We try it. You decide.

n8n vs Make: the same automation cost 19 credits in one and zero in the other

I built the same invoice automation twice — Gmail watches a label, Claude reads the email, Google Sheets writes the row — once in Make and once in n8n. Then I left both running on the same inbox for an evening. No new invoices arrived. Make still spent 19 credits. n8n used zero executions.

The test

The automation: three steps, identical in both tools. The Make version is written up step by step in the invoice automation guide.
Make: free plan, checking for new mail every 15 minutes — the shortest interval the free plan allows.
n8n: cloud trial, checking for new mail every minute.
Same inbox, same evening (11 September 2026), no new invoices in the label.

The result

	Make	n8n
Checks for new mail	Every 15 minutes	Every minute
Time running	About 4½ hours	4 hours 48 minutes
New invoices	0	0
What it cost	19 credits	0 executions

Make run history: a scheduled run every 15 minutes, each costing 1 credit with 0 data transferred — Make's run history (middle columns hidden). A run every 15 minutes, 1 credit each, nothing received.

n8n after 4 hours 48 minutes active: 0 of 1,000 executions used — n8n after 4 hours 48 minutes of checking every minute: 0/1000 executions.

Why the numbers are so different

Make bills in credits, and every action costs credits — including the Gmail trigger checking for mail, even when it finds nothing. On the free plan the shortest interval is 15 minutes. That is 96 checks a day, about 2,880 credits a month, against the 1,000 credits the free plan includes.

n8n cloud bills in executions: one run of the whole workflow, however many steps it has. A polling trigger only counts when it finds new data, and runs you start by hand while building don't count at all (n8n docs).

The other side of it: when an invoice does arrive, Make spends one credit per step — three for this automation — while n8n counts one execution.

Make schedule settings on the free plan: minutes must be higher than or equal to 15 — Make's free plan: the interval can't go below 15 minutes.

Four things that cost me time

1. In n8n, “Simplify” hides the email text

The Gmail Trigger's Simplify option is on by default and returns the headers — sender, subject — but not the body. Claude needs the body, so turn it off. n8n shows a warning that the full response is larger; for an invoice label that is fine.

2. n8n only picks up unread emails by default

Read Status defaults to unread emails only. Invoices you have already opened are skipped, so a test run finds nothing. Set it to Unread and read emails.

n8n Gmail Trigger settings: poll every minute, Simplify off, label Invoices, unread and read emails — The n8n Gmail Trigger settings used in the test.

3. n8n doesn't read the JSON for you

Make turned Claude's JSON answer into fields I could click and map. In n8n the answer arrives as plain text, so every column in the Google Sheets step needs a small expression:

{{ JSON.parse($json.content[0].text).vendor }}

Swap vendor for date, invoice_number, amount and so on. For a first build, this is a real point for Make.

n8n Google Sheets step with JSON.parse expressions and their results — Each column parses Claude's answer. The result shows under each field.

4. Renaming the sheet tab breaks Make

After I renamed the tab, Make's Google Sheets step failed with “400: INVALID_ARGUMENT – Unable to parse range”, and the column mappings were cleared. Pick the tab again and re-map the fields — or name the tab before you build.

Prices

	Make	n8n
Free	Free plan: 1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenarios, runs every 15 minutes at most	No free cloud plan. 14-day trial without a card (1,000 executions). The self-hosted Community Edition is free.
First paid plan	Core, from $9 a month for 10,000 credits	Starter, €20 a month billed annually, 2,500 executions
You pay per	Action (credit)	Workflow run (execution)

n8n cloud pricing: Starter 20 euros a month billed annually with 2,500 executions, Pro 50 euros — n8n cloud pricing, billed annually.

If the n8n trial ends without a paid plan, the workspace is deleted. Download your workflows before day 14 if you are not staying.

Prices and limits checked on the official pricing pages on 11 September 2026. They change — check before you decide.

Verdict

Checking once a day, a handful of invoices? Make's free plan is enough — about 30 credits a month for the checks plus 3 per invoice — and it is the easier first build.
Checking often, or many steps per run? n8n. Empty checks are free and a run is one execution however long it is. The price is €20 a month on cloud, or hosting it yourself.

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The Make link is an affiliate link: TRYDLY earns a commission if you later pay for a plan, at no extra cost to you. The n8n link is a plain link — we earn nothing from it.