Operation

In Make.com, an operation is a task executed by a module on your data within a scenario.

But there’s more to it, let me explain 🙂

How operations are counted

Each time a module checks for new data or performs actions like updating, adding, downloading, or posting data, it counts as one operation.

For example, if a trigger module checks for new data every 15 minutes, it will use one operation for each check, even if no new data is found.

If that same module discovers 10 new bundles of data, it still counts as just one operation because the module only performed one check. However, each subsequent module that processes those 10 bundles will count as one operation each, resulting in a total of 10 operations.

You can view the scenario history to see how many operations each run used, providing valuable insights into your usage.

If you like, you can click on Details and you’ll then see how many operations each module used.

How operations impact your plan

Each operation executed by your scenarios counts toward your plan’s usage limits. As you use more operations, you approach your plan’s maximum limit.

On your dashboard in Make.com, you can see how many operations you have left on your plan, and you can also enable to purchase operations automatically whenever you’ve used them all

If the automations in Make.com are vital for your business, I recommend enabling auto-purchasing of extra operations.

(it will never auto-purchase more operations than your plan currently has)

For example, if you process online orders and delivery of products, it’s vital that this happens fast because you don’t want to keep your customer waiting.

If you run out of operations, all your scenarios basically go to sleep until they have new operations again. So data will not get lost, but it can significantly delay the execution of your scenario if you run out of operations.

Tips for reducing operations

Whenever you can, try to make your scenarios efficient by combining tasks and minimizing modules that eat up operations.

It will not only make your scenarios faster and easier to manage, but also

Run scenarios less frequently

It’s best if your scenario can run instantly whenever there is new data, but that’s not always possible and often you need to check at set intervals if there is any new data.

You can recognize modules that check for new data at set intervals if the trigger module has a clock icon 🕐

By default, such scenarios are set to run every 15 minutes. Even if no new data is found, one operation is still used for each check.

This means it will use 96 operations in a day, totaling 2,880 operations in a month.

You can click on that clock, and set the interval less frequently so that it for example only checks every 60 minutes. That will only use 720 operations in a month instead of 2880 🔥

Want to save even more operations with scheduled triggers?

In the same window as where you set the scenario interval, click Add item under advanced scheduling to choose specific days and hours for the scenario to run.

For instance, if you schedule it to run only from Monday to Friday between 9 AM and 5 PM, you will save many operations since it won’t check for new data overnight or on weekends.

I have some stuff that I like to automate, but it’s really not important that it happens fast. In that case, I set the scenario to only run once a day at midnight:

Use filters

Filters are a great way to control your scenario.

You can check if a set of data match one or more conditions in a filter, and can then stop if it doesn’t.

That way, you save operations because it isn’t processing data that doesn’t need processing.

In the example above, if the sender of the email isn’t finance@example.com, it won’t continue to the next module and doesn’t use any more operations.

Also, it’s good to know that filters do not count as operations.

Leverage webhooks

Instead of constantly checking for data, look into webhooks so you can instantly send data from other applications when something happens.

Optimize scenarios

Avoid complex scenarios, and try to keep them as simple as possible with as few modules necessary for the job.

Instead of using multiple modules to perform an action, look if there is maybe a neater way by combining some of the modules.