Three shop jobs fit free tiers: logging enquiries in a spreadsheet, emailing review requests and sending a daily sales summary. Zapier Free allows 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps; Make Free gives 1,000 credits and runs at most every 15 minutes. The AI step is the weak spot: Zapier's is not on Free, and Make's covers one model.
The limits shape the design more than the tools do. A job with one trigger and one action suits Zapier Free. A scheduled job with several steps suits Make Free. A job your form or till already handles natively should not touch a quota at all. A shop with about five enquiries and eight emailed customers a day makes a fair test case, so the sums that follow use one.
What the two free plans allow, as the vendors describe them
As of October 2026, these are the figures on the vendors' own pages. Free-tier limits move more often than prices do, so treat the table as a starting point and check the live pages before you build.
| Zapier Free | Make Free | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly allowance | 100 tasks. Only successful action steps count; triggers, Filter, Paths and Formatter steps do not | 1,000 credits. One operation is one credit; a polling trigger counts one per check |
| Shape of a workflow | One trigger and one action | Several modules in one scenario; routers and error handlers use no credits |
| Speed | Checks for new data every 15 minutes | At least 15 minutes between runs on Free; instant triggers fire as data arrives |
| Workflows you can run | As many Zaps as the task limit allows | Two active scenarios, per Make's pricing table |
| Apps | Premium apps excluded; look for the Premium tag in the app directory | Check each app's connection note; personal Gmail connections need reauthorising every six months |
| AI | AI by Zapier not on Free; Copilot with a daily message limit; basic Agents with 400 activities a month | A "Simple text prompt" Gemini module needing no connection; Free supports one model; credits charged by tokens |
| At the limit | New runs are held until the cycle resets, then can be replayed | Running out of credits switches off scheduling |
Two rows deserve a second look. First, "a polling trigger counts one per check": Make's help counts a trigger as one operation each time it checks, and its own example is the Google Sheets "Watch New Rows" module. Budget as though empty checks count too. A scenario that checks every 15 minutes runs 96 times a day, which is 2,880 a month, nearly three times the free allowance before a single customer appears. Checking hourly costs 720. Second, the Free limits on filters and Formatter in Zapier mean you cannot tidy or screen data inside a Zap, so the screening has to happen before the data arrives, in a Gmail search or in the form itself.
A wider comparison of the platforms, for when you outgrow free, is in Zapier, Make and n8n compared for AI automation. The three jobs below run from cheapest to trickiest.
Job 1: enquiries into a spreadsheet without spending a task each
A shop's enquiries usually live in three places: the website form's notification emails, the shared inbox and whatever someone typed into a notebook. A single sheet with one row per enquiry shows which ones nobody answered, which questions repeat, and which products people ask for that you do not stock. There are two ways to fill it for free, and the cheaper one needs no automation tool.
Route A: a Google Form linked to a sheet
If customers will use a form, nothing needs to run through Zapier or Make. In Google Forms, open Responses, use the More menu and choose "Select destination for responses", then create a new spreadsheet; Google's help describes those steps. The same More menu offers "Get email notifications for new responses". Put the form's link on your website, your Instagram profile and a QR code at the till. A spam wave or a busy week costs no tasks and no credits. The catch is that customers have to use your form instead of the contact form built into your website builder.
Route B: a two-step Zap for enquiries that arrive as email
If enquiries arrive as email, including the notification messages your website form sends you, a two-step Zap fits Zapier Free. The trigger is Gmail "New Email Matching Search" and the action is Google Sheets "Create Spreadsheet Row". The trigger costs nothing and the row costs one task, so each enquiry is one task and the ceiling is 100 a month, less anything other Zaps use. Zapier's Filter step is not on Free, so screen in the Gmail search itself. A search such as the one below catches the form's notifications and ignores promotional mail.
subject:"New enquiry" -category:promotions -category:socialMap Date, From, Subject and the plain-text body to four columns. The test case shop (five enquiries a day, so about 150 a month) would use up Zapier Free's 100 tasks by around the twentieth, which is why Route A is the better first choice for anything above three enquiries a day.
What the sheet should hold
Keep the columns few enough that people actually fill them in. This is an illustrative sample, with placeholders in place of real names.
| Date | Channel | Name | Message (shortened) | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Nov | Web form | [first name] | Do you stock the 15kg grain-free dog food? | Stock check | Replied 3 Nov |
| 3 Nov | [first name] | Can I order a bird feeder you do not list? | Special order | Waiting for supplier price | |
| 4 Nov | Web form | [first name] | Opening times on a public holiday Monday? | Opening hours | New |
The log holds names and contact details, which are personal data. Share the sheet with named people rather than anyone with the link, and agree how long old rows stay. Keeping customer data private when your team uses AI covers the habits that go with that.
A weekly AI tally, and the trigger that eats the quota
Zapier's AI step is not on Free and a Zap holds only two steps anyway, so the Type column is filled in by whoever replies. If you want AI to count the types, do it once a week by hand. Copy only the Message column into a free chat assistant, leaving out names and contact details.
Below are 40 customer messages from a pet shop's enquiry log, one per line.
Group them into at most six types (for example stock check, special order,
opening hours, grooming, returns). Give the count for each type and one
example message for each. Do not guess at anything that is not in the messages.A plausible reply (illustrative) lists Stock check 14, Special order 9, Opening hours 7, Grooming 6, Returns 3, Other 1, which does add up to 40. Check it before using it. The usual fault is a type that swallowed its neighbour: here, four messages saying "can you get X in?" were counted as stock checks when they are special orders. Fix the grouping by hand, and add your own total check, because models sometimes miscount a long list.
The mistake that hurts most is a trigger set too wide. Say the Zap fires on plain "New Email" instead of a matching search. Supplier newsletters and receipts then each cost a task, and by the ninth of the month the 100 are gone. Zapier holds new runs until the cycle resets, so real enquiries wait in limbo from the ninth, and nothing tells you unless you look at the usage page.
To check it worked, send two test enquiries, one through the form and one by email. Each should become a row within about 15 minutes. Open the Zap's run history to see the successful runs, and look at your task usage at the end of the first week. Thirty tasks in week one means you will not reach the end of the month.
Job 2: a review request that goes out the day after a visit
Reviews help new customers choose you, but Google's policy limits how you ask. Its page on rating manipulation says businesses may not offer incentives such as payment, discounts or free goods, may not selectively solicit positive reviews, may not set staff a target number of reviews, should not pressure people to review while they are on the premises, and should not ask for specific content to be included. Asking for genuine experiences is allowed. Customers also need a Google account to post. So the automation must send the same plain request to everyone who agreed to hear from you, with no reward attached. The wider routine is in getting more Google reviews with automated requests.
The sheet and the consent habit
Keep a "Visits" sheet with five columns: Date, First name, Email, OK to email and Requested. Staff add a row at the till only when the customer says yes to "Would you like a link to review us by email?" Some places treat a review request as marketing, so recording the yes matters. Ask your data-protection adviser what the rules where you trade require before the first email goes out.
The Make Free version
Make Free suits this job because a scenario can have several steps and run once a day. Schedule it for 10:00 and give it three modules.
- Google Sheets: search rows where Date is yesterday, OK to email is Yes and Requested is empty.
- Gmail: send the email below to each row found.
- Google Sheets: update each row, writing Sent and the date into Requested.
The credits follow from the rule that a module runs once per row it receives. The search runs once and the two later modules run once per customer, so a day costs 1 + 2N credits for N customers. With eight emailed customers that is 17 credits a day, or 442 over 26 trading days. A day with no rows still costs the one credit for the search.
Subject: How was your visit, [first name]?
Hi [first name],
Thanks for coming into [shop name] yesterday. If you have a minute, we would
value an honest review on Google. It helps other people decide whether to visit
and it shows us what to fix. You will need a Google account to post one.
[review link from your Google Business Profile]
Whatever you tell us, thank you for your custom.
[your name]
[shop name]The wording asks for an honest review, offers nothing in return and goes to everyone on the list, which is what the policy allows.
The Zapier Free version
The Zapier version is shorter and looks tempting. Trigger on Google Sheets "New Spreadsheet Row", act with Gmail "Send Email". Because the email goes out as soon as a row appears, staff add rows the morning after the visit instead of at the till. Each request is one task, so the ceiling is about 100 a month. Filters are not on Free, so only customers who said yes may be added to this sheet at all.
A tweak that breaks the rules
A well-meant improvement is to ask "How was your visit?" first and show the Google link only to people who answer four or five stars. That is selective solicitation, which Google's policy lists as manipulation. The same goes for "10% off your next visit if you leave a review". If you also want complaints to reach you directly, put one line inviting anyone to contact you in the same email, and never use it to steer people away from reviewing.
AI for the template, never at send time
AI earns its keep once, when you draft the template. Ask a free chat assistant for three versions in different tones, pick one and edit it. It does harm at send time, where a model asked to "personalise" the opening line can invent details about the visit, such as a puppy's first haircut that never happened. Merge only fields that exist in the sheet.
To check it worked, run the first batch with your own address and a colleague's in the sheet. Confirm the Requested column fills, and compare Make's history for the run with the sum above. Run the scenario by hand only after looking at the Requested column, because a manual re-run on the same day can email people twice.
Job 3: a daily sales summary the owner reads in a minute
The email is the easy part. The hard part is getting the day's numbers somewhere a tool can read them without paying a task or credit per sale. A shop with 40 sales a day that logged each one would use about 1,040 operations in 26 trading days, more than the 1,000 credits on Make Free and ten times Zapier Free's 100 tasks, before sending anything. So batch it: one set of figures per day, not one row per sale.
Getting the figures into the sheet
The simplest source is a closing form. A Google Form with six fields takes two minutes at close: cash takings, card takings, number of sales, refunds, best-selling item and a free-text note. Each response lands in the linked sheet. If your till can email an end-of-day report on a schedule, check its report settings and point the email at a dedicated Gmail label. A two-step Zap can then log it, which costs one task a day, about 26 a month.
On a second tab, let the sheet do the arithmetic: takings, average sale, the change against the same weekday last week, and month to date. Keep the sums in the sheet and not in the AI step, because a model asked to calculate a percentage can slip. Add one guard cell that shows NO FIGURES when no response exists for yesterday, so a forgotten closing form never produces a stale email.
The Make Free scenario
Schedule it for 08:00 daily with three modules: read the summary row from the sheet, pass it to an AI step, then send the email with yesterday's date in the subject. Make's Gemini app has a "Simple text prompt" module that needs no connection. The app's page says Free plans and trials can use only one model for it, currently Gemini 2.5 Flash, and that credits depend on tokens, at 3,013 input tokens and 362 output tokens per credit for that model. A prompt of about 700 tokens with a 200-token reply works out at roughly 0.23 plus 0.55 credits, so budget one. The whole run costs about three credits, or 78 over 26 days. Zapier Free cannot do this job: reading the sheet and sending the email are two actions, which needs three steps.
You are writing a three-line end-of-day note for the owner of a small pet shop.
Use only the figures below. Do not calculate anything and do not explain causes
such as weather, events or promotions.
Line 1: takings and number of sales.
Line 2: the change against last Tuesday.
Line 3: one thing to check tomorrow, based only on the figures.
Figures: Tuesday takings $1,284.50 (cash $312.00, card $972.50); 41 sales;
average sale $31.33; change against last Tuesday +11.7%; refunds $0.00;
month to date $14,862.00.A good reply (illustrative) reads: "Tuesday took $1,284.50 from 41 sales, an average of $31.33. That is 11.7% above last Tuesday. Cash was $312.00, so count the till against that figure before banking." The usual fault is the model adding a reason, such as "probably helped by the weather", which the prompt forbids and you should delete if it appears. Spot-check the quoted figures against the sheet for the first week.
What the free AI step may see
This summary holds totals and no customer data, which is why it suits a free AI step. The same step would be a bad home for enquiry text. Google's terms for the Gemini API say content submitted to unpaid services, including the free quota, is used to improve Google's products, that human reviewers may read it, and that you should not submit sensitive, confidential or personal information. A few regions get the paid-service data rules even on the free quota, but the warning about personal information is the safer rule to work to. The API's pricing page lists Flash and Flash-Lite models as free of charge on the free tier, and marks them as used to improve products there, which is not so on the paid tier. I could not find a plain statement on how content sent through Make's built-in AI provider is handled, so keep personal details out of that too.
If you would rather use your own free Gemini key, Make's "Generate a response" module takes it. Make then charges one credit per operation, and the tokens are billed by Google, which on its free tier means no charge. Honestly, many shops will find the plain email with the sheet's numbers enough. Without the AI module the run costs two credits and loses only the phrasing.
If your Google plan includes the Sheets AI function, which Google's help says needs an eligible Workspace or Google AI plan, you can write the note inside the sheet instead; Google Sheets AI prompts has examples. To check it worked, compare three days of emails with the till's own end-of-day total, and confirm that a day with no closing form sends NO FIGURES rather than yesterday's numbers again.
The test shop's month, with all three jobs added up
Take the pet shop with five enquiries a day (about 150 a month), eight emailed customers on each of 26 trading days (208 requests) and a summary every trading day. The table shows what each route costs against the allowance. Illustrative figures throughout.
| Job and route | Zapier Free tasks | Make Free credits |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Enquiry log, Route A (Google Form to sheet) | 0 | 0 |
| 1. Enquiry log, Route B (email, 150 a month) | 150, over the cap of 100 | 870 (720 for hourly checks plus 150 rows) |
| 2. Review requests (8 a day, 26 days) | 208, over the cap | 442 (17 a day) |
| 3. Daily sales summary (26 days) | Cannot be built | 78 (3 a day) |
| Best free combination: A, then jobs 2 and 3 on Make | 0 | 520 of 1,000 |
The lesson is in the third column. Route B on Make would take 870 credits for the enquiry log alone, because checking an inbox is what costs. The Google Form route spends nothing, which leaves 480 credits of headroom. Jobs 2 and 3 also use both of the two active scenarios Make's pricing table lists for Free, so there is no room for a fourth automation. The credit headroom runs out at 17 review requests a day: 17 customers cost 35 credits a run, 910 over 26 days, plus 78 for the summary, which is 988. At 18 a day the total reaches 1,040. If your numbers sit near that line, a paid plan is cheaper than the time spent juggling.
Keeping free automations from failing quietly
Free plans give you no support desk to ring, so the quiet failures are yours to catch. These are the ones the vendors' own pages make likely.
- Gmail reauthorisation. Make's Gmail page says personal @gmail.com connections need their permissions renewed every six months. Put a dated reminder in the calendar the day you build the scenario.
- Running out. Make's help says running out of credits switches off scenario scheduling, so look at the usage counter around the twentieth and confirm each scenario is switched on after the monthly reset.
- Held runs. On Zapier Free, runs past the limit are held, not lost. Replay them after the reset, and check that the replayed enquiries were not already answered another way.
- Auto-pausing. Zapier pauses a Zap when 95% of its runs fail over seven days. A renamed column in the sheet can be enough to cause it, so tell staff before they rename anything.
- One owner. Zapier Free allows one user. Create the account on a shared business address, not a personal one, and write down who holds the password.
A one-line register keeps this manageable: automation name, what it does, tool, owner, next reauthorisation date and expected monthly volume. Ten minutes a month comparing volume with the allowance catches most problems early, and the habits in stopping Zapier and Make automations breaking silently extend this for paid plans.
Four signs the free tier has run out
- Volume. Any job needs more than 100 tasks a month on Zapier Free, or you are regularly past 900 credits on Make Free.
- Shape. The job needs a lookup, a filter or a delay in the middle. Zapier Free allows one trigger and one action only.
- Speed. Customers need an answer in under 15 minutes, which free polling cannot promise.
- Stakes. A missed run costs real money and you want support behind it. Zapier's pricing page shows no email support on Free.
The cost of stepping up is modest next to the time it saves. Zapier's Professional plan lists 750 tasks at $19.99 a month billed annually, or $29.99 billed monthly. The test shop's three jobs would need about 410 tasks there: 150 enquiries, 208 review requests and 52 for the two-action summary, with Zapier's AI step adding between 26 and 130 more depending on the tier. Make's entry paid plan starts from about $9 a month for 5,000 credits, but confirm that on the live pricing page because Make restructured its plans this year. When Zapier gets too expensive explains where the tipping point sits.
Free workflow automation questions from shop owners
Is Zapier's free plan enough for a small shop?
For one simple job, yes. Zapier Free allows 100 tasks a month and Zaps with one trigger and one action. That covers a modest enquiry log or a short run of review requests, but not both at a few a day, and not a job that needs a lookup before the email. Filters, Paths, Formatter and webhooks are not included on Free.
What happens when I use up the free limit?
On Zapier Free, Zapier's help says new runs are held until your billing cycle resets, and held runs can be replayed afterwards. On Make, running out of credits raises an error and switches off scenario scheduling, so after the monthly reset check that your scenarios are switched on again, and keep an eye on the usage counter in the meantime.
Can I send customer details through a free AI step?
Not through Google's free Gemini API. Outside the few regions where its paid-service data rules apply to everyone, its terms say Google uses content submitted to unpaid services to improve its products, that human reviewers may read it, and that you should not submit sensitive, confidential or personal information. Keep names and contact details out of any free AI step, and send only totals or anonymised text.
Why not use n8n for free?
n8n can be self-hosted without a per-run cap, but n8n's own documentation says self-hosting needs technical expertise, and someone must keep the server updated and backed up. For a shop with no technical person, a capped Zapier or Make free plan is usually the safer starting point.
How many review requests can a free plan send?
On Zapier Free the ceiling is about 100 a month, because each email is one task. On Make Free a daily scenario costs roughly one credit plus two per customer, so with a daily sales summary running as well the ceiling is about 17 customers per trading day. Both depend on how your scenario is built.
Further reads
- Free AI for Business: What a Local Shop Can Run Without Paying — What else a local shop can run on free plans.
- How to Add AI Steps to Zapier: Classify, Summarise, and Draft — Classify, summarise and draft once you move to a paid plan.
- Automation Audit: Find the Zaps and Scenarios Nobody Owns — Find the Zaps and scenarios nobody owns.
- Birdeye for a Bike Shop: Review Requests After Repairs, Worth It? — When a paid review tool beats a home-built request.
- Free AI Tool to Create an Advertisement: Five Options for Local Shops — Free adverts for the same shop, with licence checks.
- Free AI Store Builder: What a Small Shop Gets Before Paying — What a free store builder gives a small shop.
- Can AI Analyse My Sales Spreadsheet? What to Upload and Check — What AI can and cannot tell you from the sales sheet itself.
- Game Store Software: Trade-Ins, Tournaments and AI Product Listings — Game store software compared on trade-ins, event sign-ups and listings, with price-sheet and event-fee sums and the AI jobs worth doing.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Zapier pricing page and help centre articles on the Free plan, task counting, premium apps, held runs and Agents usage; Make pricing page, help centre, Academy and app documentation (credits, scheduling, Gmail, Gemini AI); Google Docs Editors help on Forms responses and the AI function in Sheets; Google Business Profile and review policy help; Google Gemini API pricing page and Additional Terms of Service.