How does n8n pricing actually work?
n8n's pricing has one defining feature that separates it from almost every competitor: it bills per workflow execution, not per step or per task. The official pricing page states it plainly, that plans "include unlimited users and workflows" and that pricing is "based on monthly workflow executions, regardless of complexity," with the tagline "pay for full executions, not for each step" (n8n pricing). An execution is one complete run of a workflow from trigger to finish, and n8n staff confirm it is counted by how many times a workflow is triggered, independent of the number of nodes inside it (n8n blog).
That single design choice is why a 3-node workflow and a 50-node workflow cost exactly the same per run, and why teams migrating from per-task tools often see their effective bill collapse. n8n is built by the Berlin-based n8n GmbH, which raised a $180M Series C in October 2025 at a reported $2.5B valuation, led by Accel, a signal that the execution-based, self-hostable model has serious momentum (The SaaS News, 2025). This guide breaks down every cost: Cloud plans, the genuinely free self-hosted route, what self-hosting really costs once you count people, and which option is cheapest for your volume. For the platform's wider trade-offs, see our n8n vs Zapier comparison.
What you'll learn in this guide:
- How execution-based billing works and why it changes your cost
- Every n8n Cloud plan, price, and execution allowance
- The free Community Edition and what self-hosting really costs
- How n8n compares to Zapier how much Zapier costs and Make how Make.com prices operations at scale
- Which option is cheapest for your volume and team
Key Takeaway
n8n's real price depends entirely on two numbers: how many times your workflows run, and whether you self-host. Because billing ignores step count, n8n rewards consolidating logic into fewer, richer workflows, and the free Community Edition removes licence cost entirely if you can run your own infrastructure.
n8n Cloud plans and prices
n8n Cloud is the fully managed option, and its 2026 plans are structured around execution quotas rather than seats or steps. Recent pricing changes removed the old active-workflow limits and user-based pricing, so every tier now includes unlimited users and unlimited workflows, with the differences coming down to execution allowance, concurrency, and enterprise features (n8n community). Annual billing saves 17% over monthly (n8n pricing).
| Plan | Price (annual) | Executions/mo | Notable |
| Starter | €20/mo (€24 monthly) | 2,500 | 5 concurrent executions |
| Pro | €50/mo (€60 monthly) | 10,000 | 20 concurrent, 3 projects |
| Business | ~€800/mo | 40,000 | SSO, Git version control |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited / negotiated | Dedicated infra, support SLAs |
Sources: n8n Pricing, n8n community announcement. Prices current as of 2026.
At Starter rates, each execution effectively costs roughly $0.008 to $0.01, which is cheap for low volumes but becomes the wrong tool once you scale into hundreds of thousands of runs, where the Cloud tiers cap out and self-hosting takes over. One billing nuance to plan for: sub-workflows called via the Execute Workflow node are billed as separate executions, so a parent workflow that calls two sub-workflows counts as three executions, not one. Architecture and cost are linked, which is exactly the orchestration mindset we cover in moving from task automation to orchestration.
The plans also differ on concurrency, which matters more than buyers expect at higher volumes. Starter allows 5 concurrent executions and Pro raises that to 20, so if many workflows fire at once you can queue behind your concurrency ceiling even while you still have execution quota left. For spiky, event-driven workloads, that concurrency limit, not the execution count, is often the real constraint that pushes teams toward Business, Enterprise, or self-hosting where they control the resources. We weigh these same platform mechanics in our n8n vs Make comparison and our broader workflow orchestration playbook.
The free option: n8n Community Edition
The most important number in n8n's pricing is zero, because the Community Edition is free to self-host with effectively unlimited executions. n8n is source-available under its Sustainable Use License, a "fair-code" model, and the self-hosted Community Edition includes the full node library and unlimited workflows and runs (n8n docs; Sustainable Use License). The source is on GitHub, and you can run it on your own server with no licence fee at all.
The fair-code licence permits internal business use, modification, and self-hosting freely; the main restriction is that you cannot repackage n8n itself as a competing hosted service without a commercial agreement. For the vast majority of B2B teams automating their own operations, the Community Edition is genuinely free software, which is why it anchors most cost-optimised n8n deployments. It also sits behind several of the options in our guide to the best n8n alternatives.
What does self-hosting n8n really cost?
Free software is not free to run, so the honest answer is that self-hosting trades licence fees for infrastructure and engineering time. At the low end, n8n runs on a modest VPS: a basic DigitalOcean Droplet starts at around $4 per month, and analyses put a suitable starter VPS at $4 to $5 per month with 30 to 60 minutes of setup for someone familiar with Docker (ExpressTech, 2026; Northflank, 2026).
That bare-VPS figure is real but incomplete. A production-grade self-hosted deployment, once you add a managed database, monitoring, backups, and security, runs more like $50 to $150 per month in infrastructure for a small setup, and more for high-volume production (Mpire Solutions, 2026). The larger cost is people: someone has to deploy, patch, monitor, and troubleshoot it. For teams with DevOps capacity, the savings versus Cloud at scale are enormous; for teams without it, that engineering time can erase the licence savings entirely. This is the same build-or-partner calculation we lay out in agency vs in-house.
There is also a paid self-hosted path. n8n offers a Business and Enterprise licence for self-hosted deployments that unlocks SSO, Git-based version control, and other governance features, priced separately from the free Community Edition. For regulated organisations that must keep data on their own infrastructure but still need enterprise controls, this is the relevant tier, and it is worth scoping as part of a wider business process automation programme rather than as a standalone tool decision.
| Option | Licence | Infra / mo | Best for |
| Cloud Starter/Pro | €20-50/mo | Included | Low volume, no DevOps |
| Self-host (bare VPS) | Free | ~$4-5 | Hobby / very low volume |
| Self-host (production) | Free | ~$50-150+ | High volume, has DevOps |
| Business / Enterprise | ~€800+/mo | Included or self | SSO, governance, scale |
Sources: ExpressTech, Northflank, n8n Pricing.
Avoid This Mistake
Do not compare n8n's free self-hosting against Cloud on licence cost alone. The honest comparison includes engineering time to run and maintain it. A "$5 VPS" with 10 hours a month of an engineer's attention is not cheaper than a €50 Cloud plan once you price that time. Self-host because you need the control or the scale economics, not because the licence says free.
Want to model n8n Cloud versus self-hosting against your real execution volume before you commit? Run the numbers with our automation cost tooling.
Get a Build-Cost Estimaten8n pricing vs Zapier and Make at scale
The execution model is where n8n's cost advantage becomes dramatic, and the gap widens with workflow complexity. Zapier bills per task, where every action step is charged, with the Professional plan at $19.99/month annual for 750 tasks (Zapier pricing; Zapier). Make bills per operation, where each module counts, with Core around $9-12/month for 10,000 operations (Make pricing). n8n bills per full execution regardless of steps.
Consider a 10-step automation that runs 10,000 times a month. On Zapier that is roughly 100,000 tasks; on Make roughly 100,000 operations; on n8n Cloud Pro it is just 10,000 executions, because each full run counts once regardless of node count. The more steps per workflow, the more the per-task and per-operation models penalise you and the more n8n's flat-per-run model wins. This is the core economic argument we make in both the n8n vs Zapier breakdown and the guide to the best Zapier alternatives, and it is reinforced when you self-host, where execution volume carries no licence cost at all.
Key Takeaway
For simple single-step automations, the three platforms are close on cost. For complex, multi-step, high-volume workflows, n8n is structurally cheaper, and self-hosted Community Edition removes the meter entirely. The break-even point against Zapier and Make arrives fast once your workflows have more than a few steps.
Which n8n option is cheapest for you?
Match the option to your volume and your technical capacity, in that order. Run the four checks below and the right plan becomes obvious.
Estimate your monthly executions
Count how many times your workflows trigger per month, not how many steps they contain. That number, not complexity, drives your n8n bill.
Low volume, no DevOps? Cloud Starter or Pro
Under ~10,000 executions a month with no one to run infrastructure, Cloud at €20-50/month is the lowest total cost once you value time.
High volume with technical capacity? Self-host
If you run hundreds of thousands of executions and have DevOps skills, the free Community Edition on your own infrastructure is dramatically cheaper.
Need SSO, governance, or scale guarantees? Business or Enterprise
Regulated or large organisations that need SSO, version control, and support SLAs should price the Business or Enterprise tier.
Key Takeaway
Most teams overpay by defaulting to a managed plan they have outgrown, or underestimate the engineering cost of self-hosting. The cheapest n8n is the one matched to your actual execution volume and your real technical capacity, and the tool is always downstream of the system you are building.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is n8n free?
Yes, if you self-host. n8n's Community Edition is source-available under its Sustainable Use License and free to run on your own infrastructure with unlimited workflows and executions, so you pay only for the server. n8n Cloud is the paid managed option, starting at €20 per month (billed annually) for 2,500 executions. So n8n is genuinely free for teams able to self-host, and a low-cost SaaS for those who want n8n to handle the infrastructure. For the broader trade-offs, see our n8n vs Zapier comparison.
How does n8n pricing work?
n8n Cloud bills per workflow execution, where one execution is a complete run of a workflow from trigger to finish, regardless of how many nodes or steps it contains. This differs fundamentally from Zapier's per-task model and Make's per-operation model, both of which charge for each step. Plans include unlimited users and workflows, and tiers differ by execution allowance, concurrency, and enterprise features. Self-hosting the Community Edition removes execution-based billing entirely.
How much does n8n cost per month?
n8n Cloud Starter is €20 per month billed annually (€24 monthly) for 2,500 executions, Pro is €50 per month annually (€60 monthly) for 10,000 executions, and Business is roughly €800 per month for 40,000 executions with SSO and Git. Enterprise is custom-priced with negotiated or unlimited executions. Self-hosting the Community Edition costs nothing in licence fees and only the price of your infrastructure, from around $4-5 per month on a bare VPS to $50-150+ per month for a production setup.
Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?
At scale, almost always, and the gap grows with workflow complexity. Because Zapier charges per task (per step) and n8n charges per execution (per full run), a 10-step workflow run 10,000 times costs about 100,000 tasks on Zapier versus 10,000 executions on n8n Cloud Pro. Self-hosting n8n removes licence cost altogether. The caveat is engineering time: self-hosting shifts cost to infrastructure and people. Model your real volumes with our automation ROI calculator.
What counts as an execution in n8n?
An execution is one complete run of a workflow, triggered once and run from start to finish, counted independently of how many nodes it contains. A workflow with 3 nodes and one with 50 nodes each consume a single execution per run. One important nuance: sub-workflows invoked through the Execute Workflow node are billed as separate executions, so a parent workflow that calls two sub-workflows counts as three executions. Designing fewer, richer workflows therefore keeps execution counts and cost down.
Should I self-host n8n or use n8n Cloud?
Use Cloud if your volume is modest and you lack DevOps capacity, because the managed plans remove all infrastructure burden for €20-50 per month. Self-host the free Community Edition if you run high execution volumes and have the technical skills to deploy and maintain it, because the savings at scale are large. The deciding factors are execution volume, technical capacity, and any data-residency requirements, not the headline licence price. This is the same systems-first logic behind our approach to AI for business operations.
Price the system, not just the licence.
n8n's licence is the smallest line in your automation budget. The real cost, and the real return, comes from how the system is architected: how workflows are consolidated, where logic lives, and whether it runs on Cloud or your own infrastructure. peppereffect designs the automation first, then deploys it on the plan that fits your volume and team.
Get a Build-Cost EstimateResources
- n8n Pricing (official): current Cloud plans and execution allowances
- n8n: The Execution Advantage: how execution-based billing works
- n8n Docs: Community Edition Features: what the free self-hosted edition includes
- n8n Sustainable Use License: the fair-code terms
- ExpressTech: The Real Cost of Self-Hosting n8n: infrastructure cost analysis
- Northflank: Self-Hosting n8n Guide: setup, architecture, and pricing
- The SaaS News: n8n's $180M Series C: funding and valuation context
- Zapier: What Is a Task?: the per-task model n8n contrasts with
