n8n Pricing 2026: Plans, Execution Limits, and Real Costs

n8n prices its cloud plans by monthly workflow executions rather than by seat. The Starter plan runs roughly $20 to $24 per month for 2,500 executions, Pro is roughly $50 to $60 per month for 10,000 executions, and a newer self-hosted Business tier lists around $800 per month for 40,000 executions with SSO. Enterprise is custom. The self-hosted Community Edition is free software with unlimited executions, so the real cost there is whatever server you run it on.

If you are evaluating n8n in 2026, here is what each tier actually includes, why the execution count is the number that matters, and how it compares to a platform priced by seat instead.

n8n pricing at a glance

Note on the exact number: n8n's own pricing page lists Starter and Pro in euros (20€ and 50€ per month billed annually), while several 2026 third-party breakdowns report the US-facing price in dollars as $20 to $24 and $50 to $60. Treat the ranges above as accurate and confirm the exact rate for your currency and billing cycle before you buy. All plans include unlimited users and workflows and every integration; the only thing that scales the price is executions.

How n8n's execution-based pricing works

The core rule: one workflow run counts as one execution, no matter how many steps it has. A five-step workflow and a fifty-step workflow both cost the same per run. That makes the pricing simple to reason about, but it also means the plan you need depends entirely on how often your workflows fire, not how complex they are.

The number that trips people up is how fast executions burn. A single workflow polling an inbox every few minutes can use its entire monthly Starter allotment in under two weeks. If your automations run frequently rather than occasionally, model the actual execution count before picking a plan, not just the headline price.

April 2026 update: n8n removed active-workflow limits across every plan, so you can now run as many workflows as you want on any tier. The constraint that remains is total monthly executions, not workflow count.

What actually drives your n8n bill

1. Execution volume, not workflow count or complexity. Since every plan now allows unlimited workflows, your bill is a function of how many times those workflows run per month. A high-frequency polling or sync workflow costs the same per execution as an occasional one, so volume is the whole story.

2. Cloud vs self-hosted. n8n Cloud (Starter, Pro) is fully managed and priced per the tiers above. Self-hosting the Community Edition is free software with unlimited executions, but you take on your own server, uptime, and maintenance, typically $3 to $7 a month on a basic VPS, more if you need reliability at scale.

3. Concurrency limits. Starter allows 5 concurrent executions, Pro allows 20. If your workflows run in parallel bursts rather than one at a time, you can hit the concurrency ceiling before you hit the monthly execution cap.

4. Governance features push you to Business or Enterprise. SSO, advanced admin controls, and dedicated infrastructure sit on the higher, sales-influenced tiers, not the self-serve Cloud plans.

Hidden costs to check before you commit

• The execution cap trap. Starter's 2,500 executions can disappear fast on any polling-style workflow. Estimate your real monthly execution count, not just how many workflows you plan to build.
• Annual vs monthly billing. Annual billing saves roughly 17% across every cloud tier; monthly billing costs more for the same plan.
• Self-hosting isn't free of cost, just free of license fees. Budget server hosting, and your own time for uptime and updates, against the Community Edition's zero license price.
• Pricing model changes. n8n shifted from a simpler flat-plan structure toward execution-based billing in its 2025 to 2026 update, and the change drew real community pushback over predictability. Confirm your current plan's terms rather than relying on older pricing information.

n8n vs Coworker: workflow automation vs an AI coworker

n8n is a workflow automation tool you build flows in. Coworker is an AI coworker that plans and acts across your tools directly, without you first designing the workflow.

The practical difference: n8n is infrastructure you assemble. Coworker is an agent you direct. If your team wants full control over exact workflow logic and is comfortable maintaining it, n8n's flexibility is real. If you want an assistant that reads your tools, plans the steps, and does the work with a human approving what matters, that is a different category. See AI agent use cases and agentic AI vs generative AI for the fuller distinction, and enterprise AI pricing compared for the category view.

Who n8n is a good fit for

Honestly: n8n is a strong, mature workflow automation platform, especially for technical teams that want to design exact automation logic node by node and either self-host for full control or pay for managed executions at scale. The free, unlimited-execution Community Edition is a genuinely good deal if you can run your own server.

It is a weaker fit if you want the automation to require no building at all, if unpredictable execution-based costs make budgeting hard for high-frequency workflows, or if what you actually need is an agent that plans multi-step work on its own rather than a canvas you configure. For that, see AI agent workflow and no-code AI agent builder.

Frequently asked questions

How much does n8n cost? n8n Cloud's Starter plan runs roughly $20 to $24 per month for 2,500 monthly workflow executions, and Pro runs roughly $50 to $60 per month for 10,000 executions, both billed annually. The self-hosted Community Edition is free software with unlimited executions; you pay only for your own server.

Is n8n free? The self-hosted Community Edition is fully free with unlimited workflows and executions. n8n Cloud, the fully managed hosted version, starts at roughly $20 to $24 per month.

How does n8n's pricing model work? n8n charges by monthly workflow executions rather than by seat or workflow complexity. One workflow run, regardless of how many steps it contains, counts as one execution. All plans as of April 2026 allow unlimited workflows and users; only execution volume is capped by plan.

What is the difference between n8n Cloud and self-hosted? n8n Cloud is fully managed by n8n and billed on the tiers above. Self-hosting the Community Edition is free software with unlimited executions, but you run and maintain your own server, typically $3 to $7 per month on a basic VPS.

Why did n8n's execution limits change in 2026? In April 2026, n8n removed active-workflow limits across every plan, so any tier now supports unlimited workflows. The constraint that remains is the monthly execution cap for your plan.

Is there an alternative to building workflows in n8n? Coworker is an AI coworker priced at $29.99 per user per month that plans and executes multi-step tasks across 50+ connected tools directly, without requiring you to design a visual workflow first.

Related reading

• Guru pricing
• Moveworks pricing
• Enterprise AI pricing compared
• AI agent use cases
• Agentic AI vs generative AI
• No-code AI agent builder