Plan limit

Questions
1

Hi,

I don’t really understand what’s happening with my account.
I’m on the Basic plan, which is supposed to have a limit of 2,500 executions per month, but I can see that I’ve already reached over 2,700 executions.

How is this possible if the plan has a fixed limit?
Shouldn’t the executions stop automatically once the limit is reached?

Also, I want to make sure I won’t be charged extra for going over the 2,500 executions.

Can you please confirm what happens when the limit is exceeded — are extra executions blocked, or are they just allowed temporarily without extra fees?

Thank you for clarifying this, I just want to be sure before continuing to use my workflows.

Best regards,

2

Hi @baloonassurance,

Thank you for your message.

You are right, the Basic plan normally includes 2,500 executions per month. However, sometimes the system allows a small extra buffer so your workflows don’t stop suddenly. This is only temporary, and there are no extra charges for this.

Once the buffer limit is reached, new executions will automatically pause until your monthly cycle resets or you upgrade your plan.

So no need to worry, you won’t be charged for the extra executions beyond your plan limit.

Thanks!

3

I’m a bit confused about how executions are actually counted in n8n.
From what I understand, each time a workflow runs, it counts as one execution — but I’m not sure if that applies even when the workflow is complex and contains many nodes or sub-workflows.

Could you please clarify:

  • Is a single workflow run (no matter how many nodes or actions it contains) counted as one execution?

  • Or is each node, HTTP request, or message sent (e.g. a WhatsApp “Send Message” node) also counted as a separate execution?

  • And how does it work if a workflow calls another workflow?

Thanks for your help — I just want to make sure I understand how execution usage is calculated correctly.

4

I’m using the WhatsApp Trigger node on n8n Cloud.
The workflow runs correctly when I receive a new WhatsApp message — however, for each real incoming message, my execution counter increases by 4.

After checking the logs, it seems that n8n creates one execution for the actual incoming message, and three more for system notifications like “sent”, “delivered”, and “read” events from WhatsApp.

I’ve already added an IF node right after the trigger to filter out these system events (so the rest of the workflow doesn’t run), but the execution count still increases for every webhook event.

Is this expected behavior?
Is there any way to make n8n count only the real incoming messages (and ignore the “read/sent/delivered” status updates), so that my plan usage reflects actual user interactions?

Thanks a lot for your help and clarification!

Best,