Free course
AI Automation with n8n
Build workflows that connect your apps, run on their own and use AI where it helps. Six lessons, five tested templates you import and adapt, and a test at the end of each lesson.
Take this course for free
What is n8n?
n8n is a workflow automation tool: you connect apps and steps on a visual canvas, and the workflow runs by itself when something happens, such as a form being sent, an email arriving or a time of day. It has hundreds of ready-made connections, a general HTTP step for anything else, and AI steps that can classify, summarise, extract or draft text inside a workflow.
Two things set it apart from tools like Zapier or Make. You can use it in n8n’s cloud or run it yourself on your own server, where the Community Edition has no execution limits from n8n. And in the cloud it is priced by executions, where one execution is a whole workflow run, however many steps it has. That makes long, multi-step workflows affordable.
What you will build
Every lesson comes with a workflow template that we built and tested on n8n 2.42, the current stable version when the course was written. You import it, run it, then change it for your own work.
| Template | What it does | Lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Your first workflow | Cleans a sign-up and writes a different welcome message for trial and paying customers | 1 |
| Lead intake form | A web form that checks and saves new leads to an n8n data table | 2 |
| Morning news digest | Reads a news feed every morning and emails you the articles from the last 24 hours | 3 |
| AI support triage | Drafts a reply to each support request, sorts it into billing, technical, sales or other, and saves it for review | 4 |
| Error alerts | Emails you when any of your workflows fails, with the step and the error | 5 |
What each lesson covers
- How a workflow works. Triggers, nodes, items and executions, cloud or self-hosted, and the save and publish steps of n8n 2. Exercise: run your first workflow and map a task you want to automate.
- Triggers and data. Forms, webhooks and schedules, expressions, conditions and data tables. Exercise: publish the lead form and save real submissions.
- Connect your apps. Credentials, app nodes and the HTTP Request node, filtering and combining items. Exercise: send yourself the morning digest.
- Add AI to a workflow. AI nodes, models and costs, prompts inside workflows, and keeping a person in the loop. Exercise: run the AI support triage.
- Make it reliable. Retries, error outputs, error workflows, checks and testing with pinned data. Exercise: add error alerts and break a workflow on purpose.
- Run it for real. Production URLs, monitoring executions, costs, security and version history. Exercise: automate one real task end to end.
Who it is for
Operations people, marketers, founders, freelancers and anyone who spends hours a week moving information between apps. No coding is needed: every template works without code, and where an expression is needed, the lesson explains it line by line.
What you need
- An n8n account: the cloud trial, or n8n running on your own computer or server.
- A Gmail or Google Workspace account for the email steps, or another email service you can connect.
- An API key from an AI provider such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Google for lesson 4. Running the template a few times costs very little, but check your provider’s prices.
- About 30 to 45 minutes per lesson, including the exercise, and the course workbook, which you download in lesson 1.
Questions about the course
Do I need to know how to code?
No. The templates use n8n’s visual nodes only. You will write a few short expressions, such as taking the first name from a full name, and each one is explained.
Should I use n8n Cloud or host it myself?
For learning, the cloud trial is the quickest start. Hosting it yourself is free from n8n’s side but means you look after the server, updates and backups. Lesson 1 compares the two and lesson 6 covers what changes when you run it for real.
Will the templates work with my version of n8n?
They were built and tested on n8n 2.42. They use standard nodes, so they should import into any recent 2.x version. If a node has been updated, n8n shows it and the lesson explains what to check.
Do I have to use OpenAI for the AI lesson?
No. The template uses an OpenAI model, but you can swap that one node for Anthropic, Google Gemini, a local model through Ollama or another provider n8n supports, without changing the rest of the workflow.
What do I get at the end?
The course is free, and so are the workbook and the tests. When you pass the test of every lesson, you can get a certificate of completion with your name, a public verification link and a button to add it to LinkedIn. The certificate costs $9, or is included in the Annual Pass for $20 a year. It shows that you completed the course; it is not an accredited qualification.