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Drift Zapier integrationAutomate Drift with Zapier.

The Drift Zapier integration covers 13 operations: 8 triggers, 3 actions and 2 searches. Every trigger is instant, so a new lead or a new chat starts your Zap right away, even on the free plan. Here is what each one does, and what it costs.

See the 13 operations

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Overview

What the Drift Zapier integration does for your sales team

The Drift Zapier integration connects the chat on your website to your CRM, your team chat and your spreadsheets, without code. Drift tells Zapier the moment a lead shares an email, a conversation starts or a playbook goal is hit, and Zapier can also push contact data and events back into Drift.

Three results B2B teams usually build. Leads that reach the CRM on their own: New Lead fires when the chat collects an email, and the Zap creates the contact in HubSpot. A sales rep alerted while the visitor is still on the site: User Reached Goal With Lead Stage pings Slack when a playbook qualifies someone at the stage you picked. A Drift profile that knows what happened elsewhere: Log Event for Contact records a demo booked or a trial started on the contact, so Drift holds what happened outside the chat.

What Zapier does not do here: no action sends a chat message, assigns a conversation or closes one. Searches only work with Drift's own IDs, Anonymous Id or End User Id, never with an email address. And two triggers, Conversation Pushed and Conversation Manual Push, share the same official description, which makes choosing between them a matter of testing.

For comparison, see the Drift n8n integration and the Drift Make integration pages.

Vocabulary

Zapier, explained in seven words

One line each. After this, the page uses them as they are.

Zap
The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run every time that trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event that starts the Zap, like a new lead in Drift. Once the Zap is on, Zapier waits for that event.
Action
What the Zap does after it starts: the step that writes, sends or updates something for you in an app.
Task
The unit Zapier bills: one action the Zap completed successfully. Your plan's allowance counts these.
Instant trigger
A trigger the app reports itself, the moment the event happens. All eight Drift triggers work this way, shown by a lightning bolt.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap continue only when what arrived meets your condition, and stops it otherwise.
Search step
A step that looks up something that already exists in an app, so the steps after it can use what it found.
Cost

What a Drift Zap costs

Leads arriving are free; the work done afterward is what you pay for.

  • Free plan100 tasks a month
  • Free plan Zaps2 steps: 1 trigger, 1 action
  • Premium appNo
  • Trigger typeInstant, all eight

Drift triggers never cost a task. Each action that succeeds counts as one, and a Zap with two actions spends two per run. Failed actions are not billed. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only: one trigger, one action. Add a filter or a search and the Zap becomes multi-step, which needs a paid plan. Drift is not a premium app, and since all its triggers are instant, the polling grid below never slows them down.

Connect

Connect Drift to Zapier

  1. 01

    Open your Zapier apps

    Go to the Apps page of your Zapier account and click + Add connection. That page keeps every account you link to Zapier, so the Drift login you add here serves all your Zaps.

  2. 02

    Pick Drift

    Search for Drift by name in the dialog, select it in the results, then click Add connection. A new tab opens on the Drift sign-in screen, where the last step happens.

  3. 03

    Sign in and grant access

    Log in with a Drift account that can see the conversations and contacts your Zaps will use, then authorize Zapier. The connection is saved for every Drift step.

First Zap

Your first Drift Zap: sales-ready visitors logged on their contact

GoalWhen a visitor reaches a playbook goal at the lead stage you choose and meets your condition, log a named event on their Drift contact.

  1. 01

    Build the trigger

    Start a new Zap, pick Drift as the app that starts it and User Reached Goal With Lead Stage as the event, select your connection, then choose the required Lead Stage.

  2. 02

    Test with real data

    Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent goals reached in your account, so you can map a real visitor in the steps that follow and see which IDs it carries.

  3. 03

    Add a filter

    Click the plus icon and choose Filter. Fill in the field to look at, the rule and the value to compare with, using a text rule on text. The Zap is now multi-step.

  4. 04

    Log the event

    Add Drift with Log Event for Contact. Type the Event Name, then map the External Id your contacts carry. Both fields are required. Test the step and read what Drift sent back.

  5. 05

    Publish

    Click Publish. From now on, Drift tells Zapier the moment a visitor reaches that goal at that stage, and the event lands on the contact straight after.

Triggers

The eight Drift triggers

8 events start a Zap when something happens in Drift, and 8 of them are instant: the app calls Zapier straight away, whatever your plan.

1

Conversation Manual Push

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a conversation is ready for consumption by third-party systems. This can occur in the following situations: - A conversation has not been active for a specified period of time (customizable by each organization) - A conversation had its status changed to 'closed' - A conversation was manually push to third-parties by a user.”

Hands a conversation to your Zap once Drift considers it ready for outside tools: after a period of inactivity your organization sets, when it is closed, or when someone on your team pushes it by hand.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
your support lead wants the chat transcripts that reps choose to share copied into a Notion page.
Watch out
Zapier gives this trigger and Conversation Pushed the same description, so test both on a real chat.
2

Conversation Pushed

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a conversation is ready for consumption by third-party systems. This can occur in the following situations: - A conversation has not been active for a specified period of time (customizable by each organization) - A conversation had its status changed to 'closed' - A conversation was manually push to third-parties by a user.”

Sends a finished conversation to the Zap under the same three conditions Drift uses for outside systems: inactivity past your organization's setting, a closed status, or a manual push by a teammate.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
every closed sales chat should leave a note on the matching deal in your CRM, so account executives see what was said.
Watch out
the inactivity delay is set by each organization in Drift, not in Zapier, so ask whoever runs your Drift account.
3

New Lead

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when an email address is collected from a lead.”

Fires when Drift collects an email address from a visitor, which is usually the moment an anonymous chat becomes a real prospect. It is the trigger Drift itself recommends for new contacts.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
a SaaS company wants every lead from the pricing page chat created in HubSpot before the rep's first reply.
Watch out
visitors who never share an email never reach this trigger, however long they chat.
4

New Conversation

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a conversation is started.”

Starts the Zap the moment a conversation opens, before anyone has answered. The Zap knows a chat has begun, which is enough to alert a team or open a record.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
a small sales team without anyone watching Drift full-time posts every new chat in a Slack channel so the nearest person can jump in.
Watch out
on a busy site this fires a lot, and every action it feeds counts as a task.
5

New Message

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers each time a new message in a conversation is received.”

Reacts to each message received inside a conversation, not just the first one. This is the most granular Drift trigger, and also the one that produces the most runs.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
a customer success team logs every message from key accounts into a shared spreadsheet to review them together in the account meeting.
Watch out
a lively chat can mean dozens of runs, so put a filter right after it to keep only what matters.
6

New Contact

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new contact is created through drift.identify. Unless specified by the Drift team, use the "new lead" trigger.”

Catches a contact created through drift.identify, a different path from the email capture that feeds New Lead. It suits teams whose own product identifies users to Drift.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
your product identifies signed-in users to Drift, and you want each new one added to an onboarding list.
Watch out
Drift's own advice is to use New Lead instead, unless their team told you otherwise.
7

User Reached Goal

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a User has hit a goal within a playbook.”

Goes off when a visitor hits a goal you set inside a Drift playbook. The playbook does the talking; the Zap takes over afterward.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
a playbook asks visitors about team size, and every visitor who completes it gets tagged in your CRM for follow-up.
Watch out
goals live in playbooks, so a visitor who never enters one never fires it.
8

User Reached Goal With Lead Stage

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a User reaches a Goal with a specific Lead Stage.”

Narrows the previous trigger to goals reached by people at one specific lead stage. You choose the stage, and only visitors at that level of qualification start the Zap.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
only visitors who reach the sales-ready stage should trigger an urgent Slack ping to the account executive on duty.
Watch out
Lead Stage is required, so the stages must already be set up in your Drift account before you build this Zap.
Actions

The three Drift actions

Drift gives you 3 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Create or Update Contact From External

Action

In Zapier“Creates or updates a contact.”

Writes a contact into Drift from another system, creating it or updating it, with the External Id that ties it to the record in that other system.

When to use it
new trial users from your app should exist in Drift before they ever open the chat.
Watch out
External Id is required, so pick an ID that never changes.
2

Log Event for Contact

Action

In Zapier“Logs an event for a contact.”

Records a named event on a contact, such as demo booked or invoice paid, so what happened elsewhere shows up in Drift.

When to use it
a demo booked in Calendly is logged on the contact, so the sales rep sees it in Drift.
Watch out
both External Id and Event Name are required, and the ID must match the one your contacts carry.
3

Update Known Contact

Action

In Zapier“Updates an existing contact.”

Changes a contact Drift already knows, found through the End User Id that Drift itself assigned.

When to use it
a deal marked won in your CRM updates the contact so Drift holds the customer's up-to-date details.
Watch out
End User Id is required and must come from Drift, so an earlier step has to carry it.
Searches

The two Drift searches

2 search steps look for data that already exists in Drift, so a later step can use it.

A search step finds a user who already exists in Drift and passes their details to the next steps. In the editor, Drift's searches sit at the bottom of the Action event list, under SEARCH. Three settings decide what happens when the search does not find exactly one result.

1

Find User by Anonymous Id

Search

In Zapier“Lookup data for an existing user by their anonymous id.”

Looks up a Drift user from the anonymous ID Drift gives a visitor before they identify themselves.

When to use it
your site stores that ID with a form submission, and the Zap needs the visitor's Drift profile to enrich the lead.
Watch out
the User Id field is required, and an email address will not work there.
2

Find User by End User Id

Search

In Zapier“Lookup User information by their end user id.”

Retrieves a user's details from the End User Id Drift assigns once a contact is known.

When to use it
just before Update Known Contact, to check what Drift holds on the contact before changing it.
Watch out
End User Id is required, so the value has to come from an earlier Drift step.

The three settings every search exposes

  1. Successful if no search results are found?
    Left on its default, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap and the steps that depend on it are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on without the data.
  2. Create X if it doesn't exist yet?
    Ticking it turns a search into a find-or-create. Neither Drift search offers this variant, so a missing user is never created by the search itself.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    When several users match, the Zap keeps the first one by default; it can also stop, or pass every match on at once.
When it breaks

When a Drift Zap breaks

Zapier ties no help article to Drift, so these are the traps every Zap shares, seen through a chat tool.

When a Drift Zap goes quiet or spends too many tasks, one of these four causes is usually behind it.

  • Past leads do not come through

    A Zap only reacts to chats and leads that happen after you publish it. Contacts already in Drift stay where they are; moving them is a separate job.

  • A contact update that loops

    If a Zap started by a Drift event writes back to the same contacts and that write fires another trigger, each run restarts the Zap and drains tasks fast.

  • A campaign floods the triggers

    A big campaign that sends crowds to your chat can produce a huge batch of events at once. Zapier's flood protection may then hold the batch back.

  • The wrong ID in the right field

    Anonymous Id, End User Id and External Id are three different things. Mapping one into the field that expects another makes the step fail.
Need help

Need help automating Drift with Zapier?

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FAQ

Drift Zapier integration: what people ask

01Is the Drift Zapier integration free?
Yes, on Zapier's free plan, because Drift is not a premium app. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps, one trigger and one action. That covers a new chat lead created in your CRM, or a new conversation posted to Slack. As soon as you add a filter, a search or a second action, the Zap becomes multi-step and needs a paid plan. No prices appear here because Zapier changes its grids too often to quote.
02How many tasks does a Drift Zap use?
One task for each action that succeeds, and none for the trigger. A Zap that creates a CRM contact for each new lead uses one task per lead. If it also posts the lead in Slack, that becomes two per lead, because every successful action counts on its own. Watch the high-volume triggers: New Message fires for every message in every chat, so pair it with a filter. Failed actions are not billed against your plan.
03Do Drift triggers work in real time?
Yes. All eight Drift triggers are instant: Drift notifies Zapier as soon as the event happens, and the Zap starts right away. That stays true on every plan, including the free one, because the plan interval only applies to polling triggers. In the Zap editor, a lightning bolt next to the trigger confirms it. The type is set by the app, so there is nothing to configure to make it faster.
04What does it take to connect Drift to Zapier?
A Drift account that can see the conversations and contacts your Zaps will touch. From the Apps page in Zapier, click + Add connection, search for Drift, sign in on the tab that opens and grant access. Before building actions, decide which ID from your CRM or product will act as the External Id, since two of the three actions require it. Once saved, the connection is reused by every Drift step of every Zap.
05Why does Find User by Anonymous Id find nothing?
First check that the value passed is a Drift anonymous ID. This search only accepts the identifier Drift gives a visitor before they are known, so an email, a CRM ID or an End User Id will return nothing. If the search finds nothing and the setting for empty results is left on its default, the Zap stops there. Map the right ID, or switch on the setting so the Zap continues without the data.
06What if the Drift operation you need does not exist?
Then the integration does not offer it today. It has eight triggers, three actions and two searches, and none of them sends a chat message, assigns or closes a conversation, or looks up a user by email. Check first whether a nearby operation covers the need, for example Log Event for Contact to record on a contact what happened elsewhere. If not, compare what other automation tools offer for Drift before you build around the gap.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Drift?
Choose by criteria rather than by ranking. On Zapier, Drift brings eight instant triggers that start Zaps straight away even on the free plan, three contact actions and two searches by Drift ID. If you need operations Zapier lacks, such as acting on conversations or finding a user by email, compare what each tool lists for Drift before deciding. Also weigh the tool your team already runs and who will maintain the setup.
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