Gemini + Telegram Grocery Inflation Tracker (n8n Workflow)

Turn Grocery Receipt Photos into a Personalized Inflation Report (with Gemini + Telegram)

This n8n workflow lets you submit grocery receipt images via n8n Form or Telegram, uses Google Gemini to extract line items, and then calculates your month-to-month grocery inflation rate—compared against the official US CPI from the BLS Public Data API.

What this workflow does

• Receives receipts or commands from an n8n Form trigger or a Telegram bot trigger.
• Extracts structured grocery data from uploaded images using Google Gemini, including the store, purchase date, and purchasable line items.
• Normalizes products consistently by checking previously saved receipt lines in an n8n Data Table, then using a Google Gemini agent to assign consistent product keys for new items.
• Computes spending-weighted personal inflation between the two most recent months with receipts, using unit prices from the normalized line items.
• Fetches matching official CPI series from the US BLS Public Data API, then compares your personal change to the CPI index change for the same months.
• Generates an “economist’s note” using Google Gemini, and optionally creates a voice note via ElevenLabs.
• Returns a formatted HTML report to the originating channel (form submission or Telegram message), plus optional audio.

Use cases

• Track how grocery prices change for your household month to month—without manual spreadsheets.
• Compare your personal inflation signals against official US CPI trends.
• Automate receipt analysis for consumer budgeting and SaaS-style reporting workflows.

Technical details

• Triggers: n8n Form, Telegram
• Logic & control: if, switch, set, code
• AI extraction & analysis: Google Gemini (Google AI Studio)
• Reference data: n8n Data Table for product mapping continuity
• Economic data: US BLS Public Data API (CPI time series)
• Optional audio: ElevenLabs text-to-speech