Yes. Community Edition has no subscription fee for eligible self-hosted use; infrastructure and maintenance still cost money.

n8n Pricing (2026): Plans, Execution Costs, and the Real Bill

Q: Does 12,000 executions require Business?

No. n8n documents a Cloud Pro-2 option with 50,000 monthly executions. Check its current price before comparing it with self-hosted Business.

Q: When were these prices checked?

September 18, 2026. The published EUR annual-billing starting rates were €20/month for Starter, €50/month for Pro, and €667/month for self-hosted Business. Higher Cloud Pro capacity is priced separately.

n8n's EUR annual-billing offer starts at €20/month for Cloud Starter with 2,500 executions, and €50/month for Cloud Pro with 10,000, checked September 18, 2026 on the official pricing page. These are euro-denominated public rates, not a verified US-dollar checkout quote. Self-hosted Business starts at €667/month; it is not the required next purchase when Cloud Pro exceeds 10,000 runs.

Quick verdict: what does n8n cost?
What are the n8n plans and prices?
How do executions create your n8n bill?
What would 3,000, 12,000, or 50,000 runs cost?
Is n8n Cloud cheaper than self-hosting?
Who should choose each n8n plan?
What hidden costs should you budget for?
Frequently Asked Questions

Quick verdict: what does n8n cost?

For a small automation project, n8n pricing starts at €20 per month on the annual Starter plan. That includes 2,500 executions, five concurrent executions, and 2,300 AI credits.

The important distinction is that n8n counts one complete workflow run as one execution, regardless of how many steps the workflow contains. A 20-step workflow that runs once consumes one execution, not 20. That makes n8n attractive for complex automations, but frequent triggers can still push you into a more expensive tier quickly.

Our view: select execution capacity and hosting first, then pay for governance only if needed.

Operator mapping automation triggers before choosing an n8n plan.

What are the n8n plans and prices?

The following figures reflect the published EUR offer checked September 18, 2026. Monthly equivalents require annual billing; budget taxes and third-party services separately. Confirm your regional checkout on n8n’s pricing page.

Plan	Annual price	Included executions	Concurrency	AI credits / notable features
Starter	€20/month	2,500	5	2,300 AI credits
Pro, entry capacity	€50/month	10,000	20	5,700 AI Assistant credits at this capacity
Cloud Pro-2	US$120/month displayed in US browser session	50,000	20	Different currency; not a EUR conversion
Business	€667/month	40,000	Not specified here	Self-hosted; SSO/SAML/LDAP; environments and version control
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Custom	Enterprise-specific terms and support

The official execution-upgrade guide confirms Cloud Pro-2. Selecting 50K in the live pricing selector displayed US$120/month billed annually or US$144/month billed monthly in our US browser session. The other rows preserve the public EUR offer: these are separate regional displays, not currency conversions. Confirm the exact upfront invoice at checkout; displayed monthly equivalents may be rounded.

There is also a genuinely free self-hosted route: Community Edition. It is not simply a limited trial of n8n Cloud. You run the software yourself and take responsibility for hosting, upgrades, security, backups, and availability. The Community Edition feature documentation explains what is included and which collaboration features are reserved for paid offerings.

How do executions create your n8n bill?

An execution is a full workflow run. Suppose a webhook triggers a workflow that validates a lead, enriches the record, sends an email, and writes to a CRM. Even if that workflow contains many nodes, the entire run counts as one execution.

That model rewards thoughtful workflow design. A longer workflow does not automatically create a larger n8n bill. However, a workflow that runs once every minute creates roughly 43,200 runs in a 30-day month, even if each run has only two nodes.

Three questions reveal your real n8n cost:

How often does each trigger fire?
How many separate workflows run independently?
How much burst capacity do you need at the same time?

Concurrency is especially important for launches, imports, and event spikes. A plan can have enough monthly executions but still queue work if too many runs arrive together.

AI Assistant credits are separate from workflow executions and from API charges for models called by your workflows. n8n's pricing FAQ lists 5,700 or 13,700 Assistant credits for Pro depending on capacity; do not assign the larger allowance to every Pro subscription.

What would 3,000, 12,000, or 50,000 runs cost?

These planning examples use the listed annual-billing prices.

What does 3,000 executions cost?

Starter includes 2,500 executions for €20 per month, so a workload of 3,000 monthly executions exceeds the Starter allowance. Pro includes 10,000 executions for €50 per month and would cover this volume.

That makes the practical cloud budget €50 per month at 3,000 runs, before taxes or separate infrastructure and third-party service costs.

What does 12,000 executions cost?

Twelve thousand runs exceed entry Pro's 10,000, but Cloud Pro-2 includes 50,000 executions. The checked US-session selector showed US$120/month with annual billing or US$144 month-to-month. Compare that capacity's regional quote first; entry Pro's starting card is not a quote for 12,000 runs.

The earlier version of this guide incorrectly jumped from entry Pro to €667 self-hosted Business. That conflated hosting and governance with capacity. There is no evidence that a 12,000-run cloud workload requires that purchase.

What does 50,000 executions cost?

Cloud Pro-2's allowance covers 50,000 runs. Above it, the official support guide says monthly Pro-2 can add executions up to 500,000 at US$2 per additional 1,000, plus tax; annual subscribers must contact support for extra capacity.

For example, 60,000 runs on that US-dollar monthly route add 10 × US$2 = US$20/month to the displayed US$144 base: US$164/month before tax. This is arithmetic on published offers, not a purchased invoice. Confirm execution-counter timing before changing plans.

Team reviewing automation governance and execution volume.

Is n8n Cloud cheaper than self-hosting?

n8n Cloud is easier to start because hosting, deployment, and much of the operational work are handled for you. You pay a predictable subscription and can focus on building workflows.

Self-hosting can be cheaper in direct software spend, especially when you use Community Edition and already have suitable infrastructure. But “free” does not mean zero cost. Someone still has to manage a server, database, TLS, monitoring, backups, upgrades, access control, and incident recovery.

Community Edition is a strong fit for a technically capable solo builder or engineering team with low operational complexity. It is a poor fit if a failed upgrade could interrupt revenue-generating automations and nobody owns recovery.

The right comparison is not €20 versus €0. It is hosted subscription plus convenience versus infrastructure, engineering time, operational risk, and maintenance.

Compare SEO automation tools by complete workflow cost, not just subscription price.

Who should choose each n8n plan?

Who should choose Starter?

Choose Starter if you are validating an idea, running a small number of dependable workflows, or operating below 2,500 executions per month. Five concurrent executions may be enough for ordinary low-volume automation.

Who should choose Pro?

Compare Pro when automation becomes part of daily operations. Select capacity as well as the plan name: entry Pro and 50,000-run Pro-2 support different workloads. Do not confuse stored execution-history limits with monthly billable executions.

Forecast growth before reaching the limit.

Who should choose Business?

Choose Business when governance matters. Self-hosting, SSO/SAML/LDAP, environments, and version control can justify the €667 monthly price for an organization with multiple teams or stricter security requirements. Business is not merely “Pro with more runs.” It is a different operational category.

Who should choose Enterprise?

Choose Enterprise when you need custom commercial terms, deployment expectations, support arrangements, or limits beyond the published plans. Bring a concrete usage forecast rather than asking for a quote with only “we need automation.”

What hidden costs should you budget for?

Budget connected costs too:

API charges from AI, email, enrichment, storage, or CRM providers;
cloud hosting and database costs for self-hosting;
monitoring, backups, and alerting;
engineering time for failed runs and credential rotation;
security reviews and access-control work;
migration effort when a workflow depends on a changing third-party API.

You should also estimate the cost of poor trigger design. Polling an API every minute may create tens of thousands of executions where a webhook would create a fraction of that volume.

Before buying, export a month of trigger counts from your existing tools or estimate them from business events. If you are checking whether your company is visible in AI answers as part of that process, run the AI Visibility Checker alongside your automation planning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is n8n free?

Yes. n8n offers a free Community Edition for self-hosting. You provide and operate the infrastructure, and some collaboration and governance capabilities differ from paid plans.

Does 12,000 executions require Business?

No. Cloud Pro-2 has a documented 50,000-run allowance. Verify its current subscription price rather than assuming self-hosted Business is the next cloud tier.

What counts as one n8n execution?

One complete workflow run counts as one execution, regardless of how many steps or nodes the workflow contains.

When were these prices checked?

September 18, 2026. The EUR starting rates above require annual billing. Prices, taxes, limits, and features can change; verify the selected capacity and billing term before purchasing.