How to Set Up Notion Webhooks

You know the moment when you update something in Notion and then remember that you have to duplicate the changes in other apps? Webhooks can save you from that chaos.

Notion webhooks coordinate and communicate with your other tools automatically. So, checking a box in your task list can update Google Sheets, send you a message, or initiate a new workflow.

In this blog post, we’ll show you exactly how to set up Notion webhooks. And if you want even deeper, no-code automation, we’ll look at ClickUp, which has all the built-in tools you need.

Let’s get started! 🤩

How to Set Up Webhooks in Notion

What Are Notion Webhooks and How Do They Work?

Notion webhooks are a real-time communication method that lets your workspace automatically notify another system when specific events occur. This can include triggers, such as creating a new page, updating a property, or modifying a database entry.

How Notion webhooks work when connected to external tools — via Notion

But how do they work? Here’s a concise explanation of webhooks in practice:

Provide Notion with an endpoint (a unique URL) where updates will be sent
Instruct the platform of the changes to track, such as database updates, new pages, or property edits
Let Notion send requests automatically whenever one of those events occurs in your workspace
Receive details of the change, including what happened, when it happened, and which object was affected
Process the incoming data by triggering an automatic notification, updating another database, or starting an automation in a different platform

Because custom webhooks are event-driven, updates occur only when changes happen, making them faster and more efficient than polling methods.

📚 Glossary: HTTP refers to the HyperText Transfer Protocol. It’s the foundation of data communication on the web, allowing web browsers and servers to talk to each other. Whenever you open a website, your browser sends an HTTP request to a server, and the server responds with the content (like HTML, images, or videos).

What are the Prerequisites and Access Requirements?

Before you can start using Notion webhooks, there are a few things you need to have in place to make sure the setup works smoothly.

Let’s take a look. 👇

1. Notion account and integration

You must have a Notion account with access to the workspace where the webhook will be used.

Create a new integration or use an existing one in Settings & Members → Integrations. Share the integration with the specific pages or databases you want to monitor so it can access the relevant data.

2. Public, secure webhook URL

Provide a publicly accessible, HTTPS endpoint where Notion can send webhook event data. Localhost or unsecured HTTP URLs are not supported.

🤝 Friendly Reminder: Always protect your endpoints with HTTPS and validate SSL certificates to keep data safe in transit.

4. Verify token and event triggers

When you create a webhook subscription, Notion sends a one-time verification token to your endpoint. Respond with this token to confirm and activate your subscription.

After this, you get to define which events should trigger the webhook (e.g., page creation, property edits, database updates).

💡 Pro Tip: Monitor successes and failures with detailed API documentation. You’ll only thank yourself while debugging if you have accurate logs. You also want to add trigger events, the payload structure, and example responses.

5. Permissions

Ensure your integration software has the correct read or write permissions for the pages or databases being monitored. Without these permissions, the webhook will not receive updates.

6. Workspace access level

Typically, you must be a workspace owner or admin to create and manage webhook integrations.

Keep this in mind:

Use either a custom server or a no-code/low-code tool (like Make.com or Zapier) to handle incoming JSON payloads from Notion
For added security, verify the ‘X-Notion-Signature’ header. This is a cryptographic hash generated by Notion using your verification token, letting you confirm the request came from the platform and wasn’t altered in transit

📖 Also Read: Zapier vs. IFTTT

How to Set Up Notion Webhooks: Steps to Create and Configure

Here’s a step-by-step guide to set up Notion webhooks. It’ll walk you through creating webhook URLs, configuring your Notion integration, and testing your webhook for seamless automation. 🖥️

Step #1: Prepare a webhook URL (public + HTTPS)

Decide where Notion will send events. You can create a webhook trigger in a no-code platform (such as Make, Zapier, n8n, or Pipedream) that provides a public URL.

The other option is to set up a simple HTTPS endpoint on your server that accepts POST requests and returns a 200 OK response.

Webhook setup showing a catch hook with a publicly reachable HTTPS endpoint — *Make your URL publicly reachable over HTTPS, as local or http:// endpoints will not work*

💡 Pro Tip: Webhooks don’t always deliver. Add retry logic (such as exponential backoff) so that nothing gets missed.

Step #2: Create or pick a Notion integration and give it access

Open Notion > Settings & Members > Integrations. Then, create a new integration (or select an existing one) and grant it the necessary scopes (read/write, as required).

Focus on sharing a webhook integration with a database button in Notion — *Share the integration with the specific pages or databases you want the webhook to monitor*

Step #3: Create the webhook subscription in Notion

In the integration’s Webhooks tab, click + Create a subscription. Paste the webhook URL you prepared, select the event types to subscribe to (e.g., page created, page updated, database schema changed), and save.

You can update the event types your subscription receives at any time. However, once the webhook URL has been verified, it cannot be changed. If you want to use a different URL, you’ll need to create a new subscription.

Testing events before activating a new automation in Notion workflows, such as getting notifications from a Slack channel — *Create test webhooks for different events and finalize important ones*

Step #4: Capture and apply the verification token

When you create the subscription, Notion sends a one-time POST to your webhook URL with a JSON body containing a verification token.

Your endpoint must inspect the request, extract that verification token, then paste it (or enter it) in the Notion integration UI under Webhooks → Verify to activate the subscription.

Verify the subscription (either with paid plans or not) needed for advanced webhook use — *Activate your subscription to start receiving events instantly once verification is complete*

Step #5: Implement basic endpoint behavior

Ensure your endpoint reliably performs three tasks:

Accepts POST requests
Responds with a quick 200 OK on receipt
Logs the raw request body for debugging purposes.

Treat the webhook payload as a signal. It contains event type, timestamp, and minimal object IDs. If you need full content, fetch it from the Notion API using the IDs in the payload. Also, handle retries and rate limits gracefully (Notion has incoming webhook request limits).

Step #6: Validate payloads with the signature header

Notion includes an X-Notion-Signature header with each webhook POST. For production systems, recompute the signature on your side (use HMAC-SHA256 on the raw request body with the verification token as the secret).

Then, compare it to the header using a timing-safe comparison. If they match, the event is authentic; if not, discard it and log the discrepancy.

Notion’s docs include sample code for this in multiple languages. If you use a no-code platform, you may not be able to run this check. While the webhook will still function, signature validation is strongly recommended for production environments.

Step #7: Test the full flow end-to-end

The final step is to verify all that you’ve done:

Trigger a subscribed event in Notion (e.g., create or update a page)
Confirm your endpoint received a POST with the expected JSON and returned 200 OK
Ensure the signature check passes after you verify signatures
Paste the verification token into Notion and finish verification, then repeat the test

🔍 Did You Know? Unix pipes were born in 1973. It was a simple idea of connecting a program’s output (STDOUT) to another program’s input (STDIN) that became one of the most powerful constructs in computing.

Troubleshooting Common Notion Webhook Errors

When a Notion webhook isn’t delivering events as expected, the issue often involves configuration, permissions, or event timing.

Below are the most frequent causes and how to resolve them. 💁

1. Check integration access permissions

Webhook events are only triggered for content your integration can access. If the event source is in a private page, database, or workspace section your integration isn’t connected to, Notion won’t send the event.

📌 Example: A page created inside a private workspace folder won’t trigger the webhook unless the integration is explicitly granted access.

2. Verify required capabilities

Some webhook event types require specific capabilities enabled in your integration settings.

Without the right capability, events won’t be delivered even if the integration has access to the page or database. You can adjust these in the Capabilities section of your integration settings.

📌 Example: To receive ‘comment.created’ events, the integration must have the Comment read capability enabled.

3. Understand aggregated event timing

Certain events, such as page.content_updated, are aggregated before being delivered to avoid flooding your endpoint with multiple updates during rapid changes (e.g., typing, formatting, or rearranging blocks).

If you need near-instant feedback for testing, start with non-aggregated events, such as comment.created or page.locked.

📌 Example: If a user edits a page title three times in quick succession, Notion sends a single aggregated event instead of three separate ones.

4. Confirm subscription status

Even if permissions and capabilities are set correctly, events won’t reach your endpoint unless the webhook subscription is active.

Check the Webhooks tab in your integration settings to ensure the subscription is:

Active
Not paused
Not pending verification
Not deleted

If the subscription is inactive or in a pending state, events won’t be delivered.

📌 Example: If you created a webhook but forgot to complete the verification step, the subscription will remain pending, and your endpoint won’t receive any events.

Notion Webhooks Integration Examples and Common Use Cases

Here are some workflow automation examples of connecting Notion webhooks in action that go well beyond the usual ‘send an email notification.’

These will show how you can tailor and trigger automations to real team workflows:

1. Email threads managed inside Notion

You can transform Notion into a lightweight customer support hub using webhooks, your backend, and email.

Whenever a new email arrives, it automatically creates a new page in a Notion database, entirely replicating the email thread in the page’s comment section. You can reply directly from comments, and starting a reply with ‘#’ sends the response out via email.

🧠 Fun Fact: The term ‘webhook’ was coined in 2007 by Jeff Lindsay, based on the programming concept of a ‘hook.’

2. QR code-driven inventory workflow

Another setup uses webhooks with Firebase functions to automate a QR-based inventory system. After creating or updating a part entry in Notion, the webhook runs server-side logic to generate a QR code.

That code is printed, scanned via a web app, and then time-stamped back into Notion to reflect the part’s status, whether it’s in the warehouse, out for delivery, or shipped.

3. Automate timesheets from Notion entries

With webhooks, you can automatically track work hours and log them into a timesheet tool whenever your Notion workspace is updated.

For example, if your team records task start and end times in a Notion database, a webhook can trigger an automation that pushes those values into a timesheet or payroll system.

You’re drafting social posts in Notion. You write your caption, drop in a media URL, set a publishing time, and mark the status as ‘Ready to Publish.’

This is when a webhook takes over, sending that data to your workflow automation software. Next, it delays until the scheduled time, then posts for you on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

📮 ClickUp Insight: Only 10% of our survey respondents regularly use automation tools and actively seek new opportunities to automate.

This highlights a major untapped lever for productivity—most teams are still relying on manual work that could be streamlined or eliminated.

ClickUp’s AI Agents make it easy to build automated workflows, even if you’ve never used automation before. With plug-and-play templates and natural language-based commands, automating tasks becomes accessible to everyone in the team!

💫 Real Results: QubicaAMF cut reporting time by 40% using ClickUp’s dynamic dashboards and automated charts—transforming hours of manual work into real-time insights.

Automate your workflow with ClickUp

What are the Limitations of Notion Webhooks?

Although Notion webhooks allow for real-time updates and automation, they’re not without constraints. Understanding these limitations helps you design workflows that remain reliable, efficient, and cost-effective.

Here are some common ones:

Unavailable for workspaces: Webhooks aren’t supported at the workspace level, so you’ll need to manage them at the individual integration or database level instead
Sparse payloads: Notion sends only minimal data like IDs and timestamps, not full content or property values, so you’ll need to fetch those details separately
Delayed or missing events: Webhook delivery isn’t always instant. Aggregation, delays up to several seconds, or missing events during rapid updates can occur
API rate limits: You’re limited to ~3 API calls per second (around 2,700 every 15 minutes); burst usage can lead to errors or throttling
Size constraints: Requests exceeding 1,000 blocks or payloads larger than 500 KB, and oversized property values can trigger validation errors
Consistency issues: Webhook events may arrive out of order or with stale data, so always use timestamps and fetch the current state via the API
Action-level limitations: You can only set up to five webhook actions per automation, and only HTTP POST requests are supported. Plus, you can only send database page properties, not full page content

🔍 Did You Know? Pingbacks on blogs were an early cousin of webhooks. Of course, webhooks are far more flexible, letting you send any arbitrary event data to any URL handler.

How to Disable or Remove a Notion Webhook

Disabling or removing a Notion webhook can be necessary when you no longer need the integration or want to prevent unnecessary event deliveries. It’s also imperative when you need to enforce stricter security and compliance policies.

Depending on your permissions and workspace plan, you can either stop webhook functionality at the workspace level or delete the webhook subscription entirely.

Let’s look at how:

1. Disabling webhook actions in an Enterprise workspace

If you’re a workspace owner on Notion’s Enterprise Plan, you can globally disable webhook actions for your entire workspace. This ensures that no member, regardless of role, can set up new webhook-based automations.

Here are the steps to disable webhook actions in an Enterprise workspace:

Go to Settings in your sidebar
Open the Connections tab
Toggle off Allow webhooks in automations

Once disabled, the Send webhook action will no longer be available in the automation builder for any member in the workspace. This change takes effect immediately and applies to all automations, regardless of who created them.

🧠 Fun Fact: Before webhooks, the web relied on polling; feeds and APIs weren’t really ‘pushing’ data to you. Instead, your app had to repeatedly check (‘poll’) for changes, often wasting resources.

2. Removing an existing webhook subscription

If you simply want to stop receiving webhook events without disabling the entire webhook feature, here’s how to do it:

Navigate to your integration settings in the Notion Developers dashboard
Locate the active webhook subscription under the Webhooks tab
Choose Delete or Deactivate to remove the subscription

Removing a subscription will stop event deliveries to the specified endpoint, but won’t affect other webhook configurations in the same workspace.

Implementing Workflow Automation With ClickUp

ClickUp is the everything app for work that combines project management, knowledge management, and chat—all powered by AI that helps you work faster and smarter.

Building on what you’ve just mastered with Notion webhooks, let’s explore how ClickUp takes automation and productivity to the next level. The Notion alternative is especially useful if you’re looking to trigger smarter workflows, surface instant insights, or automate context-aware tasks across your workspace.

Here’s how. 👀

Automate repetitive work

ClickUp Automations is your invisible helper. It lets you automate repetitive work using natural language with simple ‘if this, then that’ triggers.

ClickUp Automations: Create custom rules to turn repetitive tasks into hands-free workflows — Create custom ClickUp Automations to turn repetitive tasks into hands-free workflows

For example, just write a rule like: ‘When a task status changes to ‘Accepted,’ apply the workflow template and set priority to ‘High.’ ClickUp will take it from there.

Watch how to set up your own automation:

Want to build something more complex? ClickUp Autopilot Agents are AI-driven agents, either prebuilt or custom, designed for advanced, real-time workflows.

ClickUp Autopilot Agents: Keep updates summaries and answers flowing automatically — *Keep updates, summaries, and answers flowing with ClickUp Autopilot Agents*

You don’t have to start from scratch. You can instantly use AI to automate tasks with prebuilt Autopilot Agents right when you need them:

Weekly Report in your Spaces, Folders, or Lists to post a concise update at the same time every week
Daily Report to create a workday recap, giving your team a quick overview of progress, blockers, and priorities
Team StandUp in Spaces, Folders, Lists, or Channels to automatically summarize what’s been worked on
Auto-Answers Agent in Channels to instantly respond to common questions by pulling answers from your workspace data

🎥 Watch: How to set up your first AI agent

From there, you can customize agents to match your exact workflow. For example, having them create summary tasks from meeting notes or evaluate job applications from form submissions.

Find, summarize, and act faster

You can use ClickUp Brain to set up smart database automations in just a few clicks. These can instantly handle updates, like logging task times, syncing data, or triggering workflows. Simply type in a natural language prompt and let the tool handle the rest.

ClickUp Brain: Set up smart automations to handle updates across your workspace — *Set up smart automations with ClickUp Brain to handle updates*

Create custom automations with ClickUp Brain

Wait, there’s more. If you feel that too much time is wasted hunting for information, piecing together status updates, or rewriting the same content repeatedly, ClickUp Brain solves for that too.

ClickUp Brain: Generate project updates and summaries for deeper contextual understanding — *Ask ClickUp Brain to generate project updates and summaries for contextual understanding*

The platform’s AI-powered assistant takes multiple roles to ensure efficiency. Here’s how it helps:

Find answers quickly: Tap into your workspace’s tasks, docs, comments, and data with AI Knowledge Manager. Just ask, ‘What was discussed about the deployment checklist?’ and get an instant, citation-backed answer you can trust
Keep projects moving: Have ClickUp Brain’s AI Project Manager automatically create daily standups, generate progress summaries, or break down tasks into subtasks
Generate role-specific content: Draft sprint summaries, technical specs, or marketing emails with AI Writer for Work in your tone of voice. You can also have it translated or edited instantly

📌 Try This Prompt: Summarize the sprint review meeting notes from February 8 and highlight blockers for the mobile app release.

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: ClickUp Brain MAX is your all-in-one AI desktop app that gives you the right answers in context. For instance, you can just ask, ‘What’s the status of our Q3 launch?’ and instantly get a response.

With unified search, voice-first productivity, and access to the world’s top AI models, including GPT, Claude, and Gemini, in a single hub, Brain Max ensures you automate like a pro.

ClickUp Brain MAX: Get context-aware answers from your entire workspace in seconds — *Get context-aware answers from your workspace with ClickUp Brain MAX*

Integrate with your tech stack

Modern teams often use multiple tools. You have your Google Drive for files, Zendesk for support, GitHub for code, and Salesforce for sales. While each tool solves a specific problem, constantly switching between them creates silos, delays, and lost context.

ClickUp Integrations connects your workspace with over 1,000 third-party apps to unify all your work in one place.

ClickUp Integrations: Connect with third-party tools in your tech stack for alignment — *Align different tools in your tech stack under one roof with ClickUp Integrations*

Your team can view Zendesk tickets, Google Drive attachments, or GitHub issues directly inside ClickUp.

For example, a support ticket raised in Zendesk can instantly create a linked task in ClickUp, where developers and customer success teams can collaborate without leaving their workflows.

📣 Customer voice: Here’s what Alexis Valentin, Head of Global Business Development, Pigment, has to say about ClickUp:

With ClickUp, we reduced the time it takes to dispatch tasks and execute them, from a couple of days to a couple of hours. Now people know which tasks are pending for their onboarding and what they have to do—which is a nightmare to try to organize by email. Managers are one click away, thanks to templates, of creating onboarding boards for each new joiner. Game changer.

Alexis Valentin, Head of Global Business Development, Pigment

Find the right info instantly

When you’re building workflows with Notion webhooks, you’re essentially pushing data out of one platform to trigger something else. But what if you need to pull information back in? That’s where ClickUp Enterprise Search comes in.

ClickUp Enterprise Search: Find context instantly across tasks docs comments and third-party apps — *Search across your workspace and all third-party apps with ClickUp Enterprise Search*

The powerful, organization-wide search tool scans everything: tasks, docs, comments, attachments, and more. It doesn’t stop there either. With integrations, it also searches third-party services, like Google Drive, Slack, GitHub, or Dropbox, delivering unified search results.

For instance, Enterprise Search can export information from Notion, the spec from Google Drive, the design mockups in Figma, and even the support ticket in GitHub in just one search.

Connect Your Tools + Workflow With ClickUp

Notion webhooks are great for sending updates, triggering actions, and keeping different tools in sync. However, their limitations, such as request caps, setup complexity, and additional maintenance, can slow you down.

ClickUp makes it easier. It works for both quick setups and complex workflows. ClickUp Brain gives you instant, context-aware answers, summaries, and action items. And ClickUp Automations handle the repetitive stuff, so you don’t have to.

Consolidate projects, documents, and automations all in one place.

FAQs

1. How do Notion webhooks differ from the Notion API?

The Notion API allows you to pull or push data on demand, but webhooks automatically push updates to you when something changes. This saves you from (the dreaded) constant polling.

2. What happens if my webhook endpoint is temporarily unavailable?

Notion will retry delivering the event a few times. If it keeps failing, you may lose that event, so having a reliable endpoint and failover strategy is critical.

3. Can I use webhooks to sync data between two Notion workspaces?

Yes, but it’s not native. You’ll need an integration layer or middleware to receive webhook events from one workspace, transform them, and push updates to the other using the API.

4. How secure are Notion webhooks for sensitive information?

Data is sent over HTTPS, and you can validate incoming requests using the shared secret from your webhook setup. Always store credentials securely and restrict access to your endpoint.

5. Are Notion webhooks reliable?

Generally, yes, but they can be affected by API rate limits, network issues, or downtime. They work well for most use cases but aren’t ideal for important, zero-tolerance systems without backups.

6. What programming knowledge is required to work with Notion webhooks?

Basic backend development skills, such as working with HTTP requests, parsing JSON, and handling authentication, are required.

7. Notion webhooks vs. Zapier vs. IFTTT (and where ClickUp fits)

Notion webhooks give you full control and real-time triggers, but require coding. Zapier and IFTTT are no-code tools that make automation easier, though they may be slower or less customizable.

A better choice would be ClickUp. It combines the best of both, real-time triggers via ClickUp Automations and AI-powered actions with ClickUp Brain, without the steep learning curve.

Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.

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