Insights

File-based configuration

You can add _FILE to individual variables to provide their configuration in a separate file. Refer to Keeping sensitive data in separate files for more details.

Insights gives instance owners and admins visibility into how workflows perform over time. Refer to Insights for details.

Storage and compaction thresholds

N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_HOURLY_TO_DAILY_THRESHOLD_DAYS and N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_DAILY_TO_WEEKLY_THRESHOLD_DAYS set how many days n8n keeps high-resolution insights (metrics stored in one-hour buckets) before each compaction step (from the hour bucket to the day bucket, then from the day bucket to the week bucket). You configure those day counts on your instance.

Raising the values delays compaction. That adds more rows to insights_by_period and increases database usage. For how this relates to retention, see Insights.

If you encounter database load issues during compaction, tune how often compaction runs and how much work n8n does in each run:

• Decrease N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_INTERVAL_MINUTES to run compaction more often. This can reduce the amount of data that builds up between runs.

• Increase N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_BATCH_DELAY_MILLISECONDS to wait longer between batches.

• Decrease N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_MAX_BATCHES_PER_RUN to process fewer batches in each run.

• Decrease N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_MAX_RUNTIME_SECONDS to stop each run sooner.

These settings only control compaction workload and scheduling. They don't change retention or the age thresholds for each compaction step.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
N8N_DISABLED_MODULES	String	-	Set to insights to disable the feature and metrics collection for an instance.
N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_BATCH_SIZE	Number	500	The number of raw insights data to compact in a single batch.
N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_BATCH_DELAY_MILLISECONDS	Number	100	Delay in milliseconds between full compaction batches. Increase this to wait longer between batches. Set to 0 to skip the delay.
N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_DAILY_TO_WEEKLY_THRESHOLD_DAYS	Number	180	Age in days after which n8n compacts daily insights rows to weekly.
N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_HOURLY_TO_DAILY_THRESHOLD_DAYS	Number	90	Age in days after which n8n compacts hourly insights rows to daily.
N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_INTERVAL_MINUTES	Number	60	Interval (in minutes) at which compaction should run. Decrease this to run compaction more often and reduce how much data builds up between runs.
N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_MAX_BATCHES_PER_RUN	Number	1000	Maximum number of compaction batches to process in one run. Decrease this to process fewer batches per run. Set to 0 to disable this limit.
N8N_INSIGHTS_COMPACTION_MAX_RUNTIME_SECONDS	Number	300	Maximum runtime in seconds for one compaction run. Decrease this to stop each run sooner. Set to 0 to disable this limit.
N8N_INSIGHTS_FLUSH_BATCH_SIZE	Number	1000	The maximum number of insights data to keep in the buffer before flushing.
N8N_INSIGHTS_FLUSH_INTERVAL_SECONDS	Number	30	The interval (in seconds) at which n8n flushes insights data to the database.
N8N_INSIGHTS_MAX_AGE_DAYS	Number	365	Number of days n8n keeps compacted insights data before pruning. The maximum value is 730 (two years).
N8N_INSIGHTS_PRUNE_CHECK_INTERVAL_HOURS	Number	24	How often (in hours) the instance checks for insights data older than the effective max age and deletes it.