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Automations: conditions

Marian Luht

Last updated: November 9, 2026

Note: Automations is only available on Growth and higher plans.

When building an automation, choosing the right conditions determines whether your automation triggers correctly. Conditions act as filters that must be met for the automation to continue.

To start building an automation, open the account menu and go to Tools and apps > Automations, then click “+ Automation”.

Choose the right condition type

After setting up your trigger and selecting an item, you can define the conditions that control when the automation runs.

Understand condition types

All automation conditions fall into two types:

Condition type	What it means	Example
Passive	Describes a state. No change or action is required.	“Deal creator is me”
Active	Depends on a change or update to a field.	“Person label has changed to cold”

In practice:

Use passive conditions to narrow down which items qualify
Use active conditions when your automation depends on a change

This distinction is important when setting up or troubleshooting automations.

Common conditions and how to use them

Once you understand the difference, the next step is choosing the right condition for your use case.

Condition	Condition type	What it does	Example
Has changed to	Active	Checks that a field has changed to a specific value	“Deal stage has changed to proposal”
Has changed	Active	Checks if a field changed to any value	“Deal stage has changed.”
Was	Active	Checks the value a field had just before the update that triggered the automation	“Deal stage was qualified”
Was not	Active	Checks that a field didn’t have a specific value just before the update	“Deal owner was not user A”
Is	Passive	Checks if a field currently has a specific value. If used with update triggers, it checks the field's new value.	“Deal stage is proposal” and “Deal owner has changed”
Contains	Passive	Matches text within a field	“Person name contains business”
Is not empty	Passive	Checks if a field has any value	“Organization address is not empty.”
Owner/assigned to user is	Passive	Checks who an item is assigned to	“Activity assigned to user is user A”
Creator is	Passive	Refers to the original creator, not the current owner	“Organization creator is user B”
Filter matches	Active	Triggers when an item enters a filter's criteria	“Person filter matches person label is cold”

Note: Date range fields can’t be used directly in conditions. To use a date range, first create a filter with the desired criteria, then apply that filter as a condition. Make sure the filter is shared if other users also need to trigger the automation.

Example: Deal moves to a stage

When you create an automation using a suggested trigger like deal moves to a stage, Pipedrive automatically adds the matching condition for you: “Deal stage has changed to X”.

You can add more conditions on top of it. For example, add “Label is New client” so the automation only runs when a deal moves into the first call stage and has the new client label.

Note: Moving a deal forward or backward will both trigger the automation. To limit it to one direction, add a “was” condition for the previous pipeline stage, such as Deal stage was qualified.

Add branching with if/else conditions

In addition to standard conditions, you can use if/else conditions to create branching logic in your automation.

This allows the automation to follow different paths depending on whether a condition is met.

Example:

“If an email is replied to, add a follow-up activity – else, send a follow-up email”.

Add an if/else condition

Click “+” to add a step, select “Check a condition” and choose “If/else condition”.

Then:

Define the condition under the condition met (this path runs when the condition is true)
Define the alternative under the condition not met (this path runs when the condition is false)
Click ”Apply conditions”

Once added, you can continue building the automation on either path.

Note: Your automation must include a trigger and at least one action. If a branch has no steps, the automation stops there.

Use if/else conditions in existing automations

You can also insert an if/else condition into an existing workflow.

When adding it:

Choose whether the existing steps should move to the condition met or condition not met path
After clicking “Apply conditions”, the steps will move automatically

Delete an if/else condition

To delete an if/else condition:

Hover over the condition and click the trash can icon
Select which path to delete – condition met or condition not met
All steps in that path will be deleted
The remaining steps will reconnect into a single linear path

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