Make vs Zapier vs n8n in 2026: how their AI features compare

In a Make vs Zapier vs n8n AI features comparison for 2026, the three platforms cover the same ground: each one builds a workflow from a plain-language description, runs AI steps inside a workflow, and offers AI agents. They part ways in the details their own pages give. Zapier bills AI in tasks and agent activities and supplies the models by default. Make bills credits that include AI tokens when you use Make's AI Provider, and its paid plans can connect an OpenAI or Anthropic account. n8n counts whole workflow runs, and you pay for models through Gateway credits on n8n Cloud or through your own key, including on a server you run yourself.

Everything on this page about Zapier, Make and n8n comes from their pricing pages, help centers and documentation as we read them on October 16, 2026. We did not test the products or take screenshots, and several features below carry a beta or preview label, so open the linked page before you rely on a detail. We make Barside, a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac, and the last part of the page says where it fits for one person and where it does not.

How Make, Zapier and n8n compare on AI features in 2026

Make vs Zapier vs n8n AI features in 2026 line up under five questions: how you build a workflow by describing it, how AI runs as a step, what an agent is, which models and keys you can use, and how AI use is counted. The table answers each one from the vendors' own pages.

Each platform does something well. Zapier's Copilot can set up apps, actions, connections and field mappings for you, and Zapier pauses an AI step that reaches 75 tasks in one run until you approve it. Make keeps agents inside the same scenarios you already build, with modules, scenarios, MCP server tools and other agents as their tools. n8n keeps the step count out of the bill and runs its AI builder on your own AI account when you host it yourself.

Building a workflow by describing it

In a no-code comparison of Make, Zapier and n8n AI features for 2026, start with the builder you talk to, because it decides how much you configure by hand. All three take a goal in plain words and turn it into steps, and they differ in how much they do before they ask you.

Zapier Copilot

Zapier's help center introduces Copilot as "an AI-powered tool you can chat with to help you build Zap workflows." Its best practices article gives two modes. In auto-build, "Copilot automatically sets up apps, actions, connections, and field mappings." In ask as you build, "Copilot suggests changes but asks for your confirmation before making them." The same article says Copilot is not limited to Zaps and lists agents, tables, forms, Canvas and Functions. Copilot is in open beta, and Zapier's pricing page says Free plans have daily message limits, which paid plans do not have.

Maia by Make

Make's introduction to Maia sums it up in one line: "Describe your goal in the prompt, and Maia builds scenarios and AI agents for you." You can ask Maia to change or expand a scenario, such as updating module settings or adding modules, and to explain and fix errors, because "She sees scenario run history and logs." To take a change back, you revert to a previous version of the scenario from the chat. One limit the page names: Maia can't view other scenarios, so it cannot start from an existing scenario or connect to subscenarios or webhooks. Maia is "available in public beta for all paid plans," and Free plans get a 30-day trial from signup. That page did not say how Maia's messages are billed, so we could not confirm it.

n8n Assistant

n8n's documentation puts it this way: "Describe what you want to automate. n8n Assistant can plan the workflow, build it in your selected project, test it, and help you fix errors." It "asks for confirmation before high-impact actions," such as publishing and deleting, and the docs add that it is in preview and "can make mistakes." On n8n Cloud it uses Assistant credits, based on the tokens the underlying model processes, and n8n's pricing page lists 1,600 a month on Starter and up to 9,600 a month on Pro. On a self-hosted instance it "runs on your own AI provider account," and the pricing FAQ says "You bring your own key (BYOK), so no credit limits apply." The docs say it is not ready for Enterprise plans yet, and Enterprise customers can ask n8n about preview access.

One prompt to try in all three

An example prompt you could give each builder: "When a new row appears in my Leads sheet, have AI sort the lead as hot, warm or cold, and email me only the hot ones." Zapier's advice works for all three: a strong prompt includes "your goal, trigger, actions, apps, and any conditions or field requirements." Then read every step the builder made before you turn the workflow on.

AI steps inside a workflow, and which models each one uses

Once a workflow exists, the AI usually runs as one step among others. Who supplies the model, and who bills for it, is where the three differ most.

Zapier: AI by Zapier

Zapier's pricing page describes AI by Zapier as a way to "Pull the power of AI into your Zaps, without your own API key," on Professional, Team and Enterprise plans. Since June 15, 2026, Zapier's help center says, the step is priced by model tier: "Your model tier sets the base cost per run (Standard 1x, Advanced 3x, Premium 5x)." The default tier is Advanced, so a new AI step starts at 3 tasks per run, and "Tool calls add to that base cost at the same rate." If a step reaches 75 tasks in a single run, the Zap pauses and asks you to approve before it continues.

On bringing your own model, the two pages read differently. The help article lists connecting your own AI account at 1x. The pricing page describes Bring Your Own Model as an Enterprise feature that routes supported AI processing through your own AWS Bedrock account. Ask Zapier which one applies to your plan before you count on it.

Make: Make's AI Provider or your own connection

Make's credits page says "Credits for modules with automatic AI provider connections also include token usage," and that Make's AI Provider is available in Make AI Agents and the Make AI Toolkit. With a custom AI provider connection, Make charges by operations and you pay your provider directly for tokens. Some AI and advanced apps "use a varying number of credits per run based on actual consumption." According to Make's introduction to its AI agents, "Make's AI Provider connects to LLMs without needing an account with a provider," and paid plans can add custom connections instead. "Common AI providers include OpenAI, Gemini, and Anthropic Claude."

n8n: Gateway credits or your own credential

n8n's Gateway credits page says you can "run AI models and third-party services in your n8n workflows without provider accounts or API keys." The providers include OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Gemini, and the tool services cover web search, web scraping, browser automation and document parsing. n8n bills Gateway use per request at the rates on its service pricing page, and new Cloud users get a small amount of free credit at sign-up. When the balance reaches zero, nodes that use Gateway credits stop until you add credit, while nodes that use your own credentials keep working. The Anthropic Chat Model page shows the choice in practice: on n8n Cloud you can pick "Use Gateway credits" in the node's credential field, or use your own Anthropic API key.

If you already pay an AI company and want every tool to use that account, our guide to apps where you bring your own AI key explains how that billing works.

AI agents in Zapier, Make and n8n

All three platforms also offer agents: an AI that decides which tools to call to finish a job, inside limits you set.

Zapier Agents are billed in activities, separately from tasks. Zapier's help center defines an activity as "any billable action that your agent takes," and counts one each time an agent uses a trigger, answers from a knowledge source, runs an action, browses or scrapes a page, runs a web search, or gets a message through the Chrome extension. Tests are free on paid plans and count toward the quota on Free. A run can use up to 10 activities on Free and 40 on Pro and Enterprise, and at that point the agent asks for your input before it continues. As of October 2026, the pricing page lists 400 activities a month on Free and 1,500 on Pro. The help page also notes that "Zapier is moving Agents to AI by Zapier," so names on these pages may change.

Make AI Agent (New) is "an app that you use to create agentic scenarios," according to Make's introduction. Its tools are "modules, scenarios, MCP server tools, and other agents," and its knowledge is files stored in the agent's memory, such as FAQs and policies. It works on all plans with Make's AI Provider, it is in open beta, and Make warns that "product functionality and pricing may change." Make's page on credit usage for AI agents gives the meter: with Make's AI Provider, running an agent uses "1 credit per operation + credits based on AI tokens," and with a custom connection it uses "1 credit per operation" while your provider bills the tokens.

n8n agents are built with the AI Agent node and a chat model node. The comparison table on n8n's pricing page lists "AI Agent node and AI steps," "Agents (preview)," MCP server and client rows, and "Human approval for tool calls," and the Starter card lists "Agents, MCP and AI nodes." n8n counts "a single run of your entire workflow" as one execution, so what grows with an agent's work is the model bill, paid through Gateway credits or your own provider.

How AI use is counted and priced

The prices below come from each pricing page as of October 2026. Plans change often, so check the page on the day you buy.

• Zapier. Free is $0 with 100 tasks a month and no AI by Zapier. Professional starts at $19.99 a month billed annually, or $29.99 billed monthly, for 750 tasks. Team starts at $69 a month billed annually, or $103.50 billed monthly, for 2,000 tasks. Enterprise is priced by Zapier's sales team, with an annual task limit. AI steps draw from the same tasks, and agents draw from activities.
• Make. The Free plan has 1,000 credits a month. The page names Core, Pro, Teams and Enterprise plans and says "prices are cheaper with the annual payment in advance compared to monthly payments," but the plan prices did not appear in the page text we could read, so we could not confirm them. Most actions use 1 credit, "while some advanced features leveraging Make's AI Provider may use more," and "Credits expire at the end of the term." See Make's pricing page for the current numbers.
• n8n. Starter is €20 a month, billed annually, with 2.5K workflow executions and 1,600 Assistant credits. Pro is €50 a month, billed annually, with 10K executions and up to 9,600 Assistant credits. Business is €667 a month, billed annually, with 40K executions, and self-hosted only. Enterprise is priced by n8n's sales team, and a standard self-hosted version is on GitHub. The page has a monthly billing switch, but monthly prices did not appear in the text we read, so we could not confirm them. In n8n's words, "An execution is a single run of your entire workflow," and "It doesn't matter how many steps are in the workflow or how much data it processes."

A worked example: one AI step, 200 runs a month

This is an example with assumed numbers. Say a workflow runs 200 times a month and has a trigger, one AI step that sorts an incoming message, and two ordinary actions.

• Zapier: the AI step alone uses 3 tasks per run on the default Advanced tier before any tool calls, or 600 tasks a month. On the Standard tier it uses 1 task per run, or 200 a month. Add your other steps as the pricing page counts them.
• Make: each operation uses at least 1 credit. With Make's AI Provider, the AI module adds credits based on the tokens it uses, so a longer message or a larger model costs more. With your own OpenAI or Anthropic connection on a paid plan, the AI module stays at its operation count and your provider bills the tokens.
• n8n: 200 executions a month, however many steps the workflow has. The model's cost comes on top, per request through Gateway credits on n8n Cloud, or on your AI provider's bill with your own key.

The unit decides more of the bill than the plan name does. Our Zapier alternatives guide for solo freelancers counts three full workflows the same way.

Which one to choose: app connections, complex logic or self-hosting

Make vs Zapier vs n8n for AI automation with no-code features is mostly a choice about what you connect, how much logic sits between the steps, and where the workflow runs.

• Simple app connections. Zapier fits when you want to describe a Zap, let Copilot set up the apps and field mappings, and use Zapier's models without a key. Keep AI steps that need no tools on the Standard tier.
• Complex logic with many steps. Make and n8n both suit it. A Make agent can call modules, other scenarios and other agents, and Maia explains errors from the run history. n8n counts a whole run as one execution, so a long workflow costs the same number of executions per run as a short one.
• Self-hosting. n8n is the one of the three whose pricing page lists self-hosted plans, and its Assistant runs on your own AI provider account there. We found no self-hosted option on the Zapier and Make pricing pages we read.
• Your own AI key. n8n's nodes work with a credential and your own API key, and Make takes OpenAI or Anthropic connections on paid plans. Zapier is built around its own models, and its two pages describe its bring-your-own options differently.
• Approval before AI changes something. Copilot's ask-as-you-build mode, Zapier's 75-task pause, n8n Assistant's confirmation before high-impact actions and the tool-call approval row on n8n's pricing page each cover part of it. The guide to human-in-the-loop automation tools compares where the approval sits in each tool.

Where Barside fits for one person

Barside is not an integration platform with a catalog of app connectors. It has no app-to-app connectors or webhooks, so a job that starts when a form is filled in or an email arrives still belongs in Zapier, Make or n8n. What it offers one person is AI that works on their own notes and computer, with saved workflows and agents that ask before they act, using the AI they connect.

The plain-language part works differently from the builders above. You ask the AI assistant to do a job once, watch each step, and keep it as a workflow.

1. Connect an AI in Settings → AI: Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini with an API key, OpenRouter with a one-click sign-in, or My plan, which runs Claude Code or Codex on your computer, signed in with your Claude or ChatGPT plan.
2. Give the assistant the job in plain words, for example: "Take the newest item in Reading's Newsletters and write three short social posts as notes in Marketing."
3. Under its last reply, choose Save as workflow, keep or change the Workflow name, and press Save workflow.
4. Run it from Agents & approvals → Workflows with Run, or by name from the search bar with Alt+Shift+Space. To repeat it, choose Schedule, pick how often it repeats and a time, tick Ask me to run it on this schedule and press Save schedule.
5. At the scheduled time, the run waits in Agents & approvals → Inbox until you press Approve, or Refuse to skip it.

Beyond workflows, Barside's agents include scheduled agents such as the Morning briefing preset, a meeting agent that prepares a follow-up after a call transcript, and a research agent that writes a note with numbered sources. They write their own notes by themselves, and every task, reminder, email draft or scheduled workflow run they propose waits in the Inbox. Approving an email opens a draft in your email app, and you press send there.

Barside is free, and it has no AI of its own: the company you connect bills you for what you use. To cap that, Settings → AI has an AI spending limit, from US$0.50 to US$10,000 for a day, a week or a month. For example, a freelance translator could run a weekday briefing and a recap after each client call in Barside, and keep a Zapier, Make or n8n plan for the one web form that feeds her client list.

Know the limits before you move anything:

• No triggers from web apps. A workflow starts when you press Run, from the search bar, or on a schedule you approve.
• Your computer runs it. Nothing runs while the computer is off, asleep or locked, and only the latest missed run from the last 12 hours is made up. With Barside Plus (US$20 a month or US$200 a year, plus sales tax), cloud agents run scheduled agents on Barside's server, while saved workflows stay on your computer.
• Other apps. Typing and clicking in other apps works on Windows, and on a Mac through System Events once you allow Barside under Accessibility. On Linux the assistant can focus windows and press keys, but it cannot read the controls inside other apps.
• Numbers. Up to 100 saved workflows with 40 recorded steps each, and 50 scheduled agents.

The saved workflows guide covers every option, step by step.

Privacy: where your workflows and AI keys live

With Zapier, Make and n8n Cloud, your workflows run on the vendor's servers, and each AI step goes to the model it uses, through the vendor's credits or your own key. With self-hosted n8n, workflows run on the server you manage, and the Assistant uses your own AI provider account.

In Barside, saved workflows and their recorded steps are stored in your library on your computer, with typed passwords, keys, tokens and card numbers marked [removed]. When a workflow or agent runs, the request and the notes it reads go to the AI company you connected, whose data policy applies. Notes and workspaces you leave out of Library AI are never given to the assistant or its agents. Your AI keys are encrypted for your user account and sent only to their own company. Read how agents use your data and the AI you connect and your data.

Works well with

Barside runs on Windows, Linux and Mac, and you can download it free. These guides go deeper on workflows, agents and how other automation tools compare.