Best offer on record: Self-hosted Community Edition (free, unlimited executions). 5 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Self-hosted Community Edition (free, unlimited executions) high confidence
Permanently free self-hosted edition with unlimited workflow executions, unlimited users and workflows, all integrations. Page states: 'A standard, self-hosted version of n8n is available on GitHub.' No execution cap, user cap, or feature restriction is listed. For the AI Assistant, self-hosters bring their own model API keys (BYOK), so no credit limits apply. You only pay for your own server/infra. Not student-specific — available to everyone.
Eligibility
No eligibility criteria; anyone can self-host. No .edu, age, funding, or region requirements. Not a student or startup-specific offer.
How to claim
Download n8n Community Edition from GitHub/npm/Docker and self-host on your own infrastructure — no signup, license, or application needed; free access is automatic. No card required.
Expiry
None — perpetual free offering. No sunset announced.
Gotchas
You bear all hosting costs (VPS/cloud), updates, security, and maintenance. Enterprise/SSO, Git version control, multiple environments, queue-mode scaling, and extended data retention are Business/Enterprise features, NOT included in Community. No official support (community forum only). Trial-vs-free gotcha: this is the only genuinely free+unlimited tier — the cloud tier has no permanent free plan.
n8n Cloud free trial (no credit card, 1,000 executions) high confidence
Free n8n Cloud trial with no credit card required: page states 'No credit card is required for the n8n Cloud trial.' Included: 1,000 workflow executions, 5 concurrent executions, 180-second execution timeout, 1 team project, Pro-level features (Global Variables, Insights dashboard with 14-day history, 5-day workflow history, advanced execution filters, unlimited evaluations, folders, Assistant), plus 800 Assistant credits + 100 AI credits. Excluded: Admin Roles, project Editor role, Named Versions, Workflow Diffs, and the n8n public API. No permanent free cloud plan exists — Starter is 20€/mo (billed annually) after the trial.
Eligibility
Open to anyone creating an n8n Cloud account; no student/.edu requirement, no funding caps. No card required at start.
How to claim
Start the trial from the n8n Cloud sign-up (app.n8n.cloud) without entering a credit card; pick up any paid Starter/Pro plan when the trial ends. No application or .edu needed.
Expiry
Credits expire when the trial ends. Trial duration: the official page does not state an explicit day-count for the Cloud trial (the 14-day figure is stated only for the Business-plan trial); widely cited as 14 days — not explicitly confirmed on the page today. Downgrade/loss-of-data behavior after lapse not stated on the page.
Gotchas
Trial limits (1,000 executions, 5 concurrent, 1 project) are much smaller than the paid Starter tier (2,500 executions). Assistant/AI credits are one-time and expire at trial end. After the trial you either pay (Starter 20€/mo annual, 24€ monthly) or your workflows stop running on n8n's infrastructure — you can export workflows but hosted runs are not carried to Community. Card NOT required for Cloud trial (contrast: Business trial DOES require a card).
Business plan 14-day trial (credit card required) high confidence
Separate 14-day trial: 'full access to all Business features for 14 days.' Business plan is normally 667€/mo (billed annually; 800€/mo monthly), 40,000 executions, queue mode. This trial is for the Business tier (self-hosted-oriented features such as SSO/SAML/LDAP, admin roles, version control, environments).
Eligibility
Anyone; credit card IS required (unlike the Starter/Pro Cloud trial).
How to claim
Sign up for the 14-day Business plan trial from n8n Cloud, with credit card on file.
Expiry
14 days, then converts to the paid Business plan (self-hosted) or as n8n defines at checkout.
Gotchas
Credit card required — risk of auto-conversion to a 667€/mo+ annual plan if you forget to cancel. Business plan is self-hosted only; 'Hosted by n8n?' is offered as a waitlist, so the hosted version of Business is not generally available. This is NOT free to keep — it is a time-boxed trial of a paid plan.
n8n Start-up Plan (50% off Business, self-hosted) high confidence
50% off the Business plan: 333€/mo billed annually (vs 667€/mo standard annual), for 40,000 workflow executions with unlimited steps. Includes 6 shared projects, SSO/SAML/LDAP, admin roles, version control (Git), multiple environments, queue-mode scaling options, global variables, 30 days of insights, forum support. Page FAQ states eligibility: 'Fewer than 20 employees', 'Less than €5M in total funding'. Duration: 'You can use the startup discounted plan for one year, or longer if you still meet the requirements.'
Eligibility
Startup-specific: fewer than 20 employees AND less than €5M in total funding. No explicit company-age or 'early-stage' date cap stated on the official page. No .edu. No region limits stated. Vendor reviews/approves the application. NOT free — it is a 50% discount on a paid license.
How to claim
Check criteria (fewer than 20 employees, less than €5M total funding) → apply via the start-up offer link on n8n.io/pricing/startup-plan → subscribe → n8n generates a license key for your instance → enter the key in your instance's Settings to activate all Business-plan features.
Expiry
Discount lasts one year and renews automatically for further periods only while the startup still meets the <20-employee and <€5M-funding criteria. Cancellation: Settings → Usage and plan → Manage Plan (Business plan section, not Start-up plan section). Monthly billing also available; 'cancel anytime on your monthly subscription.'
Gotchas
Not free — still 333€/mo (~4,000€/yr) and does NOT include hosting: 'The Business plan is currently available only for self-hosted deployments.' You pay your own infra, ops, and backups. Discount applies to license only. If funding crosses €5M or headcount crosses 20, the discount cannot be renewed. Self-hosted-only, so no cloud-hosted startup tier exists. For small projects, the 20€/mo Starter cloud plan may be cheaper than discounted Business even though Business has more features.
n8n Academy — free courses & certification (no .edu, open to all) high confidence
n8n has NO education license, academic pricing, or student discount for the product. Its 'Education' footer link goes to the n8n Academy: 'Every course is free for everyone' — structured courses (Foundations program: n8n101, n8n102, n8n103 + quickstart), workflow templates, and docs. Free completion certificate + verifiable badge; finishing all Foundations courses yields a program certificate. A certification exam badge 'stays valid for two years' (exam itself is 'coming soon'). Self-paced, no enrollment windows.
Eligibility
Open to anyone — no .edu email, no student verification, no region gate. Not a student-only offer and does not grant product access or discounts; it is free training/certification content.
How to claim
Register at learn.n8n.io (free, no .edu or institution check), complete courses n8n101/102/103 + QS101 to earn the Foundations program certificate and verifiable badges; a timed certification exam is 'coming soon.'
Expiry
Courses are free with no stated end date. Certification badge validity: 2 years (once the exam ships).
Gotchas
Frequently confused with an education license: the Academy provides free learning, NOT a free or discounted n8n product license. Students still need the free Community Edition (self-hosted) or the cloud trial for the actual product. Badges/certificates are learning credentials, not workflow-execution entitlements.
As of 2026-10-22: no student/education product license or .edu-gated offer exists for n8n — only free open-access Academy courses (a learning platform, not a discount), the free unlimited self-hosted Community Edition, the card-free Cloud trial, and the paid 50% start-up discount. No permanent free cloud tier: cloud plans are paid (Starter 20€/mo annual, Pro 50€/mo annual; monthly 24€/60€ per Sept 2026 sources) and a free 14-day Business trial exists with card. Start-up Plan terms are current and unchanged (50% off, <20 employees, <€5M funding, 1-year renewable, self-hosted-only Business); the pricing page now shows Business 'Hosted by n8n?' as waitlist/self-hosted-only, so no hosted startup tier. The Cloud trial (1,000 executions, no card) is a trial, not a free tier — the known '14-day trial' duration is stated on the page only for the Business plan, not explicitly for the Starter/Pro Cloud trial. No 2025–2026 sunset of the Community Edition or start-up discount found; the main caveat everywhere is that 'free n8n' means self-hosting with self-paid infrastructure. Sources verified on official pages today: https://n8n.io/pricing/ , https://n8n.io/pricing/startup-plan/ , https://n8n.io/education/ . Corroborating third parties: CloudZero n8n pricing (Sept 2026), Opsily, SubDiscounts (verified 2026-10-15), SaaS Deal Radar (checked 2026-10-19), PerkBook. Note: WebSearch session budget was exhausted mid-task, so later verification relied on official pages fetched via WebFetch plus earlier search snippets rather than fresh searches.