Polling
Checking an external service for changes at regular intervals (e.g., "check for new emails every 5 minutes"). Less efficient and slower than webhooks, but necessary when a service does not support webhooks. Increases API usage and latency.
Expert insight
Polling frequency is a direct trade-off between responsiveness and API budget: polling every minute means data is at most a minute stale but can burn through a rate limit fast on a busy account, polling every hour is gentle on quota but means a customer's action might not trigger a response for up to 59 minutes. Set the interval based on how time-sensitive the workflow actually is, not a default "every 5 minutes" copied from a template.
In a real workflow
A workflow checks an FTP folder every 10 minutes for new files because the supplier offers no webhooks.
Common mistakes
- Polling too often and wasting quota.
- Not tracking what was already processed.
Complexity level
Requires some familiarity with automation concepts.
See it in action
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Go deeper
Guides that cover Polling
Webhook vs polling: the architecture decision that determines your automation quality.
It is the most overlooked architecture decision in workflow automation, and getting it wrong adds latency, wastes API quota, and creates reliability problems that are painful to fix later.
Auto Repair Shop Automation: Status Updates, Reminders, and Reviews (2026)
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n8n LinkedIn Job Automation: Auto-Apply, Track, and Follow Up on Jobs
Manual job hunting on LinkedIn consumes 2-4 hours daily between searching, tailoring applications, and tracking responses. An n8n workflow automates the entire pipeline from new job alerts to personalised applications to follow-up sequences.