Relay.app is shutting down: the dates, the export, and where to go

The confirmed dates

• Free accounts: Saturday, August 15, 2026 at 23:59 PT. Free users get 30 days from the announcement. After this date, free accounts and all associated data are permanently deleted.
• Paying customers: Monday, September 14, 2026 at 23:59 PT. Paid workspaces get 60 days, plus an additional 25,000 steps and 10,000 AI credits per month during the wind-down, and priority support for transition questions.
• Refunds: annual customers receive an automatic prorated refund for the unused part of their billing period, within about five business days.
• New signups and free-to-paid upgrades are already closed. Existing workflows keep running until the relevant deadline.

One nuance worth knowing: some summaries of the announcement swap the two dates. The authoritative wording on relay.app gives free users 30 days (August 15) and paying customers 60 days (September 14). If you are on a paid plan, you have the later date, but do not plan around the extra month; the export itself has its own deadlines built in, covered next.

What to do before your deadline

1. Export your workspace now, not on the last day

In the Relay dashboard, choose Export workspace data. Two timing details catch people out: generating the export can take up to 24 hours for larger workspaces, and the emailed download link is only valid for 48 hours. Treat the export as a task for this week, whichever deadline applies to you.

2. Know what is in the export

The zip contains a folder for each workflow, sequence, MCP server, and table:

• prompt.md: a plain-language description of the workflow, written to be pasted into another tool or an AI assistant. For rebuilding, this is the most useful file.
• workflow.json: the exact structure of the workflow. No other tool imports it natively; Relay recommends letting an AI interpret it.
• Run history: a CSV of past runs (up to 100,000 rows) plus a JSON file per run, including inputs, outputs, and AI chat history.
• Table data: CSVs of any Relay tables.

Screenshots of workflow layouts are not included in the zip; if the visual arrangement matters to you, capture those manually from the workflow editor.

3. Note your credentials

App credentials and tokens are deleted with your workspace. Nothing sensitive leaves in the export, which also means you will re-authenticate every integration in whatever tool you move to.

Why this shutdown is different from most

Relay was the human-in-the-loop automation product. Its signature idea was that a person could sit inside the workflow: review the AI's draft, approve the step, then let it run. Relay officially recommends Zapier, Make, and n8n as replacements, and all three are excellent workflow builders. But in each of them, approval is an optional step you have to add and maintain, not the default way the product works. Teams that used Relay precisely because nothing went out without sign-off should evaluate replacements on that one question first.

The replacement options, honestly

• Zapier fits if app coverage is what you need most: thousands of integrations and a mature builder. It has published its own Relay migration guide. Approval-style steps exist but are off by default.
• Make fits complex multi-step scenarios at a low entry price, and is offering Relay customers a white-glove migration. Human approval requires workarounds.
• n8n fits technical teams: node-based, code-friendly, self-hostable. Approval means wiring up wait steps yourself.
• AI assistants (Relay's own suggestion for one-off automations): tools like Claude or ChatGPT can run incidental tasks from a prompt, without a standing workflow at all.
• flo.space, this site, fits small B2B teams whose Relay workflows existed to draft and send business communications with an approval step: invoices, customer replies, order updates, payment reminders. AI prepares each action from Gmail, QuickBooks, Shopify, Stripe, and 10 other tools, and every action waits in an approval queue until a person sends it. It is not a workflow builder, and it is in early access. The comparison page covers where it does and does not fit.

Migration checklist with dates

1. This week: request the full workspace export; download it within 48 hours of the email.
2. By August 1: list your workflows and mark each one: still needed, nice to have, or dead. Migrate only the first group.
3. By August 8 (free) or September 1 (paid): pick the replacement per workflow. One tool rarely covers everything; it is fine to split.
4. Before your deadline (August 15 free / September 14 paid): rebuild the must-have workflows, run each once end to end, and only then stop relying on Relay.
5. After migrating: revoke Relay's access in the connected apps' security settings (Google, Microsoft, etc.). Relay deletes its copies, but revoking is good hygiene.

Common questions