Using the Wait until action in a workflow

The Wait until action lets you pause an automation until a specific day and time before the workflow continues. This is useful when you want automation steps — such as sending an email — to run at a predictable, intentional time rather than immediately or after a fixed delay.

Unlike the Time delay action, which waits a set amount of time after a subscriber enters an automation, Wait until ensures the next step runs at an exact scheduled time. For example, you could hold subscribers until Wednesday at 5:00 AM CT, so everyone receives the next message at the same time.

1. Go to Audience > Automations, then create a new automation or open an existing workflow.
    
2. Locate the step where you want to pause the workflow, click the + icon below it, and select Wait until from the actions menu.
   
   
   
3. When added, the Properties panel will open on the right. Any updates you make in the panel are reflected immediately on the Wait until action card in the workflow.
   
   
   

The Wait until action pauses subscribers at that step until the conditions you set are met.

Choose between:

• Any day of the week: Use this option to wait until a specific time, regardless of the day.
• Specific day(s): Select one or more days of the week. The workflow will continue on the next matching day at the selected time. Multiple days can be chosen together. 
• At: Choose the exact time using AM or PM.
• In: Select from the default timezone in your account, the timezone of the subscriber, or a specific timezone. 

The Wait until action can be combined with other delay steps in the same automation.

If a time-based delay comes after a Wait until step, that delay is added on top of the scheduled time. For example, if you set a Wait until step for 5:00 AM CT and follow it with a 10-minute Time delay step, the next step will run at 5:10 AM CT.

This makes it easy to schedule automation messages for a fixed time, then fine-tune delivery timing with additional delays if needed.

The Wait until action works best when timing matters. It’s especially useful for aligning automation emails with business hours, sending messages on a specific weekday, or ensuring subscribers receive content at consistent, high-engagement times. If your goal is simply to delay a step by a fixed amount of time, such as waiting one day after signup, using the Time delay action may be a better fit.

Keep in mind that the Wait until action pauses the workflow until its conditions are met and does not send emails on its own. Subscribers will continue through the automation automatically once the scheduled time is reached.