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Wait

Wait pauses the contact for a fixed period of time or until a specific weekday and time.

When to use Wait

Use Wait when progression should depend on elapsed time rather than on a later condition or event.

If you want to continue as soon as an event happens — rather than waiting a fixed amount of time — use Pause Until instead.

Wait modes

Duration

Choose an amount and a time unit.

Unit
Minimum
Maximum

Hours

1 hour

—

Days

1 day

—

Weeks

1 week

52 weeks

Combined

—

365 days total

Examples:

  • Wait 2 days before a follow-up activation

  • Wait 12 hours before a reminder

  • Wait 1 week before a check-in message

Until day

Choose a target weekday and a time. The contact will wait until that weekday and time is next reached.

Examples:

  • Wait until next Tuesday at 09:00

  • Wait until next Monday at 08:30

Use this mode when activation should happen at a business-appropriate time regardless of when the contact entered the Journey.

Constraints

Constraint
Value

Minimum duration

1 unit

Maximum duration

365 days

After Pause Until branch

A Wait step cannot be placed directly after a Pause Until branch

Before Stop

A Wait step cannot be immediately followed by a Stop step

Common patterns

Onboarding series — delays between messages:

Send at a business-appropriate time:

Re-engagement buffer:

Best practices

  • Add a Wait before the first Activate to give contacts a buffer after entry.

  • Avoid chaining many Wait steps in a row without any Activate or Segment between them — it makes the flow hard to review.

  • Keep long Wait durations intentional and easy to justify. A 30-day wait should have a clear business reason.

  • Use Until day mode when you want activations to land on consistent days of the week.

Related pages

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