Delays

Setting up a delay
Configuration

Automations are currently in private alpha and only available to a limited number of users. APIs might change before GA.To use the methods on this page, you must upgrade your Resend SDK:

npm install resend@6.10.0-preview-workflows.3

A delay step pauses the Automation for a specified duration before continuing to the next step. Common use cases:

Email sequences — Space out emails in an onboarding series.
Cooldowns — Prevent sending too many emails in a short period.
Follow-ups — Give users time to take action before sending a reminder.

Setting up a delay

Using the dashboard
Using the API

You can configure a “Time Delay” duration using natural language.

The delay step accepts a single seconds field.

import { Resend } from 'resend';

const resend = new Resend('re_xxxxxxxxx');

const { data, error } = await resend.automations.create({
  name: 'Welcome Series',
  steps: [
    {
      ref: 'trigger',
      type: 'trigger',
      config: { eventName: 'user.created' },
    },
    {
      ref: 'wait_1_day',
      type: 'delay',
      config: { seconds: 86400 },
    },
  ],
  edges: [{ from: 'trigger', to: 'wait_1_day', edge_type: 'default' }],
});

Common delay durations:

Duration	Seconds
30 minutes	`1800`
1 hour	`3600`
12 hours	`43200`
1 day	`86400`
3 days	`259200`
1 week	`604800`

The minimum delay is 1 second and the maximum delay is 2592000 seconds (30 days).

Configuration

Field	Type	Required	Description
`seconds`	`number`	Yes	The number of seconds to wait before continuing.

{
  "ref": "wait_1_day",
  "type": "delay",
  "config": {
    "seconds": 86400
  }
}

View the Create Automation Steps API reference.

Triggers

Runs

⌘I

Documentation

Quickstart

Learn

Resources

Setting up a delay

Configuration

Documentation

Quickstart

Learn

Resources

​Setting up a delay

​Configuration

Setting up a delay

Configuration