Cheapest place to run an n8n automation.
prices as of · re-ranked daily · 75 qualifying plans
A self-hosted automation runner has to be awake when a schedule fires or a webhook arrives, which rules out every plan that stops when nothing calls it. We count only plans with 1 GB of memory or more, on a runtime the provider states stays on, and 75 of the 89 sized instances we read qualify. The cheapest of them is eSmall · 0.5 vCPU · 1 GB at Koyeb, $5.36/mo. Everything the monthly price leaves out is on the row, because on this market that is usually where the rest of the bill is.
The cheapest plan that can do this job is eSmall · 0.5 vCPU · 1 GB at Koyeb: $5.36/mo a month, read 17 Sept 2026.
Cheapest that fits
eSmall · 0.5 vCPU · 1 GB
Koyeb$5.36a month
$5.36/GB-mo · always on
lowest price a month
Most memory for the money
shared-cpu-4x · 8 GB
Fly.io$42.79a month
$5.35/GB-mo · always on
the lowest price per gigabyte on this list
Cheapest somewhere else
shared-cpu-1x · 1 GB
Fly.io$5.70a month
$5.70/GB-mo · always on
the same job on a second platform
What actually matters here
- Awake when the schedule fires
- A cron trigger on a sleeping app does not fire; it waits for somebody to wake the app up, which defeats the point. Only plans the provider states stay on are counted here.
- A gigabyte of memory
- n8n idles in a few hundred megabytes and spikes when a workflow holds a payload. A gigabyte is the size that survives a spike without the container being killed mid-run.
- Somewhere to keep the workflows
- The default SQLite database lives on disk, and most of this market gives a container an ephemeral filesystem. The row says what disk is included; where it says none, budget for a managed database as well.
- Webhooks need a stable address
- Every platform here gives the app a hostname of its own, so the webhook URL you paste into another service keeps working across deploys.
Cheapest 10 a month
- 1Koyeb
eSmall · 0.5 vCPU · 1 GB
0.5 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · transfer 1 TB · $5.36/GB-moEco container instance (no OS or root) · billed per second, Koyeb's own monthly figure · 8 GB local disk is ephemeral · 1 TB egress included
✓ 1 GB RAM✓ always on
$5.36/mo
- 2Fly.io
shared-cpu-1x · 1 GB
1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · transfer none · metered per GB · $5.70/GB-moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 61% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
✓ 1 GB RAM✓ always on✓ transfer metered
$5.70/mo
- 3Fly.io
shared-cpu-2x · 1 GB
2 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · transfer none · metered per GB · $6.39/GB-moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 62% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
✓ 1 GB RAM✓ always on✓ transfer metered
$6.39/mo
- 4Fly.io
shared-cpu-4x · 1 GB
4 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · transfer none · metered per GB · $7.78/GB-moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 61% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
✓ 1 GB RAM✓ always on✓ transfer metered
$7.78/mo
- 5
DigitalOcean App Platformapps-s-1vcpu-1gb-fixed · 1 shared vCPU · 1 GB
1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · transfer 100 GB · $10.00/GB-moApp Platform container, billed by the hour with a one cent minimum · 100 GiB outbound transfer included, then metered · no disk included, a managed database is priced separately
✓ 1 GB RAM✓ always on
- 6Fly.io
shared-cpu-1x · 2 GB
1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · always on · transfer none · metered per GB · $5.35/GB-moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 61% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
✓ 2 GB RAM✓ always on✓ transfer metered
$10.70/mo
- 7Koyeb
eMedium · 1 vCPU · 2 GB
1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · always on · transfer 1 TB · $5.36/GB-moEco container instance (no OS or root) · billed per second, Koyeb's own monthly figure · 16 GB local disk is ephemeral · 1 TB egress included
✓ 2 GB RAM✓ always on
$10.71/mo
- 8Fly.io
shared-cpu-2x · 2 GB
2 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · always on · transfer none · metered per GB · $5.70/GB-moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 62% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
✓ 2 GB RAM✓ always on✓ transfer metered
$11.39/mo
- 9Fly.io
shared-cpu-6x · 1.5 GB
6 vCPU · 1.5 GB RAM · always on · transfer none · metered per GB · $7.77/GB-moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 62% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
✓ 1.5 GB RAM✓ always on✓ transfer metered
$11.66/mo
- 10DigitalOcean App Platform
apps-s-1vcpu-1gb · 1 shared vCPU · 1 GB
1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · transfer 150 GB · $12.00/GB-moApp Platform container, billed by the hour with a one cent minimum · 150 GiB outbound transfer included, then metered · no disk included, a managed database is priced separately
✓ 1 GB RAM✓ always on
The floor is one gigabyte of memory on a runtime the provider states does not stop when idle. n8n itself runs in a few hundred megabytes; the rest is for the workflow that pulls a file, parses it and posts it somewhere, which is where the spikes are. Where a workflow runs is an assumption here, not a measurement: a run that loads a large document into memory will want more than a gigabyte. The price is the runtime alone. n8n keeps its workflows in a database, and a platform that includes no disk means a managed database on top, at a price this index does not carry. The price beside each row is the plan's own monthly figure, $5.36/mo at the top of this list, with transfer 1 TB included.
Frequently asked
- What is the cheapest way to run an n8n automation?
- eSmall · 0.5 vCPU · 1 GB at Koyeb, $5.36/mo a month. That is 0.5 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · transfer 1 TB · $5.36/GB-mo. Read on 17 Sept 2026.
- What does this page assume?
- The floor is one gigabyte of memory on a runtime the provider states does not stop when idle. n8n itself runs in a few hundred megabytes; the rest is for the workflow that pulls a file, parses it and posts it somewhere, which is where the spikes are. Where a workflow runs is an assumption here, not a measurement: a run that loads a large document into memory will want more than a gigabyte. The price is the runtime alone. n8n keeps its workflows in a database, and a platform that includes no disk means a managed database on top, at a price this index does not carry.
- Why do only 75 plans qualify?
- The job needs 1 GB of memory or more, on a runtime the provider states stays on. The other 14 rows we read are still in the index; they just cannot do this job as described.
- Does the app stop when nothing calls it?
- None of the 75 qualifying plans is one the provider says stops when idle, which is the floor this page sets.
- How current are these prices?
- Prices are read daily from 9 platforms' own public pages and keyless APIs, and this ranking recomputes with them. Last refresh: 17 Sept 2026.