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What are "operations" and how do I count them?

Operations are the most important Albato unit for measuring the amount of data that has been transferred.


Let's get into detail about how to count an operation.

An operation in Albato is a run of an automation step. It means that each automation step creates one operation. The number of operations will differ for automations with API and webhooks triggers. Let's take a look at both examples.



How to count operations with a webhook trigger



When setting up an automation, pay attention to the icon next to the trigger’s name to identify the data transferring mode.



This is a webhook icon.



How do we count operations? Here is an example.

This automations has three steps.



Since Facebook is a webhook trigger, Albato doesn’t make any requests to receive the data. Facebook will send data (webhook) to Albato when a trigger occurs. This automation will spend three operations for a single run.

If we set up the Incoming data filter for the trigger, and it filters out the data, then we spend only one operation. Albato doesn’t charge for the filter operation in a trigger. You pay only for new data received by a trigger.

How to count operations with an API trigger



Automations with API triggers spend operations differently. In this case, Albato makes requests for new data to a source app once in a while. The request frequency can be configured in the automation Start Schedule section. Let's suppose our automation runs every 15 minutes and receives 1 unit of new data in a whole day.



This automation also has three steps, but this trigger doesn’t send Albato data. Albato makes requests to receive new data every 15 min.
That means, this automation will spend one operation per request each 15 min, as follows four operations per one hour.
24 hours in a day: 24*4 = 96 operations per day we will need to trigger this automation. In case of the absence of data or filter operation, the number of requests will be the same. In case you receive data, the automation will spend operation for each step.


Go to the Automation builder to set up the Start Schedule.

Updated on: 12/06/2023

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