n8n Research Agent: OpenAI Chat + Google SearchApi Workflow

Turn any question into live, cited answers—inside n8n

This n8n Research Agent workflow combines an OpenAI chat model with SearchApi-powered Google Search to deliver up-to-date answers, preserve short-term conversation context for follow-ups, and include source links from the search results.

What this workflow does

• Receives your question through the built-in n8n chat trigger.
• Analyzes the request with an OpenAI-powered agent that uses conversation memory to understand what you’re asking and whether live search is needed.
• Runs a live Google query via SearchApi when required, retrieves organic results, and uses them as grounding for the response.
• Generates a concise, grounded answer and includes citation links to the retrieved sources.
• Maintains recent chat context so users can ask follow-up questions without repeating background details.

Use cases

• Research for SaaS decisions: Ask the agent about the latest product updates, pricing changes, or feature announcements, with clickable sources.
• Automation engineer Q&A: Get current documentation-style answers for tooling, APIs, or best practices—without leaving your workflow.
• Operational monitoring: Query “What’s new?” style questions and receive responses tied to current web results.
• Team support: Turn internal questions into fast, cited research answers in an n8n chat interface.

Technical details

• Chat trigger: n8n-nodes-langchainchat trigger
• Agent + reasoning: n8n-nodes-langchainagent
• OpenAI chat model: n8n-nodes-langchainlm chat open ai (requires an OpenAI API credential)
• Conversation memory: n8n-nodes-langchainmemory buffer window for short-term context
• Live Google Search: @searchapi/n8n-nodes-searchapi via Search API tool (requires a SearchApi key from searchapi.io)
• Setup: Install the community node package @searchapi/n8n-nodes-searchapi, add credentials, and choose the OpenAI model you want to use.