Incoming webhooks for automations ✨

[Jason]

On top of other releases this week, we have another exciting new feature - incoming webhooks for automations!

With the new incoming webhook trigger you can connect Airtable with many of the tools and products that you and your team use (whether a third-party service or an internal tool).

Normally, you’d have to write custom code and spin up your own infrastructure in order to handle webhooks, but now, whenever an event fires in another product, you can tap into the full power of Airtable Automations to handle it accordingly.

How it works

The incoming webhook trigger will create a unique URL that you can use to trigger an Airtable automation. You can use this URL with another service’s webhook configuration UI, or use it directly from your own custom code (e.g. from an internal tool). When Airtable receives a request at this URL, we’ll then trigger the automation that you configured (just like our other triggers).

This enables you to integrate with services that Airtable doesn’t currently support, or to programmatically trigger automations, preventing you from having to write custom code or manage your own infrastructure.

You can learn more about using the incoming webhook trigger in our Support Center.

View support article →

[ScottWorld]

Nice! This is pretty awesome! This is a really big deal. :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: :raised_hands:

One feature request for webhooks:

In addition to sending JSON payloads to the webhook, it would be very cool if we also had the alternative option to send data to the webhook via simple URL parameters.

Thanks for creating this! :partying_face:

[Justin_Barrett]

This is HUGE! I can’t wait to test it! (Just got the internet hooked up at our new house, but my desk didn’t survive the move, so I’m still on my phone…)

[Bill_French]

Jason:

This enables you to integrate with services that Airtable doesn’t currently support, or to programmatically trigger automations

Perfect! Yet another step that erodes the grip that glue-factories have on Airtable systems. This was requested in 2016 by a number of users and I predicted this was inevitable as early as 2018. Outbound webhooks are surely imminent as well. The day has finally come and we can look forward to many new streamlined and performant interchanges from outside services.

Or, can we? :winking_face:

This will only serve to blind-side many unsuspecting users until Airtable addresses the capacity for pervasive, reliable, and sustained use of actions without arbitrary ceilings at a predictable cost that is conducive to the general market segment. Imagine if Tesla added a self-driving feature that abruptly terminated whenever it could not see roadside guardrails.

Are webhooks subject to quotas and if so, what [exactly] are the limitations?

If the limitations are strict and unforgiving (as they are now), we can expect slow adoption and a continued pummeling of Airtable servers with unending polling and continued decline in overall performance.

[ScottWorld]

Bill.French:

Perfect! Yet another step that erodes the grip that glue-factories have on Airtable systems.

It is really hard to understate how huge this new feature is.

Such a small addition that will make such a gigantic impact. This is really a game changer for Airtable.

This one feature alone eliminates many of the reasons that we turn to Integromat.

However, you are very right when you say this:

Bill.French:

If the limitations are strict and unforgiving (as they are now), we can expect slow adoption

This is such a great point for us to remember.

Growing businesses with thousands of records that depend heavily on automations can’t reliably use Airtable’s automations at this point, because if you go over your monthly quota of automation runs, Airtable completely disables all of your automations until your next billing cycle — with no way to pay for more automation runs in your current billing cycle.

An entire organization is effectively shut down until the next billing cycle.

It’s totally fine to disable automations when a customer has hit their monthly limit — this is obvious and expected — but customers need the ability to pay for more automation runs in the current billing cycle so their entire operations don’t grind to a halt until the next month.

I know that it seems like 50,000 runs in a month is a lot, but I have several large clients who are regularly running way more automation runs than that in a month with Integromat.

Of course, Airtable’s infrastructure might not be able to handle more than that, in which case it makes sense for Airtable to push those customers onto external automation platforms.

Outside of this one issue, I’m super excited about webhooks in Airtable! :star_struck: :star2:

This is going to open up a whole new world of possibilities for people! :partying_face: :tada:

[Jason]

Bill.French:

Are webhooks subject to quotas and if so, what [exactly] are the limitations?

Each webhook received that results in an automation run will count towards the automation run limits for your workspace plan. I’m checking in with our eng team to see what other quotas or limitations may exist.

[Databaser]

Hmm, doesn’t seem to work with ActiveCampaign… :unamused:

[ScottWorld]

Jason:

I’m checking in with our eng team to see what other quotas or limitations may exist.

Jason, do you know if there are any plans to allow customers to pay for additional runs in a month, if they exceed their quota?

This is really the only issue at the moment for customers who need more than 50,000 runs in a month.

Besides this one issue, the automations platform is getting better & better every day! :slightly_smiling_face:

[ScottWorld]

Databaser:

Hmm, doesn’t seem to work with ActiveCampaign…

Are you posting your data to Aritable as a valid JSON payload with the Content-Type header of “application/json” and using the POST command?

If none of that is available to you, then it’s possible that ActiveCampaign might only support the URL-encoded way of sending data to webhooks, which I believe they call “form encoded payloads”. But that method is not currently supported by Airtable.

[Databaser]

Hmm, not sure. It’s not mentioned on their help article. I’ll ask support.

ActiveCampaign Help Center

Working with webhooks

A webhook lets an app pass information to other apps in near real-time. This could mean notifying a private application developed just for you, or a way to notify another 3rd party application that...

[Jason]

For a quick update, the other type of limitation is that there’s a payload size limit of 100kb per request. Hope everyone has a good weekend.