How to Host N8N Locally (FREE!)

Today I'm going to show you how to host N AI agents completely free on your own computer. No more paying monthly fees, no more limits on workflows. You can automate anything you want without spending a single dollar. This is going to save you hundreds of dollars every single month. And the best part, it takes less than 5 minutes to set up. You're about to discover something that most people are paying big money for. Hey, if we haven't met already, I'm the digital avatar of Julian Goldie, CEO of SEO agency Goldie Agency. Whilst he's helping clients get more leads and customers, I'm here to help you get the latest AI updates. Julian Goldie reads every comment, so make sure you comment below. Look, I'm going to be straight with you. Most people are getting ripped off when it comes to AI automation. They're paying 20, 60, even hundreds of dollars per month for tools like N. And here's the crazy part. You can get the exact same thing running on your computer for free. Not a trial, not a limited version, the full thing. I just discovered this method and it's honestly mind-blowing. You can run unlimited workflows. You can use any AI model you want through Olma and everything stays private on your machine. No data going to third parties, no monthly bills, just pure automation power. Now, before I show you exactly how to do this, let me paint you a picture of what this really means. The starter plan for N costs €24 per month. That's only five active workflows. The pro plan, €60 per month for 15 workflows. If you do the math, that's €720 per year just for the pro plan. But what I'm about to show you gives you unlimited everything for zero dollars. I've been testing this for weeks now, and it's rock solid. I've got multiple AI agents running. I've got workflows automating my entire business, and my computer isn't even breaking a sweat. This is the real deal. So, here's what we're going to cover today. First, I'll show you the exact setup process step by step. Then, I'll walk you through creating your first local workflow. After that, I'll show you how to import existing templates. And finally, I'll reveal some advanced tricks that will blow your mind. But here's where it gets really interesting. Most people think you need to be a tech genius to pull this off. That's not true. The setup I'm about to show you uses something called Docker. And even if you've never heard of Docker before, don't worry. It's basically like installing an app. You copy and paste a few commands and boom, you're done. Now

let me show you exactly what this looks like in action. I've got N running locally on my machine right here. Look at this URL. It's localhost. That means it's running on my computer, not some server in the cloud. And when I open up the chat interface, I can talk to my AI agent that's powered by Olma running locally, too. Watch this. I'm going to ask it a question. Hey, are you working? And look at that response. The AI is responding instantly. No API calls to OpenAI. No credits being used up. This is all happening on my local machine for free. This is what I call the holy grail

of AI automation. You get all the power of enterprise level tools without any of the cost. And here's the kicker. It's actually faster than the cloud versions because everything is running locally. Now, you might be wondering about the technical requirements. Do you need some monster computer to run this? Not at all. I'm running this on a Mac M3 Pro and it handles everything perfectly. But this works on Windows, too. I'll show you both setups. The secret source here is something called the self-hosted AI starter kit from NADN. This is an official project from the NAN team that lets you run everything locally. It's all packaged up in Docker containers. So, the setup is incredibly simple. Here's what happens when you follow my method. Docker pulls down all the necessary components. It sets up N8N. It sets up Olmer for the AI models. It configures everything to work together. And in less than 5 minutes, you have a full automation platform running on your machine. But wait, there's more. And this is where most people get excited. You can use any AI model you want with Olma. Want to run the latest Llama model? Done. Want to try Deep Seek? No problem. What about Quen? Absolutely.

The choice is yours and it costs nothing extra. Let me break down the exact process for you. First, you need to have Docker installed on your machine. Docker is free and it's like having a virtual computer inside your computer. Once you have Docker, the rest is just copy and paste. For Windows users, here's what you do. You open up your terminal or command prompt. Then you paste in these commands. First, git clone https github. com nio self-hosted AI starter kit git. This downloads the starter kit. Then cd self-hosted AI starter kit to enter the folder. Finally, docker compose profile GPU Nvidia up to start everything up. For Mac users, it's almost identical. same first two commands, but the last one is docker compose profile CPU up instead. That's because Mac handles the processing differently. Now, here's what's happening behind the scenes that most people don't understand. A Docker is creating isolated containers for each service. One container runs N, another runs. They can talk to each other, but they're separate from your main system. This means if something goes wrong, it won't mess up your computer. The first time you run this, it might take a few minutes to download everything. Docker is pulling down all the necessary files, but once it's done, starting up is instant. And here's the cool part. You can see everything running in Docker Desktop. You can restart services. You can view logs. You have complete control. When everything is up and running, you open your web browser and go to localhost fe. That's where N810 is running. The first time you visit, it'll ask you to create an account. This is just a local account on your machine. No registration with NAN required. Now, let me show you something that will blow your mind. Remember those expensive NAN plans I mentioned? Here's what you actually get. With the starter plan at €24 per month, you get five active workflows and 10,000 executions. With the Pro plan, at €60 per month, you get 15 active workflows and 100,000 executions. But with this local setup, unlimited workflows, unlimited executions, the only limit is your computer's resources. And unless you're running hundreds of workflows simultaneously, you'll never hit that limit. I've been running this setup for weeks and I currently have over 20 active workflows. That would cost me way more than €60 per month on the cloud version. But here I am paying nothing.

Now, let's talk about the AI part because this is where it gets really exciting. Olma is like having Chat GPT running on your computer, but instead of being limited to one model, you can run dozens of different models. And here's the crazy part. They're all free. Want to use the latest Llama 3. 3 model? Just download it through Olma. Want to try the new DeepSseek model that everyone's talking about? Download it. Want to experiment with different models for different tasks? Go for it. There are no API costs, no usage limits, no restrictions. To set up Alama, you go to alarm. com and download the app. It's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Once it's installed, you can download models with simple commands. For example, alarm llama 3. 3 downloads the llama 3. 3 model. Alarm Deepsee Coder gets you the Deep Seek coding model. The beautiful thing is that once you have these models downloaded, they work offline. Your internet could go down and your AI automations would keep running. Try doing that with Chat GPT or Claude. Now, here's where most people make a mistake. They think bigger models are always better. That's not true. For many automation tasks, smaller models work just as well and run much faster. A 7B parameter model might be perfect for processing emails or generating reports. You don't always need the biggest model. I've tested this with multiple workflows and the results are impressive. I have one workflow that processes customer support emails, another that generates social media posts, a third that analyzes website data, all running locally, all using different AI models, all completely free. But here's what really sets this apart from cloud solutions. Privacy. When you use chat GPT or clawed through APIs, your data goes to their servers. With this setup, everything stays on your machine. Your business data never leaves your computer. for companies handling sensitive information. This is huge. Let me show you how to import existing workflows because this is where the real magic happens. I have templates saved from my AI profit boardroom that I can import directly into this local setup. I just go to the import section, select the file, and boom, instant automation. These aren't basic workflows either. I'm talking about complex multi-step processes that would normally require expensive tools, customer onboarding sequences, lead qualification systems, content generation pipelines, all running locally for free. Here's something most people don't realize. The N8N ecosystem has thousands of pre-built workflows. You can find workflows for almost any business process you can imagine. And with this local setup, you can run all of them without worrying about costs or limits. I've imported workflows for social media automation, email marketing, data analysis, and even complex AI agent conversations. Each one works exactly the same as it would on the paid platform. The only difference is I'm not paying for it. So, what's

your next step? Start with the setup I've shown you today. Get NN and Olma running locally. Import a few basic workflows. Start experimenting. Once you see how powerful this is, you'll never want to go back to cloud automation tools. And if you want to accelerate your learning, I've got some resources that will help. In my AI profit boardroom, we have detailed tutorials for setting up local AI stacks. We share advanced workflows that you can't find anywhere else. And we have a community of entrepreneurs who are building incredible automation systems. The AI profit boardroom is the best place to scale your business, get more customers, and save hundreds with AI automation. You'll learn not just the technical side, but the business strategy behind successful automation. I'm also offering free SEO strategy sessions where we can discuss how to integrate AI automation into your specific business. The link is in the comments and description below. And if you want step-by-step SOPs and processes, check out the AI success lab. We have over a 100 use cases documented with detailed instructions. The link is in the comments and description. You'll see how I show a checklist of hundred different tutorials that we give away as freebies every day inside the community feed. You can get all the video notes from there, too. I'll scroll through the community so you can see all the other resources you get along with all the trainings in the AI success lab. On top of that, it has over 13,000 members. You don't want to miss out on being part of something bigger than yourself. The future of AI automation is local. The future is private. The future is unlimited. And the future starts today with the setup I've just shown you. Stop paying monthly fees for tools you can run for free. Take control of your automation stack. Your business and your wallet will thank you. Make sure to comment below with your questions. Julian reads every comment and he loves hearing about your automation successes. And if this video helped you save money on AI tools, hit that like button and subscribe for more AI updates that actually matter. The age of expensive cloud AI is ending. The age of free local AI is just beginning. Welcome to the future.