Free calculator
Automation cost calculator
Zapier bills per task, Make bills per operation, n8n cloud bills per execution and self-hosted n8n bills nothing. Enter your numbers to see how far apart those models put you.
| Platform | Billing unit | Units used / month | What that means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | Task per action | — | — |
| Make | Operation per module | — | — |
| n8n cloud | Execution per run | — | — |
| n8n self-hosted | None | 0 | Unlimited, in exchange for maintaining a server yourself |
Why the gap is so large
The unit is the whole story. A six-step workflow run 500 times consumes 3,000 Zapier tasks and one n8n execution per run. Platforms that bill per run rather than per step get cheaper as your workflows get more sophisticated, which is the opposite of what most people expect.
Check the current rates yourself
We deliberately show units rather than dollars here, because published rates change several times a year and a stale price is worse than no price. Take your unit count to each vendor's pricing page and find the tier it lands in.