Your automations stopped partway through the month? Check your plan's allowance

Every Zapier, Make and n8n Cloud plan comes with a monthly allowance: a number of steps or runs your automations can use before the month resets. Most months, nobody gives it a thought.

Then a sale goes well, or a busy season arrives, and the allowance runs out partway through the month. The automations stop. Often they start again by themselves when the allowance resets, so it looks like a passing hiccup. But the orders, emails and updates from the days in between may never have happened.

This guide is a check you can do yourself in about ten minutes. You don't change anything. You only look.

The signs

• Several automations stopped at the same time, partway through the month.
• It happened after a busy spell: a sale, a newsletter, the run-up to Christmas.
• Everything started working again on its own a few days later.
• A bill from the tool was higher than usual.
• An email about your usage arrived, and nobody read it.

What happens when the allowance runs out

Each tool does something different:

• Zapier counts tasks: one for each action step that runs. At the limit, new runs are held until your allowance resets. Held runs aren't lost, but they don't run by themselves either: someone has to replay them from Zap history, and only within a time limit. On some paid plans, Zapier can carry on past the allowance and charge for the extra tasks at a higher rate.
• Make counts credits: usually one for each step in a run. At the limit, scenarios stop running until credits are added again, either when the month resets or when extra credits are bought. Paid plans can buy extra credits automatically, at a higher price.
• n8n Cloud counts executions: one for each whole run, however many steps it has. At the limit, each new run fails with a message saying the execution limit was reached, while the workflows still look switched on. Those failed runs aren't retried after the reset unless someone retries them by hand.

If n8n runs on your own server rather than on n8n Cloud, ask whoever runs it whether a limit applies to you.

Why it runs out sooner than you'd expect

• Busy days use more. Every order, sign-up or booking is another run.
• Each step counts, not each automation. In Zapier and Make, an automation that does five things uses about five times as much as one that does a single thing, every time it runs.
• Checking for new things uses credits in Make. A scenario that checks for new orders every 15 minutes checks about 2,900 times a month, and each check uses a credit even when there's nothing new.
• Lists multiply. When an automation goes through a list, like every item in an order or every row in a sheet, its later steps run once for each item.
• AI steps often cost more than ordinary steps. The guide on AI steps covers how to keep an eye on them.

The 10-minute check

1. Look at how much you've used

• Zapier: open Billing and usage in your settings. It shows tasks used against your plan, and the Usage insights tab shows a daily graph. The sidebar also shows when your allowance resets.
• Make: your organization's dashboard shows credits used, credits left and the reset date. More detail is under My Plan.
• n8n Cloud: the account owner can see the plan in the Admin Panel, and the Insights summary shows recent executions.

2. Compare it with the days left

Zapier and Make reset on your billing date, which may not be the 1st. n8n Cloud resets on the 1st of each month.

If you've used more than half your allowance in less than half the month, you're on course to run out before it resets. Note down by how much.

3. Find the automation that uses the most

Zapier's Zap history has a Task usage tab that shows each Zap separately. Make shows credit usage per run under My Plan. Write down your top one or two. They're the ones to ask about.

4. Check what happens on your plan at the limit

See whether extra usage is switched on. In Zapier, it's in Billing and usage, under Billing settings, as per-task billing. In Make, it's under My Plan, on the Subscription tab, as automatic purchase of extra credits.

Neither choice is wrong. Paying a little more keeps things running, and switching it off keeps your bill fixed. What matters is that you chose it, rather than finding out from a bill or a gap.

5. Check where the usage warnings go

Zapier emails the account when you reach 80% and 100% of your tasks, and Make warns you at 75% and 90% of your credits. Make sure those reach someone who reads them, and not only the person who set the account up.

Habits that keep you within your allowance

• A look at the halfway point. Put a reminder in your diary for the middle of each billing month, and glance at your usage.
• A check before busy times. Before a sale, a launch or the Christmas rush, look at how much room you have left.
• Ask about the hungriest automation. Whoever looks after it may be able to have it check less often, or start the moment something happens instead of checking on a timer.

What to do with what you found

If you're comfortably within your allowance, well done. Keep the halfway look in your diary.

If you're close to the limit, or you've already had a gap, take your notes to whoever looks after your automations. If there was a gap, ask them to look at what didn't happen during it, such as orders that weren't copied or emails that weren't sent.

And if there's nobody to ask, I can look at it for you, read-only. Here's an example of the findings note you'd get.