How different would your automation costs look if you counted executions instead of tasks?
This article lays out a practical view of the open-source automation platform and its two paths: a self-hosted Community Edition and hosted cloud options priced by executions, not by individual steps.
The hosted tiers start at modest monthly packages for small workloads and scale to Business and Enterprise offerings with governance and collaboration features. One execution equals a full workflow run, no matter how many steps it includes.
Self-hosting may seem low-cost at first, but real production TCO often tops $300–$800/month when you add servers, backups, monitoring, and security. Hosted customer data lives in the EU (Frankfurt), which matters for compliance teams in the United States.
Read on to learn how executions are counted, where hidden costs appear, and how to estimate monthly usage so your team picks the right path without budget surprises.
Key Takeaways
- Execution-based pricing charges per full workflow run, not per step.
- Self-hosting has hidden infrastructure and maintenance costs that add up.
- Starter and Pro hosted tiers suit growing teams; Business/Enterprise add governance.
- Hosted data is stored in Frankfurt—important for compliance reviews.
- Track executions early to avoid overage invoices and surprises.
What n8n is and how pricing works today
At its core, this automation tool gives developers a visual builder and logic that runs either in the cloud or on servers you manage.
Definition: In plain terms, n8n is a developer-friendly automation platform with a visual editor, conditional logic, and many integrations. It can run as hosted cloud plans or on your own servers for full control.
Execution-based pricing vs tasks or operations
Execution-based pricing means one execution equals one complete workflow run. It does not count each node or item separately. That makes billing more predictable than per-step models used by other providers.
In contrast, a multi-step flow on other services can produce many billable operations from a single workflow. With execution counting, complex logic still often bills as a single run.
Cloud-hosted, self-hosted, and hybrid control
Cloud plans meter monthly execution quotas; many starters begin around 2,500 executions per month and higher tiers near 10,000. A typical plan will bill by the month, though annual subscriptions may add quota alerts at 80%.
Self-hosted Community Edition is available to run on your infrastructure. Business and Enterprise add a license key that must ping the license server daily and can secure unlimited instances, with usage aggregated for quota tracking.
| Deployment | Who manages | Key trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud | Vendor | Quick onboarding; monthly execution quotas |
| Self-hosted | Your team | Full control; infrastructure responsibility |
| Hybrid | Mixed | Prototype in cloud, operate critical workloads on-prem |
Understanding executions, workflow runs, and real usage
Knowing how runs are counted helps teams avoid surprise bills and design efficient automations.
What counts as an execution
In n8n, an execution is a full workflow run. That single execution includes every node, condition, and loop the workflow processes during one start-to-finish run.
How steps, error handling, and webhooks impact counts
Steps inside a workflow do not each become billable units; they operate within the same execution unless they trigger new runs.
Triggers like webhooks or schedules start a fresh execution whenever the event fires. Retries, re-triggered flows for error handling, or chaining via webhooks can multiply totals quickly.
Where to monitor usage: Insights and logs
Use the Insights Dashboard to view production execution totals and spot spikes. Execution histories and log entries help trace noisy workflows.
Business users get weekly emails that summarize counts across all instances tied to the license key, and annual customers receive alerts near 80% of quota. Telemetry is on by default but can be disabled in docs if needed.
Free option: Community Edition (self-hosted) realities
Running the Community Edition on your own infrastructure gives full control but shifts operational work to your team.
What the self-hosted version includes: the Community Edition on GitHub provides the full workflow builder, broad integrations, and effectively unlimited executions. You get a powerful version of the product and the ability to adapt tools to your needs.
Control and data residency: self-hosting lets you choose where production data lives and how instances run. That control suits teams that need specific regions or strict policies.
Hidden costs and operational responsibilities
Licensing is zero, but hosting is not. Compute, storage, database management, SSL, backups, and monitoring add up fast.
Your team handles OS updates, security hardening, secret management, and incident response. If you lack technical resources, downtime and slow fixes become real risks.
Realistic TCO: many organizations find production-grade deployments run $300–$800/month before staff time. Compliance needs such as SOC 2 or HIPAA add further effort for logging and audits.
- Use staging and automated backups.
- Run recovery drills and monitoring for queues and DB health.
- Consider Business licensing when RBAC and governance become critical.
Paid cloud plans: Starter and Pro at a glance
Cloud-hosted Starter and Pro tiers aim to remove infrastructure work so teams can focus on building workflows fast.
Starter: hosted entry for quick experiments
Starter is hosted by n8n and commonly includes around 2,500 monthly executions. This tier gets you a managed environment so you skip servers and jump straight into building.
Use it for proofs of concept or small automations. Be aware that hourly schedules and webhook spikes can exhaust this quota quickly.
Pro: scale for solo builders and small teams
Pro raises the cap to roughly 10,000 executions per month and adds priority features useful when workflows move toward production. It suits solo builders or small teams that need more capacity without self-hosting.
Budget predictability and scale trade-offs
What the plan includes is straightforward: n8n manages provisioning, data sits in Frankfurt, and many integrations and advanced features are available out of the box.
Lower tiers rely on forum-first support; dedicated SLAs are reserved for larger contracts. Monitor consumption in Insights weekly so you can debounce webhooks, optimize logic, and avoid surprise spikes.
- Starter — quick launch, modest executions.
- Pro — higher quota, production-ready tools.
- Upgrade when workflows stabilize or you need governance.
Business and Enterprise: self-hosted licensing and governance
When teams move from prototypes to production, governance and formal support become central considerations.
Business targets companies with fewer than 100 employees that want self-hosted control plus collaboration. It adds role-based access control (RBAC), shared workspaces, and a single license key that works across unlimited instances. Usage from staging, canary, and multi-region deployments is aggregated to a single quota.
Enterprise features and flexibility
Enterprise is built for strict compliance needs. It offers contractual SLAs, audit-ready controls, and the option to run hosted by the vendor or on your own infrastructure. That flexibility helps match procurement requirements and risk policies.
“Centralized license tracking and strong access controls make scaling safe for teams handling sensitive data.”
Support and operational notes
Business customers rely on community forum support. Enterprise adds dedicated support with guaranteed response times for business-critical workflows.
| Tier | Support | Deployment |
|---|---|---|
| Business | Community forum | Self-hosted; license key across instances |
| Enterprise | Dedicated support with SLAs | Hosted or self-hosted |
| Both | Telemetry (opt-out) | Daily license server ping for quota validation |
Which fits your needs? If you need collaboration and RBAC without formal SLAs, Business fits. If compliance, audits, and SLA-backed support are required, choose Enterprise for predictable governance and control.
n8n free vs paid plan comparison
The core trade-off is simple: unlimited local runs come with operational work, while hosted tiers offer convenience with monthly execution quotas.
Community Edition gives unlimited executions and full control. Your team handles servers, backups, security, and updates. That control suits teams that need specific data residency or strict policies.
Starter and Pro remove infrastructure headaches and let you build automations fast. Expect monthly execution caps, which can be strained by frequent schedules or webhook spikes.
Business and Enterprise add collaboration, RBAC, governance, SLAs, and compliance choices. Support stays community-driven unless you pick the Enterprise route for guaranteed response times.
Hosted data lives in Frankfurt, so assess how EU residency aligns with your US-based privacy rules. Remember: n8n offers an execution-based model where one workflow run is one billed unit—often simpler than per-step billing elsewhere.
| Option | Main benefit | Key trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Community Edition | Unlimited executions; full control | You manage hosting, security, backups |
| Starter / Pro | Managed hosting; quick setup | Monthly execution quotas; potential overages |
| Business / Enterprise | RBAC, collaboration, SLAs (Enterprise) | Added licensing and governance needs |
Estimating executions for your workflows
Begin by counting how often each workflow will start in a typical month.
Scheduled runs and baselines
Daily schedules translate to roughly 30–31 workflow runs per month. A five-minute interval consumes about 8,600–8,900 executions monthly.
Webhook-driven automations
For webhooks, count expected events per day (form submissions, product updates). Multiply that daily number by ~30 to forecast monthly totals.
Chatbots and conversational workloads
Estimate weekly conversations and multiply by average messages per conversation to get weekly executions. Convert to monthly by multiplying weeks per month.
- Simple method: list each use case, note the trigger type, add expected frequency, then sum for monthly totals.
- Watch for spikes: launches or seasonality can blow past quotas; budget headroom or add throttling.
- Step and node impacts: a fan-out step or chained webhook can create extra runs even though one run counts as one execution.
Start month tip: use test data and historical logs during the first start month to validate assumptions. Rely on the Insights Dashboard to compare forecasts with actual data and refine your model monthly.
Total cost of ownership: plan price, overages, and technical resources
A good budget looks beyond the sticker price to include spikes, people, and compliance needs.
Cloud quotas keep monthly cost predictable until a usage spike arrives. Workflows continue to run when you exceed a quota, but overage charges may apply. For Business customers, an extra bucket of 300,000 executions costs €4,000 if you don’t upgrade in time.
Cloud limits and alerts
Business plan users receive weekly emails summarizing production usage across every instance. Annual subscribers get alerts near 80% of the yearly quota to avoid surprises.
Self-hosted licensing and telemetry
Business and Enterprise self-hosted deployments require a license key that pings the license server daily. Telemetry is enabled by default but can be disabled for privacy.
Data residency, compliance, and operational costs
Hosted customer data sits in Frankfurt; self-hosted systems keep data where you deploy, which can ease US compliance workflows.
- TCO components: servers, storage, networking, backups, monitoring, patching, and on-call technical resources.
- Compliance: logs, RBAC, and governance features support internal policies; Enterprise adds SLAs for stronger assurances.
- Integrations: native connectors reduce custom code and ongoing maintenance.
Bottom line: start on hosted for speed, then move to self-hosted licensing when governance, control, and compliance demand it.
Which n8n plan fits your team’s needs right now
Which option fits your team’s needs right now?
Match choices to who will build, run, and support automations.
If your team wants to start fast without managing servers, pick the hosted Starter to validate a few workflows during your start month. Use a free trial to benchmark execution counts and test error handling.
Small groups that run steady automation can move to Pro for more executions and the same managed convenience. For teams needing collaboration, RBAC, and control over data, the self-hosted Business version works well—apply a license key across instances.
Choose Enterprise when SLAs, formal compliance, and dedicated support matter. Estimate monthly execution volume, pilot in a trial, and then match the version to your control, integrations, and support needs.
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