How automation tools bill their usage

Automation tools rarely sell “a plan”. They sell a bucket of something: tasks, credits or executions. The bucket is the real price, and the three units do not convert into each other. This guide records what each vendor’s pricing page said on 21 October 2026, then shows how to estimate your own usage. We have not run any of these tools, so nothing here says which one is cheaper for you.

What each page counts

Tool	Billing unit	What the page lists	Currency on the page
Zapier	Tasks	Free: 100 tasks a month. Pro from $19.99 a month for 750 tasks on annual billing, $29.99 month to month	USD, named
Make	Credits	Free: 1,000 credits a month. One paid plan shown at $9 a month for 5,000 credits on annual billing, $1.80 per 1,000 credits	“$”, not named
n8n	Executions	Cloud Starter €20 a month for 2.5K executions, Pro €50 for 10K, on annual billing	EUR, named
Lindy	Credits, per active user	From $29.99 a month for 3,000 credits per user, pooled across the team; $10 per 1,000 extra	“$”, not named

Two rows are not in a currency the page names, so do not read $9 or $29.99 as US dollars, and do not compare either with Zapier’s USD figure. n8n’s euro prices are not converted.

Why the units differ

• Zapier meters tasks. Its page says that with pay-per-task switched on, overage is charged at 2.5 times (monthly) or 1.25 times (annual) the base rate, so a busy month costs more than the plan price.
• Make says most actions use one credit and some advanced AI features use more. It also says unused credits expire at the end of the term, and scenarios stop when credits run out.
• n8n counts executions and lists monthly buckets. Its page says workflows keep running after the quota on the Business tier, with extra buckets sold separately.
• Lindy bills every active user in a workspace. Credits are pooled, do not roll over, and extra credits cost $10 per 1,000.

Estimate your own usage before you compare prices

1. List the processes you want to automate and how often each runs in a month.
2. Count the steps in one run. A tool that charges per action multiplies your runs by your steps.
3. Multiply runs by steps for a monthly total, then add a margin for retries and busy months.
4. Look up what the vendor counts as one unit. If the page does not say, treat that as unknown and ask before you rely on the number.
5. Check what happens at the limit: extra charge, a hard stop or a forced upgrade.

A worked example, using only Make’s stated rule that most actions use one credit: a scenario with five steps that runs 200 times a month uses about 1,000 credits, which is the whole Free allowance. That is arithmetic on one vendor’s rule, not a prediction for your account.

What this guide cannot settle

• The units are not interchangeable, so a task, a credit and an execution cannot be priced against each other.
• Some pages show only annual-billing prices, or hide plan prices behind a slider, so a monthly comparison may be missing.
• Connected apps may need their own subscriptions.

Before you pay, read how to interpret AI pricing pages, then compare the tools side by side. The business hub lists the automation options with their restrictions.