Relevance AI vs n8n (2026): Which Is Cheaper for 1,000 Support Tickets?

n8n is the cheaper of the two for a support workload: in our model, 1,000 tickets a month cost €24 plus about $19 to $63 of model tokens on n8n against $189 to $249 on Relevance AI, because Relevance bills every tool run and n8n bills whole workflow runs. Relevance AI is the faster build for a team without an engineer. Several ranking pages still describe a Relevance AI Free plan with 200 actions; Relevance's docs now say that plan is "retired and closed to new signups." Prices were checked on September 19, 2026 and rechecked on September 24. For the product overview, see our Relevance AI guide.

How do Relevance AI and n8n compare at a glance?

The cost row is our model, not a quote; the assumptions are in the cost section.

What is Relevance AI?

Relevance AI builds agents out of two parts. A tool is a unit of work (an API call, an LLM prompt, a block of code, or a chain of steps), and an agent is a model with instructions that decides which tools to call. Agents can be grouped into a workforce, where one agent hands work to another. The homepage headline is "Specialist agents for every task," and most of its examples are sales work: enriching CRM accounts, prepping call briefs, booking meetings. Customer logos on the page include Canva, Databricks, Confluent, Autodesk and Freshworks, and its case studies credit Qualified with "$7M pipeline in 6 months" and Send Payments with "40 hrs saved weekly."

Relevance's customer support guide starts you from Marketplace agents you clone, such as a "Customer Query Handler" and a ticket categorizer that "assigns P1–P4 priority on the way in." You connect Zendesk, Intercom or Salesforce Service Cloud, upload your playbook and knowledge articles, and add a trigger.

Oversight is set per connection. Relevance's approvals doc lets you mark each link between an agent and a tool as "Auto run," "Approval required," or "Let agent decide," where the agent chooses when to ask. You can also cap "Max auto runs." That last mode is a judgment the model makes, so it suits low-risk actions better than refunds.

What is n8n?

n8n is a workflow automation tool. A builder places a trigger (a webhook, a schedule, or an app event such as n8n's Zendesk Trigger) and then steps that fetch data, branch, run code and call apps. The AI Agent node adds a model with memory and tools. Everything around it is fixed logic that you write and the model can't skip.

n8n's approval step sits on the tool. Its human-in-the-loop feature pauses the workflow before the agent uses a flagged tool and asks a person to approve or deny it, through Slack, Telegram or n8n's chat.

The code is source-available under n8n's Sustainable Use License, which allows free self-hosting for "your own internal business purposes." Our Lindy guide covers a third tool in this comparison set, which sells a Slack teammate instead of a builder.

How do Relevance AI and n8n charge?

This is the main difference between the two, and it changes which kind of agent is cheap to run.

Relevance AI charges per tool run. Its plans doc defines an Action as "a single run of a Tool," whether the tool sends one email or runs "a complex workflow with many steps," and adds: "If the Tool fails, this will still count as one Action." Pro includes 2,500 Actions a month and Team 7,000; extra Actions cost $80 per 1,000, so eight cents each. The model is billed separately as Vendor Credits, "the cost of the LLM, and the cost of the tools you use," which Relevance says it passes through "with no markup." Pro includes $20 of Vendor Credits a month (10,000 credits) and Team $70, and more cost $20 per 10,000. Bring your own API key and you skip Vendor Credits entirely. Vendor Credits roll over while you're subscribed; plan Actions reset every cycle.

The incentive in that design is that Relevance earns more when agents call more tools, including tools that fail. It doesn't earn on the model, because model cost is passed through. So the meter rewards packing multi-step work into fewer, larger tools, since a 10-step tool is still one Action.

n8n charges per workflow run. Its pricing page says an execution is "a single run of your entire workflow. It doesn't matter how many steps are in the workflow." Starter is €24 a month (€20 billed yearly) for 2,500 executions; Pro is €60 (€50 yearly) for 10,000; Business is €800 (€667 yearly) for 40,000 and is the self-hosted plan. Users are unlimited. On n8n Cloud Starter and Pro, Gateway credits let AI nodes call OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models without API keys, from a prepaid balance at the rates on n8n's service pricing page; self-hosted n8n uses your own keys. Cloud plans also carry a monthly allowance of AI credits (2,300 on Starter, 5,700 or 13,700 on Pro), but those pay for n8n's AI Assistant, which helps you build workflows, not for your agent's model calls. The Cloud trial includes 1,000 executions and needs no credit card; the Business trial runs 14 days and needs one.

n8n's incentive points elsewhere: it earns on runs and on team features (SSO, Git, environments), not on how many steps or tool calls each run takes. An agent that calls four tools and one that calls fourteen cost the same execution.

Both vendors bill the model at list price. On September 19, n8n's Gateway rates for gpt-5.4 ($2.50 per million input tokens, $15.00 output) and gpt-5.4-mini ($0.75, $4.50) matched OpenAI's own list, and Relevance says it adds no markup. The model bill is the same on both; the platform fee is where they differ.

What does the same support workload cost on each?

We priced one job on both: every new support ticket gets read, tagged and given a drafted reply for a person to review, at 1,000 and 3,000 tickets a month.

Shared assumptions. A ticket triggers 1.5 agent runs on average (the new ticket plus one customer follow-up). Each run calls three tools (fetch the ticket, search the knowledge base, write the draft and tags back) and makes model calls totaling 12,000 input and 800 output tokens. At list prices that's $0.0126 of model cost per run on gpt-5.4-mini and $0.042 on gpt-5.4. Monthly billing on both.

Relevance specifics. Three tool runs per agent run is 4.5 Actions per ticket: 4,500 Actions at 1,000 tickets and 13,500 at 3,000. We bought the cheapest plan-plus-top-up combination. Relevance's per-run popup also shows a "base run cost" it doesn't publish a rate for, so it's excluded here. Relevance's native Zendesk trigger is Enterprise-only, so this assumes a Zendesk webhook pointed at a Relevance webhook trigger.

n8n specifics. One execution per agent run: 1,500 at 1,000 tickets (Starter) and 4,500 at 3,000 (Pro, since Starter stops at 2,500). Model cost on Gateway credits.

At 3,000 tickets, Pro plus 11,000 top-up Actions also comes to $909 before credits, so Team wins only because its $70 of included Vendor Credits covers the model. Annual billing lowers both vendors' base price (Relevance Pro $19, Team $234; n8n €20 and €50) but not Relevance's $80 Action top-ups.

Actions drive the Relevance bill, not the model. At 3,000 tickets on gpt-5.4-mini, $560 of the $909 is top-up Actions. Squeeze the three tools into one multi-step tool and the same month needs 4,500 Actions, which Team's 7,000 covers: $349. The meter punishes agents that call many small tools, and it's the one part of the bill you can engineer down.

n8n is cheaper at both volumes in this model, because its unit ignores steps. What n8n's number leaves out is the builder: someone designs, tests and maintains the workflow, and handles the errors. Relevance's cloned Marketplace agents and no-code builder shorten that work, which is what the Actions pay for. Our n8n build guide shows what the n8n side involves.

Which is better for customer support, Relevance AI or n8n?

The trigger is where support teams feel the plan tiers. Relevance's Zendesk integration doc says: "Zendesk triggers are only available on Enterprise plans. Tool steps (actions) are available on all plans." On Pro and Team, your agent can read and update Zendesk tickets, but can't start on its own when a ticket arrives unless you route Zendesk's own webhook to a Relevance webhook trigger, whose doc lists no plan restriction.

n8n's Zendesk Trigger node is part of the product on every plan, including the free self-hosted edition, and it has a Freshdesk node too. Any help desk with an API is reachable through its HTTP node.

Relevance gives you more of the support layer out of the box: Marketplace agents for query handling and categorization, knowledge uploads, "Smart Escalations" by email and Slack on Pro, and A/B testing and an analytics dashboard on Team. Agent Evaluations and SSO are Enterprise features. With n8n you assemble those pieces yourself.

Neither is a help desk. Both sit next to one and act on its tickets through an API.

What do users say about Relevance AI and n8n?

We read public reviews on September 19, 2026, including G2, where Relevance AI rates 4.3 from 20 reviews and n8n 4.7 from 314. Relevance has very few reviews anywhere, so treat its scores as anecdotes; its "Invent" builder also shows 4.0 from 2 reviews on Product Hunt.

On Trustpilot, a Canadian reviewer gave two stars in March 2026: "It used to be awesome but not so much anymore," missing the ability "to add steps in tools like the old version." A January 2026 one-star review from the UK said there was "0 customer support service." The one Capterra review, from an analyst in 2024, rated it 4.0 and noted that "A few of the advanced features had some learning needed."

n8n's reviews center on the learning curve. On Capterra, where it scores 4.0 for ease of use and 4.6 overall, a self-employed owner in marketing and advertising wrote that "The learning curve is very steep for beginners." Its Gartner Peer Insights page shows 4.7 from 18 reviews, and Trustpilot 3.0 from 49, where several one-star reviews describe losing account access and waiting on email-only support.

How we researched this

We checked Relevance AI's pricing, plans, Zendesk, webhook and approvals docs and n8n's pricing page and docs on September 19, 2026, and captured the screenshots above from their public pages. We pulled ratings from Trustpilot, Capterra, Product Hunt and Gartner Peer Insights in a browser, checked AWS Marketplace (Relevance's listing is private-offer only; n8n's sells Business self-hosted at $9,600 a year), and took model rates from OpenAI's and n8n's price lists. We did not build an agent on either platform: Relevance's Free plan is closed to new signups, and we didn't open paid accounts, so every cost is arithmetic on published prices with the assumptions stated.

Should you choose Relevance AI, n8n or neither?

Choose Relevance AI if your team wants agents without writing workflows, your work looks like its Marketplace templates (sales research, CRM updates, ticket categorization), and you'll design tools so each agent run makes few tool calls. It suits operations teams with no engineer to spare. Budget for Enterprise if you want native Zendesk, Salesforce or Snowflake triggers, evaluations or SSO.

Choose n8n if you have someone who'll own the workflows, you want the cost of a run not to depend on how many steps it takes, you need to self-host, or you want fixed rules around every AI step. It is the cheaper platform in our model at both volumes.

Consider neither if the goal is AI agents answering and resolving tickets in Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Front, HubSpot or Intercom. Both would have you build and maintain a support agent on a general platform. Macha fits teams already running one of those help desks: it's an AI agent layer on your help desk, where agents run on every ticket as it arrives, billed per ticket (one charge however many replies it takes), from $299 a month for 750 tickets, with setup and monitoring by the Macha team. Our overview of AI agents for customer service lays out the build and buy routes side by side.

Frequently asked questions

What is the main difference between n8n and Relevance AI? The billing unit and who builds. Relevance AI charges one Action per tool run plus model cost, and is built for operators using a no-code agent builder. n8n charges one execution per workflow run however many steps it has, can be self-hosted for free, and is built for technical teams who design workflows.

Is Relevance AI free to use? Not for new users. Relevance's docs say the Free plan "is retired and closed to new signups"; existing Free organizations keep access. Paid plans start at Pro, $29 a month or $19 billed yearly.

How much does Relevance AI cost? Pro is $29 a month ($19 billed yearly) with 2,500 Actions and $20 of Vendor Credits; Team is $349 ($234 yearly) with 7,000 Actions and $70 of credits; Enterprise is custom. Extra Actions cost $80 per 1,000 and Vendor Credits $20 per 10,000.

Is n8n cheaper than Relevance AI? In our support model, yes: €24 plus $19 to $63 of model tokens at 1,000 tickets a month, against $189 to $249 on Relevance AI. The gap comes from Relevance counting every tool call while n8n counts whole runs. n8n's build and maintenance time isn't in those numbers.

Is n8n still relevant today? Yes. It added an AI Agent node, human approval for agent tools, evaluations and, from version 2.36.0, Gateway credits that let Cloud workflows call major models without API keys. Its GitHub repository showed about 205,000 stars on September 19, 2026.

Is there anything better than n8n? For people without a builder on staff, Relevance AI or another no-code agent platform is quicker to a first agent. For customer support specifically, a product built for tickets saves you assembling knowledge, evaluation and handoff yourself. For self-hosted, per-run automation, n8n remains the common choice.

Can Relevance AI and n8n work together? Yes. n8n lists a Relevance AI integration, and Relevance's Marketplace lists n8n, so a team can run workflows in n8n and hand agent work to Relevance. You'd pay both meters.

What is the best agentic AI currently? It depends on the job. For sales and operations agents built without code, Relevance AI is one option; for automations with AI steps that you control and can self-host, n8n; for agents that answer customer tickets inside a help desk, a support agent layer.

If the work you want to automate is answering tickets in your help desk, see Macha's pricing or start with $50 of free usage on your own tickets.

Sources: Relevance AI homepage · Relevance AI docs: Pricing · Relevance AI docs: Plans and credits · Relevance AI docs: Zendesk · Relevance AI docs: Webhook triggers · Relevance AI docs: Approvals and escalations · Relevance AI docs: Customer support guide · n8n pricing · n8n docs: Gateway credits · n8n service pricing · n8n docs: Human-in-the-loop for tools · n8n Sustainable Use License · n8n Relevance AI integration · Relevance Marketplace: n8n · OpenAI API pricing · Trustpilot: relevanceai.com · Capterra: Relevance AI · Product Hunt: Invent by Relevance AI · Trustpilot: n8n.io · Capterra: n8n · Gartner Peer Insights: n8n · n8n on AWS Marketplace