What is your goal?
I want to completely “Turn Off” the scenario or prevent it from consuming credits during the day (06:01 AM – 21:59 PM) and automatically “Turn it On” at night.
What is the problem & what have you tried?
I’m looking for a way to manage my Chatbot scenario more efficiently regarding credit usage.
Current Setup:
Trigger: Webhook (Run Immediately) connected to a Page/Messaging platform.
Logic: I want the chatbot to respond ONLY during the night (22:00 PM – 06:00 AM) when my team is offline.
Current Solution: I added a filter at the first module to check the current time. If it’s during the day, the filter stops the execution.
The Problem:
Even though the filter stops the rest of the modules, each incoming message during the day still triggers the webhook and consumes 1 credit. Since the page is very active during the day, I’m losing over 3,500 credits per day just on these filtered-out executions.
Error messages or input/output bundles
Questions:
Is there a way to schedule the “Active/Inactive” status of a scenario automatically?
Can I use the Make API to create another scenario that toggles this chatbot scenario on/off based on a schedule?
Are there any other best practices to handle high-volume webhooks that should only be active at specific times without wasting credits?
Screenshots (scenario flow, module settings, errors)
Hey there,
That’s a tricky one. Even if you disable the scenario during the day, the webhook queue will still be there. So when you enable the scenario it will still process all the events that have accumulated during the day.
I assume this needs to be instant? Maybe you can look into having the webhook elsewhere and then it will only forward the event to Make between the needed hours.
Hi everyone,
After some research into the Make API, I found a way to stop this waste entirely. Here is the setup that worked for me:
-
The Control Scenario
Instead of using filters inside the main chatbot scenario, I created a separate Control Scenario. I set the schedule to Every Day with two specific times: 22:05 to turn the bot ON and 06:05 to turn it OFF. This ensures that when the bot is Inactive during the day, no credits are consumed by incoming webhooks.
-
Dealing with the Webhook Queue
The biggest hurdle was that Make stores all daytime messages in a queue. If you simply reactivate the scenario at 22:05, it will instantly process the entire day’s backlog and burn all those credits anyway. You have to clear the queue first.
-
The Solution: API Purge
The key is to delete the queue data right before activating the scenario. In my OPEN route (22:05), I added a Make an API Call module before the Start Scenario module.
Here is the configuration for the API Call:
- Method: DELETE
- URL: /hooks/YOUR_WEBHOOK_ID/incomings?confirmed=true
- Body: {“all”: true}
Note: You must use the actual Webhook ID (the integer found in your browser URL when viewing the webhook detail) and not the Scenario ID. Also, ensure your API Token has hooks:read and hooks:write permissions.
- The Final Logic Flow
- Route 1 (At 22:05): Make API Call (Delete Queue) → Update a Scenario (Set Active).
- Route 2 (At 06:05): Update a Scenario (Set Inactive).
This setup has been a lifesaver. I went from losing thousands of credits to almost zero wasted executions during the day. I hope this helps anyone looking to optimize their credit usage!
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