Octopush SMS Zapier integrationAutomate Octopush SMS with Zapier.
The Octopush SMS Zapier integration lets your other tools send text messages and react to the ones you receive. It counts 1 trigger, 3 actions and 0 searches: catch an inbound SMS, add numbers to a list, send an alert or a regular SMS.
Verified Trustpilot reviews · AI, automation & growth agency
What the Octopush SMS Zapier integration does
Octopush SMS is a service that sends text messages automatically, to more than 200 countries. Zapier, a tool that connects apps without code, lets your CRM, your shop or your forms trigger those messages, and lets the replies you receive flow back into the tools where your team works.
Three results come up often. An appointment confirmation: a booking lands in your calendar tool and Send a New SMS texts the client with the time and place. A reply log: New Inbound SMS picks up each message clients send back, and a spreadsheet step keeps them in one place. A growing contact list: every new sign-up from a form goes into an Octopush list with Add Contact, ready for the next send. For urgent, transactional notices there is also Send an Alert Premium SMS, which forbids marketing content.
What Zapier does not do here: there is no search, so a Zap cannot check whether a number already sits in a list or look up a past message. There is no action to remove a contact or create a list either. And the inbound trigger works by polling, so replies do not arrive the very second they are sent.
Each SMS has its own cost on the Octopush side, which depends on the length of the text. That bill is separate from Zapier's.
For a broader look at automation tools, see n8n vs Zapier, or the Zapier agency page if you want help building it.
Zapier words you need first
Seven terms used below, one line each, without jargon.
- Zap
- The automation you build: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event that starts the Zap. With Octopush SMS, that event is a new text message arriving on your account.
- Action
- What the Zap does once started: here, sending an SMS or adding phone numbers to an Octopush list.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action that completes successfully. Your plan's allowance is a count of those.
- Polling trigger
- A trigger Zapier checks on a timer, asking the app for new items. New Inbound SMS works this way.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap go on only when what arrived meets the condition you set, and stops it otherwise.
- Connection
- Your Octopush account linked to Zapier once, then reused by every step that sends or reads messages.
What an Octopush SMS Zap really costs
Two bills sit side by side: Zapier counts tasks, Octopush charges for each SMS according to the length of the text. Octopush SMS is not a premium app on Zapier, so it works on the free plan.
- Premium app on ZapierNo, works on the free plan
- Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps
- New Inbound SMSPolling, interval set by your plan
- SMS costBilled by Octopush, depends on text length
On the Zapier side, the trigger never costs a task, and checking for new messages is free however often it happens. Each action that succeeds, an SMS sent or a contact added, counts as one task; a failed one does not. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only, and checks the inbound trigger every 15 minutes. A filter or a second action needs a paid plan, which also shortens the check interval.
Connect Octopush SMS to Zapier in three steps
- 01
Go to the Apps page
In your Zapier account, open Apps and click + Add connection. In the dialog that pops up, search for Octopush SMS by name and pick it from the results.
- 02
Sign in to Octopush
Click Add connection. A new tab opens: sign in to Octopush with the account that holds your lists and your SMS credit, or one that is allowed to use them.
- 03
Grant access
Allow Zapier to use the account. The connection is saved on your Apps page, and every Zap step that sends or reads messages through Octopush can reuse it.
Your first Octopush SMS Zap
GoalKeep everyone who texts your number in an Octopush list, and log each message.
- 01
Pick the trigger
Create a Zap, choose Octopush SMS as the starting app and New Inbound SMS as the event, then select the Octopush connection you saved earlier.
- 02
Test on a real message
Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent inbound messages from the account, so the next steps are mapped on a real text, not a guess.
- 03
Add the sender to a list
Add an action, choose Octopush SMS, then Add Contact. Type the exact list name and map the sender's number. Test once and check the list in Octopush.
- 04
Log the message
Add a spreadsheet row with the number and the text of the message. This second action makes the Zap multi-step, so it needs a paid plan; skip it on Free.
- 05
Publish
Click Publish. From then on, each inbound SMS is picked up at the next check of your plan, and each successful step counts as one task.
The Octopush SMS trigger
1 event starts a Zap when something happens in Octopush SMS. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.
New Inbound SMS
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a new inbound SMS arrives on your account.”
Starts your Zap when a text message arrives on your Octopush account. The sender's number and the message become data the next steps can store, forward to a colleague or attach to a customer record.
The 3 Octopush SMS actions
Octopush SMS gives you 3 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.
Add Contact
ActionIn Zapier“Adds a contact to a list on Octopush Gateway”
Puts one mobile number, or several separated by commas, into an existing Octopush list, ready for your next campaign.
Send an Alert Premium SMS
ActionIn Zapier“Sends a Premium Alert SMS message. Marketing is forbidden.”
Fires off a transactional alert to a single recipient, with your chosen sender id at the top of the message.
Send a New SMS
ActionIn Zapier“Send an SMS (chose the type, the kind and the sender)”
Sends a text where you choose the type, the kind and the sender, to one number or to several separated by commas.
When an Octopush SMS Zap breaks
Zapier attaches no help article to Octopush SMS, and no rate limit is documented for the app. The failures below come from the fields of its actions and from how Zaps work.
Six cases cover most surprises. For a full method, the Zapier troubleshooting guide goes step by step.
The list name does not match
Add Contact returns an error when the list name typed in Zapier does not match an existing Octopush list. Copy the name exactly, spaces included.The number lacks its country code
Both send actions expect the recipient with the international dialling code in front. A number mapped from a form without it is the first thing to check when a send fails.The sender id is too long
The sender id of Send a New SMS takes 11 characters at most. A company name longer than that has to be shortened before the step can run.A marketing text sent as an alert
Send an Alert Premium SMS forbids marketing content. For any other text, use Send a New SMS, where you choose the type of message yourself.A sudden flood gets held back
If a campaign brings in a huge batch of replies at once, Zapier's flood protection can hold the trigger back instead of firing the Zap for each message.Older replies never show up
A Zap only reacts to messages received after you switch it on. Texts already in the account are not picked up; exporting them is a separate job.
Need help automating Octopush SMS with Zapier?
A person reads every message.
