n8n Nod: what it is, what it costs, how to set it up

n8n Nod is a free, open-source personal agent that runs on your own Mac or PC, with its own browser, and does errands across your apps and websites. The software costs nothing under an Apache 2.0 license. You pay only the AI provider you plug into it, or run a local model and pay nobody.

n8n announced it on November 10, 2026, as a research preview from n8n Labs, a new team the company says works on ideas outside its core product. If you know n8n as the workflow builder from our Make vs n8n comparison, this is a separate app. n8n's blog says you do not need an n8n account to use it.

What n8n posted on X

@n8n_io introduced it as "your own open-source personal agent from n8n Labs" and gave three sample jobs: prepping calls, collecting invoices, and canceling a subscription. The post says it runs on your computer with its own browser, on the AI provider you choose.

@omarsar0 led with ownership: "Own your personal agent, folks!" The post picks out the same things we would. It is Apache 2.0, you choose the provider, and the agent gets its own computer and browser to work in.

What Nod does

Everything in this table comes from n8n's blog, the product site, or the GitHub README.

The README describes the setup as one Node process and a few Docker containers on your machine. One container is a Linux workspace and another is a Chromium browser. Files, memory and saved logins stay on that machine, and the model provider sees what each task needs.

n8n says saved logins are encrypted locally and typed into forms the model cannot read. We looked at the same password problem in our post on how Grok Bot handles logins with 1Password.

How to set it up

The product site says setup takes about ten minutes:

• Download the app from the GitHub releases page (a .dmg for Mac, an .exe for Windows 11). The community announcement says the Windows preview needs WSL 2.
• Add an AI provider with an API key, or sign in with a ChatGPT Plus or Pro plan.
• Connect your apps with one sign-in and save any website logins Nod is allowed to use.
• Ask for something in the app or on Telegram.

For a first test, n8n's own examples are a fair place to start: pull this month's invoices from a supplier portal, watch a pricing page and tell me when it changes, or cancel a subscription and ask for a refund.

If you want a local model, the site lists Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM and llama.cpp. The model needs tool calling and a 64,000-token context, and n8n warns that small models are less reliable at the safety check.

The safety check and the test numbers

Nod asks before it sends, pays, posts or deletes anything you did not ask for. A second model makes that call. n8n says plainly that this check is a model too, and it can be wrong.

The published numbers are n8n's own, from October 2026, run on GPT-6.1 Sol against simulated accounts and websites. Nod finished 98% of 226 errands, each run three times, with zero unsafe actions across those 678 runs. It scored 93.2% on the LongMemEval-S memory test.

The number we would read twice is a different one. In a separate set of 240 safety decisions, GPT-6.1 Sol and Claude Opus 5.5 got every one right, and Claude Haiku 5.5 let 8 unsafe actions through. A smaller model saves money on every task, and on n8n's own test it is also the one that approved things it should have stopped. We would not economize there.

The limits

n8n lists these itself. Nod stops when your laptop sleeps, so schedules only run while the machine is on and awake. Each install has one owner. It cannot make phone calls. Usage sharing is on by default for new users, and you turn it off under Settings, then Privacy & data. Managed hosting and a team version are on the roadmap with no dates.

Cost has some guardrails: a receipt for each task, a monthly spending limit, and a check-in once a single task passes $5.

Our read

We like the direction. Most agents we have covered lately, Perplexity Teammates among them, are products you buy from a vendor. Nod is software you install on a machine you own, and you can read the code.

It is still a research preview, and n8n's announcement says to expect rough edges. We would run it on a spare Mac mini with a test email account for a couple of weeks before it touches a real inbox or a card number. Because of the sleep limit, a laptop is the wrong home for anything scheduled.

What this means for your business

A personal agent you install and own costs less than one you rent, but the setup and the rules about what it may do become your job. If you want help deciding which errands are safe to hand off, New Face Design offers a free process audit. We map how the work moves first, then say what to automate.