n8n Tutorial for Beginners: How to Build AI Automations for FREE (Step-by-Step)

About this video

• Video Title: n8n Tutorial for Beginners: How to Build AI Automations for FREE (Step-by-Step)
• Channel: Charlie Chang
• Speakers: Charlie Chang
• Duration: 00:19:15

Overview

This video is a beginner's guide to using n8n, an open-source automation platform, to build AI automations. The tutorial covers setting up n8n, its pricing, how to self-host it for free using a VPS, navigating the dashboard, using templates, adding credentials, and building a sample workflow that integrates with Google Sheets and email.

Key takeaways

• n8n is a powerful, customizable, open-source automation tool: It's presented as a more AI-focused alternative to Zapier, with the significant advantage of being free to use if self-hosted.
• Self-hosting n8n offers significant cost savings: While n8n's cloud hosting costs money, self-hosting on a VPS (like Hostinger) is a free workaround that the presenter demonstrates.
• The n8n dashboard has key sections: Users will interact with Workflows, Credentials, and Executions to build and manage automations.
• Templates can accelerate learning and automation building: n8n offers a wide variety of pre-built templates, including AI-focused ones, which can be imported to save time and understand functionality.
• Credentials are essential for connecting n8n to other services: Users must add API keys and login details for services like OpenAI and Google Sheets to enable integrations.
• Building a workflow involves triggers and actions: The tutorial demonstrates creating a workflow that starts with a form submission, adds data to a Google Sheet, filters entries based on occupation, and sends different email notifications.
• Learning n8n is best achieved through practice: The presenter strongly encourages viewers to follow along, build their own workflows, and import/modify templates to gain hands-on experience.