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Moderation API Zapier integrationAutomate Moderation API with Zapier.

Moderation API Zapier integration: 0 triggers, 1 action and 2 searches. Moderation API cannot start a Zap on its own: another app sends it text, and it hands back the verdict, the data it spotted or a cleaned copy. Here is what each step does, costs and breaks.

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Overview

What the Moderation API Zapier integration does for you

The Moderation API Zapier integration sends text from your other apps to Moderation API, the service that spots personal information such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers, even when someone disguises them. It has no trigger: a Zap always starts in another app, then hands the text over.

A verdict on every message. Get Moderation Object returns the full result of the check for a piece of text, ready to store or to test in a filter. A clean copy to publish. Get Moderated Text gives the text back with the flagged parts handled, so the next step works on the cleaned version. A list of what was found. Extract All Data pulls out every data type you enabled in your project filter, so you can log it elsewhere.

What Zapier does not do here: nothing in Moderation API can start a Zap, and the moderation rules themselves are not set from Zapier but in the project settings on the Moderation API side. The two searches each make a Zap multi-step, so they need a paid plan; only the action fits the free plan as a two-step Zap. Only text that arrives after the Zap is switched on gets checked. To weigh the tool itself, see our Zapier review, and to compare it with another option, open our Make vs Zapier comparison.

Vocabulary

Zapier words, in plain English

Eight terms come back all through this page. Here they are, one line each, before you open the editor.

Zap
The automation you build in Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event in an app that starts the Zap. Moderation API has none, so the trigger always sits in another app, like your form tool.
Action
What the Zap does once it has started: the step that writes, sends or moves something for you, like checking a text.
Task
The unit Zapier bills. One task is one action your Zap completes successfully, and your plan counts those.
Polling vs instant
Polling: Zapier checks an app for new items on a timer. Instant: the app reports the event itself. It depends on your starting app.
Search step
A step that looks up something and hands what it found to the next steps. Both Extract All Data and Get Moderated Text are searches.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap go on only when what arrived meets a condition you set, and stops it there otherwise.
Multi-step Zap
Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A second action, a filter or a search makes one, and it then needs a paid plan.
Cost

What a Moderation API Zap really costs

Zapier bills tasks, and a task is an action that worked. The trigger of the app that starts your Zap never costs one, however often Zapier checks it.

  • Trigger0 tasks
  • Successful actionCounted as a task
  • Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps
  • SearchesMake the Zap multi-step

Each Get Moderation Object that goes through counts against your plan, while a failed one does not. A three-action Zap eats three times what a one-action Zap does, and a few actions take more than one task. Moderation API works on the free plan: 100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps, two steps each. A search, a filter or a second action makes the Zap multi-step, which needs a paid plan. The grid below only matters if the trigger of your starting app is a polling one.

Connect

Connect Moderation API to Zapier in three steps

  1. 01

    Open Apps and add a connection

    In your Zapier account, open the Apps page and click + Add connection. In the dialog that opens, type Moderation API in the search box and pick it from the list.

  2. 02

    Sign in to Moderation API

    Click Add connection. A new tab opens on Moderation API: sign in with the account that holds the project whose moderation filter you want your Zaps to apply.

  3. 03

    Grant Zapier access

    Approve the access Zapier asks for. You need an account on Moderation API, plus read or write access on anything you do not own yourself and want the Zap to touch. Every step then reuses this connection.

First Zap

Your first Moderation API Zap, step by step

GoalClean every new form answer of personal details, then store the cleaned text as a row in your spreadsheet.

  1. 01

    Build the trigger

    Create a Zap and pick your form tool as the app that starts it, with its new-submission event. Run the test: Zapier brings back the three most recent items, so you work on a real answer.

  2. 02

    Add Get Moderated Text

    Add Moderation API and pick Get Moderated Text, listed among the searches. Map the answer field into Text, which is required. As a search, this step makes the Zap multi-step, so it needs a paid plan.

  3. 03

    Decide on clean answers

    Choose what happens when nothing was moderated: get the unchanged text back and carry on, or return not found. Test the step and read what came back.

  4. 04

    Write the row

    Add your spreadsheet and its add-row action, then map the moderated text into the right column. Test this step too before going further.

  5. 05

    Publish

    Click Publish to switch the Zap on. Answers that arrive from then on are cleaned; the ones already in your form tool stay as they are.

Actions

The Moderation API action

Moderation API gives you 1 action. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Get Moderation Object

Action

In Zapier“Get the entire moderation object. Make sure to adjust your moderation filter in the project settings on moderationapi.com”

Sends a piece of text to Moderation API and brings back the whole moderation result, so the next steps can read every detail of the check.

When to use it
when you want the full verdict on a message stored somewhere or tested in a filter before anything else happens.
Watch out
Text is required, and clean plain text gives the best result, so map a field that carries readable text with no spelling slips.
Searches

The 2 Moderation API searches

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

Both steps sit at the bottom of the action-event list, under the SEARCH heading. Each one makes the Zap multi-step, so they need a paid plan. Three settings decide what a search does when the result is not a clean single match.

1

Extract All Data

Search

In Zapier“Find all data entities you've enabled in your project filter.”

Reads a piece of text and returns every type of data you switched on in your project filter, like the addresses or numbers it spotted.

When to use it
when you need a record of what personal data people send, rather than a cleaned copy of their text.
Watch out
it only finds what your project filter enables, so a type turned off there will never show up here.
2

Get Moderated Text

Search

In Zapier“Get back the moderated text. Make sure to adjust your moderation filter in the project settings on moderationapi.com”

Hands back your text after moderation, so the next app receives the cleaned version instead of the original.

When to use it
when a message has to be posted, stored or forwarded without the personal details it carried.
Watch out
Return Not Found If Nothing Was Moderated set to true returns not found on clean text; set to false, you get the text back unchanged and the Zap continues.

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 there and the steps that depended on it are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on empty-handed.
  2. Create X if it doesn't exist yet?
    Ticking it turns a search into a find-or-create and asks for the fields needed to create the item. Moderation API lists no find-or-create entry.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    Three ways out when several items match: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or hand all of them on at once.
When it breaks

When a Moderation API Zap breaks

Zapier attaches no help article to Moderation API, so the cases below are the general limits that apply to any Zap that uses it.

Three limits are worth knowing before you publish. If a Zap stops behaving, see our Zapier troubleshooting guide.

  • No catch-up on old text

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Messages or answers that already existed are never sent for moderation; that backlog is a separate job.

  • A Zap that sets itself off

    A Zap that writes the cleaned text back into the very place its own trigger watches can set itself off again and again, and burn through your tasks fast.

  • A sudden flood held back

    If the trigger of your starting app suddenly returns a huge batch, after a bulk import or a migration, Zapier's flood protection can hold it back.
Need help

Need help automating Moderation API with Zapier?

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FAQ

Moderation API and Zapier: the questions people ask

01Is the Moderation API Zapier integration free?
Partly. Moderation API is not reserved for paid plans, so it works on Zapier's free plan, which gives you 100 tasks a month and an unlimited number of Zaps of two steps each: one trigger and one action. A Zap that sends each new form answer to Get Moderation Object fits that frame. The two other steps, Extract All Data and Get Moderated Text, are searches, and a search makes the Zap multi-step, which needs a paid plan. The same goes for a filter or a second action. The trigger never costs a task.
02How many tasks does a Moderation API Zap use?
One per action that succeeds, and none for the trigger of the app that starts the Zap. When Get Moderation Object goes through, that is one task; when it fails, nothing is counted. In a Zap with several actions, each successful one counts on its own, so three actions eat three times what one does. A few actions take more than one task when they complete. Watching your starting app for new items costs nothing, however often Zapier looks. On the free plan you have 100 tasks a month to spend.
03Does Moderation API work in real time?
It depends on the app that starts your Zap, because Moderation API has no trigger of its own. If that app's trigger is instant, the app tells Zapier itself and the Zap starts straight away, whatever your plan. If it is a polling trigger, Zapier checks it at a fixed interval set by your plan: every 15 minutes on Free, 2 on Professional, 1 on Team and Enterprise. The trigger type is decided by that app and cannot be switched in the editor.
04What does it take to connect Moderation API to Zapier?
An account on Moderation API, plus read or write access on anything you do not own yourself and want the Zap to touch. In Zapier, open Apps, click + Add connection, search Moderation API, then click Add connection and sign in on the tab that opens. Grant access and the connection is saved for every later step. Before testing, set the moderation filter in your project settings on moderationapi.com, because the operations follow that filter, and keep the text you send clean, since Text is required on every step.
05Why does Extract All Data miss some personal details?
Because it only looks for the data types you enabled in your project filter on Moderation API. If a type is switched off there, the search will not return it, whatever the text contains. Open your project settings on moderationapi.com, check which types are on, then run the step test again on a real message. The Text field also matters: it is required, and clean plain text without spelling mistakes gives the best result. Remember that this step is a search, so the Zap that holds it needs a paid plan.
06What if the Moderation API operation you want is not there?
Then Zapier cannot do it with Moderation API today. The integration offers no trigger, one action, Get Moderation Object, and two searches, Extract All Data and Get Moderated Text. The Moderation API page on Zapier shows the current list, so check it before you plan around a missing step. Changing your moderation rules from a Zap, for example, is not possible: those rules live in your project settings. What you can do is chain the existing steps, such as a verdict first, then a cleaned copy, on a paid plan.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Moderation API?
It depends on criteria, not on a winner. On Zapier, Moderation API offers 1 action and 2 searches, with only the action usable on the free plan; a search means a paid plan. Since it has no trigger, the speed of your Zap depends on the trigger type of the app that starts it. If your flow chains a check, a filter and a write, count the multi-step requirement and the tasks per run. With Make and n8n, check first whether they offer Moderation API, then how they count runs and how much setup you want to manage.
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