Make.com charges per operation, not per workflow run. This trips up most people when they first set up automations. A workflow that runs 500 times and has 10 modules costs 5,000 operations - not 500. Understanding this model lets you estimate costs accurately before you build.
What is an operation?
Every time a module in a scenario executes, that is one operation. A scenario with 8 modules that runs 100 times per day uses 800 operations per day, or roughly 24,000 per month. Routers, error handlers, and aggregators also count as operations. The only module that does not count is a trigger - the first module that starts the workflow.
Make.com plans and operation limits
Free: 1,000 operations/month, 2 active scenarios. Core ($9/month): 10,000 operations, unlimited scenarios. Pro ($16/month): 10,000 operations + more features, unlimited scenarios. Teams ($29/month): 10,000 operations, team features. Operations can be purchased as add-ons beyond plan limits. Most small businesses with 5-10 active automations land in the $9-16/month range.
Typical operation usage by business type:
- Light automation (3-5 simple scenarios, low volume): 2,000-5,000/month - Free or Core plan
- Moderate automation (10 scenarios, daily triggers): 15,000-40,000/month - Pro plan + add-ons
- Heavy automation (20+ scenarios, real-time triggers): 100,000+/month - Teams + significant add-ons or consider n8n
When Make.com gets expensive
Make becomes cost-inefficient when you are processing high volumes of real-time events - every Shopify order, every form submission, every email received. A store processing 500 orders/day through a 12-module Make scenario uses 6,000 operations/day, or 180,000/month. At that scale, you are looking at $100-200/month in Make costs. Switching to n8n at that volume would reduce automation infrastructure cost to $10-20/month for server hosting.
How to estimate your Make.com cost before building
Count the modules in your planned scenario. Multiply by the number of times it runs per month. Add 20% buffer for error routes and filters. Compare to plan limits. For example: 8-module email automation running 1,000 times/month = 8,000 operations - fits in Core at $9/month with room to spare.
Make.com vs Zapier pricing
Zapier's Core plan at $20/month gives you 750 tasks. Make.com Core at $9/month gives 10,000 operations. For equivalent automation volume, Make runs 5-10x cheaper than Zapier in most scenarios. This is why most businesses that outgrow Zapier migrate to Make rather than paying more for Zapier's higher tiers.
Not sure if Make.com fits your volume? We can estimate your operation usage before you build anything. Book a free scoping call.
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