Counting the number of operations

Modified on Wed, 29 May at 1:01 PM

Make charges you according to the total number of operations performed by the modules in your scenario. More modules and more bundles being processed in a scenario mean a higher number of operations. The amount charged for your scenarios depends on how complex your scenarios are. This means that you'll want to choose a subscription that best fits your needs.

How to count the number of operations

Every time a module in a scenario performs an action, it counts as one operation.

The first module in a scenario runs only once and it always counts as one operation (even if it does not return a bundle). The number of times the rest of the modules run depends on the number of bundles they must process (one run of a module per one bundle). An exception is the aggregator module, which is counted as one operation per set of bundles being processed.

Note

There are a few exceptions of modules when Make does not count the operations.

Error handler modules (Rollback, Break, Resume, Commit, Ignore)
Router module

The Sleep module consumes operations but does not consume data.

Example: Connecting Instagram to Dropbox

The following scenario connects Instagram, Image, and Dropbox package modules. It shows how to download images from a selected Instagram account, resize them, and upload them to a selected Dropbox folder.

Once the execution of a scenario is completed, Make displays the number of operations performed by each module in the little white circle above the module.

In the above example, the Instagram module returned three photos and performed one operation. Each of the three photos then passed through the Image Resize module. Three more operations were needed to resize them. Finally, each photo was uploaded to the Dropbox folder. In order to upload three different photos, the module had to run three times (i.e., three more operations). The execution of this scenario required seven operations in total (1 + 3 + 3).

Make's Operations vs. Zapier's Tasks

Make

The trigger and search modules always perform one operation (even if more than one bundle is received).

Each action module usually performs one or more operations, although there are exceptions.

If you want to calculate the total number of operations needed for the scenario, you can count approximately one operation for one step (module) in the scenario.

Zapier

Zapier's triggers do not perform any chargeable task.

Zapier's actions perform the task(s) that you are charged for.