Tool profilen8n
Workflow automation billed per workflow run rather than per step
n8n bills per workflow execution rather than per task, which makes long workflows substantially cheaper than step-billed competitors, and a free self-hosted Community Edition is available under the Sustainable Use Licence. Building with it expects comfort with APIs and JSON beyond what the visual editor implies.
Visit n8nIs n8n worth it?
- What it is
- Workflow automation billed per workflow run rather than per step
- Worth a look if
- You run long multi-step workflows that get expensive under per-task billing, since an execution is one workflow run regardless of step count.
- Skip it if
- You are a non-technical marketer who wants a two-step trigger and action, or nobody is available to maintain workflows when an API changes.
- Cost to start
- 20 EUR per month for Starter, billed annually, with 2,500 executions and 2,300 AI credits. Yes. Free self hosted Community Edition under the Sustainable Use License.
n8n screenshots
n8n at a glance
| Job category | Automation and Lifecycle |
|---|---|
| What it replaces | Per-task automation tools billed by step |
| Pricing model | Free tier |
| Starting price | 20 EUR per month for Starter, billed annually, with 2,500 executions and 2,300 AI credits |
| Free tier | Free self hosted Community Edition under the Sustainable Use License. |
| Getting started | Free tier |
| Built for | Teams running long multi step workflows that get expensive under per task billing |
| Company | Not published |
| Last verified | August 2026 |
n8n pricing and plans
n8n does not publish pricing. 20 EUR per month for Starter, billed annually, with 2,500 executions and 2,300 AI credits Free self hosted Community Edition under the Sustainable Use License.
- Starter is 20 EUR a month billed annually, with 2,500 executions and 2,300 AI credits.
- Every cloud plan includes unlimited users, so there is no seat tax.
- Cloud data is stored in the EU.
- Execution pruning is on by default at 14 days.
- Executions over the concurrency limit queue in FIFO order; manual, sub-workflow and error executions are exempt.
- The Community Edition is free under the Sustainable Use License, which does not permit reselling or hosting it as a service.
- The gap between Pro at 50 EUR and Business at 667 EUR is very large with nothing in between.
- AI steps consume a separate credit balance, 2,300 a month on Starter, so the unlimited-steps framing does not extend to the AI.
- AI credits scale from 2,300 a month on Starter to 13,700 on Pro.
Billed per workflow execution rather than per step, and all cloud tiers include unlimited users. AI steps draw on a separate monthly credit balance, and shared projects, concurrency and insights retention are the limits that actually separate the tiers.
n8n features: what it does
- An execution is one workflow run regardless of step count, so complex automations do not scale in price
- Every cloud plan includes unlimited users, which removes the seat tax most competitors charge
- A free self hosted Community Edition exists, so the cost floor is zero if you can run it
- Cloud data is stored in the EU, which simplifies several compliance conversations
- Executions over the concurrency limit queue in FIFO order rather than being dropped, and manual, sub-workflow and error executions are exempt
- Execution pruning is enabled by default at 14 days, which is a sensible default rather than a trap left to the operator
n8n limitations
- The Sustainable Use License restricts commercial hosting and white labelling, which rules out some agency models
- Insights retention is only 7 days on Starter and Pro, which is a short window to diagnose a workflow that failed last week
- Concurrency is capped at 5 production executions on Starter, so a burst of webhook traffic queues rather than running
- Self-hosted SQLite does not return disk space after pruning unless you enable a vacuum, so the database quietly grows
- Insights retention runs 7 days on Starter and Pro, 30 on Business and 365 on Enterprise, so diagnosing a workflow that failed last week needs the Business tier.
Who n8n is for
| Your situation | What that means here |
|---|---|
| Solo non-technical marketer | The canvas is approachable but the useful workflows need API and JSON comfort, and support is community-led on the free edition. |
| Technical marketer | This is the intended buyer. Per-execution billing and raw HTTP access make complex, multi-step automation cheap to run. |
| Automation agency | Capable and cheap to scale, but the Sustainable Use License restricts hosting it for clients, so check licensing before building a service on it. |
| Developer | Self-hosting, code nodes, sub-workflows and full API access, with the source available to read when documentation runs out. |
| Enterprise operations | EU data residency, self-hosting and SSO exist, but concurrency limits and execution-data pruning need planning before rollout. |
| Simple two-step automation user | Overkill. A trigger-to-action tool will cost less in setup time even where it costs more per month. |
n8n use cases for marketers
- Marketing operations automation where one run touches many steps, at 2,500 executions and 2,300 AI credits on the 20 EUR Starter plan.
- Self-hosted automation for teams with data residency obligations, at a cost floor of zero on the Community Edition.
n8n FAQ
How is n8n cheaper than task-based automation if the monthly price looks similar?
Because of what gets counted. One execution is one workflow run regardless of length, so a twenty step and a two step workflow cost the same. Task-based competitors count every step. The headline prices are comparable; the bills at volume are not.
Is the free self hosted version genuinely free?
The software is, under the Sustainable Use License, for internal business use. Running it is not: a server, updates, backups and someone to fix it at three in the morning.
Can an agency run client automations on n8n?
Building and operating workflows for clients on your own instance is internal business use. Hosting n8n as a service for clients to log into, or white labelling it, is restricted by the licence and needs a separate agreement.
n8n sources and references
- Starter is 20 EUR monthly with 2,500 executions and 5 concurrent executions; Pro is 50 EUR with 10,000 executions and 20 concurrent; Business is 667 EUR with 40,000 executions and self hosting; all cloud tiers include unlimited users; an execution is a single run of an entire workflow regardless of how many steps it contains; cloud data is stored in the EU.n8n.io
- n8n is distributed under the Sustainable Use License, which permits use for internal business purposes and non commercial personal use but restricts hosting the software as a service for customers, white labelling and reselling without a separate agreement.github.com
- n8n limits concurrent production executions by plan, listing 5 on Starter, 20 on Pro and 200 or more on Enterprise. Executions beyond the limit queue for later processing in FIFO order rather than failing, and concurrency control applies only to production executions started by a webhook or trigger, not to manual, sub-workflow or error executions.docs.n8n.io
- n8n enables execution data pruning by default, deleting finished executions older than EXECUTIONS_DATA_MAX_AGE hours, which defaults to 336 hours or 14 days. On the default SQLite database the disk space of pruned data is not automatically freed and is reused for future executions unless DB_SQLITE_VACUUM_ON_STARTUP is configured or VACUUM is run manually.docs.n8n.io
Compiled by Alston Antony from the sources above:how we compile these entries and ouraffiliate disclosure.