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Research · snapshot Oct 20, 2026State of n8n AI agent workflows 2026
We read all 13,574 public templates listed on n8n.io/workflows on October 20, 2026 and counted which nodes they use. Here is how much of the library is AI, which model providers people wire in, which apps the AI connects to, and how that has changed month by month. Totals only, nothing about individual templates or creators.
The short version
- More than half of n8n's public templates use AI. 7,487 of 13,574 templates (55.2%) have at least one AI node, and 4,247 (31.3%) are built around an AI Agent. That makes 56.7% of the AI templates agents, not just a single model call.
- OpenAI is far ahead. 58.4% of AI templates use an OpenAI model node. Google Gemini is second at 21.4%, then OpenRouter (7.2%), Anthropic (6.7%) and Groq (3.4%). Every other provider is under 2%.
- The AI mostly moves data between everyday tools. Google Sheets appears in 36.1% of all templates, Gmail in 23.6%, Slack in 16.6%, Telegram in 12.5% and Google Drive in 10.9%.
- Nearly all of it is free. 9.8% of templates are paid (1,329). AI templates are twice as likely to be paid as non-AI ones (12.6% vs 6.3%).
- The library is young. 12,409 of the templates listed today (91.4%) were created in 2025 or 2026.
- The AI share is easing. 62.3% of templates created in 2025 use AI, against 54.7% of those created so far in 2026, and 46.3% in September 2026.
How much is AI, and how much is agents
An AI template here has at least one n8n AI node: an AI Agent, an LLM chain, a chat model, the OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini nodes, embeddings, a vector store, memory, an AI tool, an output parser or MCP. An agent template has the AI Agent, AI Agent Tool or OpenAI Assistant node.
- Built on an AI Agent31.3%4,247
- Other AI (model call, chain, RAG)23.9%3,240
- No AI node44.8%6,087
Base: 13,574 templates. Agent and other AI add up to the 55.2% that use AI.
| Templates | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| All public templates | 13,574 | 100% |
| Use any AI node | 7,487 | 55.2% |
| Use an AI Agent node | 4,247 | 31.3% |
| Use an MCP node | 430 | 3.2% |
AI templates also get most of the attention. They account for 71.9% of all template views shown on the pages (43,756,141 views in total; the median template shows 284).
Which model providers people wire in
Share of the 7,487 AI templates using each provider's model node. One template can use several providers, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
The public pages show which provider's node is used, not which model. AI called through a plain HTTP Request node isn't counted, so these numbers are a floor.
The apps AI workflows connect to
Share of all 13,574 templates using each app, with the app's trigger node counted as the app (for example Telegram plus Telegram Trigger).
Utility nodes (Set, IF, Code, HTTP Request, webhooks, schedules and similar) are left out. The median listed price of a paid template is 20; the page data doesn't state the currency.
What the templates are for
n8n's own category tags. A template can carry several, so these add up to more than 100%.
| Category | Templates | Share |
|---|---|---|
| AI Summarization | 4,108 | 30.3% |
| Multimodal AI | 2,913 | 21.5% |
| Content Creation | 1,698 | 12.5% |
| Market Research | 1,641 | 12.1% |
| AI Chatbot | 1,640 | 12.1% |
| Document Extraction | 1,367 | 10.1% |
| Lead Generation | 1,033 | 7.6% |
| AI RAG | 919 | 6.8% |
| Social Media | 795 | 5.9% |
| Personal Productivity | 707 | 5.2% |
When they were made
Templates still listed on October 20, 2026, by the month they were created.
- AI Agent
- Other AI
- No AI
- AI share (right axis)
Show the numbers
| Month | Templates | AI | Agent | AI share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | 107 | 61 | 29 | 57.0% |
| Feb 2025 | 155 | 89 | 57 | 57.4% |
| Mar 2025 | 195 | 102 | 69 | 52.3% |
| Apr 2025 | 284 | 176 | 106 | 62.0% |
| May 2025 | 469 | 300 | 192 | 64.0% |
| Jun 2025 | 741 | 512 | 237 | 69.1% |
| Jul 2025 | 1,040 | 615 | 354 | 59.1% |
| Aug 2025 | 1,020 | 588 | 379 | 57.6% |
| Sep 2025 | 684 | 414 | 275 | 60.5% |
| Oct 2025 | 837 | 532 | 342 | 63.6% |
| Nov 2025 | 500 | 358 | 242 | 71.6% |
| Dec 2025 | 532 | 344 | 211 | 64.7% |
| Jan 2026 | 420 | 280 | 192 | 66.7% |
| Feb 2026 | 445 | 258 | 183 | 58.0% |
| Mar 2026 | 455 | 276 | 183 | 60.7% |
| Apr 2026 | 468 | 284 | 172 | 60.7% |
| May 2026 | 388 | 245 | 137 | 63.1% |
| Jun 2026 | 494 | 270 | 158 | 54.7% |
| Jul 2026 | 743 | 370 | 164 | 49.8% |
| Aug 2026 | 818 | 455 | 204 | 55.6% |
| Sep 2026 | 895 | 414 | 176 | 46.3% |
Bars: templates created that month and still listed (left axis). Line: share of that month's templates using AI (right axis). Swipe sideways on small screens.
- 2024 has only 462 templates still listed. Then 2025 took off: 107 in January, 469 in May, peaking at 1,040 in July and 1,020 in August.
- 2026 so far (to October 19): 5,845 templates. Volume dipped to between 388 and 468 a month from January to May, then climbed to 743 in July, 818 in August and 895 in September.
- The AI share is easing. 62.3% of 2025 templates use AI (38.0% agents), compared with 54.7% so far in 2026 (28.7% agents). In September 2026 it was 46.3% AI and 19.7% agents. Our read: AI is becoming one ingredient among many rather than the whole point. That's an interpretation, not something the data proves.
- Paid templates peaked in mid-2025 (202 created in June 2025) and are now a few dozen a month (52 in September 2026).
Method
- Source: the public template pages at n8n.io/workflows, as listed in n8n's own workflow sitemap (13,584 URLs on October 20, 2026). n8n's robots.txt allows these pages. We did not use n8n's template API, whose robots.txt disallows crawling.
- Crawl: one request at a time, about one per second, on October 20, 2026, with a bot name and contact address in the user agent. 13,574 pages were parsed; 10 failed (timeouts, one server error, one missing page, one page without workflow data) and are left out.
- What we kept: only what's needed for totals: created date, view count, paid flag and price, category tags and the list of node types on each page. We did not store descriptions, workflow files or any creator details, and we publish totals only.
- Definitions: AI and agent templates as defined above. A provider is taken from the chat-model or LLM node type, counted once per template. The month is the template's created date (UTC).
Limits
- It's a snapshot of templates listed on October 20, 2026. Removed or unlisted templates are missing, so older months undercount what was ever published. October 2026 is a partial month and is left out of the monthly chart.
- Public pages show node types, not model names, prompts or settings. "OpenAI" means the OpenAI node was used, not which model. AI reached through a plain HTTP Request node is invisible here, so the AI share is a lower bound.
- View counts are as shown on each page; we couldn't confirm whether they are lifetime or recent.
- The template library isn't all n8n usage. These are workflows people chose to publish, not what runs in production.
Independent study. RecipeAgents is not affiliated with or endorsed by n8n. n8n is a trademark of its owner. All figures are our own counts from n8n's public pages.
Cite this study
RecipeAgents, “State of n8n AI agent workflows 2026”, data snapshot October 20, 2026. recipeagents.usestarbase.com/n8n-template-study
Questions or corrections: mission@usestarbase.com.