Zapier
~5,000 tasks
Planning assumption: each successful billable action uses one task; selected AI actions and tool calls can use more.
Free automation cost decoder
Translate one workflow into tasks, credits, and executions.
Zapier, Make, and n8n meter automation differently. Enter your workflow shape to compare billing units before comparing plan prices.
Monthly planning estimate
5,000 action units · 1,000 workflow executions
Make
~5,000 credits
Planning assumption: most module actions use one credit; AI and other modules can consume more.
n8n
~1,000 executions
Cloud plans meter complete workflow executions with unlimited steps; AI-credit allowances are separate.
This compares meters—not final invoices.
A five-step workflow run 1,000 times can resemble 5,000 action-based units but only 1,000 execution-based units. That does not automatically make one platform cheaper: retries, premium apps, AI calls, polling, data transfer, self-hosting labor, and annual billing change the result.
Current official-pricing context
Zapier AI
Core Zapier plans: Free at $0 with 100 tasks/month; Professional starts at $19.99/month when billed annually; Team is $69/month when billed annually; Enterprise is custom. AI steps, code, MCP, SDK, an
Make
At the displayed 10,000-credit tier: Free is $0 with up to 1,000 credits/month; Core is $12/month; Pro is $21/month; Teams is $38/month; Enterprise is sales-led. Most module actions use 1 credit, whil
n8n
Starter: €20/month billed annually for 2,500 workflow executions with unlimited steps and 2,300 AI credits/month. Pro: €50/month billed annually for 10,000 executions and either 5,700 or up to 13,700
How to choose with this estimate
- Map one real workflow from trigger to final action.
- Count the actions that would consume a task or credit on every run.
- Include retries, branches, polling, and AI-call multipliers.
- Run the same workflow on free or trial access.
- Compare the resulting unit count with the current official plan limits—not an old review screenshot.