SendGrid Zapier integrationAutomate SendGrid with Zapier.
The SendGrid Zapier integration has 0 triggers and 4 actions. SendGrid never starts a Zap: another app does, then SendGrid sends the email, updates a contact or looks up a list. That shapes every workflow you build with it.
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What the SendGrid Zapier integration actually does
It lets Zapier use your SendGrid account as the delivery end of an automation. Something happens in another tool, a form, a CRM, a shop, and SendGrid sends the email or files the person as a contact, through SendGrid's cloud email service, with the senders, contacts and lists already set up in your account.
Three results people build first. A confirmation email that leaves on its own: a form answer starts the Zap and Send Email writes to the person from your verified sender. A contact list that stays current: Create or Update Contact adds the person, or refreshes their record, and can drop them into a list. The right list, found by name: Find List by Name returns the list that matches the name you give, so the next step can use it without hard-coding anything.
What Zapier does not do here is just as useful to know. SendGrid has no trigger on Zapier, so an open, a click or a bounce cannot start a Zap. There is no search step either: Find List by Name is an action, and it costs a task like any other. For anything outside these four actions, API Request (Beta) exists, but it is a builder's tool rather than a marketer's.
The same app is documented as a SendGrid n8n integration and a SendGrid Make integration if you are comparing platforms.
Zapier vocabulary in one minute
Seven words you will meet in the editor, without jargon.
- Zap
- The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time that trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event that starts the Zap. With SendGrid it always lives in another app: a new form answer, a new order, a new CRM contact.
- Action
- What the Zap does once started: the step that writes, sends or moves something for you. Every SendGrid operation on Zapier is one.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. Your plan's allowance 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. With SendGrid, it depends on the app that starts.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap continue only when what arrived meets your condition, and stops it otherwise.
- Multi-step Zap
- Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A second action or a filter makes it one, and it then needs a paid plan.
What a SendGrid Zap really costs
On Zapier you pay for completed actions. With an app that only has actions, every step counts.
- Trigger (other app)0 tasks
- Each successful SendGrid action1 task, Find List by Name included
- Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only
- SendGrid on the free planYes, it is not a premium app
The trigger, in whatever app starts the Zap, never costs a task. Each SendGrid action that succeeds costs one, so a Zap that saves a contact and then sends an email burns two tasks per person. Find List by Name counts too, because it is an action. A failed action is not counted. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps, limited to two steps: one trigger, one action. SendGrid is not a premium app, so a simple two-step send works on the free plan.
Connect SendGrid to Zapier in three steps
- 01
Open your connections
In Zapier, go to the Apps page of your account and click + Add connection. A connection is your SendGrid account linked once, then reused by every SendGrid step in every Zap.
- 02
Find SendGrid
Search for SendGrid in the dialog, select it and click Add connection. A tab opens where you sign in to SendGrid with the account that holds your senders, contacts and lists.
- 03
Allow access
Grant Zapier access to the account, and the connection is ready to pick in any step. If the contacts or lists belong to a teammate's account, make sure yours can read and write them first.
Your first Zap: confirm every new signup by email
GoalEach new form answer that passes your rule gets a confirmation email from your verified sender, with no copy and paste.
- 01
Create the Zap
Start a new Zap and pick the form tool you use as the app that starts it, with its new response event. SendGrid comes after, because it has no trigger of its own.
- 02
Test the trigger
Connect the form tool and run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent answers, so you build the rest of the Zap on a real one instead of a guess.
- 03
Add the filter
From the plus icon, add a Filter: the field to check, the rule, the value. Pick a text rule for text and a number rule for numbers, or the filter never lets anything through.
- 04
Add Send Email
Add SendGrid with Send Email. Set From Email to your verified sender and map the respondent's address into To. Both are required, and To accepts several addresses.
- 05
Test, then publish
Run the step once and check that the email arrived. Then click Publish to switch the Zap on. With the filter, it is a multi-step Zap and needs a paid plan.
SendGrid actions
SendGrid gives you 4 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.
Send Email
ActionIn Zapier“Send an email to one or more recipients.”
Sends an email from your SendGrid account to one recipient or several. You can also override the account's click and open tracking for this send, or leave both blank to keep your defaults.
API Request (Beta)
ActionIn Zapier“This is an advanced action which makes a raw HTTP request that includes this integration's authentication.”
An advanced step that calls SendGrid directly with the connection you already set up, for needs the other three actions do not cover. It asks for a method and an address, and it only talks to SendGrid's own domains.
Find List by Name
ActionIn Zapier“This action searches for a specific list in SendGrid using the list name as an input and outputs the information of the list that matches the input name.”
Looks for a SendGrid list by its name and hands its details to the following steps. Useful when the list depends on the data, a region or a product, rather than being fixed once.
Create or Update Contact
ActionIn Zapier“This action allows you to add or update a Contact in SendGrid. You can use this action to add the contact to the list.”
Adds a person to your SendGrid contacts, or refreshes their record if they already exist, and can place them in a list at the same time. It saves you from checking for duplicates before every write.
When a SendGrid Zap breaks
Most failures come from the sender setup and from how Zapier treats events, not from SendGrid being down.
Zapier links one help article to SendGrid, How to get started with SendGrid on Zapier, and records no rate limit for it. So the cases below combine the sender rule of Send Email with the general limits every Zap shares. Go through them before you publish. If a run still fails, the Zapier troubleshooting page is the place to start.
Unverified sender, rejected email
Send Email refuses a From Email that is neither a Verified Sender nor on an authenticated domain of your SendGrid account. Fix it in SendGrid, not in Zapier.Old form answers are not sent
A Zap only reacts to what happens after it is switched on. People who signed up before get nothing; reaching them is a separate job.A burst of events gets held
When the app that starts the Zap suddenly returns a huge batch, after an import for instance, Zapier's flood protection can hold it back instead of sending everything.No recipient, no email
To is required and needs at least one address. If the earlier step hands over an empty email, the send fails, and no task is counted for it.
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