Relay.app is a workflow automation platform with a standout feature no other tool matches as smoothly: human-in-the-loop. Pause any workflow for a human to approve, review or decide — then continue automatically. 100+ integrations, built-in AI steps. Free tier: 200 steps per month. Professional: $19 per month.
Relay.app is a workflow automation platform that sits between Zapier's simplicity and Make's power — with one feature that neither has by default: human-in-the-loop. Relay is built around the idea that some workflows should not run fully automatically. You can insert approval steps, manual decisions and collaborative reviews into any automation, so a human can check or approve before the next action fires.
It connects over 100 apps including Gmail, Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Airtable, Google Sheets and more. You build workflows visually, add AI steps using GPT, Claude or Gemini, and choose where a human needs to stay involved. The result is automation that is reliable but not rigid — it can handle the 80% of cases that follow a pattern, and pause for human judgment on the 20% that do not.
Relay is used by teams at companies including Cursor, Ramp and Motion. It has a 4.9/5 rating on G2 from over 80 reviews, with ease of use consistently the top-cited reason. Non-technical users regularly report building workflows they could not get working in Make or Zapier.
In most automation tools, a workflow either runs completely or fails completely. Relay adds a third option: it pauses and waits for a human. You can add a step that sends a Slack message asking "Should I proceed?" and the workflow holds until someone clicks Yes or No. Or it can wait until a specific field in your CRM is updated before continuing. Or it can route to a different team member based on the data in the workflow.
This matters most for workflows where an automatic action gone wrong is costly — sending emails to customers, approving refunds, updating billing records, publishing content. Relay lets you automate the preparation while keeping the human in control of the final action.
Relay is well-suited for small to medium teams that want automation without the setup complexity of Make or n8n. It is particularly good for teams that need an approval layer — finance, legal, customer success, operations — where fully automatic execution is not appropriate for every step.
Non-technical users consistently praise Relay's interface as the easiest in the category. If you have tried Zapier and found the conditional logic limiting, or tried Make and found it overwhelming, Relay is the most likely to click.
Zapier's strength is breadth — 8,000 integrations and the largest template library. Relay has around 100 integrations, which is enough for most business workflows but a smaller selection. Where Relay beats Zapier is in human-in-the-loop capability, AI step quality (Relay's AI actions are more flexible than Zapier's AI Fields), and a cleaner interface that users consistently find easier to build complex multi-step workflows in.
If you need a niche integration that Relay does not support, Zapier is the answer. If you need human approval steps baked into workflows, Relay is the answer.
Yes. The Free plan includes 200 automated steps and 500 AI credits per month, with access to all features and integrations. Professional is $19 per month billed annually for 750 steps and 5,000 AI credits. Team is $69 per month for up to 10 users. Enterprise pricing is custom. Note: steps and AI credits are separate meters — steps count each action in a workflow, AI credits count AI model calls specifically.
Go to relay.app and create a free account. The dashboard shows your workflows (called "plays" in Relay). Click New play to open the builder.
Select what starts the workflow. Common triggers: new email in Gmail, new row in Google Sheets, new deal in HubSpot, form submission in Typeform, webhook from any app. Authenticate the app when prompted.
Click the + button below the trigger to add the next step. Choose from: app actions, AI steps (ask GPT/Claude to classify, summarise or extract data), conditional paths (if/else logic), or human-in-the-loop steps (request approval or input from a team member). Chain as many steps as needed.
For any step where a human should review before the workflow continues: click + and select "Human review" or "Request input". Choose where to send the notification (Slack, email). The workflow pauses at this step until the assigned person responds. This is Relay's signature feature — use it wherever automatic execution is risky.
Click Run once to test with sample data. Check that each step produces the expected output. Turn the play on when tests pass.
Use AI steps before decisions. The most powerful Relay pattern is: AI analyses incoming data → routes to appropriate path or person → human approves if needed → automation executes. The AI step does the triage, the human step catches edge cases, and the automation does the mechanical work. Neither AI nor human alone is as effective as both in sequence.
Start with the human-in-the-loop step, then remove it. When building a new workflow, start with a human review step before every consequential action. Let the workflow run for a week, approving everything manually. Once you see the patterns and are confident in the logic, remove the review steps for the cases that are always approved. You end up with automation that is both reliable and only asks for human input when genuinely needed.
Watch your AI credit consumption. Relay's AI credits are consumed by AI model calls. Complex AI tasks — web scraping, image generation, multi-step research — use significantly more credits than basic text classification or summarisation. Monitor your credit usage for the first two weeks and estimate monthly consumption before choosing a plan tier.
Relay.app is built by Relay.app Inc., founded in 2021. The platform is SOC 2 certified, per the official Relay.app website. It integrates with over 100 business apps via their official APIs. All integrations are included on all plans — there is no premium tier required to access specific connectors.
Relay uses two separate usage meters. Steps count each app action in a workflow — sending an email, creating a CRM record, updating a spreadsheet. AI credits count AI model calls — each time Relay calls GPT, Claude or Gemini on your behalf. Simple automations without AI steps only consume steps. AI-heavy workflows consume both. Per Relay's official pricing page, triggers do not count as steps, and some workflow elements (wait steps, path evaluations, data transforms) also do not consume steps.
Relay's human-in-the-loop feature works by suspending workflow execution at a designated step and sending a notification (via Slack, email or in-app) to a specified person or team. The workflow stores its state and resumes only when the designated person responds — approving, rejecting or providing requested input. According to user reviews on G2, this is the feature most frequently cited as Relay's primary reason for choosing it over alternatives.