n8n Pricing (2026): Pro Wins Until You Can Own the Server

n8n pricing starts at a $0 Community license for self-hosting, $24 month-to-month for Cloud Starter, or $60 for Cloud Pro. Pro is the best paid default once production workflows exceed Starter's 2,500 monthly runs; Community is cheaper only when someone truly owns updates, backups, security, and incidents.

n8n pricing at a glance

n8n prices its managed plans by workflow execution, meaning one complete run from trigger to finish, not by each internal step. That makes the sticker price look higher than Make for simple flows and much cheaper than task-based tools when a workflow has many actions.

Verified on October 18, 2026 against n8n's pricing page, including its live US price data: Business is $800 per month billed annually, a $9,600 commitment, or $960 billed monthly. Pro still offers 10,000 and 50,000 executions under the same plan name. The table uses USD; the page can default to EUR, which must not be relabeled as dollars. Annual figures below are prepaid totals, with monthly equivalents shown for comparison.

The blunt recommendation is simple. Start on Starter only if 2,500 executions and one shared project leave comfortable room. Pro with 10,000 executions is the safer production default. Its 50,000-execution option is the capacity upgrade to price next. Business is not the next volume tier: its base allowance is lower, it costs much more, and it is self-hosted. Buy it for SSO, environments, Git-backed changes, and organizational control.

Is n8n free? Community Edition is, Cloud is not

n8n Community Edition is free indefinitely, but it is free software rather than a free hosted service. You install it on infrastructure you control, pay no n8n license fee, and operate the database, encryption keys, backups, updates, capacity, and recovery path yourself. The Community Edition documentation says the registered version is also free and adds folders, Debug in Editor, and custom execution data after email registration.

The publicly listed n8n Cloud plans are paid subscriptions with a no-card trial. The current trial package includes Pro-level features with 1,000 executions, five concurrent executions, a 180-second execution timeout, one project, 800 Assistant credits and 100 AI credits. It does not include every Pro permission or feature. The Business trial runs for 14 days, provides Business features, and requires a card.

Community includes nearly the complete workflow-building core, but the exclusions matter as soon as more than one person owns production. It omits Projects, shared workflows and credentials, SSO, Git version control, external secret stores, external binary storage, log streaming, and multi-main. Queue mode is available, but multi-main, the high-availability control layer, is not. Those are not cosmetic upgrades. They are the controls that stop credentials, deployments, and incident response from depending on one operator's memory.

The license is another boundary. n8n is source-available fair-code, not OSI-approved open source. Its Sustainable Use License permits use and modification for your own internal business, personal or non-commercial purposes. Redistribution must be free and non-commercial, and licensing and copyright notices must remain intact. Enterprise-covered code has separate terms.

The current license FAQ permits charging for workflow creation and maintenance, and lets customers trigger prebuilt automations and connect their own accounts. The boundary is who controls the logic: external users cannot build or configure their own workflows through your product, including through an API or AI agent, under Community terms. Hosting a workflow-building service, white-labeling n8n, or using it to launch a competing automation product requires a separate commercial arrangement. Customer-owned credentials alone are not the disqualifying condition.

Who never needs to pay n8n? A solo technical builder or internal automation team can stay on Community when the license fits, production controls are modest, and one named person owns the infrastructure. The n8n bill can remain $0 even at meaningful execution volume. The server, backups, monitoring, model APIs, and operator time do not become free with it.

One execution is a whole workflow run

Frequency, not complexity, is the first n8n cost driver. One workflow that fires and completes counts as one execution whether it has 2 nodes or 50. A complex lead-enrichment flow can therefore cost the same n8n unit as a one-step Slack alert. That is the economic advantage over platforms that meter each successful action or module.

The catch is that a tiny scheduled workflow can consume a plan quickly. A job firing every five minutes runs 288 times per day, 8,640 times in a 30-day month, or 8,928 times in a 31-day month. That one schedule almost fills Pro with 10,000 executions and cannot fit Starter. A webhook processing 50 inbound leads a day runs about 1,500 times in a 30-day month and fits Starter. A support bot handling 100 conversations a week with 8 separately processed messages per conversation creates about 3,200 monthly executions over four weeks and needs Pro.

1. 1

   Count scheduled runs

   Convert each interval into monthly executions. Daily is about 30 or 31. Every five minutes is 8,640 to 8,928. Include additional production runs caused by retries or separate schedules; do not count internal steps as new workflows.

2. 2

   Count event-driven runs

   For forms, webhooks, orders, or CRM changes, use the number of monthly events. Fifty daily events mean roughly 1,500 monthly executions before additional production retries.

3. 3

   Count message-driven runs

   For chat and agent workflows, multiply conversations by messages that trigger automation. One conversation is not automatically one execution if every turn starts the workflow again.

4. 4

   Choose the first tier with room

   Map the result to 2,500, 10,000, or 50,000 managed executions. Do not use the exact cap as the forecast. A plan that only fits a perfect month has no room for retries, growth, or an unusually busy week.

The broader n8n vs Zapier vs Make comparison is useful once the execution count is known. Without that count, comparing plan names is procurement theater.

Three workload budgets that expose the right plan

A plan estimate becomes useful only when it maps a real trigger pattern to the execution meter. These three illustrative models use explicit workload assumptions and show how the same product can be inexpensive for a long workflow and surprisingly costly for a tiny one.

A local-services lead pipeline: Starter with room

Suppose 50 form submissions arrive each day and each submission triggers one workflow. The workflow validates the lead, enriches the company, updates the CRM, assigns an owner, and sends a confirmation. Those five internal actions still consume one n8n execution per lead, so a 30-day month produces about 1,500 executions.

Starter fits and leaves 1,000 of its 2,500 runs unused, at $24 monthly or $240 annually. That is a reasonable buffer for additional production retries and busier days. The relevant risk is not adding another node inside the same workflow. It is adding a separate follow-up workflow that runs for every lead. If that new workflow fires once per lead, monthly use doubles to roughly 3,000 and Pro with 10,000 executions becomes the budget: $60 monthly or $600 annually.

A five-minute inventory sync: Pro with little room

A single scheduled workflow running every five minutes creates 8,640 executions in a 30-day month and 8,928 in a 31-day month. Pro with 10,000 executions technically fits, but only 1,072 to 1,360 executions remain. That is 10.7% to 13.6% of the allowance, before additional production retries or any other production workflow.

This is the case where a tiny flow can cost more than a complicated sales pipeline. Reducing its node count does nothing to the n8n bill. Running it every ten minutes would cut the execution count in half; adding a second five-minute sync would exceed the 10,000-execution Pro allowance. Schedule design matters more than visual complexity.

Pro with 10,000 executions costs $60 monthly or $600 annually for this schedule. It is acceptable when the five-minute service is the main workload and failures rarely replay. Pro with 50,000 executions, at $144 monthly or $1,440 annually, is the more durable budget when several scheduled integrations share the account or the polling interval cannot change.

A message-driven support bot: architecture changes the bill

Take 100 support conversations a week with eight customer messages in each conversation. If every message starts a new workflow, four weeks create about 3,200 n8n executions. Starter cannot hold it, so Pro with 10,000 executions is the entry plan at $60 monthly or $600 annually, before runtime models, storage or help-desk charges. These are workload assumptions, not measured traffic.

If the architecture can collect a conversation and run one post-conversation workflow, the same 400 conversations create roughly 400 executions instead. Starter would fit at $24 monthly or $240 annually. That does not mean batching is always the right product decision. Customers may need a response after every message. It shows that the trigger boundary is a pricing decision, not just an engineering detail.

For a purchase forecast, model the normal month, the busiest known month, and a failure month with additional production retries. Leave room based on that workload rather than treating the published cap as a safe forecast. A plan that fits only the average is already too small for production.

What every n8n plan costs and where it stops

Starter: $24 monthly or $240 yearly

Starter is the right managed plan for low-frequency automation, not a production bargain for every small business. It includes 2,500 monthly executions, unlimited users and workflows, one shared project, five concurrent executions, 1,600 monthly Assistant credits, and forum support.

At month-to-month pricing, the allowance costs $9.60 per 1,000 included executions. Annual prepayment lowers that to $8.00 and saves $48 over twelve monthly payments. The limit that usually forces the upgrade is execution frequency, followed by the single shared project and five-run concurrency ceiling.

Skip Starter when one five-minute schedule exists, more than one working group needs project separation, or a busy burst can create more than five simultaneous runs. Executions queue once concurrency is reached, so check whether waiting is acceptable for the job.

Pro with 10,000 executions: $60 monthly or $600 yearly

Pro with 10,000 executions is the best default for a small production team because it raises the useful limits without handing the team an infrastructure job. It includes 10,000 monthly executions, three shared projects, 20 concurrent executions, admin roles, workflow history, metric-based evaluations, 7 days of insights, and 4,000 monthly Assistant credits.

The annual equivalent is $50 per month, saving $120 a year. Full utilization costs $6.00 per 1,000 executions month-to-month or $5.00 on annual billing. Moving from Starter to Pro with 10,000 executions adds 7,500 executions for $30 more at annual equivalents, or $4.00 per additional 1,000.

Pro with 10,000 executions fits a founder or operations team with several live workflows, light collaboration, and fewer than roughly 10,000 monthly triggers. It stops being comfortable when scheduled work, chat messages, or customer events consistently push near the cap. It also does not provide the SSO and environment controls that turn workflow changes into a governed software process.

Pro with 50,000 executions: $144 monthly or $1,440 yearly

The larger Pro option is the capacity tier for teams that need throughput but not Business governance. The pricing page's execution selector still offers 50,000 monthly executions, with 50 concurrent executions and 9,600 monthly Assistant credits. Its live US price is $144 month-to-month or $1,440 prepaid annually, a $120 monthly equivalent. It is an execution option within the same Pro plan. Source: n8n pricing.

At full allowance, that is $2.88 per 1,000 executions monthly or $2.40 annually. Moving from the smaller Pro option adds 40,000 executions for $70 more per month at annual equivalents, or $1.75 per additional 1,000 executions.

Business: $960 monthly or $9,600 yearly

Business buys organizational controls, not cheaper automation. The base plan is self-hosted, includes 40,000 monthly executions on a monthly commitment, and adds six shared projects, SSO and LDAP, separate environments, queue mode, Git version control, 30 days of insights, and forum support. Source: n8n pricing.

Annual billing costs $9,600, an $800 monthly equivalent, and pools 480,000 executions across the year. It saves $1,920 against twelve $960 payments. At full allowance, the subscription costs $24 per 1,000 executions month-to-month or $20 annually. Hosting remains extra. The monthly-equivalent allowance is lower than the larger Pro option, so the premium needs to earn its place through identity, deployment and team controls.

Business is reasonable when several teams share credentials, changes must pass through environments and Git, or identity policy requires SSO. It is hard to defend for one founder and an operations lead. Dedicated support is an Enterprise discussion, not an included Business benefit.

Enterprise: custom price for custom controls

Enterprise is the plan for compliance, contractual support, and scale that cannot fit a self-serve card. Neither a monthly-billed price nor an annual-billed price is published; execution volume and commercial terms are custom. It can be hosted by n8n or self-hosted and lists unlimited shared projects, 200-plus concurrent executions, 365 days of insights, external secret storage, log streaming, extended data retention, and invoice or wire payment. The pricing page lists SLA support, but its tooltip says those contracts can be added at extra cost. Get the support scope and response commitments into the quote. Source: n8n pricing.

Buy Enterprise when those controls are procurement requirements or outage response needs a contracted escalation path. Skip it when the desired feature is merely more executions. The larger Pro option or a custom capacity request is the relevant comparison first.

The break-even math between n8n tiers

Starter flips to Pro when expected monthly runs no longer fit 2,500 or the team needs Pro features. The pricing page does not publish a universal Starter overage rate. The decision is the full $30 annual-equivalent jump from $20 to $50, buying 7,500 more executions plus projects, concurrency, admin controls, and workflow tooling.

Moving from 10,000 to 50,000 executions within Pro adds $70 per month at annual equivalents and buys 40,000 additional executions, or $1.75 per extra 1,000. A workload forecast above 10,000 should price this option before considering infrastructure changes.

Every unit-cost figure in this article assumes the full included allowance is used unless stated otherwise. Realized cost is higher when runs sit unused. A Starter customer completing 500 workflows in a monthly-billed month pays an effective $48 per 1,000 executions, not $9.60. At 1,000 completed workflows, the figure is $24 per 1,000. The annual equivalents for those same workloads are $40 and $20 per 1,000.

The same utilization rule applies to Pro. A team buying the 10,000-execution option annually for only 3,000 monthly executions realizes a cost of $16.67 per 1,000, even though the plan's full-utilization figure is $5. Capacity is still valuable when it absorbs peaks, but it should be named as insurance rather than disguised as low unit cost. Compare plans using expected use, peak use, and included headroom side by side.

Business has no subscription throughput break-even against the larger Pro option. It costs $680 more per month at annual equivalents and includes 10,000 fewer monthly-equivalent executions. Its value appears when SSO, environments, Git version control, and self-hosted control replace risk or manual process worth more than the difference.

Annual savings are $48 for Starter, $120 for Pro with 10,000 executions, $288 for Pro with 50,000, and $1,920 for Business. Annual billing is sensible when the usage band and ownership model are stable. Monthly is worth the premium during migrations, seasonal demand, or any period where the workload might move between Cloud and Community.

What changed in n8n pricing, and what to recheck

Business's US annual commitment is now $9,600, compared with the $8,000 previously quoted here. That is $1,600 more per year. Its monthly-billed price is $960, while the $800 headline is the annual plan's monthly equivalent. Confusing those billing periods understates the commitment.

Pro still has a capacity option above its headline 10,000 executions. The 50,000-execution option costs $144 monthly or $1,440 annually in the live US price data. Business's higher price buys governance and self-hosted control; it is not the automatic upgrade for managed volume.

Assistant allowances are another reason to recheck the package: Starter includes 1,600 monthly credits, and Pro includes 4,000 or 9,600 depending on the execution option. Extra Assistant credits can now be purchased. These are separate from runtime model usage.

Before approving a purchase order, check the currency, billing period, total commitment, selected execution band and hosting mode. Then verify the Assistant allowance separately from the runtime model budget.

Self-hosting is free software, not free operations

DigitalOcean shows why the $0 Community label needs a total-cost model. Its current Basic Droplet price is $12 per month for 2 GiB of memory, one vCPU, 2,000 GiB of transfer, and a 50 GiB SSD. Weekly backups add 20%, taking this external server-and-backup illustration to $14.40 per month. That is a hosting vendor's price, not an n8n offer.

That $14.40 is an illustrative cash floor, not a production architecture recommendation. It excludes monitoring, an external database or replication, secret management, alerting, patching, incident response, and the labor required to prove a restore works. A larger workload can also need more CPU, memory, workers, and storage.

The labor break-even depends on your own operating costs. Against Starter's $20 annual equivalent, that illustrative server leaves $5.60 per month for labor and everything else. Against Pro at $50, it leaves $35.60. Divide the remaining amount by your actual fully loaded hourly cost to find the maintenance time the saving can fund. A security update, failed upgrade, or restore test can consume it quickly.

Self-hosting still wins for the right team. It can remove the n8n execution meter, place data inside a private network, permit custom infrastructure configuration, and keep internal workflows on a platform the team already operates. The decision should be made because control or scale earns the operating responsibility, not because $0 looks smaller than $20.

Hidden costs: overages, credits, APIs, refunds, and annual lock

The pricing FAQ gives a concrete Business overage rate: an extra bucket of 300,000 executions costs EUR 4,000, or EUR 13.33 per additional 1,000 if the whole bucket is used. This is explicitly a euro quote, not a verified US-dollar overage rate. Workflows continue after the Business or Enterprise quota is exceeded, but overages may be invoiced 45 days later if no upgrade or agreement is reached. Enterprise overage terms require a quote.

Cloud Starter and Pro have no universal per-execution overage price on that page. The Pro selector offers 10,000 and 50,000 executions plus a custom option. Above the published allowance, request current capacity terms rather than extrapolating the base unit cost. Execution-history retention limits are separate: reaching a saved-history limit removes old records, not the ability to run workflows.

AI Assistant credits help build workflows. Starter includes 1,600 per month; Pro includes 4,000 or 9,600. They refresh monthly, do not roll over, and additional credits can be purchased. On self-hosted n8n, Assistant is available in preview with your own API key and no Assistant credit limit. That does not make your model provider's usage free.

Runtime inference is a separate budget. Starter and Pro can use prepaid Gateway credits for supported models without bringing provider API keys, or workflows can connect external model accounts. A Pro execution allowance is not unlimited model usage. Budget connected databases, messaging services and other subscriptions separately too.

Business cancellation depends on commitment: monthly service ends at the close of the billing cycle; annual cancellation takes effect at the end of the annual term. n8n says Business has no pro-rata refunds. The pricing page does not establish a universal Cloud refund window, so read the terms offered for the subscription before paying.

Cloud's trial requires no card; Business's trial does. Treat the current trial allowance as a limited pilot, not proof that every paid permission is included. Keep a recoverable copy of your workflows when deciding whether to subscribe.

The pricing page advertises 50% off Business for qualifying startups with fewer than 20 employees and links to the eligibility process. It does not establish an individual student offer. A discount does not remove Business's self-hosting requirement.

n8n vs Make vs Zapier pricing, normalized

Make has a lower entry paid sticker for simple automation in this comparison. Its current Core plan costs $12 per month on monthly billing for 10,000 credits; Free includes 1,000 credits and a 15-minute minimum schedule interval. Most module actions consume one credit, while some advanced AI features consume more.

For an illustrative outcome consuming exactly five single-credit actions, Make Core's 10,000 credits support 2,000 outcomes. At full use, that is $0.006 per outcome. It beats n8n Starter's $0.0096 month-to-month subscription unit cost on this narrow model and carries a lower minimum bill. Additional modules, bundles or AI usage can change that result.

Zapier starts Professional at $19.99 per month on annual billing, with the entry paid selector at 750 tasks. Its current usage rates distinguish standard steps, built-in tools, code and AI. Do not assume that every workflow step uses the same number of tasks. Zapier's strength is convenient app handoffs for business operators, but a workflow with several billable steps consumes the allowance quickly.

If an outcome consumes exactly five billable tasks, the starting 750-task allowance supports 150 outcomes. At the $19.99 annual-billing equivalent, that is about $0.133 per outcome at full use. This illustration excludes any additional billable trigger or AI usage. It is not a complete workflow quote, and its annual commitment differs from the monthly n8n and Make examples.

n8n Starter supports 2,500 outcomes when each is a single workflow run, even if that run contains five internal actions. Its $24 monthly price is $0.0096 per outcome at full use; the annual equivalent gives $0.008. The result is not that n8n always wins. Make Core is cheaper in this simple illustration. n8n's subscription economics improve as internal step count rises, while platforms that meter individual steps consume additional units. Runtime model costs remain separate.

• Choose Make when workflows are simple, the lower minimum bill matters, and credit consumption is easy to predict.
• Choose Zapier when connector convenience and faster non-technical setup earn more than the task premium.
• Choose n8n Cloud when workflows are step-heavy, code and HTTP flexibility matter, and managed hosting is still worth paying for.
• Choose n8n Community when infrastructure ownership and the license boundary are already solved.

Teams that reject one of those constraints can compare the best n8n alternatives. The broader AI automation tools shortlist covers different orchestration and agent-building shapes.

Which n8n plan should you choose?

Choose Community when the workflow is for internal business use, a technical owner already operates comparable services, and the missing governance features do not matter. Do not choose it merely to save $20. A few minutes of monthly labor can erase that difference.

Choose Starter when expected runs stay comfortably below 2,500, one shared project is enough, and bursts will not exceed five concurrent executions. It is a proving-ground plan for light production, not the safe default for a growing event stream.

Choose Pro with 10,000 executions when production reliability matters, run volume fits below 10,000, and the team wants managed hosting with more projects and concurrency. This is the default small-business choice.

Choose Pro with 50,000 executions when volume, not governance, is the problem. Its managed hosting and lower unit price make it the capacity step to price before self-hosted Business.

Choose Business when SSO, separate environments, Git version control, shared project boundaries, and self-hosted control are active requirements. Choose Enterprise when dedicated support, external secrets, log streaming, extended retention, or a custom hosted contract is mandatory.

The decision flips on ownership first, executions second, and governance third. If nobody owns infrastructure, stay in Cloud, while still assigning someone to maintain the workflows. If managed runs exceed 10,000, price the larger Pro option. If identity and deployment controls are mandatory, price Business against Enterprise rather than against Starter. Before buying, count your actual triggers and name the person responsible for recovery.

n8n pricing FAQ

Is it free to use n8n?

Yes. Community has a $0 license fee for self-hosting under the Sustainable Use License. Infrastructure and maintenance still cost money, and some collaboration features require a paid plan. The publicly listed Cloud plans are paid subscriptions with a no-card trial.

How much is n8n per month?

US monthly billing is $24 for Starter with 2,500 executions, $60 for Pro with 10,000, $144 for Pro with 50,000, and $960 for self-hosted Business with 40,000. Annual prepayment gives monthly equivalents of $20, $50, $120 and $800, respectively. Enterprise has custom pricing and execution terms.

What happens when n8n exceeds its execution limit?

The route depends on the plan. Cloud customers should price the next execution option or custom capacity; the pricing page does not publish a universal Cloud overage rate. Business and Enterprise workflows can continue, with overages subject to the plan's terms. The published Business rate is EUR 4,000 for an extra 300,000-execution bucket, not a US-dollar quote.

Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?

n8n can be cheaper for workflows with many billable steps because it meters the whole workflow run. Compare the same workload, currency and billing commitment, including AI usage. Zapier can still be the better purchase when simpler setup and app handoffs save more operator time.

Does n8n have a student discount?

The current pricing page does not establish an individual student discount. It lists a startup offer for eligible companies. Community remains free to self-host for uses permitted by its license.

Can I get an n8n refund?

The pricing page says Business does not offer pro-rata refunds. Monthly cancellation takes effect at the billing cycle's end; annual cancellation at the annual term's end. Confirm the terms for the specific Cloud or Enterprise subscription rather than assuming Business's policy applies to every plan.

Did n8n pricing change?

The current US Business price is $960 billed monthly or $9,600 annually, equivalent to $800 per month. The older $8,000 annual figure is not the current US price. Pro still offers 10,000 and 50,000 executions under one public plan name; the larger option is $144 monthly or $1,440 annually.

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