal tracking form your staff works from. Nobody copies a line by hand.

A clean bulk load. A spreadsheet of past registrations goes through Import Entries, which accepts CSV or Excel files and can create, update or sync entries. Get Import Status then tells you how many rows went in and how many failed.

A form that closes itself. Pair a trigger with Set Form Availability to change whether a form accepts entries, based on what just happened elsewhere in the scenario.

One limit shapes everything: Cognito Forms opens its API only to paid Cognito Forms accounts, so a free Cognito plan cannot be connected. Make itself runs this app from its Free plan. If you are still weighing the platform, read the Make review, and the n8n vs Make comparison covers the other tool that often has a node for the same app. For a first build with a coach, see Make training.

Connect

How do you connect Cognito Forms to Make?

01
Add a Cognito Forms module
Open your scenario, click the +, search for Cognito Forms and pick any module. Then click Create a connection. A connection is your Cognito Forms account linked to Make once, and every Cognito Forms module reuses it.
02
Name the connection
This step is optional, but a clear name helps later. If your team uses more than one Cognito Forms account, a label such as the account owner's name tells you at a glance which account a module is using.
03
Authorize Make and save
Make sends you to Cognito Forms to authorize access, or asks for the key Cognito Forms gives you. Approve it, return to Make and click Save. The module can now list your forms.

First scenario

Your first scenario with Cognito Forms

GoalWhen someone submits your public request form in Cognito Forms, Make creates a matching entry in your internal follow-up form.

01
Create the scenario
On the Scenarios page, create a new scenario and click the big + to add the first module. This first module is the trigger: the event that starts everything.
02
Add Watch new entries
Search for Cognito Forms, pick Watch new entries and link your account with Create a connection. Once connected, Make lists your forms, so choose the public request form.
03
Add Create entry
Click the + to the right of the trigger and add Create entry. Choose the internal form, then map each of its fields to the matching answer from the previous module.
04
Test with Run once
Click Run once, then submit a test entry in the public form. Each module shows the bundles it received (a bundle is one item passing through, here one entry), so you can check every answer landed.
05
Switch it on
Turn the scenario on. With an instant trigger, Cognito Forms calls Make as soon as an entry arrives, so the internal form fills itself from then on, one operation per module run.

Triggers

Which Cognito Forms triggers can start a scenario?

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

Cognito Forms1Watch entry deleted

Watch entry deleted

Instant trigger

In Make“Triggers when an entry is deleted”

Removed entries stop disappearing silently: this trigger starts your scenario the moment someone deletes an entry from a form, so the rest of your tools can hear about it too.

How it fires

instant. Cognito Forms calls Make through a webhook as soon as the deletion happens, which shows as the lightning badge on the module.

When to use it

when a spreadsheet, CRM or tracking form keeps a copy of your entries and must drop the same record so both sides stay aligned.

Watch out

run a test deletion with Run once before mapping anything, to see which details the bundle still carries once the entry is gone.

Cognito Forms2Watch new entries

Watch new entries

Instant trigger

In Make“Triggers when a new entry is submitted to your form”

Fresh submissions reach Make within moments with this trigger. It watches one form and hands each new entry to the next module as a bundle, answers included, ready to map.

How it fires

instant. Cognito Forms alerts Make through a webhook as soon as the entry is submitted, so there is no interval to wait for.

When to use it

for almost every first scenario, such as a quote request that should open a follow-up, a registration that needs a record elsewhere, or an order that feeds another form.

Watch out

it only sees entries submitted after the scenario is on. Older entries come from Get Form Entries instead.

Cognito Forms3Watch updates

Watch updates

Instant trigger

In Make“Triggers when an entry is updated.”

Edits to existing entries get their own signal here. When a respondent or a teammate changes an entry, the trigger passes the updated version to your scenario.

How it fires

instant. Cognito Forms notifies Make through a webhook right after the update is saved.

When to use it

when an entry moves through stages, for instance an application reviewed by staff, and each change must be reflected in a copy held in another tool.

Watch out

if the same scenario also runs Update entry on that form, every update it makes can fire this trigger again. Point updates at a different form, or split the work into two scenarios.

Modules

What can Make do in Cognito Forms?

Cognito Forms gives you 12 modules. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

Cognito Forms1

Create entry

Action

In Make“Creates a new entry.”

Answers you already have elsewhere become a real entry in one of your forms, exactly as if someone had filled it in, without anyone retyping them.

When to use it

when leads, bookings or requests captured by another app should live in Cognito Forms, or when a public form must feed a separate internal form.

Watch out

choose the form first, since Make only shows the fields to map once it knows which form you target.

Cognito Forms2

Delete entry

Action

In Make“Deletes an entry.”

This action removes one entry from a form, which keeps test submissions, spam or duplicates out of the lists your team reads.

When to use it

as a cleanup step, after a check elsewhere in the scenario has confirmed that an entry should not stay.

Watch out

treat it as a one-way step. Place a Get entry just before it and look at the result in Run once to make sure the right entry is targeted.

Cognito Forms3

Get Import Status

Action

In Make“Gets the current status of an import and returns the number of successful and unsuccessful entries.”

After a bulk load, this module reports where the import stands and returns how many entries went through and how many failed, so you know whether to fix the file.

When to use it

right after Import Entries, to send the counts to whoever prepared the spreadsheet.

Watch out

it reports the state at the moment it runs, so an import still in progress can give partial counts. Check the status before you share them.

Cognito Forms4

Import Entries

Action

In Make“Import form entries from CSV or Excel files. Supports creating new entries, updating existing entries, or syncing entries.”

A whole CSV or Excel file turns into form entries in a single step, instead of one module run per row. The import can create new entries, update existing ones or sync the two.

When to use it

when a batch arrives as a spreadsheet, such as a list of attendees exported from an event tool or last season's registrations.

Watch out

pick the mode deliberately. Create adds rows, while update and sync touch entries that already exist.

Cognito Forms5

Set Form Availability

Action

In Make“Set a form's availability.”

Opening or closing a form no longer needs a trip into Cognito Forms: this module changes a form's availability from inside your scenario.

When to use it

when an event elsewhere decides whether people may still submit, for example a sold-out session or a deadline recorded in another tool.

Watch out

the change affects every visitor of the form at once, so test it on a copy of the form before pointing it at the live one.

Cognito Forms6

Update entry

Action

In Make“Updates an entry.”

An existing entry gets new values without being recreated, so its history and its place in your lists stay intact while the data catches up.

When to use it

when a status, an amount or a note decided in another app has to be written back onto the original submission.

Watch out

you need the entry's identity first, usually from a trigger or from Get entry, and pairing it with Watch updates on the same form can start a loop.

Cognito Forms7

Upload a file

Action

In Make“Upload a file to be used with an entry.”

Files coming from another app become available to your entries through this action, so an attachment can travel with the data instead of being sent separately.

When to use it

before Create entry or Update entry, when the entry needs a document such as a signed page or a photo collected elsewhere.

Watch out

on the Make Free plan, files are capped at 5 MB, so large scans may need a paid plan.

Cognito Forms8

Get document

In Make“Gets an entry document.”

This search fetches the document Cognito Forms produces for an entry, so the scenario can hand it to another app, an email or a storage folder.

When to use it

after Watch new entries, when the person who submitted, or a colleague, should receive a copy of what was filled in.

Watch out

it works on one entry at a time, so feed it the entry from the trigger or from Get entry.

Cognito Forms9

Get entry

In Make“Gets an entry.”

One specific entry comes back with all its current answers, which is handy when the scenario only holds a reference and needs the full picture.

When to use it

to check an entry before Update entry or Delete entry, or to reload the latest version after a change.

Watch out

it looks up a single entry, not a list. To browse several, use Get Form Entries.

Cognito Forms10

Get file

In Make“Gets a file by id.”

With a file's id in hand, this search retrieves the file itself, ready to be passed to a storage app, an email or another form.

When to use it

when an entry holds an upload, such as a CV or a receipt, that must be archived or forwarded as soon as it arrives.

Watch out

it needs the file's id, so it usually sits after a trigger or Get entry that exposes it.

Cognito Forms11

Get Form Entries

In Make“Retrieve entries from a form entry view using OData.”

Many entries at once come out of a form through this search, which reads a Cognito Forms entry view using OData, a standard way of querying data.

When to use it

to catch up on entries submitted before the scenario existed, or to process everything a given view shows.

Watch out

each returned entry is a separate bundle, and every module after it runs once per bundle, so the operation count grows with the list.

Cognito Forms12

Get forms

In Make“Retrieves a list of available forms.”

Your account's forms come back as a list here, which lets one scenario work across several forms instead of being tied to one.

When to use it

when you manage many forms and want to loop over them, for instance to review their entries or change their availability together.

Watch out

the search can return zero, one or many forms, and the following modules run once for each.

Need help

Need help automating Cognito Forms with Make?

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FAQ

Cognito Forms and Make: common questions

01Is the Cognito Forms Make integration free?

Yes on the Make side: Cognito Forms is a standard app, available from the Free plan. That plan allows 2 active scenarios, 15 minutes minimum between scheduled runs, 5 minutes per execution, files up to 5 MB and 512 MB of data transfer. Paid Make plans lower the interval to 1 minute and lift the scenario cap. The catch is on the Cognito Forms side: its API is open only to paid Cognito Forms accounts, so a free Cognito plan cannot be connected at all.

02What do you need to connect Cognito Forms to Make?

A Make account and a paid Cognito Forms account, since only paid Cognito accounts get API access. The documentation lists no other prerequisite. In the editor, add any Cognito Forms module, click Create a connection, name it if you like, authorize Make on the Cognito Forms page or paste the key it gives you, then click Save. Every Cognito Forms module in your scenarios then reuses that single connection, so you set it up once per account.

03Do Cognito Forms triggers in Make react in real time?

Yes. All 3 Cognito Forms triggers are instant: Watch new entries, Watch updates and Watch entry deleted. Cognito Forms calls Make through a webhook as soon as the event happens, so the scenario starts without waiting for a schedule. That also means the Free plan's 15-minute minimum interval does not delay them, because it only applies to scheduled triggers. Each run still counts operations on your Make plan, one for every module that processes a bundle.

04What if the Cognito Forms module you need is missing?

It depends on the gap. This app has no Make an API Call module, so there is no generic way to reach other Cognito Forms endpoints from Make. First check whether Get Form Entries covers the need, since it reads entries from a form entry view. If not, the workaround usually goes through another app in the scenario, and for a tricky case the team can review the setup with you through the help form on this page.

05Should you use Make or n8n for Cognito Forms?

It depends on your stack more than on this one app. On Make, Cognito Forms comes with 15 modules, including 3 instant triggers, a bulk import and form availability control, all usable from the Free plan. n8n often has a node for the same app, so list the modules your process needs and check that they exist on the tool you are leaning toward. Then compare the two tools on the rest of your automations, not only on forms.

Add a Cognito Forms module

Name the connection

Authorize Make and save

Create the scenario

Add Watch new entries

Add Create entry

Test with Run once

Switch it on

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