Build Your First AI Automation
Build a real automation that stars an email, summarizes it with AI, and logs it to a spreadsheet — no coding required.
What You're Building
Star an email in Gmail, and within a few minutes it shows up in a Google Sheet with an AI-written summary and a suggested next action — automatically, with nothing else to click. That's the whole automation. By the end of this guide, it'll be running on your own accounts.
Get Your Accounts Ready
Two accounts, both free to set up. The next step explains exactly what "free" means here, since it's not quite unlimited.
Confirm you have a Google account
Make sure you can sign in to both mail.google.com and sheets.google.com with the same account.
Gmail is where the automation watches for emails; Google Sheets is where the results land.
Both sites open to your inbox and your Sheets home screen without asking you to sign up.
Why this guide needs a bit more than "free"
Zapier's permanently free plan only allows one trigger and one action per automation — enough for many simple automations, but not this one, which needs an AI step in between the trigger and the final result. Every new Zapier account also gets an automatic 14-day trial of Zapier's paid Professional plan, with no credit card required, and that trial removes the one-trigger-one-action limit — that's what we'll use to build and test this guide at no cost. The trial doesn't unlock everything, though: Zapier's built-in AI step comes in a few quality tiers, and only the most basic one is available on the free plan or the trial. You'll deliberately pick that one later in this guide, not by accident. After 14 days, your account automatically reverts to the free plan (you're not charged anything). If you want to keep this exact automation running past that point, you can either upgrade or simplify it down to two steps (for example, by dropping the separate AI step). More on that at the end.
Create your Zapier account
Go to zapier.com and sign up for a free account — signing up with your Google account is the quickest way.
Zapier is the automation platform that connects Gmail, AI, and Google Sheets together without writing any code.
You're taken into account setup — either a short set of onboarding questions or straight to your dashboard.
Get through the onboarding questions
If Zapier asks what kind of work you do, pick whichever option is closest — "Other" is fine if nothing fits. If it asks about company size, pick the smallest option that applies to you (for a solo beginner, that's usually something like "Just me" or "1"). If it asks which apps you use, select Gmail and Google Sheets if they're listed.
These questions personalize your Zapier dashboard — they don't affect whether the automation works, and Zapier can reword or reorder them over time. Answer based on what's closest, not word-for-word.
You land on the Zapier dashboard.
Stuck?
If a screen doesn't have an obvious way forward, look for "Skip" or "Continue" — any reasonable answer here is fine, since none of it affects the automation itself.
How Automations Work
Before opening Zapier, it helps to see the shape every automation follows — the same shape you'll reuse for anything you build after this.
Trigger: the thing that starts it
A trigger is the event your automation watches for. In this guide, that's starring an email in Gmail — nothing runs until that happens.
AI: the thing that thinks
Between the trigger and the result, an AI step can read the data and produce something new. Here, it turns a raw email into a short summary and a suggested next action.
Action: the thing that happens
An action is what the automation actually does with the result. Here, that's adding a new row to a Google Sheet. One automation (Zapier calls it a "Zap") can chain a trigger and several actions together, run in order.
Build the Trigger
This is where the automation starts: watching Gmail for emails you star.
Create a new Zap
In Zapier, click Create, then Zaps, to start a new, blank automation.
A Zap is Zapier's name for one automation — one trigger plus one or more actions.
You're on a blank Zap editor with an empty trigger step at the top.
Choose Gmail as the trigger app
Search for and select Gmail as the trigger app.
The trigger app is the place your automation watches for something to happen.
Gmail appears as your trigger step.
Stuck?
If Gmail doesn't appear, make sure you're typing into the app search box at the top of the step, not a different field.
Select the trigger event
Choose "New Starred Email" as the trigger event, then continue.
The trigger event tells Zapier exactly which kind of Gmail activity should start the automation — new starred emails, not every new email. Other similar-looking events exist in the same list ("New Label," "New Email," "New Attachment," and more) — "New Starred Email" is the one this guide needs.
The step now shows "New Starred Email" as the selected event.
This trigger only looks for emails starred within the last 2 days — that matters for the test in a couple of steps, so keep it in mind.
Connect your Gmail account
Click to sign in with Google, then choose the Gmail account you want to automate.
Zapier needs permission to read your Gmail account so it can notice when you star something. This opens a real Google sign-in and permissions screen — you're briefly leaving Zapier's site to approve access, then returning automatically.
Your Gmail address appears as the connected account in the trigger step.
Stuck?
If the Google sign-in window doesn't appear at all, your browser's pop-up blocker is probably blocking it — allow pop-ups for zapier.com and try again. If sign-in opens but won't complete and you have Google's Advanced Protection Program turned on for this account, that's the cause: it's a Google account security setting that blocks Zapier's Gmail connection until you turn it off in your Google account settings, not a Zapier problem.
Test the trigger
Star a real email in Gmail right now, then click Test trigger in Zapier.
Zapier needs one real example to see what data is available — sender, subject, body — so later steps can use it.
The test returns a real email, showing its sender, subject, and body.
Stuck?
If nothing comes back, make sure you have a real email starred within the last 2 days — "New Starred Email" only looks back 2 days, so an email you starred a while ago won't show up. Star (or re-star) a real email right now, then click Test trigger again.
Add the AI Step
Next, an AI step turns the raw email into something useful: a short summary and a suggested next action.
Add an action step
Click the + button below your trigger to add a new step.
Actions run after the trigger, in order — this is how a Zap goes from one event to a finished result.
A new, empty action step appears below your Gmail trigger.
Choose AI by Zapier
Search for and select "AI by Zapier" as the action. It opens directly into a configuration screen with a Prompt field, a model-tier selector below it, and an Output Fields section further down.
This is Zapier's built-in AI step — it runs on Zapier's own AI, so you don't need a separate OpenAI account, API key, or AI subscription. It offers a few different tiers of AI model, which you'll set deliberately in the next step.
AI by Zapier appears as your second step, with an empty Prompt field visible.
Set the model tier to Standard
Directly under the Prompt field, find the model-tier selector. Click it and choose Standard, if it isn't already selected.
AI by Zapier has four tiers: Standard, Advanced, Premium, and Bring Your Own Key. A newly added AI step can default to Premium — but Advanced and Premium both require an actual paid Zapier plan, not just your 14-day trial, so leaving either one selected will hit a paywall the moment you try to use it. Standard is available on both the free plan and the trial, and it's enough for a simple summarize-and-extract task like this one.
The model-tier selector shows Standard selected — something like "Standard (Auto) · 1 task."
Stuck?
If the selector already shows Advanced or Premium, or clicking either one shows a message like "Advanced and premium tiers require a paid plan. Upgrade plan." — that's expected on a trial or free account, not an error. Click the selector and choose Standard instead; this guide only ever needs Standard tier.
On Standard tier, this step costs 1 task per run. Advanced (3 tasks) and Premium (5 tasks) cost more and aren't available on the trial anyway — Standard is what this guide uses throughout.
Write the AI prompt
In the Prompt field, delete Zapier's example/template text completely. Then type this exact prompt, leaving your cursor right after "Email:" when you're done:
This prompt tells the AI exactly what to read and exactly what shape to hand back — a summary and a next action — instead of leaving the format to guess.
The Prompt field contains only this text, with none of Zapier's original example text left over, and your cursor sits right after "Email:".
Read the email below. Return: - Summary: a short one-sentence summary of the email. - Next Action: the single most useful next action to take. If no action is needed, write "No action needed." Email:
Insert the email body as a dynamic field
With your cursor still right after "Email:", type a space, then "/", to open the dynamic-data picker — typing "/" immediately after "Email:" with no space first won't open it. Choose Step 1 — New Starred Email in Gmail, then select "Body Plain".
A dynamic field is live data from an earlier step — Zapier swaps in the real email every time the automation runs. It's different from text you type yourself, which never changes.
A small field token labeled "Body Plain" (from Step 1) now appears inside the Prompt field, right after "Email:" — not plain typed words.
Stuck?
Do not type "Body Plain" yourself. If you type it, the AI only ever sees the literal words "Body Plain" instead of a real email. Always insert it from the dynamic-data picker instead. If "/" doesn't open a picker and just inserts a slash character, that means there was no space before it — type a space, then "/" again. You can delete the space afterward, or just leave it; either way works.
Add the Output Fields
Open the Output Fields section and check what's already there before adding anything. Zapier sometimes auto-generates one or two fields from your prompt text as soon as you type it — often with a different name than you need, like "Email Summary" instead of "Summary." Edit any existing fields to match the exact names and settings below, and add any fields that are missing, so you end up with exactly these two:
Output Fields tell the AI step exactly what pieces of data to hand to the next step. Without them, you'd get one blob of text instead of a separate Summary and Next Action you can map individually. A later step maps a Google Sheets column to a field literally named "Summary" — if an auto-generated field is left named "Email Summary" instead, that mapping step won't find it.
Two output fields exist, named exactly Summary and Next Action — both set to Text and both marked Required. It doesn't matter whether you created them from scratch or renamed fields Zapier auto-generated, as long as the final names, types, and Required settings match exactly.
Field 1 Name: Summary Type: Text Description: A short one-sentence summary of the email. Required: On Field 2 Name: Next Action Type: Text Description: The single most useful next action to take. Required: On
Run the test
Click Continue, then open the Test panel and click Retest step.
This runs the AI for real, using your test email, so you can confirm the exact outputs before touching Google Sheets.
The test completes successfully and shows two real outputs: a Summary sentence and a Next Action sentence, both generated from your actual test email.
Stuck?
If the test fails, or the outputs look empty or wrong, fix the Prompt or Output Fields above and retest. Do not continue to the Google Sheets chapter until this test succeeds — every later step depends on these two outputs existing.
Send the Result to Google Sheets
Last, the result gets saved somewhere you can actually see it: a running list in Google Sheets.
Set up your Google Sheet
Create a new Google Sheet and type these four column headers into cells A1 through D1, one per column.
Zapier will match each column to a piece of data in the next step — these headers need to already exist before you configure that step, not after.
Your sheet has one header row with four labeled columns and no other data yet.
Sender Subject Summary Next Action
Add the Google Sheets action
Click + to add another action, search for and select Google Sheets, then choose "Create Spreadsheet Row" as the event.
This is the second action — the last stop in the automation, where the AI's output actually gets saved somewhere permanent.
Google Sheets "Create Spreadsheet Row" appears as your third step.
Stuck?
Searching "row" also returns "Create Spreadsheet Row at Top" and "Create Multiple Spreadsheet Rows" — similar names, different behavior. Pick exactly "Create Spreadsheet Row" (not "at Top," not "Multiple").
Connect your account and choose the sheet
Sign in with the same Google account, then choose your spreadsheet and the correct tab.
Zapier needs to know exactly which spreadsheet, and which tab in it, to write new rows into. Signing in here opens a real Google sign-in and permissions screen again, the same way connecting Gmail did — approve access so Zapier can write new rows into this spreadsheet.
Your spreadsheet's name and tab both appear selected in the step.
Map each column to the exact source
Map each field to the source below — click each field, then choose the value from the dynamic-data picker. Never type these by hand:
Each column pulls from a different earlier step — Gmail for who the email was from and what it was about, and the AI step for what it means and what to do about it.
All four fields show a small labeled token naming Step 1 or Step 2 — not plain typed text.
Stuck?
Do not type "From", "Subject", "Summary", or "Next Action" into these fields yourself. Each one must be inserted from the dynamic-data picker. If Summary or Next Action aren't visible in the picker right away, look for "Step Output {…}" — click it to expand, then select the field from inside it.
Sender → Step 1: New Starred Email in Gmail → From Name (if From Name isn't available, use the closest sender/from field Gmail offers) Subject → Step 1: New Starred Email in Gmail → Subject Summary → Step 2: AI by Zapier → Summary Next Action → Step 2: AI by Zapier → Next Action
Double-check your mapping before continuing
Before clicking Continue, look at all four fields one more time.
It's much faster to fix a mapping mistake now than after testing.
Sender and Subject each show a dynamic token from Step 1; Summary and Next Action each show a dynamic token from Step 2; none of the four fields contain plain typed placeholder text.
Test this step
Click Continue, then click Test step.
This actually creates one real row in your connected Google Sheet, using your test email's data — it's not a simulation.
Open Google Sheets yourself and look at the new row: a real sender, a real subject, an AI-written summary, and an AI-written next action. A green "Success" message inside Zapier is not enough on its own — the row in your actual sheet is the real check.
Stuck?
If the row is blank, shows literal field names instead of real data, or looks misaligned, go back to the mapping step — a field was likely typed instead of inserted as dynamic data, or your header order doesn't match what you mapped.
Turn It On and Test It For Real
Your Zap works in testing — now let's make it run on its own.
Name your Zap
Give your Zap a clear name, like "Starred Email to AI Summary to Sheet".
A clear name matters once you have more than one Zap — it's the only thing you'll see in your Zapier dashboard.
The name appears at the top of the editor instead of "Untitled Zap".
Publish and turn it on
Click Publish, then confirm the on/off toggle is set to On.
A Zap only runs automatically once it's published and turned on — building and testing it doesn't do that for you.
The toggle shows On, and the Zap appears as Published in your Zaps list.
Stuck?
If everything worked while testing but nothing happens later, this is almost always the reason — go back and confirm the toggle is On, not just that you clicked Publish once.
Try it with a real email
Go to Gmail and star a different, real email you haven't used before. Then allow a few minutes, open your Google Sheet, and check for a new row.
This is the real test: no sample data, just your live automation reacting to something you actually did. Zapier's Gmail trigger checks for new starred emails periodically rather than firing the instant you star one, so expect a short wait, not an instant result.
A new row appears in your Google Sheet with that email's real sender, subject, AI summary, and suggested next action.
Stuck?
If nothing shows up after waiting a while, open the Zap's "Zap History" tab in Zapier to see whether it ran yet, and what error it hit if not, before assuming something's wrong.
On Standard tier, each run of this Zap uses 2 tasks total — 1 for the AI step, 1 for the Google Sheets action. Your trial's task limit is nowhere close to being a concern for a few test runs.
What You Learned + Where to Go Next
The pattern behind every automation
Every automation you build from here follows the same shape: a trigger starts it, an optional AI step can think about the data, and one or more actions do something with the result. Swap out Gmail, the AI instructions, or Google Sheets, and you can build a very different automation using the exact same shape.
Ideas to try next
A few small variations using what you just learned: trigger on a Gmail label instead of a star and route different senders to different sheets; add a second action that also posts the summary to Slack; or change the AI instruction to rank urgency instead of summarizing.
What happens after your trial
Your 14-day trial unlocked the multi-step Zap this guide needed. When it ends, Zapier automatically moves your account to the free plan, and a three-step Zap like this one will pause, since the free plan allows only one trigger and one action. If you want to keep it running, you can upgrade, or simplify it to two steps by removing the separate AI step. The Standard AI tier you used throughout stays available either way — trial, free, or paid — it's the multi-step Zap limit that changes, not which AI tier you can use.
Star a real email in Gmail right now. Within a couple of minutes, a new row should appear in your Google Sheet with that email's sender, subject, an AI-written summary, and a suggested next action.
- The row appeared without you touching Zapier again
- The Summary and Next Action columns contain real, readable text, not blank cells or literal placeholder words
- Starring a second, different email produces a second, different row
Recommended next