Can you run Pipedream workflows on a schedule?

Running Pipedream Workflows on a Schedule

Pipedream provides a built-in schedule trigger that uses cron expressions to run workflows at specified intervals. As of April 2026, scheduled triggers are available on all Pipedream plans, including the free tier.

Schedule Trigger Options

Preset Intervals

• Every 15 minutes
• Every 30 minutes
• Every hour
• Every day at a specified time
• Every week on a specified day and time
• Every month on a specified date and time

Custom Cron Expressions

For complex schedules, Pipedream accepts standard cron expressions (5-field format):

• 0 9 * * 1-5 — Every weekday at 9:00 AM UTC
• */15 8-17 * * * — Every 15 minutes during business hours
• 0 0 1 * * — First day of every month at midnight

Common Scheduled Workflow Patterns

Daily Data Sync

• Schedule: Every day at 6:00 AM
• Steps: Fetch records from a REST API, transform data, insert into a Google Sheet or database

Monitoring and Alerting

• Schedule: Every 5 minutes
• Steps: Check website uptime or API health, send Slack alert if response time exceeds threshold

Report Generation

• Schedule: Every Monday at 8:00 AM
• Steps: Query analytics API, format report, send email via SendGrid

Social Media Posting

• Schedule: Every day at 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM
• Steps: Fetch next post from a content queue (Google Sheet or Airtable), post to Twitter/LinkedIn API

Code Steps in Scheduled Workflows

Each workflow step can include custom code in Node.js, Python, Go, or Bash:

// Node.js step example
export default defineComponent({
  async run({ steps }) {
    const response = await fetch("https://api.example.com/data");
    const data = await response.json();
    return data;
  }
});

Credit Usage

Each workflow execution consumes credits based on the number of steps and compute time:

Timezone Configuration

Schedules default to UTC but can be configured to any timezone in the workflow settings. This ensures daily or weekly triggers fire at the expected local time.

Limitations

• Minimum schedule interval: 15 seconds (paid plans) or 15 minutes (free plan)
• Workflow execution timeout: 300 seconds (free) or 750 seconds (paid)
• Free plan: 100 credits/day limits the number of scheduled runs