Is n8n Free? Community, Trial and Use Rights

Yes—n8n Community has no n8n license fee for permitted self-hosted use, including your own internal business automation. Registration adds selected features for free. n8n Cloud offers a temporary trial, followed by paid access. Whether you can charge clients depends on the service and applicable license; earning business revenue does not automatically disqualify internal use. Community editions, actual software license, Cloud trial.

Separate the four access routes

These distinctions come from n8n’s edition guide, trial documentation and pricing page.

A free installation still needs somewhere to run. Assign an owner for infrastructure, backups, upgrades, security and recovery. A hosting company’s invoice pays for its service; it is not evidence that every n8n feature or customer-facing use is licensed. Start with the self-hosting documentation and check the actual agreement behind any hosting offer.

Follow the permitted-use decision tree

Start with who benefits from the workflow and what you provide to anyone outside your organization.

1. Personal, non-commercial or your own internal business use: Community can fit. The Sustainable Use License expressly permits these categories, subject to its other conditions. An internal process does not become prohibited simply because your company makes money. Actual license.
2. Consulting on a client’s own internal instance: n8n’s help center says the consultant does not need a commercial license merely for this assistance. The client’s use and feature requirements still determine its licensing needs. Official consulting example.
3. Hosting clients’ workflows and credentials on your instance: stop before assuming Community covers it. The help center assigns this scenario to commercial licensing. Describe the arrangement to n8n before selling it. Official client-hosting example.
4. Exposing n8n’s editor inside your product: current deployment documentation requires a separate OEM agreement and n8n branding. A free registration key is not that agreement. OEM requirements.
5. Using n8n behind a customer-facing product without showing its interface: check the specific permitted-use example and applicable agreement. A backend is not automatically free or automatically a paid embedding arrangement; hiding the interface alone is not the permission test.

n8n’s Sustainable Use License FAQ gives two useful backend examples: a chatbot using the app company’s own credentials is allowed in its stated example; collecting an end user’s HubSpot credentials to power an app’s synchronization feature is not. These are scoped examples, not permission for every chatbot or backend service. Official permitted-use examples.

Commercial packaging is a separate check. The OEM guide describes paid backend use without a separate OEM agreement; self-serve Cloud terms specify internal-business use, and the help center uses Enterprise and Embed labels for client arrangements. Do not assume any paid subscription covers your design. If the cited examples do not settle it, obtain written confirmation naming the deployment, customer access, credential ownership and applicable agreement. Backend distinction, Cloud terms, licensing contact. This is an editorial guide to the sources, not individual legal approval.

The governing source for Community is the actual license, not an open-source marketing label. It limits use and distribution, and excludes enterprise-marked code from its grant. Read source availability as access to code under stated terms—not unrestricted resale rights. License and exclusions. n8n describes this as fair-code and source-available, not OSI open source. n8n’s licensing explanation.

Check feature access separately from permission

A permitted internal workflow may still need paid features. Community excludes shared projects, workflow and credential sharing, SSO and Git-based version control. Free registration does not remove those boundaries. A team needing shared ownership should identify its required permissions before adopting Community. Edition restrictions.

The Cloud trial is also narrower than a full Pro subscription. Its documentation uses broad Pro-feature language, but explicitly points to pricing for exact conditions. The pricing page specifies five concurrent executions, a 180-second execution timeout and one team project, alongside explicit feature exclusions. Use that detailed trial specification when designing an evaluation. Trial conditions.

Use the n8n pricing guide to compare the buying routes once you know which feature you need. Do not switch a working installation merely because a registration or upgrade prompt appears. First identify whether the missing capability is free after registration, requires payment, or is unnecessary for your process. Conversely, do not choose self-hosting solely to avoid a subscription when nobody will maintain it.

Work through a client-service example

Assume a consultant builds an automation that sorts incoming supplier messages and prepares an internal review queue. These are illustrative arrangements, not tested deployments or individual license approvals.

The first two rows apply n8n’s client-service examples; the third follows its OEM documentation. The practical lesson is to document instance ownership, credential ownership and customer interaction before quoting a project. Workflow complexity is not the permission test.

Choose the next action and name each bill

For a permitted internal process with an accountable operator, start with Community and register only if the extras help. For a managed evaluation, use the Cloud trial and decide whether to pay or export before it expires. For an unresolved client or product arrangement, send n8n a short architecture description and request confirmation of the required agreement.

Keep AI spending separate. Gateway credits fund supported runtime models and services on eligible Cloud instances; they are unavailable on self-hosted n8n. They also have a separate balance from Assistant credits. When you use your own provider credentials, check that provider’s account and charges. Free automation access does not supply an unlimited model budget. Gateway billing, third-party subscription terms.

Before paying, name the subscription owner, hosting operator and model-account owner. Confirm checkout currency, applicable country and taxes, monthly versus annual commitment, workflow-execution allowance and any separate service meter. n8n’s displayed euro annual monthly equivalents require an annual commitment; they are not a universal local monthly price. Pricing, payment terms. Open the n8n profile next with the specific access or licensing question you still need to settle.