How to use Zapier to automate Notion

It's easy for tasks to slip through the cracks when you're managing projects across different platforms. Even if you're a Notion user—one of our favorite project management apps—you can't fully streamline the way you work without bringing all your apps together under one roof. 

That's where Zapier comes in. With our Zaps (what we call our automated workflows) you can connect Notion to the rest of your techstack and automate your project management. From sending team notifications for new projects to tracking incomplete tasks, here's how to use our Notion integration to power your work—automatically.

Table of contents

• How the integration works

• Connect Zapier to your Notion workspace

• Popular ways to automate Notion

How the Zapier Notion integration works

Triggers

The Notion integration has three available triggers—the events that can start a Zap.

• New Database Item: You can have Zapier start an automated workflow whenever there's a new database item in your Notion workspace. You can specify which database or property Zapier should watch to start your Zap.

• Updated Database Item: Zapier will trigger a workflow whenever an item in a selected database in your Notion workspace is updated.

• Updated Page: Zapier will trigger a workflow whenever a page in your Notion workspace is updated.

Searches

There are three searches available for the Notion integration:

• Find Database Item: Zapier will look for an existing database item in your workspace.  You can add additional steps in your Zap to make a change to the database item or send information from your database item elsewhere.

• Find or Create Database Item: This will locate an existing database item in your Notion workspace. If it doesn't exist, Zapier will create a new database item if you check the box. 

• Find Page (by title): Zapier will search for a page in your Notion workspace by its available title.

Actions

The Notion integration also has nine actions—the event your automated workflow performs in Notion. You can search for an item in a Notion database by property. You could use a trigger within Notion, say if you want a new item in one place to update an item somewhere else. Or you can set your trigger to be something outside Notion, like closing a new deal in your CRM or completing a task in a to-do list.

• Create Database Item: This action will create a new database item in your Notion workspace. For example, if you want an item created in Notion whenever you land a new client.

• Update Database Item: This changes an existing database item in your Notion workspace. This action works best when you use the Find Database Item search before it. Check out our feature guide on search steps to learn how. 

• Create Page: This action will create a page within a specified page. You can include markdown in the body of the page too.

• Add Content to Page: This action will add content directly to a specific page of your choosing in your Notion workspace.

• Retrieve a Page: This action retrieves a specific page from Notion using its ID. The page ID can be a normal page or a database item.

• Retrieve Database: This action retrieves a database in Notion using the ID of the database.

• Retrieve Block Children: This action retrieves the children of a block, with any text rendered as Markdown.

• Custom Actions (Beta): This action allows you to create a custom action using AI. 

• API Request (Beta): This is an advanced action that allows you to make a raw HTTP request that includes this integration's authentication.

How to connect Zapier to your Notion workspace

Check your Notion account permissions

Before you try to connect Zapier to your Notion account, make sure you're a workspace owner in your workspace. You can check this by clicking on Settings & Members in the left-hand navigation window.

Click on the Members tab, where you can see whether you have admin-level access in your workspace.

If you don't, reach out to your workspace owner, who can change your access level.

Connect Notion to Zapier

Whenever you're ready to connect Notion in the Zapier editor, search for and select Notion as your app, then select the trigger, action, or search. Click Continue.

You'll then be prompted to connect your Notion account. Click + Connect a new account. Zapier will prompt you to grant access to your workspace. Click Select pages.

Select the Notion pages you want Zapier to access, then click Allow access.

You've now connected your Notion account to Zapier! 

Zapier will also appear in your list of connections within your Notion settings. Click on the My Connections tab to see the list of apps you've connected to your workspace.

Popular ways to use Notion with Zapier 

Notion combines the best of your favorite productivity tools into one app, but sometimes you still need information from outside apps. Zapier can help you turn your Notion workspace into a central hub for your most important information. Here are a few ideas to start automating:

Keep up with your calendar

It can be tough to keep up with the daily demands of project deadlines, meetings, client calls, or anything else that relies on a calendar. Luckily, Notion allows you to visualize database items in a calendar or a timeline. 

If you're already using another calendar app to manage important dates, you can use a Zap to automatically send those calendar events to Notion. Get started with these workflows:

Want to set aside time on your calendar to tackle your Notion items? Blocking out your work calendar allows you to fully focus on specific projects and tasks. (Plus, your team will know not to book meetings during that time.)

With these Zaps, any time a new item is added to your Notion workspace, Zapier will automatically create detailed (or simple) events in your calendar, so you can stay on top of your most important work.

Stay on top of changes in Notion

When you're working collaboratively in a shared workspace, it's important for your team to know when something major has changed in your project plan. 

Instead of relying on a human to notify the team—or trying to spot the change on your own—these Zaps will automatically notify you in a team chat app whenever there's a new database item in Notion.

If you're working with external stakeholders, they'll also need to be notified of major changes. Instead of giving them access to your workspace, you can use an automated workflow to draft an email for you. 

Track tasks and projects

There is no shortage of project management and task apps to choose from. However, the one-size-fits-most approach of these tools might not jive with what you need to track work.  

Notion allows you to customize and track your to-dos according to your style, whether it's a list of checkboxes or you need multiple deadlines for a single task. But if your team manages projects in another app, you can create an automated workflow to add new tasks to your Notion workspace. 

Get started with the Zaps below:

Want to make sure you're also recording updates across both of your project management apps? Use these Zaps to automatically search for the specific item in Notion and upload any changes to the tasks. That way, you're always on the same page across all your apps. 

Turn casual asks into Notion tasks

Do people ask you to do things in your team chat app or via email? If so, you'll want an easy way to send those requests straight to Notion—without the hassle of copying and pasting. 

These Zaps can help. Any time you add a reaction to a message in Slack or receive an email you've labeled as "to-do", Zapier will send the contents of the message straight to Notion. If you want to organize that information more effectively, you can even add an AI step to extract the request and log it according to a template. 

Organize customer information

Whether you're trying to organize form submissions, spreadsheets, or invite attendees, it can be helpful to have that information in the same space where you do most of your planning. These Zaps will automatically create Notion database items for you, so you can keep tabs on your customers, without wasting time manually importing information.

Log online research and articles

Whether you're tracking brand mentions online, your published articles, or you just want to save interesting articles in one place, Notion is a great tool for logging your favorite links. Skip the copy-and-paste routine with these Zaps, which will automatically create Notion database items for you.  

Take your productivity to the next level with Notion and Zapier

This is just the start of all that you can do with Notion and Zapier. Zapier supports thousands of apps, so you automate almost any task at work. Create your Zap now and see what you can do.

This article was originally published in May 2021 and was most recently updated in September 2024 by Elena Alston.