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Understanding Workflow Costs

Workflows consume AI credits based on what they do. The main cost drivers are:

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AI Agent Nodes

The biggest expense in most workflows. Costs depend on:
  • Model used: GPT-4 costs more than GPT-3.5, Claude Opus more than Haiku
  • Input length: How much data you send to the agent
  • Output length: How much the agent generates
  • Tool usage: Web searches, code execution, and integrations add costs

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Action Nodes

Generally low cost or free:
  • Integration actions: Usually free (no AI involved)
  • HTTP requests: Free within your workflow execution
  • Notifications: Free

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Other Costs

  • Web Search nodes: Small fee per search
  • Code nodes: Free (no AI usage)
  • Condition/Loop nodes: Free (just logic)
You can view exact costs for each node after a test run. Click on the node and check the Usage tab.

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Monitoring Costs

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Per-Run Costs

Per-Run Costs After each workflow run, you can see:
  1. Go to the Runs tab
  2. Click on any run
  3. View total cost and per-node breakdown
  4. Check which nodes consumed the most credits

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Workflow-Level Costs

Track spending over time:
  1. Go to workflow settings
  2. View the Usage section
  3. See daily, weekly, and monthly costs
  4. Download detailed usage reports

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Setting Cost Limits

Per-Run Costs Protect yourself from unexpected charges by setting spending limits:

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Monthly Limit

Set a maximum spending cap for the entire workflow:
  1. Go to workflow settings
  2. Set Monthly Limit (e.g., $100)
  3. Workflow automatically pauses when limit is reached
  4. You’ll receive notifications at 50%, 75%, and 90%

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Per-Execution Limit

Prevent runaway costs from a single run:
  1. Set Execution Limit (e.g., $5 per run)
  2. Workflow stops if a single run exceeds this amount
  3. Useful for preventing issues with loops or retries

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Alert Thresholds

Get notified before hitting limits:
  1. Add custom alert amounts (e.g., 25,25, 50, $75)
  2. Receive notifications when crossing each threshold
  3. Team members can be added as notification recipients
When a workflow hits its spending limit, it pauses automatically. You’ll need to increase the limit or wait until the next month to resume.

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Optimization Strategies

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Choose the Right Model

Don’t use premium models for simple tasks: Over-powered: 
Task: Extract email from text
Model: Claude Sonnet 4.5 ❌ (expensive)
Right-sized: 
Task: Extract email from text
Model: GPT-4.1 mini ✅ (fast and cheap)

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Optimize Agent Prompts

Shorter, clearer prompts cost less and work better: Efficient: 
Analyze this feedback. Return:
- Sentiment: positive/neutral/negative
- Urgency: low/medium/high
- Key issue (1 sentence)

Feedback: {{trigger.message}}
Use structured outputs. They’re more reliable and prevent the model from generating unnecessary explanatory text.

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Use Code for Simple Transformations

Don’t use AI for tasks that code can handle: Expensive: 
Agent: "Convert this date to YYYY-MM-DD format" ❌
Free: 
# Code Node ✅
from datetime import datetime
date = datetime.strptime(trigger.date, "%m/%d/%Y")
return {"date": date.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")}
When to use code instead of AI:
  • Date/time formatting
  • Mathematical calculations
  • Data filtering and sorting
  • String manipulation
  • JSON parsing/formatting

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Cost-Effective Patterns

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Smart Filtering

Filter data before sending to AI: 
Trigger (100 items) → Code: Filter relevant items (20 items)
                   → Agent: Process 20 items (not 100)

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Progressive Enhancement

Start cheap, escalate only if needed: 
Data → Quick check (regex/code) → [SIMPLE] → Done
                                → [COMPLEX] → AI analysis

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Estimating Costs Before Launch

Before activating a workflow, estimate monthly costs:

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1. Count Expected Runs

How often will this workflow trigger?
  • Forms: Expected submissions per month
  • Scheduled: Runs per day × 30
  • Webhooks: Events per month from integration

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2. Test with Real Data

Run 5-10 tests with realistic data and check costs: 
Example:
- Test run 1: $0.12
- Test run 2: $0.15
- Test run 3: $0.11
- Average: $0.13 per run

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3. Calculate Monthly Estimate

Average cost per run: $0.13
Expected monthly runs: 1,000
Estimated monthly cost: $130

Add 20% buffer: $156

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4. Set Appropriate Limits

Set monthly limit: $200 (includes buffer)
Set per-run limit: $1.00 (catches anomalies)

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Cost vs. Value

Remember: The goal isn’t to spend zero - it’s to get maximum value for your spending.

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When to Spend More

It’s worth paying for:
  • Time savings: If it saves hours of manual work
  • Quality improvements: Better AI models for critical decisions
  • Scalability: Automating tasks that don’t scale manually

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Next Steps

Core Concepts

Understand workflow execution and optimization

Variable Usage

Optimize data handling in workflows

Agent Node

Understand agent node costs and optimization

Getting Started

Build your first workflow