n8n Pricing Explained (2026): Plans, Executions, and Self-Hosting
Choosing an automation tool is partly a question of what it counts. Zapier-style task billing can make each step relevant; n8n bills cloud usage by complete workflow executions. If you are comparing n8n, Zapier, and Make, start with how often your workflows run, then check which plan holds that volume. For the broader three-way choice, see our n8n, Zapier, and Make comparison.
The decision is whether Starter or Pro will cover your monthly executions, or whether self-hosting makes sense for the license and features you need. The key is to count runs, not steps—and to remember that a free self-hosted edition still requires you to run the service.
How This Guide Was Built
This guide is based on n8n’s published pricing and documentation, read on 2026-11-11; we did not run n8n’s plans hands-on. The n8n pricing page displayed prices in EUR, and we quote EUR as displayed.
Some older posts on this site show USD; no conversion is attempted. Per-execution figures are our arithmetic from published prices, labeled as ours. Sources include the startup-plan page, license-key docs, Sustainable Use License docs, insights docs, hosting installation docs, queue-mode docs, and n8n Assistant docs.
What n8n counts as an “execution” (and why step count doesn’t matter)
An execution is one complete run of a workflow: n8n’s pricing FAQ says that step count and data volume do not change the count, adding, “It’s still a single execution.” A fifty-step sync and a two-step alert each use one execution, so plan choice hinges on run frequency, not complexity, per the n8n pricing page.
That makes n8n’s unit easier to estimate from a calendar. A workflow that runs once a day has a predictable monthly count; a workflow triggered every few minutes can use a much larger share of a plan even if it has only a few steps. For a different billing model, see our explanation of Zapier’s task-based cost math. Zapier’s pricing page and Make’s published pricing page set their own units; we did not re-read them for this guide.
This does not mean workflow design is irrelevant. It still matters whether your plan’s duration and concurrency limits fit the work, and whether you need execution history or project features. But those are separate checks: adding steps to a run does not multiply the execution count on the pricing page.
What each plan actually holds
Starter is €20 per month billed annually for 2.5K executions; Pro is €50 for 10K, with different concurrency, history, and duration limits, according to n8n’s pricing page. Business is listed as self-hosted only, while the page read on 2026-11-11 shows hosted Business as a waitlist. Starter gets forum support; Enterprise adds dedicated support with an SLA.
| Plan | Price (EUR, billed annually, read 2026-11-11) | Executions/mo | Concurrent | Saved executions | Log retention | Max duration | Also notable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | €20/mo | 2.5K | 5 | 2.5k; 2.5 GB | 7 days | 5 min | 1 shared project; 1,600 Assistant credits/mo; overage “Capped”; free trial: 1,000 executions, 5 concurrent, 180-second timeout |
| Pro | €50/mo | 10K | 20 on executions row; up to 50 in feature list | 25k; 25 GB | 30 days | 40 min | 3 shared projects; up to 9,600 Assistant credits/mo; search executions by data; insights with 7–14 day filtering; overage “Capped” |
| Business | €667/mo | 40K | not listed on the page we read | not listed on the page we read | not listed on the page we read | not listed on the page we read | 6 shared projects; SSO and LDAP; 30 days of insights; queue mode; Git version control; self-hosted only; hosted Business waitlist |
| Startup | €333/mo | per Business | per Business | per Business | per Business | per Business | Business at 50% off; fewer than 20 employees and less than €5M total funding |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | 200+ | 50k | Unlimited | 40 min | Unlimited shared projects; external secret store; log streaming; dedicated support with SLA; hosted or self-hosted; overage “Custom” |
| Community Edition | Free, self-hosted | Not listed as a plan limit | Not listed as a plan limit | Not listed as a plan limit | Not listed as a plan limit | Not listed as a plan limit | Source on GitHub; Business/Enterprise features require a license key |
Prices were displayed in EUR on the pricing page read 2026-11-11. Pro concurrency appears as 20 on the executions row and “up to 50” in the feature list. “Capped” and “Custom” are the page’s overage labels.
The Assistant credit amounts are monthly allowances: Starter lists 1,600, while Pro offers up to 9,600 depending on plan size. Unused credits do not roll over, and extra credits can be purchased. The self-hosted Assistant is in preview, uses your own key, and has no credit limits, according to the pricing page and Assistant docs.
The trial is also distinct from an ongoing plan: it includes 1,000 executions, 5 concurrent executions, and a 180-second timeout, per the pricing page. For Pro insights, the page lists 7–14 day filtering, while the insights documentation explains what those insights count.
The schedule math that picks your plan
n8n’s pricing example says a daily schedule runs 30–31 times per month and a schedule every five minutes runs about 8,600–8,900 times; our arithmetic puts the latter above Starter’s 2,500 cap but below Pro’s 10,000, per the pricing page. That makes Pro the cloud fit for this example, not Starter.
The comparison is simple:
- Five-minute schedule: 8,600–8,900 monthly runs is greater than Starter’s 2,500 executions, so it exceeds that cap. It is less than Pro’s 10,000, so it fits Pro’s stated execution allowance. This is our arithmetic using n8n’s schedule example and plan limits, not a live test.
- Daily schedule: 30–31 monthly runs against Starter’s 2,500-execution cap leaves most of the allowance unused. That comparison is our arithmetic based on n8n’s published example and limit.
- Price per execution at each plan’s cap: our arithmetic is €20 ÷ 2,500 = €0.0080 for Starter; €50 ÷ 10,000 = €0.0050 for Pro; and €667 ÷ 40,000 = €0.0167 for Business. The Business figure covers the license only, not a server or your time. The prices and limits are listed on the pricing page.
Our arithmetic at each plan's execution cap (EUR, from the pricing page)
Starter €20 ÷ 2,500 = €0.0080 per execution
Pro €50 ÷ 10,000 = €0.0050 per execution
Business €667 ÷ 40,000 = €0.0167 per execution (license only)These are comparisons at the plan caps, not a claim that every account uses every execution or receives that effective rate. A lightly used plan will have a different cost per actual run. A schedule that fits the execution cap can still be a poor fit if its runs exceed the plan’s duration limit or need more concurrency than the plan provides. For another cost factor to check when comparing tools, see our guide to what retries cost across Zapier, Make, and n8n.
What happens when you hit a cap
On Starter and Pro, the pricing page lists overage as “Capped” and does not say what happens to cloud workflows past the cap. Its Business and Enterprise FAQ says workflows “continue running without interruption” while overage charges may apply, and it gives no Business overage rate as read on 2026-11-11. Saved-execution limits change only how much history is kept.
So do not treat the execution allowance as the only ceiling. Starter’s maximum duration is 5 minutes, while Pro’s is 40 minutes; a long-running workflow can hit a duration limit before monthly executions run out. Starter lists 5 concurrent runs and Pro lists 20 on the executions row and up to 50 in its feature list. These figures come from the pricing page.
History has its own limits. Starter lists 2.5k saved executions and 2.5 GB of storage, with 7-day log retention; Pro lists 25k, 25 GB, and 30 days. The pricing page says reaching a saved-execution limit does not stop workflows; it only changes how much history is retained. Business concurrency, saved executions, log retention, and maximum duration are not listed on the page we read on 2026-11-11. Do not fill in those gaps by assuming the figures from another plan.
When self-hosting changes the math
Self-hosted Community Edition is free to run, but Business and Enterprise features require a license key that pings n8n daily and reports production execution counts; instances using one key share its quota, according to the license-key docs. The GitHub repository holds the Community Edition source, and the n8n documentation, its hosting overview, and the installation docs cover setup.
That distinction matters because the pricing page lists Business as self-hosted only; hosted Business is a waitlist on the page read on 2026-11-11. Business includes SSO and LDAP, Git version control, and queue mode. Queue mode is a scaling setup in which a main instance works with workers and Redis holds pending executions, according to the queue-mode docs. The page does not list Business concurrency, saved-execution, or maximum-duration limits.
A Startup plan is listed at €333 per month billed annually, framed as Business at 50% off, for companies with fewer than 20 employees and less than €5M total funding, per the startup-plan page. Those criteria may make the license more accessible, but they do not remove the operational work of hosting and maintaining a deployment.
Telemetry is on by default and can be disabled, per the pricing FAQ and its data-collection section. The license server runs on Cloudflare, so the license-key docs advise allowlisting Cloudflare’s IP ranges. Activation works through the UI or an environment variable, with an option for air-gapped environments.
The source is under the Sustainable Use License; consult the license documentation and our explanation of the n8n Fair-Code license rather than relying on a shorthand summary of its terms. Self-hosting still costs your server and your time; the sources used for this guide do not establish a server-cost figure. Our n8n cloud-to-self-host migration guide and Docker and VPS setup guide can help you assess the practical work.
FAQ
The questions below cover the billing unit, what happens at a usage cap, and whether self-hosted Community Edition is free. Each answer is based on n8n’s published pricing or documentation read on 2026-11-11; where the page does not give a rate or limit, the answer says so instead of estimating.
Does n8n charge per step, like Zapier?
No. n8n counts one complete workflow run as one execution, regardless of how many steps it contains; its pricing FAQ says, “It’s still a single execution.” It does not make step count the billing unit on the page we read. For a separate comparison, see our guide to Zapier task-based cost math.
What happens if I go over my plan’s executions?
Starter and Pro list overage as “Capped,” and the pricing page does not say what happens to cloud workflows past the cap. For Business and Enterprise, n8n says workflows keep running while overage charges may apply, with no Business rate listed on the page we read on 2026-11-11.
Is n8n’s self-hosted Community Edition really free?
Community Edition is free to run self-hosted, and the pricing page links to its source on GitHub. Business and Enterprise features require a license key that pings daily and reports production execution counts. The code is under the Sustainable Use License; see the license docs and our license explainer.
The Bottom Line
For light use, Starter covers a daily schedule (30–31 runs a month, our arithmetic) well inside its 2.5K cap; a five-minute schedule points to Pro. Teams needing SSO should consider self-hosted Business or eligible Startup, while self-host operators can run Community Edition free. These conclusions use n8n’s pricing and Startup plan details.
- Cost-sensitive light user: Starter is €20 per month billed annually. A daily schedule runs 30–31 times a month against its 2.5K cap by our arithmetic, but note its 5-concurrent limit and 5-minute maximum duration.
- High-volume scheduled user: Pro is €50 per month billed annually. n8n’s five-minute example is 8,600–8,900 monthly runs, above Starter’s 2.5K and within Pro’s 10K; Pro lists a 40-minute duration limit.
- Team needing SSO: Business is €667 per month billed annually and self-hosted only; Startup is €333 if the company meets the published criteria. The hosted Business listing was a waitlist on the page read on 2026-11-11.
- Self-host operator: Community Edition is free to run. Budget for your own server and time without assuming a published infrastructure figure; Business and Enterprise features require a license key.
Beyond Pro, the hosted ladder jumps to custom-priced Enterprise, so the next step up is either a sales conversation or a self-hosted Business license. If you are still weighing n8n against other automation tools, use our n8n, Zapier, and Make comparison as the next step.
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