n8n licence: what a business and a service provider may do

Yes, a business may use n8n free of charge for its own workflows, as long as it runs the software itself. A service provider may build, set up, maintain and teach workflows and charge a fee for it. According to the vendor FAQ, what is not allowed is offering n8n in a way that lets clients build their own workflows. Borderline cases stay open, for example when a service provider runs one instance for several clients. This article reports the vendor’s texts (position as of November 2026) and is not legal advice.

What the licence itself says

n8n links programs and work steps into automatic workflows (more in the basics of process automation). “Self-hosted” means that you install the software on a server that you or your service provider manage, instead of buying a subscription from the vendor. It is covered by the “Sustainable Use License”, version 1.0, which sits in the vendor’s repository as the file LICENSE.md. The central passage, under “Limitations”, reads:

“You may use or modify the software only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use.”

The next sentence concerns passing the software on:

“You may distribute the software or provide it to others only if you do so free of charge for non-commercial purposes.”

The licence text does not explain what “internal business purposes” covers in detail. Its list of definitions covers other terms, such as “Your company”. It contains no special case for consultants or service providers.

Two limits on scope are also stated in LICENSE.md. Content of branches other than “master” is not licensed, and files with “.ee.” in their name are not covered by this licence. They fall under the Enterprise licence, which according to LICENSE_EE.md requires that the software “may only be used in production” with a valid Enterprise licence.

The section “Termination” sets out what a breach means:

“If you use the software in violation of these terms, such use is not licensed, and your license will automatically terminate.”

If the vendor notifies you of a breach and you stop no later than 30 days after receiving the notice, the licence is reinstated retroactively. A further breach after that ends it permanently.

What the vendor FAQ makes of it

Because the licence text is short, the vendor explains in an FAQ how it reads it. That is a vendor statement, not a statute. It states as a principle:

“If workflows are only created or modified by you or people in your organization, you can use n8n under the Community license for free.”

The FAQ also counts it as internal business purpose when outsiders receive or see what your workflows produce (“where people outside of your business can receive or see what your workflows produce”). The test is not whose credentials are used but “who controls the workflow logic”. According to the FAQ, this holds whether someone builds workflows through a user interface, the programming interface (API), MCP or an AI agent.

What this means for a business

For an office with its own instance, the case is clear under the FAQ: your staff build and change the workflows, and clients receive emails, confirmations or quotes. A form that starts a workflow is also unproblematic: “Triggering or executing pre-built workflows via API or webhooks is fine.” If you bring in an external service provider to build and maintain workflows, the FAQ covers that as well, because a fee for building, set-up and maintenance is expressly allowed.

The Community edition carries no licence fee. Server and upkeep still cost money, as the article on cloud or self-hosting shows. According to the vendor’s documentation, features such as SSO (single sign-on), projects or version control with Git require a paid plan. A free registration unlocks folders, debugging in the editor and custom execution data. The range of features changes, and the vendor’s pricing page is authoritative. n8n Cloud has its own terms, and the FAQ does not apply to it.

What this means for a service provider

The FAQ states: “Consulting and automation services are explicitly permitted under the Sustainable Use License.” The condition is that n8n remains the provider’s internal tool, and clients receive results, not access.

On whether a provider may serve several clients from one instance, the FAQ answers: “Yes, provided clients do not access your n8n instance directly.” And further: “The determining factor is client access, not client count or revenue volume.” As an example, the FAQ describes a consultant with one instance whose clients receive only messages, synced data or chatbot responses.

On a client’s server, set-up and maintenance for a fee are allowed as long as the provider does not also host, which according to the FAQ “would compete with n8n’s own Cloud offering”. For managing many client environments, the FAQ announces a partner programme that is still “in development”.

What stays open

For one instance serving several clients, the FAQ names as its condition that clients have no access to n8n. Whether even read-only access to execution logs counts as access, it does not say expressly. Anyone wanting to be careful sends clients reports instead of access. That is the author’s caution, not a statement from the FAQ.

The line between “installing and managing” and “hosting” is also unclear. Does a provider who maintains a server in the client’s environment remotely, or who rents the server itself and provides it to the client, still fall under the first? The FAQ gives no examples. Nor does it say whether a server rented by the business itself still counts as “self-hosted”. In everyday usage it does, but I did not find this expressly regulated.

Licence text and FAQ also stand side by side. The text allows passing the software on only free of charge and for non-commercial purposes, while the FAQ at the same time allows a fee for installation at the client’s site. The FAQ is the vendor’s interpretation, on a web page that can change. The vendor itself writes that contributors sign an agreement that allows it “to change its license without seeking additional permission”. What a later change would mean for versions already in use is not stated in the sources. The licence text contains no clause on governing law, and I have not researched case law on how courts interpret it.

Data protection law comes on top, and it has nothing to do with the licence. If a provider runs the instance and its clients’ data passes through it, that is a separate question for a data protection officer.

Only the vendor can give an authoritative answer on how it understands its licence (license@n8n.io; for a commercial licence sales@n8n.io). A lawyer examines the individual case.

What you can do now

1. Save LICENSE.md and the FAQ with the date (PDF or text copy) and note the n8n version you use. That way you know later which position you acted on.
2. Write down who may build or change workflows, who has access to the instance and which features you use. Check under “Plan & usage” in n8n whether a feature requires a licence key.
3. If your case does not clearly match the FAQ examples, describe it to the vendor in writing and keep the reply.
4. In a contract with a service provider, record who runs the instance, who has access and who complies with the licence. For questions about the individual case, a lawyer reviews the contract.