Look, I love a good automation. But sometimes I’m four hours into building one and I realize the thing I was automating took 20 minutes a week. Yikes. So I built this calculator to do the math before I disappear into a rabbit hole I’ll regret.
How to use it
Plug in five numbers and the calculator tells you whether the build is worth it. Hours per week you spend on the task, your hourly rate, what percentage of the work the automation will actually handle, hours to set it up, and the monthly cost of the tools you’ll need. It spits back a verdict and a payback period.
The verdict ranges from “build this yesterday” to “not worth automating.” Most of the work falls in the middle. You’ll see one number you should care about most: payback period. If it’s under three months, build it. Between three and twelve, fine. Over twelve and you should ask yourself if the task is even going to exist in a year.
What counts as an hour saved
This is where people fudge the numbers. Be honest with yourself. If you’re “saving” an hour but you still need to review the output for fifteen minutes, you saved 45 minutes, not an hour. The calculator has a percentage slider for this reason. Most realistic automations land at 70 to 90 percent of the task, not 100.
The other place people fudge: setup time. I’m guilty of this one. I tell myself a workflow will take two hours and then I’m six hours in, watching YouTube tutorials about JSON parsing. Pad your setup estimate by 50 percent. You’ll thank yourself later.
When automation isn’t worth it
The five-minute task you run twice a year. Don’t automate it. The task you do once a week but already love doing. Don’t automate it. The task that requires judgment you don’t trust an AI to make yet. Don’t automate it.
The wins are the boring, repetitive, error-prone tasks you do often enough to feel the drag. Tagging incoming emails. Renaming files. Posting the same content across platforms. Pulling weekly reports. Those are the ones worth the setup time.
What I plug in when I run this on myself
For my own builds, I use my freelance rate as the hourly number even though I’m not freelancing right now. It’s what my time is worth on the open market. If you have a salary, divide it by 2,000 for a rough hourly. If you’re side-hustling on top of a day job, use whatever you’d charge a client.
The setup-hours number is where I lie to myself the most. I now always add an extra two hours for “the rabbit hole I’ll fall into.” It’s almost always accurate.
FAQ
What if I’m automating something for fun, not productivity?
Then skip the calculator. Fun is the reason. I have plenty of automations that don’t pencil out on ROI but I love running them. That’s fine. This tool is for when you’re trying to decide whether a build is worth the time you’re about to spend.
Should I count my time learning the tool?
For the first automation in a new tool, yes. After that, no. Learning n8n is a one-time cost. Building the seventh workflow in n8n is straightforward once you know the patterns.
Does this work for client work too?
It does. Run the numbers from your client’s perspective. If their hourly cost for the team doing the task is $80, the automation has a much faster payback than at your own $50. Some automations only make sense to build when someone else is paying for the time saved.
What if the automation has hidden ongoing maintenance?
Add it to the monthly tool cost. If you’re spending two hours a month babysitting the workflow at $50/hour, add $100 to your monthly cost. Honest math beats optimistic math.
Try this on your next build
Pick the automation you’re tempted to build today. Run it through the calculator before you write the first node. If it shouts “build this yesterday” in your face, you have your answer. If it whispers “slow payback,” at least you went in with eyes open.
I’ve got n8n workflow blueprints and templates coming. Subscribe if you haven’t, and in the meantime, go forth and automate the boring stuff.
More tools I’ve built
If this one’s useful, the rest of the toolbelt might be too:
- n8n Cost Calculator — Once you decide it’s worth automating, see which hosting setup actually pencils out.
- Cron Expression Builder — Most ROI-positive automations run on a schedule. Build the cron without Googling syntax.
- Webhook Tester — If your build uses webhooks, point a test source at this to see exactly what arrives.