What you will build and what it costs
The scenario: someone fills in a Google Form, the response lands in a Google Sheet, Make notices the new row, and MailerLite gets a new subscriber. It is small enough to finish in one sitting and uses the three ideas every Make scenario depends on: a trigger, mapping, and a schedule.
Make's free plan includes 1,000 credits a month. [1] By default, 1 operation equals 1 credit, [2] a trigger uses 1 credit per run regardless of how many rows it returns, and each action costs 1 credit per bundle. [3] Make's own scheduling tutorial counts that trigger credit for every scheduled check, so a check that finds nothing still costs 1. [6] So each run of this scenario costs 1 credit for the check plus 1 per new signup.
| Schedule | Checks per 30-day month | Check credits | Credits left for signups on Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every 15 minutes (the default, and the Free minimum) | 2,880 | 2,880 | None; over the 1,000 allowance |
| Every 30 minutes | 1,440 | 1,440 | None; over the allowance |
| Every 60 minutes | 720 | 720 | About 280 |
| Every 2 hours | 360 | 360 | About 640 |
| Once a day | 30 | 30 | About 970 |
Step 1: connect the form, the sheet and MailerLite
In Google Forms, open Responses, then Summary, open the More menu and choose Select destination for responses. Create a new spreadsheet or pick an existing one. [4] Submit one test response yourself so the sheet has a header row and one data row to work with.
In MailerLite, open Integrations from your account menu, choose MailerLite API, then Generate New Token, name it and copy it somewhere safe. [5] Make's documentation notes that accounts created before March 22, 2022 use the MailerLite Classic app instead. [5]
In Make, create a scenario and add the Google Sheets Watch New Rows module as the trigger. Make's own tutorial uses this module to check a sheet for new rows on a schedule. [6] Then add the MailerLite Create/Update a Subscriber module, click Add next to Connection, paste the token into API Key and save. [5]
Step 2: map the fields, run once and read the bubble
In the MailerLite module, click into the email field and choose the email column from the Watch New Rows output; that click is mapping. [7] Map the name into a subscriber field and pick a group if you use one. MailerLite's API requires only a valid email; fields and groups are optional, and on an existing subscriber, values you leave out are not removed. [8] That non-destructive update means a person who submits twice is updated rather than duplicated.
Click Run once. It executes the whole scenario a single time. [9] When it finishes, each module shows a numbered bubble. Click it to see the bundles: the input Make sent and the output the app returned. [10] [7] If the trigger shows 1 and MailerLite shows 1, your test row became a subscriber. If the trigger returns nothing, add a fresh form response and run again, because a polling trigger only picks up rows that are new since it last checked. [11]
- Trigger bubble: one bundle per new row, with column values as items.
- MailerLite bubble: the output should include the subscriber record; an error here usually means a missing email or a connection problem.
- Credits: switch on the credits display next to the scenario name to see the second number beside operations. [12]
Step 3: count credits per run, then schedule it
With one new response, this run uses 2 operations: 1 for the trigger and 1 for MailerLite. With 10 new responses in one check, it uses 11, because the trigger runs once and MailerLite runs once per bundle. Make's help center uses the same arithmetic: 10 form responses and three action modules make 31 operations. [12]
Click Every 15 minutes on the toolbar to open the schedule. [13] Make Academy says the free plan's minimum gap is 15 minutes, [14] but as the table above shows, that schedule alone costs more than the free allowance. Pick hourly or every two hours, or Every day at a set time if a daily welcome batch is fine. Then save and activate: the toggle is purple when the scenario is active, [15] and a scenario that is not activated does not run on its schedule. [6]
The five settings beginners miss
All but one of these live in Scenario settings or the schedule dialog. None of them is required for a first test, but each one causes a classic week-one surprise.
| Setting | What it does | What to choose for this scenario |
|---|---|---|
| Process data in order (sequential processing) | Each run finishes before the next starts, and runs pause while incomplete executions remain [16] | Leave off for a polling sheet; consider it for webhooks, which Make processes in parallel by default [16] |
| Store incomplete executions | A failed run is saved to the incomplete executions folder instead of being rolled back [16] | Turn on, so a MailerLite outage does not lose a signup |
| Time zone | Every day schedules use the organization time zone, set under Profile, Time zone options, Scenarios, My organization [14] | Set it before choosing a daily time |
| Cycles per run | Caps how many cycles one execution runs; Run once uses only one cycle [16] | Leave the default unless one run must drain a large backlog |
| Run once versus the ON/OFF toggle | Run once tests on demand; only an activated scenario runs on schedule [15] [6] | Test with Run once, then activate; switch off test scenarios you no longer need [6] |
A first-week practice plan
Each day adds one skill and keeps your credit use small. Scenario run replay, available on all plans, lets you rerun the current version with an earlier run's trigger data; it costs credits like a normal run, and check runs that found nothing cannot be replayed. [17]
- Skip the schedule entirely if you only collect a handful of emails a month: leave the scenario off and click Run once each Friday, which costs 1 check credit plus 1 per new signup.
- If you need signups within minutes, Make's Google Sheets app also documents instant Watch Changes and Perform a Function modules that send data through a webhook, set up with Apps Script or the Make add-on. [18]
| Day | Practice | Approximate credits |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Build the scenario above, Run once with one test response | 2 |
| 2 | Submit three responses, Run once, read three bundles in the MailerLite bubble | 4 |
| 3 | Right-click MailerLite and use Run this module only to see its output alone [7] | 1 |
| 4 | Add a filter so only responses with a consent box ticked reach MailerLite; filtered bundles cost nothing [3] | 2 to 4 |
| 5 | Change the MailerLite mapping, then replay day 2's run with Run with existing data [17] | 4 |
| 6 | Turn on Store incomplete executions and Process data in order, and read what each changes [16] | 0 |
| 7 | Activate on an hourly schedule and check the bubble counts the next morning | About 24 a day plus signups |
Watch demos / Official walkthroughs
See how the tools work.
Videos load from YouTube only when you press play. These are provider videos, not our own product tests.
Make / Official video
Make—Building Your First Automated Workflow from Scratch
What to look for: Follow how modules connect and how data moves through the first workflow.
Watch on YouTubeQuestions before you decide
Why did my scenario use credits when nobody filled in the form?
A polling trigger such as Watch New Rows costs one credit every time it checks, no matter how many rows it finds. Make's scheduling tutorial counts 24 trigger credits a day for an hourly schedule before any new data is processed. Lengthen the schedule or switch the scenario off while you are not using it.
Will the MailerLite module wipe a subscriber's existing groups or fields?
MailerLite documents its create or upsert endpoint as non-destructive: if the subscriber already exists, the record is updated, and groups or fields you leave out are not removed. That makes it safe for people who sign up twice.
What is the difference between Run once and activating the scenario?
Run once executes the scenario a single time on demand so you can check it before scheduling. Activating it with the ON/OFF toggle makes it run on its schedule; a scenario that is not activated does not run on its schedule at all.
How often can the free plan run a scenario?
Make Academy says the minimum gap between scheduled runs on the free plan is 15 minutes. The free plan includes 1,000 credits a month, so a 15-minute polling schedule alone would use them up in about ten days.
Sources & verification
Product details and prices can change. Check the linked provider before buying.
- Make pricing and credits FAQ Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: Credits Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Academy: Credit consumption in Make Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Google Docs Editors Help: Choose where to save form responses Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Apps Documentation: MailerLite Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: Step 10, schedule your scenario Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: Mapping Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- MailerLite API: Subscribers Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Academy: Run once Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Academy: Introduction to bundles Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: Types of modules Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: Operations Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: Schedule a scenario Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Academy: Scheduling your scenario Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Academy: Overview of scheduling Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: Scenario settings Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: Scenario run replay Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Apps Documentation: Google Sheets Accessed 30 Oct 2026
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