n8n Pricing Explained: Real Plan Prices, Cloud vs Self-Hosted
n8n prices checked 24 October 2026: Starter €20/month and Pro €50/month equivalent, billed annually; self-hosted Community Edition or Business €667/month billed annually. What an execution is, what self-hosting really costs, and how n8n compares with Zapier and Make.
Price source: official n8n pricing, checked . License: Sustainable Use License. n8n Markets template subscriptions are separate from n8n hosting.
n8n Cloud vs self-hosted cost calculator
Cloud plan covering your execution volume
Starter: €20/month equivalent, billed annually (€240/year).
Includes up to 2,500 executions/month. The full subscription price applies even with zero executions; features may require a higher plan.
Self-hosted operating estimate
€0.00/month from your inputs.
Community Edition software has no subscription fee for permitted uses. Infrastructure capacity, taxes, paid licenses, AI APIs and other services are not included. This estimate does not guarantee capacity or savings.
How n8n Pricing Works
n8n has two ways to pay: n8n Cloud, where n8n hosts everything for a monthly fee, or self-hosting, where the Community Edition software is free and you pay only for your server.
The billing unit matters: n8n Cloud counts workflow executions rather than a fee per node. Other platforms count billable tasks or credits. Execution volume alone is not enough to compare costs without checking which actions count and which features you need.
Official advertised base-plan rates checked on 24 October 2026. Prices below are euro monthly equivalents billed annually, not month-to-month prices. Confirm taxes, higher-volume allowances and current checkout terms with n8n before budgeting.
n8n Cloud Plans and Prices
| Plan | Monthly equivalent (annual billing) | Annual amount | Executions/month | Key features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | €20/mo | €240/year | 2,500 | 1 shared project, 5 concurrent executions, unlimited users, forum support |
| Pro | €50/mo | €600/year | 10,000 | 3 shared projects, Up to 50 concurrent executions, admin roles, global variables, workflow history |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Unlimited projects, 200+ concurrent executions, log streaming, SLA support, invoice billing |
Cloud plans include unlimited users, workflows and integrations, with execution allowances and plan-specific features. Higher-volume Pro sizes are available; use n8n’s current pricing page rather than extrapolating a price.
Self-Hosted Plans: Free Community Edition and Business
| Plan | Price | Executions | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community Edition | Free | Unlimited | All integrations and AI nodes, full workflow editor, runs on your own server |
| Business | €667/mo (annual billing) | 40,000 | SSO/SAML/LDAP, Git version control, dev/staging/prod environments, 6 projects, 30-day insights |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | External secret stores, extended data retention, dedicated support with SLA |
The Community Edition is genuinely free for internal business use under the Sustainable Use License — the real cost is your server and the time to maintain it. The Business tier exists for companies that self-host but need governance features like SSO and version control.
Hidden Costs of Self-Hosting n8n
| Setup | What it includes | Rough monthly hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Compute and database capacity | Your provider quote |
| Operations | Updates, HTTPS, backups and monitoring | Your maintenance budget |
| Connected services | AI models, email and other paid APIs | Vendor usage charges |
Include people time for updates, monitoring, backups and security. Compare that operating budget with a managed Cloud plan; no option is universally cheaper.
n8n vs Zapier vs Make: What the Same Workflow Costs
| Platform | Billing unit | A 10-step workflow run costs | Self-hosting |
|---|---|---|---|
| n8n Cloud | Execution (full run) | 1 execution | Also available free |
| Zapier | Task (each action step) | Up to 10 tasks | No |
| Make | Operation / credit (each module) | About 10 operations | No |
For an illustrative workflow running 1,000 times with 10 billable action steps, compare 1,000 n8n executions with up to 10,000 tasks or credits on another platform. Actual accounting varies by trigger, node, retries and vendor rules. Compare current allowances before concluding which platform costs less.
How to Keep n8n Costs Low
- Combine related steps into one workflow instead of chaining many small ones.
- Use event-driven triggers where supported and measure real execution usage. Polling behaviour varies by node; a check without new data does not necessarily create a billed execution.
- Filter out irrelevant items early so workflows stop before doing unnecessary work.
- Turn off saving successful execution data for high-volume workflows.
- Self-host the Community Edition once your Cloud bill would exceed the cost of a VPS plus maintenance time.
Which Option Should You Choose?
- Trying n8n or running a few light automations: Cloud Starter at €20/month.
- Production workloads without server maintenance: Cloud Pro at €50/month.
- Technical team, sensitive data or high volume: self-host the free Community Edition.
- Self-hosted company needing SSO, environments and Git: Business at €667/month.
- Strict compliance, audit and support requirements: talk to n8n about Enterprise.
Not sure? Measure your own execution volume, then compare the current vendor allowance and operating costs before committing.
Keep reading
Frequently Asked Questions
Is n8n free?
Yes, the self-hosted Community Edition is free under n8n's fair-code Sustainable Use License, with unlimited workflows and executions. Hosting, backups, maintenance and connected services have separate costs. n8n Cloud Starter is advertised at €20/month equivalent, billed annually.
How much does n8n Cloud cost?
Checked 24 October 2026: Starter is €20/month equivalent billed annually for 2,500 monthly executions; Pro is €50/month equivalent billed annually for 10,000. Month-to-month billing and higher-volume options must be checked on the official pricing page.
What counts as an execution in n8n?
n8n Cloud prices by workflow executions rather than a fee for each node. Compare the vendor’s execution accounting with the billable actions or credits used by other platforms; not every step on another platform is necessarily billable.
How much does it cost to self-host n8n?
Community Edition has no software subscription fee for permitted uses. Enter your hosting, backup and maintenance costs in the calculator; capacity and third-party API charges depend on your workload.
Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?
It depends on billable usage, the required features and operating costs. n8n Cloud uses workflow executions, while Zapier uses billable tasks. Compare both using your actual workload; self-hosting still has infrastructure and maintenance costs.
Can I use n8n commercially for free?
You can use the free self-hosted version for your own internal business automations. Offering n8n itself as a hosted service to others, or embedding it in a product you sell, needs a commercial agreement with n8n.
Which n8n plan should I choose?
Starter for trying n8n Cloud, Pro for production workloads on Cloud, Community Edition if you can run a server and want the lowest cost, and Business or Enterprise when you need SSO, environments or support guarantees.
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