Relay.app announced on July 16, 2026 that it is winding down. Free accounts closed on August 15. Paid accounts close on September 14, 2026 at 11:59 PM Pacific, and after that everything is permanently deleted: workflows, run history, tables — and the stored credentials and app tokens your automations run on.
If you run anything on Relay that matters, you have a hard deadline and a short list of things to do in the right order. This guide covers the dates, what to pull out of the export (and which file actually matters), and an honest look at where to rebuild — including when we're the wrong answer.
The dates that matter
- July 16, 2026 — wind-down announced. New signups and free-to-paid upgrades disabled immediately.
- August 15, 2026 — free accounts closed and their data deleted.
- September 14, 2026, 11:59 PM PT — paid accounts close. Accounts, workflows, run history, tables, and stored credentials are permanently deleted.
To Relay's credit, the wind-down is being handled well: paid workspaces get the final 60-day window free with extra steps and AI credits, annual plans get prorated refunds, and every workspace can export its data. That last part is where your attention should go first.
Export everything today — before you decide anything
Two operational details make the export the first move, not the last: generation can take up to 24 hours, and the emailed download link expires 48 hours after it lands. Export queues also get slower as the deadline approaches. Request the full workspace export now, decide where you're going later.
The workspace ZIP contains, per workflow:
- An AI build prompt (.md) — a plain-language spec of the trigger, the steps, the branching, and the AI instructions.
- The structure JSON — the workflow's internal representation.
- Run history (CSV) — up to 100,000 rows of past runs, plus per-run JSON with step detail.
- Table data as CSV, where applicable.
Only one of those files travels
Here's the part most people miss. Relay says directly that the structure JSON won't import into any other tool — every automation platform models nodes differently, so there is no interchange format for workflows. The JSON is a reference document, not a migration file.
That's exactly why Relay generates the build prompt: a description of the workflow in plain language is the only artifact that survives the trip between platforms. Save one for every workflow you care about. It's your migration payload.
And don't skip the run history CSVs. Past runs are test fixtures: replay a handful through whatever you rebuild and compare the output before you switch a trigger over. That's the difference between believing a rebuild works and knowing it does.
One thing no destination can fix
Stored credentials and app tokens are deleted with your account, and there is no way to export them. Every integration in every rebuilt workflow needs a fresh OAuth connection — in Zapier, in Make, in n8n, in Falcon Builder, anywhere. Plan the reconnection work into your timeline, and do it while Relay is still running so you can compare both systems live during the overlap.
Where to go: an honest comparison
Relay's own docs point departing users to Zapier, n8n, and Make. Whether that's the right call depends on what your workflows actually do.
If your workflows are mostly deterministic — a trigger, a few API calls, a branch — Zapier, Make, or n8n will serve you fine. They're mature, the integration catalogs are enormous, and your build prompt works as a spec for a manual rebuild: read it, recreate each step by hand, done. We've written up the honest trade-offs against each: Zapier, Make, n8n.
If the AI steps are the point — extraction, classification, drafting, routing on intent — you chose Relay over those tools once already, and rebuilding on a canvas that bolts AI on will feel like a downgrade. That's the gap Falcon Builder is built for, and it changes what the build prompt is worth: instead of being a spec a human reads while hand-building, the prompt is the input.
Paste it into the importer and Falcon proposes the node graph. You see every node it mapped before anything is created; anything it couldn't map cleanly is flagged on the canvas rather than silently dropped; and the workflow is created inactive, on a real editable canvas with per-node execution logs — nothing runs until you reconnect credentials, test, and activate it.
One mapping worth calling out, because it was Relay's signature feature: workflows that pause for a human decision. Falcon has a native Human Approval node — the workflow suspends, the request lands in an Approvals queue, and approve / reject / timeout each route to their own branch. Your approval-gated workflows rebuild as approval-gated workflows, not as something less.
How Relay concepts map to Falcon nodes
| Relay concept | Falcon Builder node |
|---|---|
| Trigger: form / webhook / app event | Webhook trigger |
| Trigger: schedule | Schedule trigger |
| Trigger: inbound email | Email, Gmail, or Outlook trigger |
| AI step (extract / classify / draft) | AI Prompt |
| Paths / conditional branches | Condition or Switch |
| Iterate / for-each | Loop |
| Human-in-the-loop approval | Human Approval (Approvals queue) |
| Tables | Google Sheets, Airtable, or Postgres — flagged during import |
| App action without a native node | HTTP Request |
The migration sequence
- Export the full workspace today. 24-hour generation, 48-hour link. Everything else can wait; this can't.
- Rank workflows by what breaks if they stop. Revenue, customer response, billing, and time-sensitive alerts first. Most workspaces have three or four workflows that genuinely cannot fail and a long tail that can wait or die.
- Rebuild from the prompt, starting with the one that would hurt most. Paste it into the importer (or hand-rebuild in the tool you chose), review, and fix what the mapping got wrong.
- Reconnect credentials and run both in parallel. Replay historical runs from the CSVs, compare outputs node by node, then — and only then — switch the trigger over.
The lesson worth keeping
Relay raised $8.1M from Khosla Ventures and a16z, was founded by an ex-Google product lead for Gmail and Calendar, and still wound down. The takeaway isn't that automation platforms are risky — it's that you should know the exit before you build the thing you depend on. Ask any platform you evaluate, including us: what exports, on which tiers, in what format? Our answer is on the migration page, in writing, before you owe us anything.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import the Relay JSON directly?
No — and not into anything else either. Relay states the JSON won't work through another tool's native importer. Use the build prompt; keep the JSON for reference.
What does migrating to Falcon Builder cost?
The free tier is enough to rebuild and test — no card required. If you'd rather hand it off: teams starting on Pro ($29/mo) get their first three workflows migrated free, with you on a call, same week. Details on the Relay migration page.
What happens if I miss the September 14 deadline?
Your account and all associated data — workflows, run history, tables, credentials — are permanently deleted. There is no grace period for retrieving data afterward, which is why the export comes first in every version of this plan.