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OmniFocus Zapier integrationAutomate OmniFocus with Zapier.

The OmniFocus Zapier integration gives you 0 triggers, 1 action and 0 searches: Create Task, which drops a new task into your OmniFocus Inbox. Every automation therefore starts in another app, and OmniFocus is only ever on the receiving end.

See the 1 operations

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Overview

What the OmniFocus Zapier integration actually does

It is a one-way link into OmniFocus, the task manager for Mac, iPad and iPhone. Zapier, the automation service, watches another app you already use, and each time the event you picked shows up there, it writes a new task into your OmniFocus Inbox. Nothing flows back: Zapier cannot read, update or tick off a task once it exists.

Three things people get out of it, all built on the single Create Task action.

An inbox fed by your email. A message you star becomes a task titled with its subject, so the follow-up waits in OmniFocus instead of in a pile of unread threads.

Form replies turned into to-dos. A contact request or a survey answer lands as a task to process, with the person's name in the title, through the same Create Task step.

Meeting decisions captured once. A new row in the shared sheet where your team logs decisions becomes a Create Task run, and the decision sits in your own list.

What Zapier does not do here: nothing can start from OmniFocus, no existing task can be looked up, and every task lands in the Inbox. Filing it into the right project stays a job you do in OmniFocus (which is honestly where you would want to do it anyway).

If you are weighing other tools for the same job, the comparisons live at Make vs Zapier and n8n vs Zapier.

Vocabulary

The Zapier words you need, in plain English

Eight words cover everything on this page. Each one is used afterwards exactly as defined here.

Zap
The automation you build in Zapier: one trigger that starts it, then one or more actions that run every time that event happens.
Trigger
The event in an app that starts the Zap. OmniFocus offers none on Zapier, so the trigger always comes from another app you connect.
Action
What the Zap does once it has started. Here the only one on offer is Create Task, which writes a task into OmniFocus for you.
Task
The unit Zapier bills: one action completed successfully. The monthly allowance on your plan is a count of those, nothing else.
Polling vs instant
Polling: Zapier checks the source app on a timer for new items. Instant: the app tells Zapier itself when the event happens, no waiting.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap carry on only when what arrived meets your condition, and stops it otherwise. It needs a paid plan.
Connection
Your account of an app, linked to Zapier once and then reused by every step that uses that app, in every Zap you build.
Multi-step Zap
Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A second action, a filter or a search makes it one, and it then requires a paid plan.
Cost

What sending tasks to OmniFocus really costs

The trigger never costs anything, and neither does Zapier checking the source app for new items. What gets counted is each Create Task that goes through: one task created in OmniFocus, one task off your plan.

  • Billed per run1 task for each Create Task that succeeds
  • Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only
  • Reserved for paid plansNo, OmniFocus works on Free
  • Integration version readOmniFocusCLIAPI@1.0.1, October 2026

A run where the OmniFocus step fails is not counted. OmniFocus is not reserved for paid plans, so it works on Free: 100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps, and a check every 15 minutes on polling triggers. The catch is that Free stops at two steps, one trigger and one action. Add a filter and the Zap becomes multi-step, which needs a paid plan. On a paid plan, a polling trigger also checks more often, as the grid below shows.

Connect

Connect OmniFocus to Zapier in three steps

  1. 01

    Open the connection dialog

    In your Zapier account, go to the Apps page and click + Add connection. You need an OmniFocus account beforehand: Zapier links to an existing one, it does not create it for you.

  2. 02

    Find OmniFocus and confirm

    Type OmniFocus in the search box of the dialog, pick it from the results, then click Add connection. A new tab opens on the OmniFocus side so you can sign in there.

  3. 03

    Sign in and grant access

    Log in to your OmniFocus account in that tab and grant Zapier access to it. The connection then sits on your Apps page, and every Zap that writes to OmniFocus reuses it without asking again.

First Zap

Your first Zap: starred emails into the OmniFocus Inbox

GoalEvery email you star in Gmail becomes an OmniFocus task, but only when it comes from a client.

  1. 01

    Pick the app that starts it

    Start building the Zap with Gmail as the starting app and the starred-email event. OmniFocus cannot fill this slot, since it offers no trigger on Zapier.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test on the trigger step. Zapier brings back the three most recent items from the connected account, so you map the next steps on a real email rather than a guess.

  3. 03

    Add the filter

    Add a filter step and set the condition on the sender, with a text rule since an address is text. This makes it a multi-step Zap, so it needs a paid plan.

  4. 04

    Add Create Task

    Choose OmniFocus as the action app, pick Create Task, and map the email subject into Title. Title is the one field the action requires, so it cannot stay empty.

  5. 05

    Test, then publish

    Test the OmniFocus step and check the new task in your Inbox. If it looks right, click Publish to switch the Zap on. Only emails starred after that point get picked up.

Actions

The OmniFocus action on Zapier

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

1

Create Task

Action

In Zapier“Creates a new task in your OmniFocus Inbox.”

Puts a fresh to-do straight into your OmniFocus Inbox, named with whatever you map into Title, the one field it requires. You then file it from OmniFocus as usual.

When to use it
any time something lands in another tool and you want a to-do waiting for you on your Mac or iPhone.
Watch out
it is the only OmniFocus operation, so the task cannot be edited, completed or found again from Zapier.
When it breaks

When the OmniFocus Zap breaks

Zapier attaches no help article and no rate limit to OmniFocus, so the cases below are the ones every Zap shares. For deeper diagnosis there is Zapier troubleshooting.

None of them is about OmniFocus itself. They come from the app that starts the Zap, and from the way Zapier reads it.

  • Nothing from before the Zap

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Emails starred last week stay where they are; bringing that backlog into OmniFocus is a separate job.

  • Bulk imports can be held back

    If the starting app suddenly returns a huge batch, after an import or a migration, Zapier's flood protection can hold it back instead of creating a wall of tasks.

  • No duplicates from polling

    On a polling trigger, Zapier remembers what it has already seen, so the same item does not start the Zap twice and you do not get the same task twice.

  • Everything lands in the Inbox

    Create Task writes to the OmniFocus Inbox. If several Zaps feed it, they all end up in that one place, and sorting them into projects stays manual on your side.
Need help

Need help automating OmniFocus with Zapier?

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FAQ

OmniFocus and Zapier: the questions people ask

01Is the OmniFocus Zapier integration free?
Yes, on the Free plan. OmniFocus is not one of the apps Zapier reserves for paid plans, so a two-step Zap, one trigger in another app followed by Create Task, runs without paying. The Free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps. The limit shows up the moment you want more than those two steps: a filter, a second action or a search makes the Zap multi-step, and multi-step Zaps need a paid plan. No price is quoted here, because Zapier changes its grids too often for a number to stay true.
02How many tasks does sending items to OmniFocus use?
One per task created. Each time Create Task succeeds, Zapier counts one task against your plan. The trigger in the other app costs nothing, and neither do the checks Zapier makes to look for new items, however often they happen. If the OmniFocus step fails, that run is not counted. Add a second action to the same Zap, a message to a colleague for instance, and each successful action counts separately, so that Zap uses two tasks per run.
03Does OmniFocus sync with Zapier in real time?
Not on its own. OmniFocus has no trigger on Zapier, so the Zap starts in another app, and the delay depends on that app's trigger. If it is an instant trigger, the app reports the event to Zapier itself and the plan interval does not apply. If it is a polling trigger, Zapier checks on a timer: every 15 minutes on Free, every 2 on Professional, every 1 on Team and Enterprise. The editor marks a Zap built on an instant trigger with a lightning bolt, which makes it easy to check.
04What does connecting OmniFocus to Zapier require?
An OmniFocus account and a Zapier account. From the Apps page in Zapier, click + Add connection, search for OmniFocus, then confirm with Add connection. A tab opens where you sign in to OmniFocus and grant Zapier access. Once that is done, the connection is saved and every Zap that writes to OmniFocus reuses it, so it is a one-time setup per account. If the Zap has to touch anything you do not own yourself, you also need read or write access to it.
05Where do tasks created by Zapier end up in OmniFocus?
In the Inbox. Create Task writes there, so the integration works as a capture tool rather than a planning one, and filing tasks into the right project stays your job inside OmniFocus. The other thing to know is that Title is the only required field. Map something meaningful into it, like an email subject or a client name, otherwise the Inbox fills with tasks you cannot tell apart at a glance.
06What if the OmniFocus operation you need is not there?
Then Zapier cannot do it today. On Zapier, OmniFocus offers one action, Create Task, with no trigger and no search. Starting a Zap when a task is completed, updating a task or looking one up are all out of reach. Check the OmniFocus app page on Zapier before you build, since the list of operations can change. If the job really depends on those moves, compare what other automation tools offer for OmniFocus before committing to a setup.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for OmniFocus?
It depends on what you expect from OmniFocus, not on a ranking. On Zapier, the deciding facts are a single action, Create Task, that runs on the Free plan in a two-step Zap, with 100 tasks a month before paying anything. If capturing to-dos into the Inbox is the whole job, that covers it. If you need to read, update or react to OmniFocus tasks, check whether another tool offers those operations for OmniFocus, and weigh what each one bills for.
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