Official destination · Learning
n8n Academy — learn.n8n.io
n8n's own free learning platform. Structured beginner and advanced courses that take you from your first trigger node to production-grade automations with error handling, sub-workflows and API pagination — with an official certificate at the end.
- Both levels
- Free
- Level 1
- ~4 hours
- Level 2
- ~6 hours
- On completion
- Certificate
What is it?
learn.n8n.io hosts the official n8n curriculum: the Level 1 beginner text course, the Level 2 advanced course, and a video course for people who prefer watching. Each lesson pairs a short explanation with a workflow you build yourself in your own instance, then checks understanding with a quiz. Completing the levels and passing the assessment earns a verifiable certificate you can put on LinkedIn or a proposal. Everything is free and requires only an n8n account.
How you benefit
Level 1 — Beginner
Nodes and connections, the item model, expressions and data mapping, basic error handling. The fastest way to stop guessing why your data looks wrong.
Level 2 — Advanced
REST APIs and pagination, merging and splitting data, sub-workflows, the Code node, environment strategy and debugging at scale.
Video course
The same fundamentals in video form for people who learn better by watching someone build, with the canvas visible throughout.
Certification
A timed assessment that proves you can build, not just recall. The certificate is verifiable and worth adding to client proposals.
Hands-on by design
Every lesson has you build in your own instance. That is why the knowledge sticks far better than watching tutorials passively.
Kept current
The curriculum is maintained by n8n and updated as the product changes — unlike most third-party courses recorded once and abandoned.
A weekend study plan
You do not need a month. With a working instance and a focused weekend, you can finish Level 1, most of Level 2, and ship a real workflow. The trick is to build with your own tools instead of the sample data, so every lesson doubles as progress on something you actually need.
- Saturday morning — set up an instance, finish Level 1 lessons 1–5, do not skip the data-structure lesson.
- Saturday afternoon — finish Level 1, then rebuild the final workflow using your own Sheets, Slack or email.
- Sunday morning — Level 2 up to sub-workflows; take notes on pagination patterns.
- Sunday afternoon — finish Level 2, then take the certification assessment while it is fresh.
- Sunday evening — import one template from our library and modify it end to end without help.
What Level 1 actually covers
Level 1 is deliberately narrow: it teaches the mental model rather than a tour of integrations. Once you understand that n8n passes arrays of items between nodes and that most nodes execute once per item, the entire product becomes predictable.
- Triggers vs regular nodes, and manual vs production executions.
- The item model: arrays, json and binary, and why 'it ran three times' is expected.
- Expressions: $json, referencing earlier nodes, and the expression editor preview.
- Filtering and routing with IF and Switch.
- Credentials, and what stays server-side.
What Level 2 adds
Level 2 is where workflows become maintainable rather than merely working. It focuses on the patterns that stop a workflow from breaking silently at 3am when an API changes its response shape or rate-limits you.
- HTTP Request node in depth: auth types, pagination strategies, and batching.
- Merging data from multiple sources and handling mismatched item counts.
- Sub-workflows for reuse, plus passing data cleanly between them.
- Code node for transformations the built-in nodes cannot express.
- Error workflows, retries, and alerting when something fails.
Academy vs docs vs YouTube
These three resources solve different problems and using the wrong one wastes hours. The Academy teaches you how to think in n8n. The docs tell you exactly what a specific node or variable does. YouTube shows you someone else's finished build, which is inspiring but rarely transferable without the fundamentals.
Do the Academy first, keep the docs open permanently, and treat YouTube as a source of ideas rather than instruction.
Which course fits you
| You are | Start with | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Completely new to automation | Level 1 text course | Rebuild each lesson with your own tools |
| Coming from Zapier or Make | Level 1, skim lessons 1–3 | Level 2 — the item model is the real difference |
| A developer | Level 1 data lessons, then Level 2 | Code node + Public API docs |
| Preparing for client work | Both levels + certification | Case studies and the template library |
How to use it — step by step
- 1Start a free n8n Cloud trial or spin up a self-hosted instance so you can build along from lesson one.
- 2Work through Level 1 in order — the data-structure lesson fixes most beginner errors, so do not skip it.
- 3Rebuild each lesson workflow with your own tools instead of the sample data.
- 4Keep docs.n8n.io open in a second tab for node-specific detail the course does not cover.
- 5Move to Level 2 once you can read and write expressions without copying.
- 6Take the certification assessment right after finishing, while the material is fresh.
- 7Apply it immediately: import a template from our library and adapt it to a real process you own.
Quick checklist
- Working instance available before starting
- Level 1 completed in order
- Data-structure lesson understood, not skimmed
- Each lesson rebuilt with your own tools
- Docs open alongside every lesson
- Level 2 pagination patterns noted
- Certification assessment taken
- One real workflow shipped after finishing
Common mistakes to avoid
Watching lessons without building
Build every workflow yourself — the quizzes assume you did
Jumping to Level 2 to save time
Level 2 assumes the item model from Level 1; skipping costs more time than it saves
Using only the sample data
Swap in your own Sheets, Slack or CRM so the course produces something useful
Treating the certificate as the goal
Ship one real workflow — that is what clients and employers actually ask about
Pro tips
- Save every lesson workflow into a personal folder; it becomes your own snippet library within a weekend.
- When a lesson uses a node you will never touch, substitute the equivalent node from your own stack.
- Take the assessment on a machine where you can open a second n8n tab — thinking in the canvas is faster than from memory.
FAQ
Is the Academy really free?
Yes. Both text courses, the video course and the certification are free. You only need an n8n instance to build along, which the Cloud free trial or a self-hosted install covers.
How long does it take?
Level 1 takes roughly two to four hours for most people, Level 2 around four to six. A focused weekend covers both comfortably if you build along.
Is the certificate worth anything?
It is verifiable and recognised in the n8n ecosystem, which helps for freelance work and job applications — but a portfolio of real workflows carries more weight in interviews.
Do I need to code?
No for Level 1. Level 2 introduces the Code node, but basic JavaScript familiarity is enough; the course explains the patterns you need.
Ready to jump in? Open the official page directly.
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