Is Make's free plan enough for a small business? The limits, our 21 automations measured against them, and when Core is worth paying for
Short answer
Make's Free plan is enough for one or two automations at small-business volume: 19 of our 21 blueprints use under 400 credits a month at typical volumes, well inside the 1,000-credit allowance (make.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-29). The limit that bites first is not credits but the cap of two active scenarios, followed by the 15-minute minimum interval, which makes any Gmail-polling automation cost about 3,000 credits a month. From a third automation onwards, Core at $12 a month is the answer.
Make's Free plan: 1,000 credits, 2 active scenarios, 15-minute interval. Which of 21 small-business automations fit, and the point where Core pays off.
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The question comes up in the first week of every project: can this run on the free plan, or does the client need to pay? The answer depends on three numbers, and only one of them is the credit allowance everyone looks at. This page lists the Free plan's limits from Make's own pricing page, measures each of our twenty-one automations against them, and gives a verdict by business size.
Everything below was read off make.com/pricing and the Make Help Center on 29 September 2026 (checked 2026-09-29) and is linked at the bottom. We are a Make affiliate and run every blueprint on this site in a paid Make account; the free plan is what we tell readers to start with, because that is what it is for.
- 1,000credits a month on the Free plan; Core includes 10,000 for $12/monthmake.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-29
- 2active scenarios at once on Free; Core has no capmake.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-29
- 15 minshortest schedule on Free; Core runs as often as every minutemake.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-29
- 19 of 21of our blueprints use under 400 credits a month at the calculator's default volumeslib/make-cost.ts over the blueprint files
What the Free plan actually gives you
| Free | Core | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (checked 2026-09-29) | $0 | $12/month for 10,000 credits, with a "Save 15% or more" annual option |
| Credits a month | Up to 1,000 | 10,000 at the listed price; a slider for more |
| Active scenarios | 2 | Unlimited |
| Shortest schedule | Every 15 minutes | Every 1 minute |
| Longest single run | 5 minutes | 40 minutes |
| Data transfer | 512 MB a month | 5 GB a month |
| Execution history kept | 7 days | 30 days |
| Users | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Extra credits mid-month | Not available on Free | Yes, at a 25% premium over plan credits |
Three of those rows decide almost every case. Credits are the obvious one. Two active scenarios is the one people discover after building the third automation. And the 15-minute interval is the one that quietly empties the credit allowance when a scenario polls instead of waiting for a webhook. The next section explains why; if the words credit, operation and polling are new, read the credits page first, then come back.
Make credits explained: what one operation costs in six real automationsThe definitions once, with the arithmetic for six blueprints
Our 21 automations, measured against the Free plan
The table below is computed, not estimated by hand. For each blueprint we read the module list from the exported file, classify the trigger (webhook, scheduled search, or polling), and multiply by the volume the calculator uses as its default for that automation: 100 form leads a month, 20 reminded invoices, 40 reminded meetings, and so on. The month is sized at 31 days so the figure is a ceiling. Your volume will differ; the calculator linked below takes your numbers.
| Automation | Trigger | Modules | Default volume | Credits a month | Fits in 1,000? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead alert (form → Sheets → Telegram) | Webhook | 3 | 100 leads | 300 | Yes |
| Tally lead → Sheets → Telegram | Webhook | 3 | 100 leads | 300 | Yes |
| Lead duplicate check | Webhook | 4 | 100 leads | 400 | Yes |
| Missing-info request | Webhook | 3 | 50 submissions | 150 | Yes |
| New-client welcome | Webhook | 4 | 10 clients | 40 | Yes |
| Payment received | Webhook | 4 | 30 payments | 120 | Yes |
| Tally booking → sheet → confirmation | Webhook | 4 | 40 bookings | 160 | Yes |
| Tally feedback score → thank-you + alert | Webhook | 4 | 20 answers | 80 | Yes |
| Invoice reminder | Daily search | 3 | 20 reminders | 71 | Yes |
| Quote follow-up | Daily search | 4 | 15 follow-ups | 76 | Yes |
| Review request | Daily search | 3 | 10 requests | 51 | Yes |
| No-show reminder | Daily search | 3 | 40 reminders | 111 | Yes |
| Daily digest | Daily summary | 3 | — | 93 | Yes |
| Overdue-task escalation | Daily summary | 3 | — | 93 | Yes |
| Stale-lead nudge | Daily summary | 3 | — | 93 | Yes |
| Client status update | Weekly search | 3 | 20 emails | 45 | Yes |
| Weekly report to Telegram | Weekly summary | 5 | — | 25 | Yes |
| Lead-source report | Weekly summary | 5 | — | 25 | Yes |
| Monthly summary email | Monthly summary | 5 | — | 5 | Yes |
| Email → task (Gmail label) | Polling Gmail | 3 | 40 emails | 3,056 at 15 min · 824 hourly · 111 daily | Only when polled daily |
| Unsubscribe handler (Gmail) | Polling Gmail | 4 | 5 requests | 2,991 at 15 min · 759 hourly · 46 daily | Only when polled daily |
Read the last two rows first, because they are the whole lesson. Both automations watch a Gmail inbox. A watch trigger is a scheduled check, and every check is one credit whether it finds an email or not. At the Free plan's fastest schedule, every 15 minutes (checked 2026-09-29), that is 96 checks a day, 2,976 in a 31-day month, before the automation has done anything useful. Slow the same scenario to once an hour and it costs about 824; once a day, 111. The automation did not change. The schedule did.
Everything else fits, and most of it fits with room to spare. Nineteen automations at their default volumes come to between 5 and 400 credits each. The eight webhook-driven ones cost nothing while nothing happens. The eleven scheduled ones cost one credit per run for the search, plus the modules that run for each row found.
The limit that bites first: two active scenarios
Look at the table again and add any two rows together. Almost every pair fits inside 1,000 credits. Now add a third: still, usually, inside 1,000. That is the trap. Credits are rarely what stops a small business on the Free plan. The cap of two active scenarios is (checked 2026-09-29).
A typical first client wants three things: a lead alert, a quote or invoice follow-up, and a weekly report. On paper that is roughly 300 + 71 + 25 = 396 credits, comfortably inside Free (checked 2026-09-29 against the 1,000-credit allowance). In practice it is three scenarios, and the Free plan runs two at a time. The third must stay switched off, or two automations must be merged into one scenario with a router, which works but makes the thing harder to hand over.
Core removes the cap. At $12 a month for 10,000 credits (checked 2026-09-29), that is the plan for any business that has found a third automation worth running. The credits are almost a side effect; the unlimited active scenarios are the purchase.
The other limits, in order of how often they matter
- The 15-minute interval (checked 2026-09-29). It only matters for polling triggers and for anyone who needs a schedule finer than a quarter of an hour. Webhook automations are instant on every plan. Scheduled searches run once a day. If none of your automations watch an inbox or a sheet, you will never notice this limit.
- The 5-minute run limit. A scenario on Free stops after 5 minutes (checked 2026-09-29). A daily search that finds 40 rows and sends 40 emails is well under that. A search that returns thousands of rows and loops over them is not; break it up or move to Core, where a run may take 40 minutes.
- Data transfer: 512 MB a month on Free (checked 2026-09-29). A lead is a few kilobytes. Forty thousand leads would still be under the limit. Files are what use it: a scenario that moves PDFs or images between apps should count them.
- Seven days of execution history on Free (checked 2026-09-29). When a client asks "what happened to the lead from three weeks ago?", the answer must be in the Google Sheet, because Make no longer has it. This is a reason to log every run to a sheet regardless of plan.
- No extra credits on Free. Make's help centre says extra credits purchasing is available to users on paid plans (checked 2026-09-29). Run out on the 20th and the scenarios wait until the 1st. Core users can buy more at a 25% premium, or upgrade the tier.
Verdict by business size
| Situation | Typical automations | Credits a month | Plan | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo, testing the idea | One lead alert | Under 300 | Free | One webhook scenario; nothing to pay for until it proves itself |
| Solo or two people, one client-facing process | Lead alert + invoice reminder, or lead alert + no-show reminder | ~370–410 | Free | Two active scenarios is exactly the allowance; keep polling out of it |
| Small team, three or more processes | Lead alert, follow-up, reminder, weekly report | ~500–700 | Core, $12/month (checked 2026-09-29) | The third active scenario needs Core regardless of credits |
| Anything that watches an inbox | Email → task, unsubscribe handler | ~3,000 each at 15 min | Core, or poll once a day on Free | Polling at 15 minutes costs three times the Free allowance by itself |
| Agency running several clients | Ten or more scenarios | 1,000–5,000+ | Core, larger credit tier as volume grows | Unlimited scenarios; buy credits, not features — Pro and Teams add features, not volume |
Estimate your own credits (free calculator)Pick the automations, type your monthly volumes, see the credits and the plan that fits — same arithmetic as this page
When the third automation arrives and Core is the answer, this is the link we use; the free plan is where to start until then: Sign up (one month of Core free) → paid link · we earn a commissionPaid link. If you sign up through it we earn a commission from Make; your price is the same, and the link gives you one month of Core free.
How to stay on Free as long as possible
- Prefer webhooks. If the form, the payment provider or the booking tool can call a URL, use it. Zero credits while nothing happens, and instant.
- Never watch a Google Sheet for new rows. Let the thing that creates the row call Make. The sheet is the log, not the trigger.
- For date-based checks, one search a day. Overdue invoices, tomorrow's meetings and stale leads do not need a 15-minute check.
- If you must poll an inbox, poll hourly or daily and accept the delay. The table above shows the difference: about 3,000 credits against about 100.
- Merge two scheduled checks that run at the same time into one scenario with a router, if the two-scenario cap is the only thing pushing you to Core. Document it: a merged scenario is harder to hand over.
The automation almost everyone starts with
Lead comes in → logged → alert. No hands.
A form on the client site sends a lead; it is logged and an alert reaches Telegram in seconds. The first automation every consultant sets up.
Blueprint, steps and caveats → · Watch the tutorial on YouTube
One new automation a week, by email
Invoice past due → an automatic, polite reminder
Once a day it finds open invoices past their date and sends a reminder. The client no longer has to remember to chase.
What does not work
- Treating 1,000 credits as the limit. For most small businesses the two-scenario cap arrives first. Count the scenarios, not only the credits.
- Running any Gmail or Sheets watch trigger at 15 minutes on Free. It costs about 2,976 credits a month before it does anything, which is nearly three times the allowance (checked 2026-09-29).
- Relying on Make's history as the record. Free keeps 7 days (checked 2026-09-29). If a client will ever ask what happened, write it to a sheet.
- Expecting to buy a few extra credits when the month runs short. On Free you cannot; the scenarios wait for the reset.
- Reading this table as your bill. The figures use the calculator's default volumes and a 31-day month. A business with 400 leads a month uses four times the lead-alert figure. Put your own numbers into the calculator.
How many credits does Make's free plan include?
Up to 1,000 credits a month, with at most two active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum interval between scheduled runs (make.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-29). A standard module action uses one credit.
Can a small business run entirely on Make's free plan?
A very small one, yes: one or two webhook-driven or once-a-day automations at typical volumes use 5 to 400 credits each. The two-active-scenario cap is what ends it, usually before the credits do.
What is the difference between Free and Core?
Core costs $12 a month for 10,000 credits and removes the two-scenario cap, drops the minimum interval to one minute, extends a single run from 5 to 40 minutes, raises data transfer from 512 MB to 5 GB, and keeps 30 days of history instead of 7 (make.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-29).
Do webhooks work on the free plan?
Yes. Make's webhook documentation lists no plan restriction, and our blueprints that start with a webhook were built and tested on a free account before we paid for anything.
Why does a Gmail automation use so many credits?
Because Make checks the inbox on a schedule and each check is one operation, found or not. At the Free plan's 15-minute floor that is about 2,976 checks in a 31-day month (checked 2026-09-29). Poll hourly or daily, or use a tool that can send a webhook instead.
Which plan should a consultant recommend to a client?
Free until the client has two automations they rely on; Core from the third. Pro and Teams include the same 10,000 credits as Core at the listed tier and add features, not volume, so a small business rarely needs them (checked 2026-09-29).
- Make — Pricing (Free and Core: credits, active scenarios, interval, run time, data transfer, history)
- Make Help Center — Credits (one operation equals one credit for most features)
- Make Help Center — Operations (trigger modules run once per check; bundles multiply the modules after them)
- Make Help Center — Extra credits (25% additional cost; available on paid plans)
- Make Help Center — Webhooks
- Make Help Center — Schedule a scenario (interval options; minimum depends on plan)
Related guides
Next step
All automations →
DUPLICATE CHECKReturning lead → recognised → "second contact", not "new lead"
A returning lead is greeted as new. Before logging, the phone is checked against the log; if it is there, the alert says "came back", not "new lead".
MISSING INFOForm arrives incomplete → an email asking for exactly what is missing
A lead without a phone, an order without an address. Instead of someone chasing, one email lists the missing fields; the lead is logged as "incomplete".
FREE LEAD ALERTTally form → lead log → Telegram alert. The free version of the lead alert
No website form, no CRM, no paid tool. A free Tally form posts to Make; the lead lands in Google Sheets and Telegram pings sales in seconds.
Get one new Make automation each week
Get the full 21-blueprint pack (ZIP) by email, then one new automation a week. Everything on the site stays free to download without it.