n8n Pricing: Plans, Costs, and What You Actually Get

n8n pricing varies significantly depending on whether you self-host or use n8n Cloud, and which plan tier you choose. Understanding the structure upfront saves you from surprises when you scale.

This article breaks down every pricing tier, what is included, how executions are counted, and how n8n compares on cost to tools like Zapier and Make. Use it to build an accurate budget before you commit.

Key Takeaways

• Self-hosted Community is free with no execution limits, no per-workflow fees, and access to all core features.
• n8n Cloud plans start at a flat monthly rate covering a defined number of active workflows and executions.
• Executions are counted per workflow run not per individual step, which keeps costs lower than step-based competitors.
• Enterprise plans add SSO, advanced permissions, and SLAs for organizations with compliance and team access requirements.
• n8n is significantly cheaper than Zapier for high-volume automations, especially when self-hosted.
• Choosing between self-hosted and cloud depends on your team's infrastructure capacity and how much you value managed ops.

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What Is n8n and Why Does the Pricing Model Matter?

n8n is an open-source workflow automation platform with both a self-hosted Community edition and managed cloud plans. The pricing model you choose shapes your total cost, operational overhead, and feature access.

Before evaluating costs, it helps to understand what you are paying for. You can read about what n8n actually is and how it handles workflow execution under the hood to get a clear picture of the platform's capabilities alongside its pricing structure.

• Open-source core: the Community edition is free, maintained by n8n, and fully functional for self-hosters
• Execution-based billing: cloud plans charge based on workflow runs, not individual steps inside a workflow
• Flat monthly plans: cloud tiers use fixed pricing, not variable per-execution billing above set limits
• Feature gating: some features like SSO, log streaming, and advanced permissions are reserved for higher tiers
• No per-node fees: you are never charged based on how many nodes or integrations you use in a workflow

Understanding the execution counting model is the most important step for accurate cost estimation.

What Does the Free Self-Hosted Plan Include?

The Community edition is n8n's free self-hosted tier. You run it on your own infrastructure and pay nothing to n8n. There are no execution limits, no workflow limits, and no restrictions on which nodes you can use.

The detail on what n8n includes beyond the basics, including credential management, error handling, and version control covers the full capability set available on Community, including AI nodes, code nodes, and the complete integration library.

• Cost: free forever, with no usage-based fees at any scale
• Workflows: unlimited, with no cap on active or inactive workflows
• Executions: unlimited, with no throttling on how many times workflows can run
• Integrations: full access to 400+ native nodes and the HTTP Request node for any API
• Code nodes: JavaScript and Python available on all self-hosted installations
• AI features: LLM nodes and agent support included with no additional licensing cost
• Support: community forums only, no guaranteed response time or direct support channel

The main cost of Community is infrastructure and your team's time to install, maintain, and update the instance.

What Do n8n Cloud Plans Include?

n8n Cloud plans are fully managed. n8n handles hosting, updates, monitoring, and scaling. You pay a flat monthly fee based on your tier, which defines how many active workflows and monthly executions are included.

• Starter plan: designed for individuals or small teams getting started with workflow automation
• Pro plan: higher execution and workflow limits with additional features like workflow history and more users
• Enterprise plan: custom pricing with SSO, audit logs, log streaming, advanced permissions, and dedicated support
• Active workflow limit: only workflows with an active trigger count toward your plan's workflow limit
• Execution rollover: unused executions do not carry forward to the next billing month
• Overage handling: workflows pause rather than continuing to run and generate unexpected charges when limits are hit

Exact plan limits and pricing are published on the n8n website and updated periodically, so check current figures before finalizing a budget.

How Are Executions Counted in n8n?

An execution in n8n is one complete run of a workflow, regardless of how many nodes that workflow contains. A workflow with 20 steps still counts as one execution when it runs.

This is fundamentally different from tools like Zapier, which count each step in a workflow as a separate task against your plan limit. For complex workflows, n8n's execution model is almost always cheaper.

• One execution = one workflow run regardless of the number of nodes or API calls inside it
• Sub-workflows: calling a sub-workflow from a parent workflow counts as a separate execution for the child
• Manual runs: test executions run from the canvas count toward your monthly execution limit on Cloud plans
• Error retries: automatic retries triggered by error handling count as additional executions
• Polling triggers: each time a polling trigger checks for new data counts as one execution, even with no results
• Webhook triggers: a workflow triggered by an incoming webhook uses one execution when it fires

For most teams migrating from Zapier or Make, the execution model means the same workflows cost fewer units in n8n.

How Does Self-Hosted vs Cloud Pricing Compare?

Self-hosted is cheaper at scale if your team has the infrastructure and capability to manage it. Cloud plans cost more monthly but remove all operational overhead from your team.

The guide on how self-hosting n8n compares to the managed cloud option on cost, control, and maintenance covers the full trade-offs across setup time, maintenance burden, data control, and total cost at different scales.

• Self-hosted cost: server or VPS fees only, typically $5-$20/month for a small Digital Ocean or AWS instance
• n8n Cloud cost: flat monthly plan fee with no infrastructure to manage or maintain
• Hidden self-host costs: engineering time for setup, updates, backup configuration, and incident response
• Cloud value: updates, monitoring, and scaling handled automatically with no ops work required
• Data residency: self-hosted keeps all execution data on your servers, Cloud stores it in n8n's infrastructure
• Scaling: self-hosted requires manual capacity planning, Cloud scales within plan limits automatically

Teams that regularly update and monitor infrastructure will find self-hosted genuinely cost-effective. Teams without that capacity often find Cloud worth the flat fee.

How Does n8n Pricing Compare to Zapier and Make?

n8n is significantly cheaper than Zapier for any workflow with more than a few steps, primarily because of how each tool counts usage. Zapier bills per task, where each step in a Zap is one task.

For a detailed cost comparison across platforms, reviewing how n8n compares to its main alternatives on pricing, flexibility, and use case fit covers n8n against Zapier, Make, and other tools on the factors that matter.

• Zapier: charges per task (per step), so a 10-step workflow uses 10 tasks per execution
• Make: charges per operation (per module execution), similar per-step model to Zapier
• n8n: charges per execution (per workflow run), so a 10-step workflow uses one execution
• Zapier Starter: $19.99/month for 750 tasks, limiting to roughly 75 runs of a 10-step workflow
• n8n Starter: more generous execution limits for comparable or lower monthly cost
• n8n self-hosted: unlimited executions for the cost of a small server, no per-run fees at any scale

For teams running high-volume or complex multi-step workflows, the pricing advantage of n8n compounds significantly at scale.

What Does the Enterprise Plan Add?

Enterprise is n8n's top tier for organizations that need centralized identity management, compliance features, and dedicated support. It is available on both Cloud and self-hosted deployments.

The detail on what n8n Enterprise includes and when the added cost makes sense for larger teams covers exactly what is included at this tier, including SSO configuration, audit logging, and the support SLAs available to enterprise customers.

• SAML SSO: integrate with your organization's identity provider for centralized user authentication
• Advanced permissions: granular role-based access controls for workflows, credentials, and team resources
• Audit logs: full audit trail of user actions, workflow changes, and execution events
• Log streaming: send execution and audit logs to external SIEM or logging platforms
• Custom contract: custom pricing based on usage, with SLAs and dedicated onboarding support
• Multi-instance support: manage multiple n8n environments under a single enterprise agreement

Enterprise pricing is negotiated directly with n8n and scales based on usage volume and the features required.

How Should You Choose the Right Plan?

Start with the Community edition if your team can manage a self-hosted instance and execution limits are not a constraint. Move to a Cloud plan when you need managed infrastructure, guaranteed uptime, or team collaboration features.

• Individual or side project: Community self-hosted covers everything with no monthly cost
• Small team, no ops capacity: n8n Cloud Starter removes all infrastructure work for a flat fee
• Growing team with complex workflows: Pro plan adds workflow history, more users, and higher limits
• Enterprise with SSO and compliance needs: Enterprise plan is required for SAML, audit logs, and SLAs
• Cost-sensitive at scale: self-hosted on a small VPS is almost always the lowest total cost option

The right plan depends more on your team's operational capacity than on which features you need from n8n itself.

Conclusion

n8n pricing is flexible because the platform supports both a free self-hosted path and managed cloud plans at multiple tiers. The key variable is whether your team can manage infrastructure or needs the overhead handled for them.

Compared to Zapier and Make, n8n's per-execution model almost always produces lower costs for complex or high-volume workflows. The math gets even clearer when you factor in the free self-hosted option.

Map your expected workflow count, monthly execution volume, and team capacity against the tiers above, and the right plan usually becomes obvious.

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