n8n-cli-cost

name	n8n-cli-cost
description	Analyze n8n execution costs and usage patterns. Finds top consumers, hourly distribution, and triggers firing too often. Use when investigating high usage, before billing reviews, or optimizing execution counts.
user_invocable	true

/n8n-cli-cost — n8n Execution Usage & Cost Analysis

Pull execution counts grouped by workflow and surface the top consumers, suspicious patterns, and obvious wins (triggers firing too often).

Procedure

1. Pull a representative slice of executions:

   • Default window: last 7 days. If the user gives a window ("last 24h", "last month"), use that.
   • n8n-cli --json executions list --limit 1000 to get a wide sample.
   • For high-volume instances, paginate or filter by status.

2. Group by workflow:

   • For each unique workflow ID in the result set, count: total runs, success count, error count, average frequency (runs per hour).
   • Cross-reference with n8n-cli workflows list to get the workflow name.

3. Top consumers table:

   • Top 10 workflows by execution count
   • Top 10 workflows by error count
   • Top 10 workflows by frequency (runs per hour)

4. Hourly distribution:

   • Bucket execution timestamps into hour-of-day to see when load peaks
   • Surface "off-hours" surprises (workflows that fire heavy at 3am)

5. Spammer detection — flag any workflow running:

   • More than 100 times per hour (probably misconfigured trigger)
   • More than 10 times per minute in any 1-min bucket
   • With 50%+ error rate (failing fast = wasted execution count)

6. Schedule trigger sanity check — for each workflow with a Schedule Trigger, fetch the workflow JSON (n8n-cli wf get <id>), inspect the cron expression, and flag:

   • * * * * * (every minute) workflows
   • */5 * * * * or tighter (every 5 min or less) without explicit user intent
   • Cron expressions you can't parse — flag for manual review

Output format

## n8n Cost Analysis — [profile] — last [N] days

### Summary
- Total executions: N
- Success / error / waiting: N / N / N
- Top single workflow: [name] (N executions = X% of total)
- Suspected spammers: N

### Top 10 by execution count
| Rank | Workflow | Executions | Error % | Avg/hr |
|------|----------|------------|---------|--------|
| 1    | ...      | ...        | ...     | ...    |

### Top 10 by error count
[table]

### Hourly distribution
[ASCII bar chart, hour 0-23]

### Spammer flags
| Workflow | Pattern | Recommendation |
|----------|---------|----------------|
| Sync X   | Fires every 60s, 50% errors | Reduce frequency or fix the failing branch first |

### Schedule trigger oddities
| Workflow | Cron | Next run | Notes |
| ...      | ...  | ...      | ... |

### Recommended cost wins
1. ...
2. ...

Tips

• n8n's billing model varies (cloud vs self-hosted). On cloud, "executions" = billed units. On self-hosted, the cost is CPU/RAM/DB writes. Tailor the framing accordingly.
• A "spammer" with 100% success rate at 60s cadence might actually be intentional polling. Always frame as "is this what you wanted?" not "this is broken".
• If the user is on a metered plan and asks for a forecast, multiply the daily average by 30 and show the projected monthly bill in execution units.

⚠️ n8n cloud execution retention caveat

n8n cloud only retains the last N executions in its API (varies by plan, typically 7-30 days). The cost analysis in this skill is based on what's currently in the API window, NOT lifetime totals. If a workflow ran 10,000 times last month but its executions have been pruned, this skill won't see them. For accurate billing analysis on cloud, cross-reference with n8n's billing dashboard. For self-hosted, the analysis is more complete because executions are retained until manually pruned.