Metals-API Zapier integrationAutomate Metals-API with Zapier.
0 triggers, 0 actions, 6 searches. The Metals-API Zapier integration does not start Zaps: it answers them. Each of its six searches fetches a metal rate, a conversion or a price series that the next step can write anywhere.
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What the Metals-API Zapier integration is for
Metals-API is a data service for metal prices: latest rates, history, time series and open, high, low and close figures. On Zapier it works as a lookup. A Zap (the automation you build on Zapier) starts in another app, asks Metals-API for a figure, then passes it on.
Three outcomes show the range. A price log: each new row with a date in your spreadsheet calls Get Historical Metals Rates, and the rate for that day goes back into the row. A converted amount: Get Convert Rates turns a quantity from one currency or commodity code into another, ready to paste into a message or a record. A trend snapshot: Get Timeseries Rates or Get Metals Fluctuation Rates return how a symbol moved between two dates.
Now the limits, and the first one matters most. Metals-API has no trigger and no action on Zapier, only searches. A Zap therefore always starts in another app, and every Zap that uses Metals-API carries a search, which makes it multi-step: you need a paid plan. Zapier also cannot write anything into Metals-API; it only reads, in a step placed after another app's trigger.
To judge Zapier on its own merits first, open our Zapier review. If you are still comparing tools, see our n8n vs Zapier guide.
The Zapier words you will meet on this page
Eight terms, in plain English. They come back below without a reminder.
- Zap
- The automation itself: 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. Metals-API has none, so the trigger always comes from another app.
- Action
- What the Zap does once started: the step that writes, sends or moves something for you, such as filling a cell.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. Your plan is a count of those.
- Polling vs instant
- A polling trigger is checked on a timer; an instant one is reported by its app the moment it happens. It depends on the trigger app.
- 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 and hands it to the next steps. Every Metals-API operation is one.
- Multi-step Zap
- Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A search, a filter or a second action makes it one, and it then needs a paid plan.
What it really costs
The trigger never costs a task, and each action that succeeds counts once. The catch with Metals-API is the plan, not the count.
- TriggerNever counted
- Each successful action1 task
- Free planNot enough: every Metals-API Zap is multi-step
- Premium appNo
Because every Metals-API operation is a search, any Zap that uses it is multi-step, and multi-step Zaps need a paid plan. The free plan (100 tasks a month, unlimited two-step Zaps) cannot host it. Metals-API is not a premium app: what calls for the paid plan is the search, not the app. A failed action is not counted. The interval grid below applies to polling triggers only, so here it depends on the app whose trigger starts your Zap.
Connect Metals-API to Zapier in three steps
- 01
Open the Apps page
In your Zapier account, go to Apps and click + Add connection. You need a Metals-API account, plus read or write access on anything you do not own yourself and want the Zap to touch.
- 02
Pick Metals-API
Search for Metals-API in the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. A new tab opens where you sign in on the Metals-API side to finish the link.
- 03
Sign in and grant access
Log in to Metals-API in that tab and let Zapier use the account. Every Zap that calls a Metals-API search then reuses this one connection, so you sign in once.
Your first Zap: convert each new amount in your sheet
GoalWhen a row with an amount lands in your spreadsheet, Metals-API converts it and the result is written back to the same row.
- 01
Set the trigger
Create a Zap and pick your spreadsheet app with its new-row event. Connect the account and choose the sheet that holds the amounts and their codes.
- 02
Test the trigger
Run the test: Zapier brings back the three most recent items of the connected account. Pick a real row so the next steps map onto actual values.
- 03
Add Get Convert Rates
Add Metals-API with Get Convert Rates. Map From, To and Amount, all three required, from the columns of your row. Test it and read the figure that comes back.
- 04
Write the result
Add your spreadsheet's update action, point it at the same row and map the converted value into its column. Test this step before going further.
- 05
Publish
Click Publish to switch the Zap on. With a search inside, it is a multi-step Zap and needs a paid plan. Rows added before publishing are not processed.
The six Metals-API searches
6 search steps look for data that already exists in Metals-API, so a later step can use it.
The searches sit at the bottom of the action-event list, under SEARCH. Three settings decide what happens when the answer is empty or plural; whether a search wants the exact value or something close is up to Metals-API.
Get Convert Rates
SearchIn Zapier“Retrieve metals commodity exchange rates.”
Converts an amount from one currency or commodity code into another and returns the converted figure.
Get Metals Fluctuation Rates
SearchIn Zapier“Get metals price fluctuations between two dates”
Measures how a metal price moved between a start date and an end date, so you see the change rather than two raw figures.
Get Historical Metals Rates
SearchIn Zapier“Retrieve historical metals exchange rates.”
Returns the rates for a given past date, for the symbols you list.
Get Latest Metals Rates
SearchIn Zapier“Retrieve latest metals exchange rates.”
Fetches the current rates for the symbols you name, the simplest call of the set.
Get OHLC Rates
SearchIn Zapier“Retrieve open, high, low, and close (OHLC) metals prices for a specific date.”
Brings back the open, high, low and close prices of one symbol for a single date, past or current.
Get Timeseries Rates
SearchIn Zapier“Returns time-series metals price data between two dates for the selected symbols.”
Returns the price series of a symbol day by day between two dates, rather than a single value.
The three settings every search exposes
- Successful if no search results are found?Left on its default, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap there and the dependent steps are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on empty-handed.
- Create X if it doesn't exist yet?This box turns a search into a find-or-create. None of the Metals-API searches offers that variant: there is nothing to create on this side.
- If multiple search results are found?Three ways out: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or hand every result on at once.
When it breaks
Zapier lists no error specific to Metals-API. What goes wrong comes from the field limits above and from how Zapier works.
Here are the general limits to know. For anything else, see our Zapier troubleshooting guide.
The search finds nothing and the Zap stops
By default, a search with no result stops the Zap and skips the steps that depended on it. Switch on the setting if the Zap should carry on.Too many symbols or too long a period
The number of symbols per request and the date span depend on your Metals-API plan. Fluctuation, OHLC and time series take one symbol each.Older rows are never processed
A Zap only reacts to what happens after it is switched on. Rows or records that existed before are not picked up; that backlog is a separate job.A sudden wave gets held back
When the trigger app suddenly returns a huge batch, after a bulk import for example, Zapier's flood protection can hold those runs back.
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