n8n vs Make: AI agent recipes compared
Both n8n and Make can run AI agent workflows. In our tracker, n8n recipes dominate because they're often self-hosted and shared as free community templates; Make recipes tend to be official templates on a paid plan with credit-based pricing. Pick n8n if you want control and low running costs, Make if you want hosted, visual setup with less upkeep.
Make (make.com) is a no-code tool for connecting apps into automated workflows, called scenarios, that you build on a visual canvas.
Make says (vendor claims, not tested by us):
- Visual drag-and-drop builder with routers and filters
- 3,500+ app integrations, plus AI agent and AI toolkit features
- Pay-per-action credits; most actions use 1 credit
Good for: multi-step automations you'd rather draw than code. Not ideal for: teams that want to self-host, or very high-volume flows where credits add up.
Free plan: 1,000 credits/month, limited active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum interval between runs. Paid plans start at Core ($9/mo billed annually, 10,000 credits). Our link has Make's referral promo switched on; Make shows the exact offer when you sign up. Facts as of Oct 2026, from Make's own website. More about Make →
Try Make ↗ Affiliate link: we earn a commission if you sign up, at no cost to you. It doesn't affect ratings. Disclosure
n8n recipes
| Recipe | Replaces | Stack | Cost after | Setup | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI SEO content pipeline | SEO tools + content team workflow | n8n (self-hosted) + LLM APIs | $12/mo VPS + about $40-60/mo APIs; ~$0.30 per article (per author) | Hard | 4/5 |
| CRM auto-updates from sent emails | Manual Salesforce data entry | n8n + GPT + Postgres | LLM API + n8n hosting; total Not reported | Hard | 4/5 |
| Inbox labeler with Sheets log & dry-run mode | Email client filters/rules | n8n + OpenAI + Gmail + Google Sheets | $29 template (n8n listing) + OpenAI API + n8n | Medium | 4/5 |
| Lead replies with human approval loop | Writing sales replies by hand | n8n + GPT-4o-mini + Gmail | OpenAI API usage + n8n; free template | Medium | 4/5 |
| Self-hosted social post scheduler | Buffer/Hootsuite-style scheduler | n8n + OpenAI + Google Sheets | Pennies/mo in API calls on self-hosted n8n (per author) | Medium | 4/5 |
| Social scheduling + FAQ triage agents | 3 part-time contractors | n8n + HubSpot API + Claude | About $190/mo infrastructure (per author) | Hard | 4/5 |
| Support inbox triage with FAQ-grounded drafts | Helpdesk first-pass triage | n8n + Gmail + Google Sheets + OpenAI | OpenAI API usage + n8n; free template | Easy | 4/5 |
| Billing/Technical/Account specialist router | Manual support routing | n8n + OpenAI GPT-4.1 + Gmail | OpenAI API usage + n8n; free template | Medium | 3/5 |
| Chat bot that books, moves and cancels appointments | Calendly-style booking pages and back-and-forth emails | n8n + Groq (Llama 4 Scout) + Google Calendar + Gmail + Sheets | Not reported (Groq free tier supported, per template) | Medium | 3/5 |
| Competitor pricing-page change alerts | Paid page-change monitors and manual checks | n8n + OpenAI + Google Sheets + Slack | Not reported (OpenAI called only when a page changes) | Easy | 3/5 |
| Daily plan email from Todoist + Google Calendar | Opening Todoist and Google Calendar to plan the day | n8n + GPT-4o + Todoist + Google Calendar + Gmail | Not reported (template is free; OpenAI API usage extra) | Easy | 3/5 |
| Executive-style daily meeting prep brief | Manually researching attendees before meetings | n8n + OpenRouter (GPT-4o/Claude) + Google Calendar + Gmail + Hunter | $25 one-time template + OpenRouter/Hunter usage | Medium | 3/5 |
| Free OCR receipt logger | Manual expense spreadsheets | n8n + OCR.space + Telegram + Google Sheets | Free (OCR.space free key) + n8n | Easy | 3/5 |
| Google Maps lead list builder | Paid lead databases / manual prospecting | n8n + OpenAI + Google Sheets | Several API keys (scraper, crawler, SerpAPI, OpenAI) + n8n; free template | Medium | 3/5 |
| Hacker News AI digest to Telegram | Scrolling Hacker News for AI stories | n8n + OpenRouter (GPT-5) + Telegram | Not reported (HN API is free; OpenRouter credits extra) | Medium | 3/5 |
| Invoice OCR from Drive, Gmail & Telegram | Bookkeeping data entry | n8n + Gemini API + Google Sheets | $5 template (n8n listing) + Gemini key + n8n | Medium | 3/5 |
| Itemized receipt ledger with chat queries | Expense apps | n8n + Google Vision + OpenRouter | Vision + OpenRouter API usage + n8n; free template | Medium | 3/5 |
| Meeting recordings to Notion notes | Manual meeting notes | n8n + AI Agent + deAPI + Notion + Slack | deAPI + Anthropic API usage + n8n; free template | Medium | 3/5 |
| Morning briefing email: news, tasks and weather | Checking news, to-do and weather apps each morning | n8n + Google Gemini + Google Sheets + Gmail | Not reported (template is free; needs a Gemini API key) | Easy | 3/5 |
| Multi-agent inbox triage & auto-reply | Manually sorting Gmail | n8n + OpenAI + Gmail | OpenAI API usage + n8n; free template | Medium | 3/5 |
| Reddit-to-Slack alerts in 5 minutes | Custom-coded poller script | n8n | Free on self-hosted n8n | Easy | 3/5 |
| SMS booking agent with lead follow-ups | Phone tag and manual follow-up texts | n8n + OpenAI + Twilio + Cal.com + Airtable | Not reported (Twilio, OpenAI and Cal.com usage) | Hard | 3/5 |
| Social listening, invoicing, lead routing in one stack | 4 separate SaaS tools | n8n (self-hosted) + OpenAI | Self-hosting + API usage; amount Not reported | Hard | 3/5 |
| Telegram finance agent for receipts | Expense tracker apps | n8n + Gemini Vision + Google Sheets/Drive | Gemini API (free tier available) + n8n; free template | Medium | 3/5 |
| AI agent that decides when a page change is worth an email | Page-watch services and RSS alerts | n8n + OpenAI + Firecrawl + Gmail | Not reported (Firecrawl + OpenAI usage) | Medium | 2/5 |
| Amazon price-drop alerts to Telegram | Price-tracker sites/extensions | n8n + Google Gemini + Telegram | $20 template (n8n listing) + Gemini API + n8n | Medium | 2/5 |
Make recipes
| Recipe | Replaces | Stack | Cost after | Setup | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Email summaries posted to Slack (Make) | Reading and forwarding long emails to your team | Make.com + OpenAI + Gmail + Slack | Not reported (Make plan + OpenAI usage) | Easy | 3/5 |
| Inbox triage agent with Make AI Agents | Gmail filters and manual sorting | Make AI Agents + Gmail + Slack | About $9/mo on Make Core for ~30 emails/day at 15-min polling (vendor estimate); LLM tokens extra if you bring your own key | Medium | 3/5 |
| YouTube channel summaries by email | Watching every new video | Make.com + ChatGPT | Make free tier + OpenAI API (per our original read) | Easy | 3/5 |
Figures come from each recipe's public source. “Not reported” means the source doesn't say. Ratings are editorial, see methodology.
FAQ
Is n8n or Make better for AI agents?
Both work. n8n is self-hostable and has many free community templates; Make is fully hosted with built-in AI Agents and credit pricing.
How much does Make cost for an AI agent?
Make's own guide estimates an email triage agent at 30 emails/day uses about 4,000-6,000 credits a month, within the Core plan's 10,000 credits at $9/month.
Is n8n free?
The self-hosted version is free to run on your own server; you still pay for hosting and any AI API calls. n8n Cloud is paid.
Can I move a recipe from n8n to Make?
Usually yes, since the steps (trigger, AI step, action) map across, but you rebuild it by hand.
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