---
title: Adding wait steps to automation processes
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k81/on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/setting-timeouts-for-automation-process-steps.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

> **Info:** **Kentico EMS required**
>
> Features described on this page require the **Kentico EMS** license.

Wait steps allow you to halt [automation processes](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation.md) for a specified time interval. When contacts arrive in a wait step, the process does nothing until the wait time expires. After the wait is complete, the process automatically moves the contact to the next step.

While the process is in a Wait step, designated users can [manually move](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/managing-the-flow-of-contacts-in-automation-processes.md) contacts forward.

For example, you can use wait steps to:

- Add delays between automatic messages that the process sends to contacts
- Periodically check if the contact meets a [condition](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/defining-automatic-decisions-in-processes.md) by creating a loop containing a wait step within the flow of the process

To add a wait step to your process:

1. [Place](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/managing-automation-process-steps.md) the **Wait** step onto the grid.
2. Integrate the wait step into the flow of the process by [connecting](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/connecting-automation-process-steps.md) a preceding step.
3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.
   - The **Process step properties** dialog opens.
4. Under **Timeout settings**, specify when you want the process to move to the next step:

   - **Specific interval** - set the length of the waiting interval. The time starts running when a contact moves into the wait step. Every instance of the process has a separate wait timer.
   - **Specific day** - set the exact date (and optionally time) when you want the process to move into the next step. Applies to all instances of the process.
5. Click **Save**.