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Template snapshot Oct 20, 2026 · totals only

n8n use cases: what 13,574 public templates automate

Lists of n8n use cases are usually someone's opinion. This page counts them instead: every public template on n8n.io, grouped by the category n8n gives it, with the share created in 2026 and the share that uses AI. It shows where people are building now, and which jobs still run without a model.

13,574public templates counted
43.1%created in 2026
30.3%tagged AI Summarization, the largest category
55.2%use at least one AI node

What the counts say

  • Summarising text is the biggest job. 4,108 templates (30.3%) carry n8n's AI Summarization tag, more than any other category.
  • Paperwork is growing fastest. Across all templates, 43.1% were created in 2026. Among the larger categories, AI Summarization (59.2%), Invoice Processing (59.0%), Document Extraction (58.4%) and Ticket Management (58.1%) are well above that.
  • Chat and knowledge bases are almost all AI. 92.5% of AI RAG templates and 91.8% of Internal Wiki templates use an AI node, and most use the AI Agent node.
  • Plumbing still runs without models. Only 8.8% of File Management and 22.4% of DevOps templates use AI.

Every category with 100 or more templates

CategoryTemplatesShare of allCreated in 2026Use AIUse AI AgentStart with
AI Summarization4,10830.3%59.2%77.3%38.0%Monday digest of what's due this week, Weekly link roundup from your saved bookmarks, Summarize a contract PDF with Claude, OpenAI Chat Model
Multimodal AI2,91321.5%30.2%69.7%37.4%Alt text for every image you upload, Snap a receipt, get an expense row, Voice memo into a to-do list, Gemini Chat Model
Content Creation1,69812.5%39.3%68.7%38.0%One blog post → one LinkedIn post, Show notes from a podcast transcript, OpenAI Chat Model
Market Research1,64112.1%51.5%53.6%27.2%Alert when a supplier changes a price, HTTP Request, Schedule Trigger
AI Chatbot1,64012.1%37.6%88.1%66.9%Telegram AI agent with memory in n8n, Chat Trigger, Simple Memory, AI Agent
Document Extraction1,36710.1%58.4%55.7%29.4%Invoice PDFs from email into a sheet, Order emails to a Google Sheet with Gemini, Booking emails into one itinerary doc, Structured Output Parser
Lead Generation1,0337.6%48.5%46.0%20.7%One specific first line per prospect, Turn a website form lead into a CRM note, HTTP Request, Form Trigger
AI RAG9196.8%39.8%92.5%58.9%AI Agent, Simple Memory
Social Media7955.9%35.8%53.1%28.9%One blog post → one LinkedIn post, Schedule Trigger
Personal Productivity7075.2%22.8%58.7%36.8%Voice memo into a to-do list, Weekly list of newsletters you never open, Bill emails into due-date reminders, Telegram, Gmail
Engineering6524.8%27.9%56.3%32.7%Code, Webhook
CRM6434.7%47.3%34.8%19.1%Turn a website form lead into a CRM note, Tag why deals were lost, Prep brief when a sales call gets booked, Webhook
Support Chatbot6294.6%43.1%75.0%60.3%Draft support replies from your help docs, Find the questions your FAQ doesn't answer, Chat Trigger, AI Agent
DevOps5624.1%38.8%22.4%11.9%Schedule Trigger, HTTP Request
Ticket Management5494.0%58.1%68.3%32.4%Flag upset customers before they churn, Draft support replies from your help docs, Switch
Lead Nurturing5424.0%42.6%60.1%35.1%One specific first line per prospect, Wait
Invoice Processing4373.2%59.0%49.4%23.3%Invoice PDFs from email into a sheet, Snap a receipt, get an expense row, Structured Output Parser, Google Sheets
HR3722.7%46.8%63.4%36.8%—
Crypto Trading3402.5%40.3%59.4%39.4%—
Project Management3012.2%37.2%40.2%22.9%—
SecOps2782.0%43.9%44.2%25.2%—
File Management2601.9%24.6%8.8%1.9%—
Miscellaneous2201.6%22.3%25.0%14.1%—
Internal Wiki2071.5%32.9%91.8%76.8%—

Categories are n8n.io's own labels. A template can have up to two (9,332 have two, 77 have none), so shares add up to more than 100%. "Use AI" means at least one AI or LangChain node; "Use AI Agent" means the AI Agent, AI Agent Tool or OpenAI Assistant node. "Start with" links our own recipes and node guides for that job, not n8n.io templates. Smaller categories (AI, Marketing, Support, Document Ops) have under 20 templates each and are left out.

How to use these numbers

  • Picking a first project: the big categories have the most examples to copy. Document extraction is a good start: it has a clear input, a clear output and an easy test. Try Invoice PDFs from email into a sheet.
  • Planning an agent: chat, RAG, wiki and support templates are where the AI Agent node is most used. Read the AI Agent node guide before building one, and see how to build an AI agent.
  • Pricing a use case: volume matters more than category. Count runs a month, then use the n8n cost calculator.

The full method, node rankings and model shares are in our study of 13,574 public n8n templates. Each node named above has its own page in the n8n node library.

Counted from the public template list at n8n.io/workflows, snapshot Oct 20, 2026. We publish totals only, not template copies.

Related

Questions

What is n8n mostly used for?
In 13,574 public templates, the biggest categories are AI Summarization (30.3%), Multimodal AI, Content Creation, Market Research and AI Chatbot. Categories overlap, since a template can have two.
Which n8n use cases are growing?
43.1% of all public templates were created in 2026. AI Summarization, Invoice Processing, Document Extraction and Ticket Management are near or above 58%.
Do you need AI to use n8n?
No. 55.2% of public templates use an AI node. File Management (8.8%) and DevOps (22.4%) mostly run without one.
What is a good first n8n project?
Something with a clear input and output that you can test, such as pulling fields from invoice PDFs into a sheet. Our recipes include an import-ready file for it.
Where do these numbers come from?
From the category labels on n8n.io's public template list, counted on Oct 20, 2026. We publish category totals, not the templates.
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