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OneSignal Zapier integrationAutomate OneSignal with Zapier.

The OneSignal Zapier integration comes with 1 trigger and 2 actions. You can send a push notification when something happens in another tool, target segments of your audience, and know each time a new notification goes out, all without touching code.

See the 3 operations

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Overview

What the OneSignal Zapier integration is for

OneSignal sends push notifications to phones and browsers. Zapier connects apps without code. Put together, any event Zapier can see in your other tools can become a push sent through OneSignal, and each notification created in OneSignal can start an automation of its own.

Three results justify setting it up. A push that goes out on its own: Send Push Notification fires a simple message to every device as soon as another app reports something worth telling your users. A message aimed at the right people: Send Advanced Push Notification picks the segments to reach and the platforms to send to, so iOS users and web subscribers can be treated apart. A trace of every send: New Notification Created spots each new notification, which lets you log it or tell the team elsewhere.

The limits are just as clear. There is no search step, so a Zap cannot look up a user or a segment before it acts. There is no action to edit or cancel a notification once sent. And the only trigger is about notifications, not about new subscribers. Before you commit, look at the OneSignal Make integration to see whether it covers what Zapier leaves out, and at our Zapier review if you are still choosing a tool.

Vocabulary

Zapier words, explained once

Eight terms come back all through this page. Here they are in plain English.

Zap
The automation you build on Zapier: a trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event that starts a Zap. With OneSignal, that is a new notification created in your account.
Action
The step the Zap carries out once it has started, such as sending a push notification through OneSignal.
Task
What Zapier bills: one action that completes successfully. Your plan sets how many of those you get each month.
Polling vs instant
Polling means Zapier checks the app on a timer. Instant means the app calls Zapier when it happens. OneSignal's trigger is polling.
Filter
A step that only lets the Zap go on when the data meets a condition you set. Anything else stops right there.
Multi-step Zap
Any Zap with more than one trigger and one action. A filter or a second action is enough, and a paid plan is then required.
Connection
Your OneSignal account linked to Zapier one time, then reused by every OneSignal step in every Zap you build.
Cost

What it costs, push by push

The bill is not per Zap. It is per action that goes through.

  • Free plan100 tasks a month
  • Free plan Zap size2 steps only
  • Premium appNo
  • Trigger typePolling

Each push that OneSignal accepts from your Zap counts as one task, and a send that fails is not counted. The trigger is free: Zapier can check for new notifications as often as your plan allows without spending anything. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps, but each Zap stops at two steps. The filter that keeps a OneSignal Zap from looping makes it multi-step, so in practice this setup needs a paid plan. OneSignal is not a premium app.

Connect

Connect OneSignal to Zapier in 3 steps

  1. 01

    Find OneSignal

    Open the Apps page of your Zapier account and click + Add connection. In the dialog that appears, search for OneSignal and select it from the results.

  2. 02

    Sign in

    Click Add connection. A tab opens on OneSignal: sign in with the OneSignal account you want the Zap to send from. Zapier only reaches what that account can reach, so anything owned by a colleague needs read or write access first.

  3. 03

    Allow access

    Grant Zapier access to the account when OneSignal asks. The connection then appears on your Apps page and every OneSignal step reuses it, so this is the only time you sign in.

First Zap

Your first Zap: relay a notification without looping

GoalWhen a new notification is created in OneSignal and it was not sent by this Zap, send a targeted version to a chosen segment.

  1. 01

    Pick the trigger

    Start a new Zap, choose OneSignal as the app and New Notification Created as the event, then select the connection you made a moment ago.

  2. 02

    Test it on real data

    Test the trigger. Zapier pulls the three most recent notifications from your account, so the next steps are set on a real message rather than a blank one.

  3. 03

    Break the loop with a filter

    Add a Filter step. In Configure & test, find a field in the test notification that sets your team's messages apart from this Zap's sends, and keep only the first kind.

  4. 04

    Send the targeted push

    Add OneSignal with Send Advanced Push Notification. Type the segment names to reach, choose the platforms, map the message from the trigger, and test.

  5. 05

    Publish

    Check every test result, then Publish. With the filter, the Zap is multi-step and needs a paid plan. Each push that goes through costs one task.

Triggers

The OneSignal trigger

1 event starts a Zap when something happens in OneSignal. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.

1

New Notification Created

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when you have one or more new notifications created.”

Kicks off your Zap when one or more new notifications appear in your OneSignal account, whoever created them. What Zapier gets about each notification is then ready for the steps that follow, to log it, share it or act on it.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
a product team that wants every campaign sent from the dashboard logged in a shared spreadsheet or announced in team chat.
Watch out
a Zap that also sends a push sets itself off again unless a filter stops it.
Actions

The OneSignal actions

OneSignal gives you 2 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Send Push Notification

Action

In Zapier“Send a simple push notification to all devices.”

Sends one plain message to all the devices subscribed to your app. You only write the content, no audience to choose, which makes it the quickest send there is.

When to use it
a small online shop that alerts every subscriber when a restock lands.
Watch out
the message goes to everyone, with no way to narrow it, so keep it for news that concerns your whole audience.
2

Send Advanced Push Notification

Action

In Zapier“Sends a new push notification to one or more devices with advanced settings.”

Goes further than the simple send: you name the segments that should receive it and choose the platforms, from iOS and Android to web browsers, one by one.

When to use it
a mobile game studio that only pings inactive players, and only on their phones.
Watch out
the segment names must match the ones in OneSignal exactly, or nobody gets the message.
When it breaks

When it breaks

Zapier lists no error specific to OneSignal. The traps come from how Zaps behave, and one of them hits this app harder than most.

These four cases cover what usually goes wrong once a OneSignal Zap is live. If one of them keeps biting, our Zapier troubleshooting page walks through the fixes.

  • The Zap sets itself off

    Trigger on New Notification Created, send a push in the same Zap, and that push is a new notification. The Zap starts again, and again, eating tasks until a filter stops it.

  • Past notifications are skipped

    A Zap only sees what happens after you publish it. Notifications sent before that never start it, and catching up on them is a separate job.

  • A big burst is held back

    When a large batch of notifications appears at once, the trigger suddenly returns a lot of items. Zapier's flood protection can hold that batch instead of running it.

  • No notification runs twice

    On a polling trigger, Zapier remembers what it has already seen. The same notification does not start the Zap a second time.
Need help

Need help automating OneSignal with Zapier?

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FAQ

OneSignal and Zapier: common questions

01Is the OneSignal Zapier integration free?
It works on the free plan, since OneSignal is not a premium app, but with a limit worth knowing. The free plan offers 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps, each capped at two steps: one trigger and one action. A Zap where another app starts things and Send Push Notification follows fits. A Zap that starts on New Notification Created and also sends a push needs a filter to avoid looping, which makes it multi-step and puts it on a paid plan.
02How many Zapier tasks does each push use?
One task per push that OneSignal accepts, nothing for the trigger. Checking OneSignal for new notifications costs nothing, however often it happens, and a send that fails is not counted. If a Zap sends two pushes, one simple and one advanced, it spends two tasks per run, because each successful action is counted on its own. A loop is the expensive case: a Zap that keeps restarting itself spends a task on every pass, which is why the filter matters so much here.
03Does the OneSignal trigger work in real time?
No. New Notification Created is a polling trigger, so Zapier asks OneSignal for new notifications at a fixed interval instead of being told straight away. On the free plan, that happens every 15 minutes. Professional brings it down to 2 minutes, and Team and Enterprise to 1 minute. On paid plans you can also run a check by hand from the editor, which helps while testing. A notification created just after a check simply waits for the next one.
04What does it take to connect OneSignal to Zapier?
A OneSignal account and a Zapier account. From the Apps page in Zapier, add a connection, choose OneSignal, sign in on the tab that opens and grant access. Zapier then reaches only what that account can reach, so for anything a colleague owns you need read or write access on it first. If you plan to use the advanced send, set up your segments in OneSignal before you build, because that action asks for their names and cannot work without them.
05Why does a OneSignal Zap keep sending the same push?
Almost always because it loops. A Zap that starts on New Notification Created and sends a push creates a new notification, which the trigger then picks up as fresh, and the cycle repeats until your tasks run out. The fix is a filter right after the trigger that stops the notifications this Zap created itself. Test the filter with a real notification before you publish and keep an eye on the first runs to confirm the cycle is broken.
06What if the OneSignal operation you need is not available?
Then this integration cannot do it as it stands. On Zapier, OneSignal offers one trigger, New Notification Created, and two actions, Send Push Notification and Send Advanced Push Notification. There is no search, no way to edit or cancel a notification, and no trigger on new subscribers. The two sends can follow any trigger from another app, though, so a scenario that starts in a form, a CRM or a spreadsheet often fits. If it still does not, look at another automation tool that connects OneSignal differently.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for OneSignal?
Judge them on criteria rather than reputation. On Zapier, the OneSignal trigger is polling, checked every 15 minutes on the free plan and every 1 or 2 minutes on paid ones. There is no search step, and the two sends cover either every device or chosen segments and platforms. A two-step push Zap runs on the free plan, but a scenario at risk of looping needs a filter and so a paid plan. This page only covers what Zapier offers, so check which operations each tool offers for OneSignal against the send your users actually need.
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