n8n Pricing 2026: Starter, Pro, Business & Self-Hosted Costs

A clear breakdown of n8n's cloud plans and the free self-hosted Community Edition — what an "execution" actually is, why unlimited steps changes the maths against Zapier, and the $50-to-$800 cliff between Pro and Business.

Updated July 20269 min read

💰 Quick Pricing Summary

Community Edition: $0, self-hosted, source available on GitHub. Starter: $20/mo billed annually for 2,500 executions. Pro: $50/mo billed annually for 10,000 executions. Business: $800/mo billed annually for 40,000 executions, self-hosted, with SSO and Git version control. Enterprise: custom.

The number that matters is not the price — it is that n8n bills per full workflow execution with unlimited steps, while most competitors bill per step or per task. A 40-step workflow costs one execution.

🔍

Not sure if n8n is right for you?

n8n's whole pricing pitch is a comparison: pay for executions, not steps. Run the numbers against the tools it is aimed at.

⚔️

n8n vs Zapier

Per-execution vs per-task billing

🧭

n8n Alternatives

Other automation platforms compared

n8n Plans Compared

Feature	Community	Starter	Pro	Business
Monthly Price (annual billing)	$0	$20	$50	$800
Hosting	Self-hosted	Hosted by n8n	Hosted by n8n	Self-hosted
Workflow Executions	Unlimited (your server)	2,500	10,000	40,000
Steps Per Execution	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Users	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Shared Projects	Self-managed	1	3	6
Concurrent Executions	Your hardware	5	20	Scaling options
AI Credits / Month	None	2,300	Up to 13,700	Included
Workflow History	Self-managed	1 day	5 days	30 days
Insights Retention	None	None	7 days	30 days
SSO / SAML / LDAP	No	No	No	Yes
Git Version Control	No	No	No	Yes
Environments (dev/prod)	Self-managed	No	2 instances	Yes

Pricing as of July 2026. n8n revises plan limits periodically — check n8n.io/pricing for the current numbers before you subscribe.

Understanding Each Plan

Community Edition — $0, self-hosted

The reason n8n has the community it has. A standard self-hosted build is available on GitHub, and on your own server there is no execution meter at all — your only ceiling is hardware.

What you get:

The full editor and every integration node
Unlimited executions, limited only by the machine you run it on
Code steps in JavaScript and Python, plus custom API requests
Custom nodes and bash scripts, which the cloud plans do not allow
Full control over where your data sits

What you don't get:

SSO, SAML, and LDAP
Git-based version control and multi-environment promotion
Managed uptime — patching, backups, and scaling are yours
Included AI credits and n8n's hosted support SLAs

Best for: Technical teams who already run infrastructure. If you have a VPS and someone comfortable with Docker, the Community Edition is the highest-leverage option in the entire automation market.

Starter — $20/month billed annually

The cheapest managed option: 2,500 workflow executions a month with unlimited steps in each, hosted by n8n so you never touch a server.

What you get:

2,500 workflow executions per month, unlimited steps each
1 shared project and 5 concurrent executions
Unlimited users — n8n does not charge per seat on any tier
2,300 AI credits per month
Forum support and a free trial with no credit card

What you don't get:

Global variables, admin roles, and execution search
Workflow history beyond a single day
Insights and analytics

Best for: Solo builders and small teams automating a handful of processes. 2,500 executions is a lot when a 40-step workflow still counts as one.

Pro — $50/month billed annually

Four times the executions for 2.5x the price, plus the operational features you start wanting the moment a workflow matters: history, search, and admin roles.

What you get:

10,000 workflow executions per month
3 shared projects and 20 concurrent executions
7 days of insights and 5 days of workflow history
Up to 13,700 AI credits per month
Admin roles, global variables, and execution search

Best for: Solo builders and small teams running workflows in production. The jump from Starter is worth it mostly for execution search and workflow history — the two things you need when something breaks at 2am.

Business — $800/month billed annually

A steep cliff from Pro, and the price reflects what it is: a self-hosted deployment with enterprise governance rather than a bigger cloud tier. Note that n8n's Start-up Plan offers 50% off Business for companies under 20 employees.

What you get:

40,000 workflow executions per month, self-hosted
6 shared projects and scaling options
SSO, SAML, and LDAP
Version control using Git and separate dev/staging/prod environments
30 days of insights

Best for: Companies under 100 employees that need governance and separate environments. Before paying full price, check whether you qualify for the Start-up Plan — under 20 employees gets 50% off.

Executions vs Steps: Why n8n's Pricing Model Matters More Than Its Price

Almost every comparison of n8n against other automation tools gets decided here. n8n charges for a workflow running start to finish. Most competitors charge per step, per task, or per operation — so the same automation costs wildly different amounts depending on how it is counted.

✅ Doesn't Cost You

One execution = one full workflow run, however many nodes it contains
Steps per execution are unlimited on every tier, including Starter
Users are unlimited on every tier — there is no per-seat charge anywhere
Self-hosted Community Edition has no execution meter at all

💳 Draws Down Your Plan

A 40-step workflow run 1,000 times = 1,000 executions, not 40,000 operations
Loops matter: a workflow that iterates internally still counts as one execution
Trigger frequency is the real cost driver — a webhook firing every minute is ~43,000 executions a month
AI credits are metered separately from executions and are capped per tier

How to Keep n8n Costs Down

Consolidate rather than chain

Because billing is per execution, five small workflows triggering each other cost five executions where one larger workflow costs one. This is the opposite of the advice you would follow on a per-step platform.

Filter at the trigger, not in the middle

A workflow that runs 10,000 times and exits at node two still burns 10,000 executions. Use trigger-level filters, webhook conditions, and polling intervals to avoid starting runs you are going to discard.

Batch scheduled work

Running a job hourly instead of every minute cuts 43,200 executions a month to 720. For most reporting and sync workflows, nobody notices the difference.

Self-host the high-volume workflows

The Community Edition has no execution meter. A common pattern is Starter or Pro for the workflows that need managed reliability, plus a self-hosted instance for the noisy high-frequency ones.

Check the Start-up Plan before buying Business

Companies under 20 employees can qualify for 50% off Business, which turns an $800/month line item into $400. That is a meaningful difference at the exact company size where the Pro-to-Business jump hurts most.

Which n8n Plan Should You Choose?

Choose Community (self-hosted, free) if:

You already run servers and are comfortable with Docker
You want unlimited executions with no meter
You need custom nodes or bash scripts, which cloud plans restrict
Data residency or privacy rules mean the data cannot leave your infrastructure

Choose Starter ($20/mo) if:

You want managed hosting without running infrastructure
You are under roughly 2,500 workflow runs a month
One shared project and forum support is enough

Choose Pro ($50/mo) if:

Workflows are in production and failures matter
You need execution search and workflow history for debugging
You are between 2,500 and 10,000 executions a month
You want admin roles and more AI credits

Choose Business ($800/mo) if:

You need SSO/SAML/LDAP and Git-based version control
Separate dev, staging, and production environments are a requirement
You are running 40,000 executions a month
Check the Start-up Plan first — under 20 employees is 50% off

Not sure? Count your triggers, not your steps. Multiply how often each workflow fires by the number of workflows — that number, not complexity, decides your tier.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does n8n cost per month?

n8n cloud plans, billed annually, are: Starter at $20/month for 2,500 workflow executions, Pro at $50/month for 10,000 executions, and Business at $800/month for 40,000 executions with self-hosting and enterprise features. Enterprise is custom. Annual billing saves about 17% over monthly. Separately, the self-hosted Community Edition is free and has no execution limit.

Is n8n free?

Yes, in the form that matters most to technical users: the Community Edition is a standard self-hosted build available on GitHub, and running it on your own server means unlimited executions with no meter. You give up SSO, Git version control, multi-environment promotion, included AI credits, and managed uptime — patching, backups, and scaling become your responsibility.

What counts as an n8n execution?

One full workflow run from trigger to finish, regardless of how many nodes it passes through. A 40-node workflow and a 3-node workflow each consume exactly one execution. This is the single most important thing to understand about n8n pricing, because it inverts the cost optimisation advice from per-step platforms: on n8n, consolidating logic into fewer, larger workflows is cheaper.

n8n vs Zapier pricing — which is cheaper?

It depends almost entirely on workflow complexity. Zapier and similar tools bill per task or per step, so a 40-step automation run 1,000 times can register as tens of thousands of billable operations. On n8n that same automation is 1,000 executions. The more steps your automations have, the more dramatically n8n wins on cost; for trivial two-step zaps the gap narrows considerably.

Does n8n charge per user?

No. Users are unlimited on every tier, including the $20/month Starter plan. What scales with price is executions, shared projects, concurrent executions, and governance features — not seats. For teams coming from per-seat automation tools this is often a larger saving than the execution model itself.

Why is n8n Business $800 when Pro is $50?

Because Business is not simply a larger cloud tier — it is a self-hosted deployment with enterprise governance: SSO, SAML and LDAP, Git-based version control, separate dev and production environments, scaling options, and 30 days of insights. The jump is buying compliance and deployment control, not throughput. If you need only more executions, that gap is hard to justify.

Does n8n offer a startup discount?

Yes. n8n runs a Start-up Plan giving qualifying companies under 20 employees 50% off the Business plan, which brings it from $800 to roughly $400 a month. Given that the Pro-to-Business jump is the steepest in n8n's lineup, checking eligibility before purchasing is worth the few minutes it takes.

Can I self-host n8n and still get support?

The free Community Edition comes with community and forum support rather than an SLA. Paid self-hosted deployments sit on the Business and Enterprise tiers, where Enterprise adds dedicated support with an SLA, external secret store integration, log streaming, extended data retention, and invoice billing.

Related Resources

n8n Review 2026

Hands-on review of the editor, the node library, and self-hosting in practice.

n8n vs Zapier

The per-execution versus per-task comparison, run on real numbers.

n8n Alternatives

Other automation platforms, including no-code and open-source options.

Make Review 2026

The visual automation competitor most often shortlisted alongside n8n.

Make vs Zapier

The other half of the automation pricing comparison.

AI Productivity Tools

Browse every automation and productivity tool we track.

Ready to Try n8n?

Start a free cloud trial with no credit card, or self-host the Community Edition and run unlimited executions on your own server.

Try n8n Free →

No credit card required for the cloud trial. Starter is $20/month billed annually.

ChatGPT already recommends n8n. Does it recommend yours?

If you're building in workflow automation tools, run a free AI-visibility scan on your own product — we ask ChatGPT across 5 prompt angles and score how often you get named. ~30 seconds, no signup, no card.

Scan my tool — free →or scan n8n instead

📬 Get the best new AI tools delivered weekly

One concise email with fresh launches, trending picks, and featured standouts.