AI workflow automation tools in 2026: 8 compared on what the AI step costs and who checks it

So a list of starting prices can't tell you what your workflow will cost, and none of the lists says, tool by tool, where or on which plan a person checks what the model decided. This list reads both from each maker's own pages for the eight tools that passed five rules, and counts one workflow, 1,000 requests a month, in every tool's own unit. The model's share of that month is about $2. What you pay for is the tool's unit: $20 on n8n, $119 on Zapier on a Standard model, and $169 if a new AI step stays on Zapier's default tier.

Where to start:

• Your team works in Microsoft 365: Power Automate. On GPT-4.1 mini, the default model, a prompt in a flow costs 0.1 Copilot Credit per 1,000 tokens, so the sample month's 1,000 requests come to about 300 credits, $3, bought as Copilot Studio capacity, and an approval flow needs no licence beyond Microsoft 365 licences that include Power Automate. The catch: Microsoft adds a hidden system prompt of about 1,200 tokens to every call, a standard-rate model such as GPT-4.1 makes the same month about $45, and a run, a waiting approval included, ends after 30 days.
• Your requests already land in one work tool: that tool's own AI, Asana's for example. Asana's Starter plan includes 50,000 AI Studio credits a month, and the sample month uses about 12,500 of them on GPT-5 mini. The catch: approval tasks start on Advanced, so on Starter the check is a custom field a person changes.
• Several apps, and someone technical to own it: n8n. It bills per run, whatever the steps, so the sample month is 1,000 of Starter's 2,500 executions, $20 a month billed yearly, with the model on your own key or n8n's credits. The catch: Starter keeps execution logs for seven days.

The other five, and a custom build, are in the comparison table below.

Meronym builds AI workflows for clients, sometimes on these tools and sometimes in code, and sells none of the products in this list. We have no referral, reseller or partner deal with the companies that make them. We read every tool's pricing page and documentation between 29 September and 1 October 2026 and didn't run trials, so what each tool can do is what its maker documents, quoted and linked. Prices are in US dollars, as the pages showed them.

What AI workflow automation is, and how it differs from rule-based automation

IBM's explainer, on the first page of results for "ai workflow automation", describes an AI workflow as "the process of using AI-powered technologies and products to automate tasks and streamline activities". Its simplest example is a language model sorting incoming support tickets.

What changes from the automation most teams already run is the input. Kognitos describes the older kind: "Traditional workflow automation follows predefined rules: it moves a task from one step to the next based on fixed conditions someone configured in advance, and it works well as long as the inputs are structured and the process never varies." Atlassian's guide names what a model adds: "The main difference between AI workflow automation and traditional automations is AI's ability to process unstructured data, understand context, and learn from outcomes." RPA, the robots that work an application's screens, is a third kind; the FAQ below compares it, quoting IBM's page on business process automation and UiPath's pricing page.

An AI workflow has three parts:

• Something arrives. An email, a form entry or a new record starts the workflow without anyone asking.
• A model reads it. It sorts, extracts or drafts, and in a workflow built to be checked, it also says whether it's sure.
• The workflow acts on the answer. It files the record, routes it or replies, and sends a person what the model wasn't sure of.

The model is one step of the three. The trigger, the record, the routing and the wait for a person are ordinary automation, and on four of the eight tools, Zapier, n8n, Workato and ClickUp, they're what the tool's own unit counts, which is why the model's own price is small beside the tool's. A reader in the r/nocode thread on this search's first page put it less kindly: "everyone's calling themselves an agent builder now even if they're just workflow automation with an llm node tacked on." Our business process automation services page puts the design rule this way: "When the first step is reading something written by a person, the workflow needs a model with a threshold and a route for what it cannot read."

One distinction the lists skip: an assistant that runs one person's tasks isn't a team's workflow, and ChatGPT sells both. Its tasks now start on events: the help page, updated on 29 September 2026, says "Event-triggered (webhook-based) tasks run in Work and respond to supported Gmail, Slack, or GitHub activity." But a task stays its maker's: sharing one lets a colleague "review its instructions and create a separate copy". Its workspace agents, on the Business, Enterprise and Edu plans, are the team kind: owned by the workspace, shared with groups, and started by a Slack message or an API call. A team's workflow runs once for the team, whoever is working that day, and that's what the third rule below tests.

How we chose: 100 names, 16 checked, 8 listed

We counted the tools named on eight sources, every page on the first page of results for either search that offers more than one product as a pick or an option:

• six lists, from Gumloop, n8n, Vellum, Teamwork.com, Zapier and Slack;
• the r/nocode thread;
• IBM's explainer, whose section on AI workflow tools names eight.

The explainers from Atlassian, Appian and Kognitos name only their own products, so they don't count, and the video among the results wasn't read.

A source named a tool when it gave it an entry, a row in a comparison table, a pick in a category or among "other apps", or, in the thread, when a reply suggested it. Counted source by source, that's 10 on Gumloop's list, 9 on n8n's, 11 on Vellum's, 10 on Teamwork.com's, 58 on Zapier's, 12 on Slack's, 17 in the thread and 8 on IBM's page: 135 in all, and 100 different names, because many tools appear on more than one source. A product counts once whatever a source calls it: Claude Cowork counts as Claude, because, as Gumloop puts it, "Claude Cowork is inside a regular Claude account", and Zapier's "Gemini for Gmail" and "Microsoft Copilot Pro for Outlook" count as Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. A maker's different products count separately, such as ChatGPT and OpenAI's Agent Builder, Power Automate and Power Apps, or Gemini and Google's Workspace Studio, which none of the eight sources names. A source never counts for its own maker's products. The thread's 17 include the replies from Zapier's and Make's staff, which name their own products: they count as names in the thread, but not toward those products' sources.

Who wrote the lists matters:

• Gumloop, n8n, Teamwork.com and Zapier put their own product first, and Vellum numbers its own assistant 1 of its 10.
• Slack's list is Salesforce's (the page's footer reads "a Salesforce company"), and it puts Agentforce in Slack first and Slackbot sixth.
• In the r/nocode thread, staff of Zapier ("But I could be a little biased") and Make ("Thanks for mentioning us") thank the list for including their products.
• IBM's explainer names its own watsonx and watsonx Orchestrate among its eight.

Some of what they recommend has moved since. n8n's list, last updated in December 2025, recommends "ChatGPT Agent Builder for OpenAI enthusiasts and existing subscribers"; OpenAI's AgentKit page now says OpenAI is "winding down the Agent Builder and Evals products" and that "From November 30, 2026 onward, they will no longer be available on the OpenAI platform." Gumloop's and Vellum's lists recommend Pipedream, whose notice now says "Pipedream Workflows and String will shut down on March 31, 2027." The same n8n list's FAQ says "n8n and Zapier charge by workflow execution", while Zapier's help says "A task is any successful action that runs in Zapier."

A tool made this list if it passed five rules:

1. Named by at least two sources other than its maker. 16 of the 100 passed: Zapier (six sources); Make (four); Asana, Claude, ClickUp, Lindy, n8n and Workato (three each); and ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Power Automate, Notion, Pipedream, StackAI and Vellum (two each). Gumloop, whose list is the first organic result on both searches, is named by one other source, n8n's list.
2. Sold to businesses today, with the features the third rule needs generally available. Not in beta or preview, not being retired, and available on a work account. 14 of the 16 passed; Gemini and Pipedream didn't.
3. Runs a team's workflow on its own, with a model as one step. Something arriving (an email, a form entry, a new record or task, from another app or inside the tool) starts it without anyone asking; a model reads, sorts, extracts or drafts; later steps act on its answer; and the workflow belongs to the team's workspace, not one person's assistant. A workflow that runs only when someone asks, or only on a timetable, fails. The model can be the tool's own or one you connect with your own key. 11 of the 14 passed; Claude, Microsoft Copilot and Vellum didn't.
4. Publishes a price, or names the unit its price counts, and says how a model step counts in it. A unit named only in the documentation counts, and so does "more than one Task each", which names the unit without saying how many. All 11 passed.
5. Lets a person check the model's answer before the workflow acts on it, on a plan it sells. The tool holds the case until a person approves, declines or corrects it, inside the tool or by answering a request the tool itself sends, and the workflow goes on only from that answer. A status or a field a person sets inside the tool, which starts the next step, counts. A closed or invite-only beta doesn't, nor does another company's app sold separately, nor a check that works only in a chat window nobody is watching. 8 of the 11 passed; ChatGPT, Make and StackAI didn't.

ChatGPT is the nearest miss. Its workspace agents, generally available on Business, Enterprise and Edu since 21 May 2026, pass the first four rules: the workspace owns them, a message in a Slack channel or a call to their API starts them, and OpenAI's rate card prices a run in credits per million tokens. By default, "write actions for apps and connectors are set to Always ask during an agent run". But for a run no one started from a chat, the pages don't say who is asked. An agent started through the API answers with a link to a ChatGPT conversation, and its run statuses include "suspended": "The agent is waiting for an external action or tool." Nothing on the pages we read says anyone is told a run is waiting, so the check, as documented, sits in a chat window.

Make, which four sources name, more than any tool but Zapier, fell at the last rule: its own review step is on the Enterprise plan and "only available to invited customers". For a workflow that needs no check by a person, it's still one of the tools these lists name most. StackAI's workflows can start when "A new email arrives in Gmail or Outlook", but its review step needs someone in its chat window.

We read each tool's pricing page and documentation between 29 September and 1 October 2026, as a browser shows them, and read the pages behind every changed figure again on 1 October. Zapier's task tiers, Notion's two billing options and ClickUp's pricing page were read with the page's options clicked, because the page's text alone doesn't carry them. Microsoft's pricing pages showed our browser "This product is not available in your market"; the prices here are Microsoft's US list prices. We didn't run trials, and review-site ratings played no part in the choice. The search positions are Ahrefs' records of the results pages on 5 September ("ai workflow automation tools") and 21 September 2026 ("ai workflow automation"), which we checked again on 30 September.

Ten questions to ask any AI workflow automation tool

Ask these of any tool, including ones this list leaves out. Each names a tool that gives a weak answer, so you know what one sounds like.

1. What does one AI step count as, on your own key and on theirs? A new AI by Zapier step on a paid plan defaults to its Premium tier, five tasks a run, where the Standard tier and your own key count one. Each tool call the model makes costs the rate again.
2. What does the tool add to your prompt? Microsoft adds a system prompt that "isn't visible" and "might equate to approximately 1,200 tokens", and counts it with yours. In the month below, it's 1,200 of each prompt's 2,800 tokens.
3. Where does a person check the model's answer, and on which plan? Make's own review app is on its Enterprise plan and in closed beta. Asana's approval tasks start on Advanced, and on Zapier's Professional plan an approval request can only go to yourself.
4. Can it hold only the answers the model isn't sure of? Lindy's check is set for each connected tool, so every write to that tool waits for a person, or none does.
5. Can the person correct the answer, or only pass or stop it? Zapier's reviewer can change the data before the Zap goes on. n8n's simple approval is approve or decline, and Lindy's buttons are Approve and Deny.
6. Who needs an account to check? Zapier's reviewers need Zapier accounts and the Zap shared with them. On the work tools, whoever changes the field needs a seat. On Lindy, "The person who asked can approve their own request, and so can any workspace owner or admin. Anyone else gets a private note to ask one of them."
7. How long can a check wait? Power Automate ends a run after 30 days, pending approvals included, while Workato's assigned tasks can wait up to 365 days. n8n's Starter plan lists a five-minute "Max execution duration", and its pages don't say whether a wait for approval counts toward it.
8. How long can you see what the model did? n8n's Starter plan keeps execution logs for 7 days, Pro for 30. Zapier guarantees 60 days of run history, and Power Automate keeps runs for 30.
9. What happens when the AI credits or actions run out? Notion's Custom Agents pause until the credits reset or an admin adds more. ClickUp's automations pause for the rest of the month, and when Asana's paid AI Studio credits run out, "rules will stop running unless on demand purchasing has been enabled".
10. Is the AI step's rate published at all? Workato's documentation says AI by Workato steps "count as more than one Task each" and refers you to your contract. Lindy publishes ranges of credits for kinds of work, not a rate for a routine's run.

Ask the fourth question first. A tool that can hold only everything or nothing changes the workflow, not just the bill: with Lindy's check, the month below has 1,000 approvals instead of 200. A good answer names the condition that holds the unsure ones. In n8n, an If node on the model's own "sure" field sends only those requests to a Send and Wait for Approval step. The Text Classifier's "Other" branch isn't the same thing: it catches requests that fit none of the categories, not the ones the model is unsure of. Zapier's Paths, which cost no tasks, and ClickUp's conditions on Business can make the same split.

The eight AI workflow automation tools, by kind

Each entry ends with how one sample month counts in it: 1,000 requests read by a model, 200 of them checked by a person, set out in full after the comparison table.

Tools that connect apps, with a model as one step

For a workflow that moves between cloud apps. They bill by the step or the run, and the model is either the tool's own or yours, on your own key.

Zapier: best for a team with no developer, once someone sets the model tier

What it does. "No-code automation across 9,000+ apps", according to its pricing page. AI by Zapier "lets you add AI-powered steps to your Zaps, powered by popular AI models", on a connection Zapier provides or on your own AI provider account.

What you run. Nothing: Zapier hosts it.

What it bills. Tasks: "A task is any successful action that runs in Zapier", and triggers, Filter steps and Paths steps are free. The free plan includes 100 tasks a month. On the Team plan, the first on which an approval can go to anyone but yourself, 2,000 tasks cost $69 a month billed yearly ($103.50 billed monthly), 5,000 cost $119 ($178.50) and 10,000 cost $169 ($253.50).

How the AI step counts. By model tier, for each run: one task on Standard ("Best for high volume, simple tasks"), three on Advanced, five on Premium, and one on your own key, "including tool calls". Zapier's tier page lists only OpenAI and Google models on Standard, such as GPT-5 mini and Gemini 2.5 Flash, and puts Claude 4.5 Haiku on Advanced. It says "When you create a new AI by Zapier step on a paid plan, the model tier defaults to Premium", whose default model is Claude 4.6 Sonnet, and "Tasks used per run = (1 × model rate) + (number of tool calls × model rate)". A step that reaches 75 tasks in one run pauses until you approve it.

Where a person checks the model. Human in the Loop's Request Approval action "pauses your Zap run and requests one or more reviewers to approve, decline, or change data you submit for review before continuing the Zap." So the reviewer can correct the model's reading before anything is filed. It's a premium app on paid plans, and "If you're on a Pro account, you can only send requests to yourself." Reviewers need Zapier accounts and the Zap shared with them, and each successful approval counts as a task.

Where you see what it did. "The Zap history page displays a log of all Zap workflows that have run", according to Zapier's help, and its Task usage tab shows each Zap's billable tasks over a date range, "This includes task multipliers". Zapier guarantees 60 days of run history, up to 10,000 runs.

The month. 2,200 tasks on a Standard model such as GPT-5 mini or on your own key, which puts you on the Team plan's 5,000-task tier: $119 a month billed yearly. On Claude 4.5 Haiku, the month's own model, which Zapier counts at the Advanced rate, it's 4,200 tasks, the same tier. Left on the default Premium tier, the same month is 6,200 tasks and the 10,000 tier, $169.

n8n: best for a model step on your own key, paid by the run whatever the steps

What it does. Workflow automation on n8n's cloud or your own servers. Its pricing page says: "Pricing based on monthly workflow executions, regardless of complexity."

What you run. Nothing on n8n Cloud, which has a free trial of 1,000 executions with "a 180-second execution timeout". On your own servers, n8n's hosting documentation says it "runs as the free Community edition".

What it bills. Executions: "Pay for full executions, not for each step." Starter is $20 a month billed yearly for 2,500 executions, and Pro $50 for 10,000. According to n8n's documentation, "Only production executions count towards this quota", and a webhook trigger counts one execution for each request that arrives.

How the AI step counts. It doesn't add to the executions. A model node runs on your own provider credential, billed by your provider, or on n8n's Gateway credits, a prepaid balance: "n8n bills usage per request at the rates listed on the service pricing page". That page lists claude-haiku-4-5 at $1.00 per million tokens in and $5.00 out, and gpt-5-mini at $0.25 and $2.00. Gateway credits are available on n8n Cloud's Starter and Pro plans: "They aren't available on n8n Cloud Enterprise or self-hosted n8n." Top-ups expire 12 months after purchase.

Where a person checks the model. Its Gmail, Slack and other nodes have a Send and Wait for Approval operation, which sends a message and waits "for approval from the recipient before continuing the workflow execution". The answer is approve or decline, and "For more complex approvals, consider using the Wait node". An If node, which splits "a workflow conditionally based on comparison operations", can send only the requests the model is unsure of to that step. The Text Classifier node can put what it can't sort on a branch of its own: "When the node doesn't detect any of the categories, it outputs items in this branch." And for agents, "You can require human approval before an AI Agent executes a specific tool", according to n8n's guide.

Where you see what it did. Each execution's data, which you can "copy data from a previous execution into your current workflow to debug it". Starter keeps execution logs for 7 days and saves up to 2,500 executions; Pro keeps logs for 30 days.

The month. 1,000 executions, one per form entry, with the wait for a person inside the same execution: Starter, $20 a month billed yearly. The model adds $0.58 in Gateway credits on gpt-5-mini or $2.00 on Claude Haiku 4.5, or the same $2.00 on Anthropic's own bill if you use your own key. One thing to ask n8n: Starter's table lists a "Max execution duration" of 5 minutes, and while its Wait node page says a paused workflow "offloads the execution data to the database" until it resumes, the pages read don't say whether the wait counts toward the 5 minutes.

For what it can't reach, see our n8n automation agency page.

Workato: best for an IT team that buys automation on a contract, with checks that can wait up to a year

What it does. An enterprise automation platform, sold in editions: its pricing page says "Explore our platform editions". AI by Workato, its model step, "processes data using Anthropic's Sonnet 4 model in most regions", and Workato says it "doesn't use user data for training purposes". The pricing page lists AI by Workato under Enterprise MCP, the third of its four editions.

What you run. Nothing for cloud apps. An on-premises gateway for systems inside your network.

What it bills. Tasks, at a price it doesn't publish. "A Task is a single action step that a recipe executes", and "Triggers and control flow steps don't count as Tasks", according to Workato's documentation. Its pricing FAQ adds that "A common billing unit, the Workato credit" applies across the platform.

How the AI step counts. "AI by Workato action steps count as more than one Task each. Refer to your contract for details." The pages don't say how many more.

Where a person checks the model. Workflow apps' Assign task to users action "pauses the recipe job until the task reaches completion or expires", for work "such as reviews, approvals, and rejections", and a task can wait up to 365 days. Workato's pricing page lists Workflow Apps under "Do more with optional add-ons", so the check is an add-on to the edition.

Where you see what it did. "A job's history shows which steps ran and what data passed through them", according to Workato's jobs page. Enterprise MCP, the edition with the AI step, has "Flexible 90-day log retention".

The month. At least 3,200 Tasks: 1,000 AI steps at two or more Tasks each, 1,000 records and 200 assigned checks, on Enterprise MCP with the Workflow Apps add-on, at a price Workato doesn't publish.

Automation inside Microsoft 365

For a workflow that already lives in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint.

Microsoft Power Automate: best for a workflow that already runs in Microsoft 365

What it does. Cloud flows that connect apps, with an AI Builder prompt as one action in a flow.

What you run. A Microsoft 365 tenant. Cloud flows with standard connectors come with Microsoft 365 licences that include Power Automate, and Microsoft's pricing page offers "a 30-day trial".

What it bills. Per user or per flow: Premium is $15.00 a user a month and Process $150.00 a bot a month, both paid yearly, on Microsoft's pricing page. A flow that uses only standard connectors needs neither, and the AI step doesn't change that: Microsoft's credit management page says "adding an AI Builder action to a flow doesn't transform it into a premium flow."

How the AI step counts. In Copilot Credits, by tokens, at a rate set by the model. The basic tier of text and generative AI costs "0.1 Copilot Credit per 1K tokens", the standard tier 1.5 and the premium tier 10, and Microsoft's own example rounds a 4,200-token request up to five units, 0.5 Copilot Credits. Microsoft's model table bills GPT-4.1 mini, the default model, at the basic rate, and GPT-4.1, GPT-5 chat and Claude Sonnet 4.6 at the standard rate. The tokens include "The system metaprompt from Microsoft": its page on prompt tokens says "This system prompt isn't visible" and that it "might equate to approximately 1,200 tokens". Flows use AI Builder credits first, then Copilot Credits, but the 5,000 AI Builder credits a Premium licence brings "will be removed on November 1, 2026", and "New customers can't purchase AI Builder capacity add-on anymore". Without AI Builder credits, a prompt in Power Automate "requires Copilot Studio capacity", bought as prepaid packs or pay as you go, where a Copilot Credit costs $0.01 on Azure's pay-as-you-go pricing.

Where a person checks the model. Microsoft's connector reference lists Approvals as a standard connector in Power Automate, so a licence with standard connectors can build an approval flow, and approvers answer in Outlook, in Teams or in Power Automate. A run can't wait forever: "After 30 days, any pending steps time out", according to the limits page.

Where you see what it did. Runs are kept for 30 days, and admins see each use of credits on the AI Builder Activity page.

The month. About 300 Copilot Credits on GPT-4.1 mini. With Microsoft's system prompt, each prompt is about 2,800 tokens (1,500 of ours in, about 1,200 of Microsoft's, 100 out), which counts as three 1,000-token units at 0.1 credit each. That's about $3.00 a month at $0.01 a credit, on top of the Microsoft 365 licences: the month's Microsoft Forms and Approvals connectors are both standard. On a standard-rate model such as GPT-4.1, the same month is 4,500 credits, about $45.

For what it can't reach, see our Power Automate consulting services page.

Inside the work tool your team already uses

For requests that arrive as tasks or database entries in the tool your team works in. They bill seats, with the AI step in credits, inside the plan or on top of it.

Asana: best for requests that land as Asana tasks, with the AI inside the plan's credits

What it does. Rules with AI in them: Asana's smart workflows are "workflows with AI embedded in them", on models "provided by OpenAI and Anthropic". A rule starts on an event, such as "When a task is added to a project."

What you run. An Asana plan from Starter up, where rules start, and a seat for each person who works the tasks.

What it bills. Seats: Starter is US$10.99 a user a month billed yearly (US$13.49 billed monthly) and Advanced US$24.99 (US$30.49), on Asana's pricing page. "AI Studio Basic is included in all paid domains using Asana AI", with 50,000 credits a month per billing account on Starter, 75,000 on Advanced and 200,000 on Enterprise. AI Studio's Plus and Pro tiers are paid.

How the AI step counts. In credits worked out from tokens. Asana's AI Studio pricing takes the model's tokens, divides them by 100 and rounds up, then multiplies the result by the model's multiplier. The multipliers differ for input and output: 0.5 and 5 for GPT-5 mini, 3 and 15 for Claude 4.5 Haiku (Asana's name for Anthropic's Claude Haiku 4.5, the model the month prices), and 5 and 25 for Claude Sonnet 4.5. We read the table as applying the input multiplier to input tokens and the output multiplier to output tokens.

Where a person checks the model. On Starter, a person changes a custom field, and a rule whose trigger "monitors changes to the selected custom field" runs the next step. Asana's approval tasks, which show "green if approved, orange if changes are requested, and red if rejected", start on Advanced.

Where you see what it did. A usage view lists each AI Studio rule with its "Number of times run", its model and its "Credits used".

The month. About 12,500 AI Studio credits on GPT-5 mini: 15 hundred-token units in at 0.5 and one out at 5, so 12.5 credits a request. That's inside Starter's 50,000, so the month costs three Starter seats: $32.97 billed yearly ($40.47 billed monthly). On Claude 4.5 Haiku, the same month takes 60,000 credits, more than Starter includes.

ClickUp: best for a team on ClickUp that wants a model to fill in task fields

What it does. Automations built from a trigger, optional conditions and actions, according to ClickUp's introduction to automations. Its automation actions include "Refresh AI field", which will "Refresh an AI Field on a task". "Edit Custom Field with AI", on the same page, is an action of ClickUp's Autopilot Agents, which ClickUp counts differently (below).

What you run. A ClickUp plan with a seat for each person. "Conditions are optional criteria available on the Business Plan and above", and a condition is what sends only the unsure tasks to a person.

What it bills. Seats and actions: Business is $12 a user a month billed yearly ($19 billed monthly), with 5,000 automation actions a month, on ClickUp's pricing page; Enterprise, with 250,000, is sold by ClickUp's sales team. "A dispatched Action consumes one monthly Action whether it succeeds or fails", while one skipped because a condition isn't met consumes none.

How the AI step counts. In AI Credits, at ClickUp's own estimates: one use of an AI Field is 10 credits, and one use of Autopilot Agents or Super Agents 100 to 300, according to ClickUp's help on AI Credits, which says "AI Credits are currently $0.001 per credit", so $10 buys 10,000. An AI Field is one Long Text or Dropdown field, so a reading with four parts takes four fields. The Everything AI add-on, at $28 a user a month, includes unlimited AI Fields.

Where a person checks the model. A person changes the task's status, and an automation that starts when the status changes runs the next step. ClickUp's help search for "approval" returns 63 articles; the approval features on its first page are timesheet approvals and requests for access or permissions, and its guide to design reviews has the approver "change the task status to design approved". So the check is a status, not an approval step.

Where you see what it did. The automation log: "Track the success or failure status of your Automations," its help says.

The month. 40,000 AI Credits, $40, for four AI Fields on each of the 1,000 requests (the type, the customer, the urgency and whether the model is sure), and about 5,200 automation actions: four to refresh the fields and one to file each request, and one after each of the 200 checks. That's past Business's 5,000, and "When a Workspace reaches its monthly Action limit, its Automations pause until the next monthly reset", so as counted the month needs Enterprise, at a price ClickUp doesn't publish. A month that stays under 5,000 actions costs three Business seats, $36 billed yearly ($57 billed monthly), plus the AI Credits.

For what it can't reach, see our ClickUp AI agents page.

Notion: best for requests and records kept in Notion databases

What it does. Custom Agents are "designed to run automatically in the background based on triggers and schedules", reacting to events in Notion and Slack, and they act only on "the pages, databases, and external apps you explicitly grant access to".

What you run. Notion's Business or Enterprise plan: "You must be on Notion's Business or Enterprise Plan."

What it bills. Seats, plus credits: Business is $20 a member a month billed yearly ($24 billed monthly), and Custom Agents are "Free to try, then $10 per 1,000 monthly Notion credits", on Notion's pricing page.

How the AI step counts. By the run: "Custom Agents use credits based on the work needed to complete a run." Notion's credits page estimates about $0.05 to $0.15 a run for a task-routing agent, one that "Reviews incoming requests, creates a task, and assigns it to the right person or team."

Where a person checks the model. A person updates a property, and a database automation whose trigger is "Property edited" does the next step, such as "Add page to" the database of tasks. Database automations "are available on paid plans on all platforms", and Notion's credits are priced for Custom Agent runs; the pages read put no credit price on database automations.

Where you see what it did. "View activity logs to see what an Agent did and when."

The month. 1,000 agent runs at Notion's own estimate, $50 to $150 of credits, with each of the 200 checks starting a database automation rather than a second agent run, on top of three Business seats: $60 a month billed yearly ($72 billed monthly). If an agent did the step after the check instead, the checks would add 200 runs: 1,200 in all, $60 to $180 of credits.

An AI teammate in Slack

For a team that wants the model to work in its Slack threads rather than in a workflow builder.

Lindy: best for a team that asks for work, and approves it, in Slack threads

What it does. Lindy Teammate works in Slack and email. Its routines run on a schedule or on an event: "an email received or sent, a Slack message, a calendar event about to start, a meeting ending, and more". Workspace routines "run for the whole team through Lindy Teammate in Slack", and "Only workspace admins can create and manage these".

What you run. A Slack workspace, and a Lindy seat for each user.

What it bills. Seats that share their credits, at the monthly prices on Lindy's pricing page: Plus is $29.99 a user a month with 3,000 credits each, Pro $99.99 with 15,000 and Max $199.99 with 35,000. "Every seat adds its credits to a shared pool". Extra credits cost $10 per 1,000, and "Overage usage is charged at 2x the cost of regular Lindy credits", according to its usage page. Teammates who join through Slack get a 7-day free trial before their seat is billed.

How the AI step counts. In credits from the pool, at a rate Lindy doesn't publish for a routine's run. Its pricing page puts "Everyday Asks" at "2-250 Credits", and its usage page rates "Team routines, priced by how often they run" as "Moderate".

Where a person checks the model. Guardrails, set for each connected tool, according to Lindy's integrations overview: "Always allow" writes without asking, "Require approval" "Asks in Slack before writing", and "Don't offer" never writes. When approval is needed, Lindy posts Approve and Deny buttons in the thread, and "The person who asked can approve their own request, and so can any workspace owner or admin. Anyone else gets a private note to ask one of them." "Guardrails apply in shared Slack threads only", and "A guardrail covers every account under an integration." Its pricing page adds: "Anything with outside impact waits for approval such as sending an email, updating a ticket, posting to another channel, publishing a doc."

Where you see what it did. Before a routine goes live: "A dry run fires a routine end to end on your real data and shows you exactly what it would have done, without doing it." The pages read for this list describe no run history with a stated retention.

The month. Not countable, because Lindy doesn't publish credits for a routine's run. Three Plus seats pool 9,000 credits for $89.97 a month, with top-ups at $10 per 1,000 if the month needs more. The check can't cover only the 200 the model is unsure of: with "Require approval" on the tool that holds the records, all 1,000 writes wait for a click. And a routine started by an email has no one who asked, so the three people who check would need to be workspace owners or admins.

For what it can't reach, see our Slack AI agents page.

A build instead of a tool

A custom build (ours): best for a workflow whose unsure cases, waits and failures need designing, owned as code in your cloud

What it does. We write the workflow as code on a durable workflow engine in your cloud account, with the model as one step: "Classifying, extracting and drafting, each with a threshold below which it asks a person", as our business process automation services page puts it. On our AI automation services page: "Every workflow gets a confidence threshold and an exception route to a named person, with the full context attached so the decision takes seconds." Some tools above can already hold only the unsure cases, as an If node does in n8n, and Zapier's reviewer can correct the model's reading. If someone on your team will build and look after the workflow in n8n or Power Automate, that's the cheaper route: $20 a month on n8n's Starter plan, or about $3 of credits on GPT-4.1 mini on Microsoft 365 licences. Our automation page is plain about where a no-code platform stops being enough: "when the exception path matters more than the happy path, or when someone has to be able to explain a decision months later". For those workflows, we agree in writing what each step does when the model is unsure, a person doesn't answer or a later step fails, then build it and hand it over.

What you run. Your own cloud account: "The code, the rules, the prompts and the connector configuration sit in your repository and run in your cloud account, and the runbook is written so another engineer could take it over."

What it bills. A count, a build and the running cost. The count costs $2k–$6k, credited against the build, and ends in a fixed quote. One AI workflow costs $10k–$53k to build, and it runs on your own cloud bill, at your request volume, rather than through a licence per task, run or seat.

How the AI step counts. As model tokens on your cloud bill, at the provider's price: the month below's model calls cost $2.00 at Anthropic's price for Claude Haiku 4.5.

Where a person checks the model. Wherever a reading falls below its threshold, the workflow "Routes the case to a named person with its draft and its reasons". If that person doesn't answer in the time agreed, it "Sends a reminder, then escalates to the next name on the list". When a later step fails after earlier ones changed data, it "Undoes or flags the earlier changes in reverse order, as agreed for each step".

Where you see what it did. In your own monitoring: "Monitoring, alerts, the runbook and the off switch, in your team's hands and tested." A managed run adds "a monthly report on what ran, what waited and what was escalated".

The month. The running cost at 1,000 requests, modelled in the count's quote, after a $10k–$53k build.

If you need a workflow whose uncertain cases, waiting points and failure paths are designed before it is built, that's the work behind our AI automation services. The first AI workflow runs in its narrow version four to seven weeks after the count starts. This guide does not cite a published client result for our entry.

All eight AI workflow automation tools, and a custom build, in one table

Screenshot this one: the unit and the AI step decide the bill, and the check decides the fit.

One AI workflow, counted in each tool's own unit

This is the table none of the ranking lists has: one AI workflow, counted the way each tool counts, and priced on the cheapest published plan that includes the check wherever the maker publishes a price. The numbers are ours, so change them to yours.

The workflow sorts incoming requests:

1. A request arrives through a web form, which starts the run.
2. A model reads it and returns its type (one of five), the customer, the urgency, and whether it's sure: about 1,500 tokens in (the instructions, the five types and the request) and 100 out.
3. When it isn't sure, one time in five, a person checks its reading and corrects it if needed.
4. Only then does the request become a record, a ticket or a task, with its fields and owner.

In a month:

• Requests: 1,000, of which the model is unsure of 200.
• People: three, who work the queue and do the checks.
• The model's own price: at Anthropic's price for Claude Haiku 4.5, $1 per million tokens in and $5 out, 1,000 × (1,500 × $1 + 100 × $5) ÷ 1,000,000 = $2.00. At the gpt-5-mini rates on n8n's service pricing, $0.25 in and $2.00 out, it's about $0.58.

How each row was counted:

• Power Automate: 1,500 + 1,200 + 100 = 2,800 tokens, which rounds up to three 1,000-token units: 0.3 Copilot Credits a request, 300 for the month, × $0.01 = $3.00. At the standard rate: 3 × 1.5 = 4.5 credits a request, 4,500 for the month, × $0.01 = $45.
• n8n: one execution per form entry, with the check inside it: 1,000 of Starter's 2,500.
• Asana: 1,500 ÷ 100 = 15 × 0.5 = 7.5, plus 100 ÷ 100 = 1 × 5 = 5, so 12.5 credits a request and 12,500 for the month. Three seats: 3 × US$10.99 = US$32.97, or 3 × US$13.49 = US$40.47 billed monthly. On Claude 4.5 Haiku: 15 × 3 + 1 × 15 = 60 credits a request, 60,000 for the month.
• Lindy: 3 × $29.99 = $89.97, and 3 × 3,000 = 9,000 credits.
• Notion: 3 × $20 = $60, or 3 × $24 = $72 billed monthly; 1,000 × $0.05 = $50 to 1,000 × $0.15 = $150. If an agent ran the step after each check: 1,200 × $0.05 = $60 to 1,200 × $0.15 = $180.
• Zapier: 1,000 × (1 AI step + 1 record) + 200 approvals = 2,200, the 5,000 tier at $119 ($178.50 billed monthly). On Claude 4.5 Haiku, at the Advanced rate: 1,000 × (3 + 1) + 200 = 4,200, the same tier. On Premium: 1,000 × (5 + 1) + 200 = 6,200, the 10,000 tier at $169 ($253.50 billed monthly).
• ClickUp: 1,000 × 4 AI Fields × 10 = 40,000 AI Credits × $0.001 = $40. Actions: 1,000 × (4 refreshes + 1 to file) + 200 = 5,200, past Business's 5,000. Three Business seats: 3 × $12 = $36, or 3 × $19 = $57 billed monthly.
• Workato: 1,000 × (2 or more + 1) + 200 = 3,200 or more.

What the table shows:

• The model is the small part. At Haiku 4.5's price, the month's model bill is $2.00. Where a tool bills its own unit, the same month costs $20 on n8n and $119 on Zapier: ten to sixty times the model. Microsoft's credits follow the tokens, so on its default model its charge sits close to the model's price, $3 against $2 with Microsoft's system prompt included; a standard-rate model makes it $45.
• Defaults move the bill. Zapier's new AI steps default to Premium, which takes the month from 2,200 tasks to 6,200, and from the $119 tier to the $169 one. The difference, $50 a month, is 25 times the model's own price.
• Seats aren't the AI. On the work tools, most of the figure is three seats your team may already pay for. The AI part alone is nothing extra on Asana, $40 on ClickUp and $50 to $150 on Notion, and on ClickUp it's priced per field, so a reading with four parts costs four times one with a single part.
• The check changes the count. Zapier counts each approval as a task, and ClickUp each step after a check as an action. n8n counts nothing extra, because the wait stays inside the execution, and on Notion a database automation takes the step after the check without another agent run. Lindy can't check only the 200: its check covers every write to the tool.

The model stays the small part while each request is short. Make each request ten times longer, 15,000 tokens in, and Anthropic's bill for the month goes from $2.00 to $15.50, Microsoft's from 300 Copilot Credits to 1,700, and Asana's from 12,500 credits to 80,000, past Starter's 50,000. Zapier's tasks and n8n's executions don't change, because they don't count tokens, though on your own key you'd pay the $15.50.

To count your own AI workflow, in five steps:

1. Write down the steps after the trigger, one for the model and one for each action, and the share of requests a person should check.
2. Estimate the tokens per request, in and out, including the instructions sent with each one. On Power Automate, add about 1,200 for Microsoft's system prompt.
3. Multiply by your requests a month. That's your executions on n8n and your agent runs on Notion. On Zapier, Workato and ClickUp, count every action step, with the AI step at its own rate: Zapier's tier, ClickUp's one refresh for each AI Field, or what Workato's contract says.
4. Turn the tokens into the tool's AI unit: Microsoft's 0.1 credit per 1,000 tokens on its default model, rounded up; Asana's hundreds of tokens times the model's multiplier; ClickUp's 10 credits for each AI Field. Where the rate isn't published, as on Lindy and Workato, ask for it in writing.
5. Add seats for the people who check, then find the plan whose allowance covers it all, and make sure it includes the check step.

When another guide is a better fit

• One person's assistant. If you want a model working your own inbox and calendar, the assistants that dropped at the third rule, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and Vellum, do that, and our guide to AI agents for business compares them, ChatGPT's shared workspace agents included.
• Approvals with no model in them. A purchase request that needs a manager's yes is the job of a process tool, compared in our guide to business process automation tools.
• Reading documents. Pulling fields out of invoices, forms and contracts at volume is the work of intelligent document processing solutions.

Your next step

Write your workflow down: what arrives, what the model should read in it, how sure it must be before it goes ahead without a person checking it, and where the result goes. Count one month of it in the units of two or three tools, with the five steps above, and ask their sales teams only what this page couldn't answer: the AI step's rate where it isn't published, and which plan a person needs to check.

If the workflow crosses systems no single tool covers, or its uncertain cases, waiting points and failure paths need designing before anything runs, send it to us. We start with the count: your workflow walked step by step, for $2k–$6k credited against the build.