Looping by Zapier Zapier integrationAutomate Looping by Zapier with Zapier.
Looping by Zapier Zapier integration: 0 triggers, 3 actions, 0 searches. Looping is a helper built by Zapier. It takes a set of values, line items, numbers or text, and runs the steps that follow once per value instead of once per Zap.
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What the Looping by Zapier Zapier integration does
The Looping by Zapier Zapier integration is not a link to an outside tool. It is a helper app that sits inside a Zap and repeats the actions placed after it, a variable number of times, once for each value in a set. One trigger can then produce one result per item instead of a single lump.
Three results come out of it. One row per line item: Create Loop From Line Items takes the line items a trigger hands over and runs the next step for each of them, so a record carrying several items becomes several rows. One action per entry in a list: Create Loop From Text splits a field on the delimiter you choose, a comma for example, and treats each piece as its own value. A step repeated for each number: Create Loop From Numbers builds the loop from numbers rather than from text.
What Looping does not do matters as much. It has no trigger, so it never starts a Zap: something else has to, and Looping sits in the middle. It also turns any Zap into a multi-step one, since it is an action that only makes sense with another action after it. And it does not make the repeated steps free: each of them is an action, and each success is counted.
Zapier labels its loop actions as advanced. To weigh Zapier against the two other big names on broader criteria, read n8n vs Zapier and Make vs Zapier.
Zapier words, in plain English
Seven words come back on every line below. Here is what each one means when you build a loop.
- Zap
- The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run every time the trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event in an app that starts the Zap. Looping has none, so another app always provides the starting event.
- Action
- What the Zap does once started: the step that writes, sends or moves something. The three Looping operations are actions.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. Inside a loop, each repeated success counts on its own.
- Polling vs instant
- A polling trigger is checked on a timer for new items. An instant trigger is reported by the app the moment the event happens.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap go on only when what arrived meets the condition you set, and stops it otherwise.
- Multi-step Zap
- Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A loop followed by another action is always one, so it needs a paid plan.
What a loop really costs
Looping by Zapier is not a premium app. The catch is elsewhere: a useful loop always needs a paid plan, and it multiplies the tasks of the steps it repeats.
- Trigger0 task
- Each successful repeated action1 task per value
- Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps
- Premium appNo, but a loop needs a paid plan
The trigger costs nothing. Each action that succeeds costs one task, and a failed one is not counted. Since the loop repeats the actions after it, a list of five values running one action means five successful actions, so five tasks. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month but only builds Zaps of one trigger and one action. A trigger, a loop and the step it repeats make three steps, which is a multi-step Zap on a paid plan. The interval grid below concerns the trigger of the app that starts the Zap; Looping has no trigger of its own.
Add Looping by Zapier in three steps
- 01
Open the Apps page
In your Zapier account, open Apps and click + Add connection. Zapier's general rule applies: an account on the app, and access to anything you do not own that the Zap will touch.
- 02
Pick Looping by Zapier
Type Looping in the search box of the dialog that opens, pick Looping by Zapier from the list of results, then click Add connection if the app asks for one.
- 03
Confirm the access
If a tab opens, sign in and grant the access it asks for. In the editor, Looping is then offered like any other app when you add an action after your trigger.
Your first Zap: one spreadsheet row per line item
GoalA new record arrives with several line items, and each item becomes its own row in your spreadsheet.
- 01
Set the trigger
Build the Zap from the app where the records with line items appear, and pick its new-record event. Looping cannot start a Zap, so this comes first.
- 02
Test the trigger
Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent records of the connected account; pick one that really carries several line items.
- 03
Add Create Loop From Line Items
Add Looping by Zapier and this action. In Values to Loop, type a name for each value on the left and map the matching line-item field on the right.
- 04
Add the step to repeat
After the loop, add your spreadsheet and its add-row action. Map the loop values, not the raw trigger fields, into the columns, so each run writes one item.
- 05
Test, then publish
Test and check that you get exactly one row per item. Then click Publish. This Zap has three steps, so it runs on a paid plan.
The 3 Looping by Zapier actions
Looping by Zapier gives you 3 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.
Create Loop From Line Items
ActionIn Zapier“Creates a new Loop from line item(s). This is an advanced action!”
Turns the line items handed over by an earlier step into a loop, and runs the steps after it once per item.
Create Loop From Numbers
ActionIn Zapier“Creates a new Loop from numbers. This is an advanced action!”
Builds a loop from numbers instead of from text or line items, so the following steps run once for each number in the set.
Create Loop From Text
ActionIn Zapier“Creates a new Loop from text value(s) with a specified delimiter. This is an advanced action!”
Cuts a piece of text into separate values on the delimiter you set, a comma for instance, then repeats the next steps for each piece.
When a Looping by Zapier Zap breaks
Zapier attaches two help articles to this app, Understanding Looping by Zapier and Loop your Zap actions. The cases below come from the fields of the loop actions and from Zapier's general rules.
Four cases come back most often. When a Zap stops for another reason, the Zapier troubleshooting page goes further.
The loop runs only once
Create Loop From Text splits on the delimiter you typed. If the values are separated by something else, they stay one block and the next step runs a single time.The task count jumps
Every repeated action that succeeds is a task. A record with many values and two repeated actions burns through the monthly count far faster than a plain Zap.Old records are never looped
A Zap only reacts to what happens after you publish it. Records that already existed are not picked up and need a separate one-off job.A big batch is held back
After a bulk import in the starting app, its trigger can return a huge batch at once, and Zapier's flood protection can hold that batch back.
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