# Inngest review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Durable execution for background jobs, event-driven apps and agents Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Inngest is an open-source SDK and cloud service for running event-driven functions that survive failures. Developers write step functions in code, and Inngest handles queues, flow control, retries and tracing. Cloud plans are priced on executions, events and concurrent steps, with seats and workers set by plan. - **Category:** Automation - **Made by:** Inngest Inc. - **Website:** https://www.inngest.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you do not write code, as there is no drag-and-drop builder. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Inngest has a free plan, and paid plans start at $99 per month (Pro), billing basis not stated. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** 5 seats, 50k executions, 5 concurrent steps and 500k events a month, with 24 hours of trace history. No credit card required. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | 5 seats, 50k executions, 5 concurrent steps, 3 workers and 500k events a month, with 24 hours of trace history. | | Pro | $99 per month and up, includes 1M executions | 15 seats ($10 per extra), 100 concurrent steps, 20 workers, 5M+ events and 7 days of traces. Extra executions $50 per 1M. | | Business | $499 per month and up, includes 10M executions | 30 seats ($10 per extra), 500 concurrent steps, 100 workers, 50M+ events and 14 days of traces. Extra executions $25 per 1M. | | Enterprise | Custom | Custom limits, 90 days of trace history, SAML, RBAC, audit trails, HIPAA included and a dedicated Slack channel. | Read from https://www.inngest.com/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Inngest before buying. ## Key features - **Durable step functions:** Functions are split into steps that are retried and resumed on failure. A single run can last up to 30 days on Free, 90 on Pro and 366 on Business, including sleeps and waits. - **Queues and flow control:** Concurrency and queue depth are managed for you. Concurrent steps start at 5 on Free and 100 on Pro, with more sold in packs of 25 for $25. - **Events and webhooks:** Functions start from events sent from your app or other sources. Free allows 500k events a month and 256 KiB per event; paid plans allow 3 MiB. - **Observability:** Every function run is traced, with metrics and span data. Trace history is 24 hours on Free, 7 days on Pro, 14 days on Business and 90 days on Enterprise. - **AI agents and sandboxes:** Inngest has an AgentKit project and a sandbox product, in open beta, billed per second for vCPU and memory. Agent evaluation scores are metered by plan. - **Open source SDKs:** The server and SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Go and Kotlin are published on GitHub, and you can develop locally before moving to Cloud. ## Good for - Developers who need reliable background jobs and workflows written in code - Teams building AI agents that must retry, wait and resume - Startups that want a free tier to prove a workload before paying ## Worth knowing - Workflows are written in code using an SDK; there is no drag-and-drop builder. - Pro and Business prices are shown as a base with usage on top: extra executions, concurrent steps, workers and span data are billed beyond the included amounts. - HIPAA support is an add-on on Pro and Business, and included only on Enterprise. - Sandboxes are in open beta and are billed per second: $0.000011 for a vCPU and $0.000003 for 1 GB of memory. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Inngest runs background jobs and workflows that you write in code, with a free plan for 5 seats and 50k executions. There is no drag-and-drop builder, and Pro at $99 a month adds usage charges on top. - **Value for money: C.** Pro is $99 a month for 15 seats, which is about $20 a head for five people, near the middle of automation ($19). Extra executions cost $50 per 1M. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Free plan with no card: 5 seats, 50k executions, 500k events a month and 24 hours of traces. One small project can live on it. - **Features: B.** Durable step functions, queues, events, observability and AI agent tooling. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core work. - **Ease of use: D.** Workflows are written in code with an SDK, so it needs a developer. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web service with open-source SDKs and a Datadog integration. No desktop or phone app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Inngest's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among automation tools - Inngest's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 40 of the 71 other automation tools we grade, and level with 14. - It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 56 of 71) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $99 a month, against a middle price of $19 for the category: 34 of the 38 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 17 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/automation ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Inngest you would be making connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $1,188 a year. Inngest is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. - You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Datadog **Tags:** Workflow automation, Open source, AI agents, Public API ## Alternatives - [Trigger.dev](https://toolgpa.com/tools/trigger-dev): Open-source platform for long-running background tasks and AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/inngest-vs-trigger-dev) - [Windmill](https://toolgpa.com/tools/windmill): Open-source platform for scripts, workflows and internal apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/inngest-vs-windmill) - [Kestra](https://toolgpa.com/tools/kestra): Open-source workflow orchestration platform defined in YAML. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/inngest-vs-kestra) - [Camunda](https://toolgpa.com/tools/camunda): BPMN process orchestration, self-hosted or as a cloud service. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/camunda-vs-inngest) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.inngest.com/pricing - https://www.inngest.com/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/inngest Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).