n8n vs Zapier (2026): pricing, AI agents and when to switch

Published 2026-10-26 · Facts and prices checked on vendor pages as of 2026-10-26 · Scores update weekly

ToolStandings scores side by side

How the score works: how we rank. "prov." means provisional: a neutral placeholder until the data exists.

At a glance

Where the score gap comes from

Both tools now pass our full 7-item product-quality checklist (25 vs 25 of 25) and both scored full Reliability on today's live check. The gap comes from two places:

• Traction (of 25): n8n 22.7 vs Zapier 15.6. n8n's open-source repo has over 208,000 GitHub stars; Zapier has no public product repo, so its traction is measured on Hacker News links alone.
• Value (of 15): n8n 15 (open source, self-hostable) vs Zapier 12 (freemium).

What our formula doesn't measure: ease of use and breadth of ready-made app connections. Those are Zapier's real strengths, so read the score as "which product is stronger overall on our public criteria", not "which one is easier for you". Details on how we rank.

How each one bills: tasks vs executions

Zapier counts a task every time an action step succeeds. Triggers, polling and Zapier's built-in tools (Filter, Formatter, Paths, Delay, Looping, Storage, Tables, Forms and others) use no tasks, and failed actions are not counted. Some steps cost more than one task: a Zapier MCP tool call is 2 tasks, and AI by Zapier steps are priced by model tier (see below).

n8n counts one execution per full workflow run, "regardless of complexity", with unlimited users and workflows on every plan. Its Starter and Pro cloud plans are capped and charge no overages.

Worked example (our arithmetic from the Oct 26, 2026 vendor price lists, annual billing): a workflow with a trigger and 5 action steps that runs 1,000 times a month uses about 5,000 Zapier tasks (Professional 5,000-task tier, $89/mo) but only 1,000 n8n executions (Starter, €20/mo, 2,500 executions included). At 10,000 runs a month, the same workflow is about 50,000 tasks on Zapier ($289/mo) vs 10,000 executions on n8n (Pro, €50/mo). If those action steps are Formatter or Filter steps, Zapier charges nothing for them, so the gap narrows. Zapier prices are in US dollars and n8n's in euros, and both exclude tax.

Pricing in October 2026

Checked on both vendors' pricing pages on Oct 26, 2026. Both sell monthly or annual billing. Annual is cheaper: Zapier says 33% off, n8n says 17%.

Prices as shown on vendor pages on 2026-10-26, excluding tax. Check before you buy.

What an AI step really costs on Zapier

Since June 15, 2026, AI by Zapier steps (Professional plan and up) are priced by model tier. Per Zapier's help centre, each run costs the tier rate, and each tool call the AI makes (an app action or knowledge source) costs the same rate again:

• Standard (1× = 1 task; no tools), e.g. GPT-5 mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash.
• Advanced (3× = 3 tasks), e.g. Claude 4.5 Haiku, Gemini 2.5 Pro.
• Premium (5× = 5 tasks), e.g. GPT-5, Claude 4.6 Sonnet. Zapier's help page (updated Oct 1, 2026) says new steps on paid plans default to Premium.
• Bring your own key (1× per run and per tool call).

So a Premium AI step that makes 2 tool calls uses 15 tasks per run. A per-step limit (75 tasks by default, adjustable up to 500) pauses the run and asks for approval before going further. If you run AI steps at volume, pick the tier on purpose rather than accepting the default.

Zapier Agents are billed separately in activities, not tasks: 400 a month on the free tier and 1,500 on Agents Pro, which Zapier lists from about $33.33/mo billed annually. Each agent run is capped at 10 activities on free and 40 on paid before it asks to continue.

n8n has no per-step AI surcharge in its execution count: an AI Agent run counts as an execution like any other. You pay your model provider for tokens (or use the AI credits and "AI models without API keys" bundled into n8n Cloud plans), and self-hosted installs can call local models through the Ollama Chat Model node.

AI agents and LLM workflows

n8n's AI Agent node connects a chat model to one or more tool sub-nodes, and the agent decides which tools to call. All cloud plans include the AI Agent node and AI steps, an MCP server trigger and MCP client, human approval for tool calls, and hosted or embedded chat. JavaScript and Python code steps let you validate or reshape model output inside the same run. On ToolStandings, n8n ranks #1 of 16 in AI agent platforms.

Zapier offers AI by Zapier steps (with tools on Advanced and Premium tiers), Zapier Agents, Chatbots, Canvas, a Copilot that drafts Zaps from a chat, and Zapier MCP, which gives other AI tools access to Zapier's app catalogue. It is quicker to start, but every AI step and tool call draws on your task allowance. Zapier ranks #5 of 16 in AI agent platforms.

Bottom line: for an agent that needs custom logic, retries and checks on its output, n8n gives more control per dollar. For "summarise this email and post it to Slack", Zapier is the faster path.

Ease of use and integrations

Zapier's editor walks you through trigger → action, and its pricing page lists 9,000+ apps. The free plan only builds two-step Zaps and checks for new data every 15 minutes. Paid plans unlock multi-step Zaps, Filters and Paths, webhooks and premium apps, and poll every 2 minutes (Professional) or 1 minute (Team).

n8n's canvas is visual too, but it expects more technical comfort. Its integrations directory says 2,000+ integrations, and the HTTP Request node, cURL import, webhooks and code steps cover anything without a ready-made node. Check that your must-have apps have nodes (or a usable API) before switching.

Self-hosting, data control and licence

Only n8n can be self-hosted. The Community Edition is on GitHub under the Sustainable Use License: you may use or modify it "only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use", so reselling it as a hosted service for others isn't allowed. Self-hosting has no licence fee, but you pay for the server and the upkeep. n8n Cloud stores data in the EU (Frankfurt). n8n's Business plan (€667/mo billed annually) is self-hosted only and adds SSO, Git version control and queue mode.

Zapier is a managed cloud service. Its pricing page lists no self-hosted edition. Enterprise adds data-retention controls, SCIM, log streaming and a bring-your-own-model option through AWS Bedrock.

When to switch from Zapier to n8n

Switching is worth a look when two or more of these are true:

• Your Zapier bill keeps climbing because workflows have many action steps or run thousands of times a month.
• You use AI steps at volume and Premium-tier task costs are adding up.
• You need branching, loops or code-heavy logic that Paths and Formatter make awkward.
• You need data to stay on your own servers, or you need local models.
• Someone on the team is comfortable with APIs, JSON and (for self-hosting) running a server.

Stay on Zapier if your automations are simple, low-volume and owned by non-technical people, or if a critical app has a Zapier integration but no n8n node.

Who should pick which

• Solo, non-technical business owner connecting a form, CRM and Slack: Zapier. The free plan covers simple two-step Zaps, and Professional starts at $19.99/mo billed annually.
• Agency running many client automations: often n8n Cloud on cost grounds, but read the licence before self-hosting n8n for clients.
• In-house tech team building AI agents or high-volume pipelines: n8n, cloud or self-hosted.

Alternatives

Also in workflow automation: Make (71.9, #3 of 5; see n8n vs Make), Dify (70.1) and Flowise (61.5). For agent-first tools, see AI agents, including Lindy (60.6).

FAQ

How we compared

Scores come from the public ToolStandings formula (how we rank) and refresh automatically, so the numbers on this page always match the current tool pages. Momentum and Editor/community are still provisional for every tool. Vendor facts and prices were checked on the sources below on 2026-10-26. If a fact couldn't be verified on a vendor page, we left it out.

Sources (as of 2026-10-26)

• n8n pricing
• n8n licence (Sustainable Use License)
• n8n AI Agent node docs
• n8n integrations directory
• n8n release notes
• n8n Ollama Chat Model node docs
• Zapier pricing
• How is task usage measured in Zapier? (Zapier help)
• AI by Zapier model tier pricing (Zapier help, updated Oct 1, 2026)
• AI by Zapier: new model-based pricing starting June 15, 2026 (Zapier help)

Full profiles: n8n · Zapier · Divisions: Workflow automation · AI agent platforms · All comparisons

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