The fastest way to learn the platform isn't theory — it's stealing working patterns. These 17 Make.com automation examples are real, copyable workflows organized by business function, each with its module chain and approximate credit cost per run, so you know both how to build it and what it costs before you do.
Most exist as templates in Make's library — clone, connect your accounts, done.
Key Takeaways
- Every example follows the same skeleton: trigger → (filter) → actions — master one and the rest are rearrangements
- Credit costs per run range from 2 credits (simple sync) to 100+ (iterator-heavy) — noted per example so you can budget
- The free plan's 1,000 credits comfortably run 3-5 of the lighter examples; heavier ones need Core
- Clone from the template library instead of building blank — it's the single biggest time-saver for beginners
If any terminology below is unfamiliar, our plain-English guide to how Make.com works decodes it in five minutes.
Marketing Automations
1. Publish once, syndicate everywhere — Instagram trigger → Facebook post + X post. ~3 credits/run. The classic first automation: one piece of content, every channel.
2. RSS competitor monitor — RSS “Watch Feed Items” → Slack message. ~2 credits/run. Every competitor blog post lands in your channel minutes after publish.
3. Form leads → email list + welcome sequence — Typeform trigger → Mailchimp/ConvertKit subscriber → tagged by answer. ~3-4 credits/run.
4. YouTube video digest — Schedule trigger → fetch latest video from channels you follow → AI summary → Google Doc, every morning at 9 AM. ~5-6 credits/run.
5. Social mention sentiment triage — Watch brand mentions → AI sentiment classification → critical ones routed to Slack with context. ~4-5 credits/run.
Sales & CRM Automations
6. Lead capture → enrich → CRM → alert — Form trigger → enrichment lookup → HubSpot/Pipedrive contact → Slack ping to the right rep. ~5 credits/run. The highest-ROI chain in most B2B stacks — we run a variant of this daily, detailed in our Make.com lead generation playbook.
7. Gmail label → CRM contact — Watch emails labeled “lead” → create HubSpot contact with parsed details. ~3 credits/run.
8. Deal-stage celebrations — CRM deal moves to “Won” → Slack celebration + invoice draft + onboarding doc from template. ~4-5 credits/run.
9. Meeting no-show recovery — Calendar event ends → check CRM for meeting outcome → if none logged, queue a follow-up email draft. ~4 credits/run.
E-commerce Automations
10. Order logging + big-order alerts — WooCommerce/Shopify “Watch Orders” → Google Sheets row → filter: order > $500 → Slack alert. ~3-4 credits/run.
11. Inventory low-stock warning — Scheduled stock check → filter below threshold → email purchasing. ~3 credits/run, watch iterator costs on large catalogs — looping 100 SKUs multiplies fast.
12. Review request sequence — Order marked delivered → wait 3 days → personalized review request email. ~3 credits/run.
Clone any of these free — Make's template library has most pre-builtOperations & Productivity Automations
13. Meeting reminders with prep — Google Calendar “Watch Events” → Sleep module (offset timing) → Slack DM 30 minutes before with agenda link. ~3 credits/run.
14. Attachment filing — Gmail watch (has attachment) → Google Drive upload → Sheets log. ~3-4 credits/run. This is the exact scenario our beginner tutorial builds step by step.
15. Weekly metrics digest — Monday 8 AM schedule → pull numbers from Sheets/Analytics/CRM → compile → email + Slack. ~6-8 credits/run, weekly — cheap for the visibility.
16. Invoice intake — Email attachment (PDF) → parse → accounting tool entry → paid/unpaid tracking row. ~5 credits/run.
AI-Powered Automation
17. Reply triage agent — incoming replies → AI Agent classifies intent (interested / not now / unsubscribe / question) → routes each to the right action. Credit cost varies — agents choose their own steps. This one graduates you from scenarios to agents; the full build is in our Make AI Agents guide, and since the February 2026 relaunch there's a pre-built Library version to start from.
How to Choose Your First Three
Pick by pain, not by coolness:
- The task you do daily that follows identical steps every time → automate first
- The handoff that drops balls (leads not logged, files not filed) → automate second
- The report you compile manually → automate third
Run all three for two weeks on the free plan, watch your credit consumption, then decide on Core. Budgeting help: our Make.com pricing guide has the estimation formula.
Start with example #14 — build it free in 10 minutesThe Modification Playbook: Making Examples Yours
Cloned templates rarely fit perfectly — here's the systematic way to adapt any example above without breaking it:
Swap apps, keep shapes. Every example's structure (trigger → filter → actions) survives app substitution. Typeform becomes Google Forms, Slack becomes Teams, Sheets becomes Airtable — the module changes, the mapping logic transfers. When the replacement app's fields differ, run once with test data and remap; five minutes, not a rebuild.
Adjust the filter before anything else. Templates ship with generic conditions. Your version of example #10's “big order” threshold, #7's label name, #2's feed URLs — the filter is where a generic recipe becomes your recipe.
Add one module at a time. Want example #6 to also send a welcome email? Add the module, run once, verify, then consider the next addition. Stacking three modifications before testing is how mysteriously broken scenarios are born.
Check the credit math after modifying. Adding modules or widening filters changes per-run cost — recalculate against the estimates listed above, especially if you touched anything near an iterator.
One habit worth stealing: keep a “scenario changelog” note per workflow. Six months later, when something misbehaves, knowing what you changed and why turns archaeology into a two-minute fix.
Clone, modify, ship — Make's template library plus free credits gets you there todayEstimating Credit Cost Before You Build
Every example above lists a module count, and that number is your budgeting tool: monthly runs × module count = credits consumed. A few worked examples from this list:
- Form-to-CRM (4 modules) at 300 submissions/month → 1,200 credits. Fits the free plan alone, trivial on Core.
- Social syndication (6 modules) at 20 posts/month → 120 credits. Effectively free.
- The AI summarizer (5 modules) polling every 15 minutes → 96 checks/day even with nothing to process. Add a filter immediately after the trigger so empty checks cost 2 credits, not 5 — this single habit halves most people's bills.
The pattern to internalize: volume × modules matters more than complexity. One fancy 12-module scenario running daily (360 credits/month) costs less than a dumb 3-module one polling every minute (~130,000 credits/month). Before building anything from this list, run its math against your plan tier — and if a number scares you, check the credit-reduction guide linked above.
FAQ
What can Make.com automate? Anything following a “when X happens, do Y” pattern across its 3,000+ connected apps — marketing syndication, CRM syncs, order processing, reporting, and AI-driven triage.
How many credits do typical automations use? Simple syncs: 2-4 credits per run. Multi-action chains: 5-8. Iterator-heavy workflows: can exceed 100 per run — always multiply loop size by module count.
Are these examples available as templates? Most, yes — Make's template library covers the common patterns. Clone, connect your apps, and adjust rather than building blank.
Which example is best for beginners?
#14 (attachment filing) — three modules, immediately useful, and teaches trigger/action/mapping fundamentals.
Bookmark this list and return as you level up — these 17 Make.com automation examples cover the patterns behind 90% of what businesses actually automate, and our hands-on Make.com review shows what running them at scale looks like after 90 days.
