n8n vs Make.com Pricing Audit (2026): Exact Break-Even & Iterator Loop Multiplier
VERIFIED: 2026-11-04
CATEGORY: Workflow Automation
STACK COVERAGE: 3 PLATFORMS BENCHMARKED
EXECUTIVE COST VERDICT & BREAK-EVEN SUMMARY
Make.com Core ($10.59/mo for 10,000 operations) is cheaper than n8n Cloud Starter ($24.00/mo for 2,500 workflow executions) ONLY below 21,364 monthly operations. In a workflow with a 30-item Iterator feeding 4 modules (123 ops/run), Make crosses the $24 break-even threshold at just 173 runs/month—and at 5,000 runs/month, Make costs $724.49 vs $39.00 on n8n Cloud.
INTERACTIVE BENCHMARK: WORKFLOW AUTOMATION • REAL-TIME FINOPS ENGINE
Full-Stack 4-Layer Cost & Break-Even Calculator
1. WORKFLOW & LOOP PARAMETERS
DAG INPUTS
Monthly Trigger Runs
5,000 / mo
Base Nodes Outside Loop
3 nodes
Iterator Array Items / Run
30 items
Downstream Nodes Inside Loop
4 nodes
2. AI AGENT & MCP SCHEMA PARAMETERS
TOKENS
Primary LLM Model
Agent ReAct Turns / Task
1 turns
Attached MCP Tools Count
0 tools
Prompt Cache Hit Rate
40%
3. PASTE WORKFLOW JSON (GRAPH INSPECTOR)
LIVE TELEMETRY & VISUAL COST BREAKDOWN
VERIFIED (<2ms)
UNOPTIMIZED MONTHLY BURN
$731.85
124 ops/run (15.5x loop multiplier)
OPTIMIZED STACK (n8n + CACHE)
$15.84
Make vs n8n Crossover: 172 runs/mo
12-MONTH NET TCO SAVINGS
$8,592.12
Annual savings after optimization
VISUAL PLATFORM COST DISTRIBUTION ($/MO)
BREAK-EVEN TRAJECTORY & MCP TOKEN SHARE
PROMPT TOKEN COMPOSITION
Layer 1: Workflow Orchestration Cost Comparison
| Platform / Tier | Billed Units / Mo | Base Plan | Overage Fee | Monthly Total | 12-Month TCO | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n8n Self-Hosted (Docker + Queue VPS) OPTIMAL | 5,000 | $14.50 | $0.00 | $14.50/mo | $174.00/yr | Deploy → |
| n8n Cloud (Starter / Pro) | 5,000 | $24.00 | $15.00 | $39.00/mo | $468.00/yr | Deploy → |
| Pipedream (Advanced Compute Credits) | 5,000 | $29.00 | $30.00 | $59.00/mo | $708.00/yr | Deploy → |
| Make.com (Core / Pro Plan) | 620,000 | $10.59 | $719.80 | $730.39/mo | $8,764.68/yr | Deploy → |
| Zapier (Professional Tier) | 615,000 | $29.99 | $23,648.63 | $23,678.62/mo | $284,143.44/yr | Deploy → |
Layer 2: Multi-Turn LLM & Hidden MCP Schema Tax Comparison
| LLM Model | Cumul. Input / Task | Hidden MCP Tokens / Task | MCP Schema Tax / Mo | Monthly LLM Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Gemini 2.5 Flash (Google) | 1,100 tok | 0 tok | $0.00/mo | $1.40/mo |
| OpenAI GPT-4o-mini (OpenAI) | 1,100 tok | 0 tok | $0.00/mo | $1.46/mo |
| DeepSeek-V3 (671B MoE) (DeepSeek) | 1,100 tok | 0 tok | $0.00/mo | $2.54/mo |
| DeepSeek-R1 (Chain-of-Thought) (DeepSeek) | 1,100 tok | 0 tok | $0.00/mo | $5.11/mo |
| Claude 3.5 Haiku (Anthropic) | 1,100 tok | 0 tok | $0.00/mo | $8.25/mo |
| OpenAI o3-mini (Reasoning) (OpenAI) | 1,100 tok | 0 tok | $0.00/mo | $10.67/mo |
CRITICAL BILLING MECHANIC DETECTED IN THIS STACK
Vision inputs with `detail: high` get tiled into 85 base + 170 tokens per 512px tile, turning a single 1080p screenshot into ~765-1,105 input tokens.
EMPIRICAL SCALING BENCHMARK (1,000 TO 100,000 RUNS/MO)
COST LEDGER
Production cost trajectory modeled at 3 base nodes, 30 iterator items/run across 4 loop nodes, and 1 agent turns with 0 MCP tools attached:
| Monthly Scale | Total Operations (30x Loop) | n8n Self-Hosted | n8n Cloud | Make.com Core | Zapier Pro | LLM API (openai-gpt-4o-mini) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 runs/mo | 124,000 ops | $14.50 | $24.00 | $145.11 | $4,736.62 | $0.29 |
| 5,000 runs/mo | 620,000 ops | $14.50 | $39.00 | $730.39 | $23,678.62 | $1.46 |
| 10,000 runs/mo | 1,240,000 ops | $14.50 | $69.00 | $1,461.99 | $47,356.12 | $2.91 |
| 25,000 runs/mo | 3,100,000 ops | $14.50 | $159.00 | $3,656.79 | $118,388.62 | $7.28 |
| 50,000 runs/mo | 6,200,000 ops | $14.50 | $309.00 | $7,314.79 | $236,776.12 | $14.55 |
| 100,000 runs/mo | 12,400,000 ops | $14.50 | $609.00 | $14,630.79 | $473,551.12 | $29.10 |
Key Findings & Billing Mechanics
- Per-Operation vs Per-Execution Math: Make bills for every module execution inside an array loop (`1 + baseNodes + items * loopNodes`). n8n bills 1 execution for the entire workflow run.
- Break-Even Formula: `BreakEvenRuns = 21364 / (1 + baseNodes + loopItems * nodesInsideLoop)`.
- Polling Trigger Tax: A 5-minute polling trigger on Make consumes 8,640 operations/month just checking for new data, eating 86.4% of the Core plan before doing any real work.
CRITICAL BILLING TRAP & HIDDEN FEE ALERT
On Make.com, adding an Router with 3 filter branches where 1 item passes still evaluates and bills operations on every downstream module after an Iterator.
Production Architecture Recommendation
Keep simple 3-step webhook-to-Slack alerts on Make Core ($10.59/mo). Move any workflow containing array iteration, batch enrichment, or AI Agents to n8n Cloud ($24/mo) or n8n Self-Hosted ($14.50/mo).
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How many Make operations equal 1 n8n workflow execution?
In a linear 5-node workflow without loops, 1 n8n execution equals 5 Make operations. In a workflow that iterates over 50 rows across 4 nodes, 1 n8n execution equals 204 Make operations.
RELATED COST AUDITS & COMPARISONS
Full Automation Orchestration Cost Guide →
n8n Cloud vs Self-Hosted VPS TCO →
Make.com vs Zapier Cost Audit →
VENDOR PRICING CHANGELOG
2026-11-01 • Anthropic / MCP Ecosystem
Empirical audit confirms 10+ MCP servers inject 18,400–24,000 schema tokens per ReAct step; Prompt Caching breakpoints cut multi-turn agent cost by 82%.
2026-10-18 • n8n vs Make
Verified n8n Cloud Starter (2,500 executions @ $24/mo) vs Make Core (10,000 ops @ $10.59/mo) crossover point drops to 4.1 nodes/run when 25-item array iterators are active.
2026-10-05 • Google Gemini 2.5
Gemini 2.5 Flash context caching reduced to $0.0375/1M tokens; 200k-token cliff multiplier remains enforced on Gemini 2.5 Pro.