n8n for social posting: what a workflow can and cannot do

If you can wire an API, n8n is the cheapest publishing automation available. The community has more than six hundred social workflows, and templates already cover Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, X, Pinterest and Bluesky. The interesting question is not whether it works. It is which half of the job it leaves you.

The pricing model, decoded

• One execution is one full run of a workflow, regardless of node count. Two nodes and two hundred cost the same.
• Since April 2026 there are no active-workflow limits on any plan; you pay for executions only.
• Cloud: Starter €24/mo for 2,500 executions, Pro €60/mo for 10,000, Business €800/mo.
• Community self-hosted: free from n8n, roughly $3 to $7 a month of hosting, no execution or node limits.
• Self-hosted Business starts around €667/mo billed annually with 40,000 executions, SSO and Git versioning.

A workflow that actually ships

The four things people underestimate

1. App review. Publishing to Instagram and TikTok requires an approved app, which is weeks of waiting rather than a node you drop in.
2. Token refresh. Long-lived credentials expire, and the failure arrives on a weekend.
3. Format. A workflow will happily push a centre-cropped horizontal clip to nine platforms with equal enthusiasm.
4. Maintenance. Self-hosting saves roughly $600 a year and costs somebody's attention, which is rarely free.

When a workflow is the right answer

How this sits next to Monty

n8n moves finished files. Monty makes the file: one raw take in, then cuts, captions synced to speech, ducked music, b-roll by meaning, cleaned audio, a version per platform, and publishing to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok and Telegram. The two compose neatly - a workflow can carry the finished clip onward to destinations Monty does not publish to yet.