Getting started
Quickstart
Build a workflow, run it, and put it on a schedule. About ten minutes, no card needed.
This guide builds a small workflow end to end: it fetches something over HTTP, asks an AI model to summarise it, and sends the summary by mail. Swap any step for one you would rather use; the shape stays the same.
Create your account
Go to visualautomate.com and sign up. The free plan needs no card and has no time limit.
Create a workflow
In the dashboard, open Projects and create a new one. Each project is one workflow with its own canvas. Prefer a head start? Templates has examples you can copy and change.
Connect the accounts it will use
Open Connections and connect the services the workflow acts as, for this guide your mailbox. You sign in on the provider's own page; VisualAutomate never sees your password. See Connecting accounts.
Draw the steps
Drag three steps onto the canvas and join them with lines, left to right:
- HTTP Request, pointed at a page or API you want summarised.
- ChatGPT Ask (or Gemini Ask), with a prompt that uses the response of the first step.
- Outlook Send, with the answer as the body.
Pass data from step to step
Fields take values from earlier steps with variables. Type {{ in a field, or use the variable list beside it, and pick what you need, for example {{http_request.data.body}} in the prompt and {{chatgpt_ask.data.text}} in the mail. See Variables and filters.
Press Run and watch it
Save, then press Run. Each step lights up as it starts and finishes, and its input, output and log are there to read. If a step fails, the log says why, and you can fix it and run it again on the same data.
Decide what starts it
A workflow you press Run on is useful while building. To let it run on its own, add a schedule, give it a webhook, or start it when mail arrives.
Field names such as text and body depend on the step. The variable list beside each field shows what the previous steps actually returned in their last run, so you rarely have to guess.
What it costs
A workflow made only of steps that call a service costs one credit for every step that runs. This one is three steps, so three credits per run. A workflow with a step that runs your own code gets an isolated sandbox and is charged for the time it is up. Every run shows what it cost. See Credits and billing.
Next steps
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