n8n Pricing Explained: Plans, Costs and What You Get

n8n charges per workflow execution, not per seat or step. Cloud starts at €20 a month, Community is free to self-host, and Enterprise is on request.

By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-08T13:29:31+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-08T13:29:31+00:00

n8n Pricing Explained: Plans, Costs and What You Get

n8n charges by workflow execution, not by seat or by step. One execution is one full run of a workflow, however many steps it has. The self-hosted Community edition is free. Cloud plans start at €20 a month billed annually. The top published plan is the self-hosted Business plan at €667 a month billed annually. Enterprise pricing is on request. This n8n pricing guide explains each plan, what counts as an execution, and which plan fits which team. Prices come from n8n's own pricing page, read on 8 November 2026.

How n8n Pricing Works: Pay Per Execution

The unit of billing is the execution. That single rule shapes all of n8n pricing. A one-step workflow and a forty-step pipeline each count as one execution when they run. That is the whole pricing model. It rewards long, complex workflows and punishes chatty ones that run every few minutes.

Every plan includes unlimited users and unlimited active workflows. Unlimited seats are the friendliest part of n8n pricing. Cost scales with usage, not seats. Annual billing saves 17% against monthly billing. Paying monthly costs more: Starter rises to €24 a month and Pro to €60 a month. n8n's own line on the pricing page is simple: if a workflow does not run, you do not pay.

Watch the trigger math, because it drives n8n pricing in practice. A schedule trigger every five minutes runs about 8,640 times a month. That alone exceeds Starter's 2,500 executions. A trigger every 30 minutes runs about 1,440 times a month, which fits inside Starter. Polling frequency is the fastest way to outgrow a plan.

n8n Pricing Plans Compared

Under n8n pricing, there are four commercial plans plus the free Community edition. Starter and Pro run on n8n Cloud. Business is self-hosted only. Enterprise runs either way.

Starter includes 5 concurrent executions, 1 shared project, 2.5 GB of execution storage and 7 days of log retention. Pro lifts those limits: up to 50 concurrent executions, 3 shared projects, 25 GB of storage and 30 days of logs. It also adds admin roles and workflow history. Concurrency is where n8n pricing separates Starter from Pro. Pro offers larger execution tiers above the standard size, so check the pricing page for the current options.

Business adds the features companies ask for: single sign-on and LDAP, multiple environments, Git version control and queue mode. Enterprise adds audit logs, log streaming, an external secrets store and SLA support. Both Business and Enterprise are aimed at teams that need control and compliance, not just more runs.

There is also a Startup plan in n8n pricing. Companies with under 20 employees can check if they qualify for 50% off Business. The discount is the cheapest route into the Business feature set for a small team.

Self-Hosted vs Cloud: The Free Community Edition

The Community edition is the free route in n8n pricing. It is a standard, self-hosted version of n8n, available on GitHub. There is no licence fee. The code is released under the Sustainable Use License, which limits it to internal business, personal or non-commercial use.

Free does not mean costless. You run the server, so you pay for hosting and upkeep. A small virtual server can cost a few hundred dollars a year, which is less than Cloud Pro for the same volume. But you also pay in your own time: updates, backups and uptime are your job. For a personal project or a technical team, that trade is often worth it. For a team that wants automation to just work, Cloud is the simpler choice.

Self-hosted n8n runs as Community edition unless you add a Business or Enterprise licence key. The paid self-hosted plan is Business. Its overage is steep: €4,000 per extra 300,000 executions, so size the plan before you commit.

What Counts as an Execution (and What Does Not)

One run of a workflow counts as one execution, no matter how many nodes it has or how much data it moves. That definition is the core of n8n pricing. That is the key difference from tools that charge per step. A workflow that pulls a hundred rows, enriches them and writes them to a CRM costs the same as a workflow that sends one Slack message.

What matters is how often workflows run. Scheduled triggers, webhooks and event triggers all start executions. Test runs in the editor do not count the same way, and n8n states you only pay when a workflow runs from start to finish. Before choosing a plan, count your scheduled runs. A handful of workflows polling every five minutes will burn through Starter in days.

Which Plan Fits Which Team

A solo builder with a few automations fits Starter under n8n pricing. At €20 a month billed annually, it covers 2,500 runs, which is plenty for daily routines and light business flows. A personal user who is comfortable with servers should look at Community first. It costs nothing in licence fees.

A small team running automations in production fits Pro. The higher execution allowance, longer log retention and admin roles cover the usual growing pains. A company that needs single sign-on, Git history or multiple environments needs Business. A large organisation that needs audit logs, log streaming and a support SLA needs Enterprise.

Bottom Line

n8n pricing is honest about what it charges for: workflow runs, not seats or steps. Starter at €20 a month is cheap for light use. Pro at €50 a month covers most small teams. The execution model rewards long workflows and punishes frequent polling, so count your scheduled runs before you pick a tier. Self-hosting is free in licence terms, but you pay in server costs and your own time. Confirm the current figures on n8n's pricing page before you buy, as tiers change.