Best LLM API for n8n, measured
· built-in providers checked against n8n’s documentation on 2026-11-07
As of November 07, 2026, of the 11 LLM APIs built into n8n that we measure, OpenRouter answers fastest: 69 ms median time to first byte, averaged over 4 regions. By region, Google Gemini is fastest from Europe (90 ms) and US Central (41 ms), OpenRouter from Tokyo (55 ms) and São Paulo (62 ms). 4 of 11 hosts answered every probe over the 90 days since 2026-08-09; the lowest was OpenAI at 99.1%.
n8n is a workflow automation tool that can be self-hosted; its AI Agent node calls a chat model through a model sub-node. Of the LLM providers it has built in, 11 are measured here at the very host n8n calls — directly, without a gateway, from 4 regions every five minutes. Any other OpenAI-compatible API can be added as the Base URL field of the OpenAI credential, which accepts any OpenAI-compatible API.
How fast and reliable is each built-in provider?
Median time to first byte over the last 24 hours from each probe region, the share of host probes answered over the 90 days since 2026-08-09, and outages we could attribute to the provider in the last 30 days — of the host, and of real requests to one model where we hold an API key. Bold marks the provider’s fastest region; an outage count links to its latest day.
| Provider in n8n | Europe | US Central | Tokyo | São Paulo | Host uptime, 90 d | Outages, 30 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter Chat Model openrouter.ai · source | 98 ms | 59 ms | 55 ms | 62 ms | 100% | 0 |
| Google Gemini Chat Model generativelanguage.googleapis.com · source | 90 ms | 41 ms | 63 ms | 137 ms | 100% | 119 requests to gemini-flash-lite-latest |
| Anthropic Chat Model api.anthropic.com · source | 197 ms | 95 ms | 226 ms | 194 ms | 100% | 0 |
| xAI Grok Chat Model api.x.ai · source | 221 ms | 111 ms | 165 ms | 224 ms | 99.9% 99.9% from Tokyo | 0 |
| Groq Chat Model api.groq.com · source | 213 ms | 127 ms | 161 ms | 233 ms | 100% | 0 |
| OpenAI Chat Model api.openai.com · source | 215 ms | 139 ms | 208 ms | 245 ms | 99.1% 99.1% from Tokyo | 0 |
| Mistral Cloud Chat Model api.mistral.ai · source | 117 ms | 196 ms | 322 ms | 263 ms | 99.9% 99.9% from Tokyo | 0 |
| Moonshot Kimi Chat Model api.moonshot.ai · region International · source | 308 ms | 266 ms | 129 ms | 342 ms | 99.9% 99.9% from Tokyo | 0 |
| DeepSeek Chat Model api.deepseek.com · source | 290 ms | 318 ms | 182 ms | 432 ms | 99.9% 99.9% from São Paulo | 0 |
| MiniMax Chat Model api.minimaxi.com · China endpoint · region China; International calls api.minimax.io, not measured · source | 311 ms | 343 ms | 223 ms | 478 ms | 99.9% 99.8% from Tokyo | 0 |
| Qwen Cloud Chat Model dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com · region Singapore · source | 359 ms | 415 ms | 167 ms | 706 ms | 99.9% 99.9% from Tokyo | 0 |
How long until the first token?
Time to first byte is the network floor under every call. The wait for the model’s first token is longer, and we time it only where we hold an API key and send a real request — for these built-in providers, median time to first token over the last 24 hours:
| Provider and model | Europe | US Central | Tokyo | São Paulo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Gemini Chat Model gemini-flash-lite-latest | 691 ms | 1817 ms | 1895 ms | 1265 ms |
| Groq Chat Model openai/gpt-oss-120b | 352 ms | 1364 ms | 1410 ms | 739 ms |
More: time to first token by provider.
Which built-in provider is cheapest for the same model?
Across different models a price comparison means nothing, so this table holds the model fixed: open-weight models that two or more of n8n’s built-in providers serve, with what each charges per million input tokens and which of them answered fastest. Prices are published by the providers and read through OpenRouter’s public catalogue on 2026-11-07; they are not measured by us.
| Model | Built-in hosts | Cheapest | Dearest | Fastest measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | 2 | DeepSeek Chat Model $0.150 | Mistral Cloud Chat Model $0.300 | Mistral Cloud Chat Model 117 ms |
Is there a free LLM API for n8n?
3 of the built-in providers can be used without paying, within limits (checked 2026-11-07 on their own pages):
- Google Gemini — free input and output tokens on a limited set of Gemini models; rate-limited; content sent on the free tier is used to improve Google's products; apps for users in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK must use paid services (terms) (terms).
- OpenRouter — model variants whose ID ends in
:free; 20 requests a minute; 50 a day, or 1,000 a day once you have bought at least 10 credits (terms). - Groq — a Free plan; a payment method is needed only to move up to the Developer tier; per-model rate limits, published on Groq's rate-limits page (terms).
One-time credits for new accounts and every other free option we found: free LLM APIs, measured.
Does it matter where the n8n VPS runs?
For some APIs a lot. Qwen Cloud answers in 167 ms from Tokyo and 706 ms from São Paulo, and every model call waits at least that long before the model starts working. The bold figure in each row of the first table is that provider’s fastest region; put the agent there. Which VPS region is closest to the LLM APIs compares all four.
Why are some built-in providers missing?
A figure is shown only when n8n calls exactly the host our probe measures. The same company on another address is another measurement, so these are left out:
- Cohere Chat Model: n8n calls
api.cohere.ai, our probe measuresapi.cohere.com(source)
How are these figures measured?
Each probe opens a connection to the provider’s API host and times the first byte of the answer, without an API key: a 401 counts as reachable, because the host answered. Probes are rented VPSes — Hetzner in Nuremberg, Vultr in Chicago, Vultr in Tokyo, Vultr in São Paulo. Host uptime is the share of probes that got a valid answer. An outage is a failure seen from two or more regions at once that no other provider shared in the same minutes; a failure from one region alone is not called one. Where we hold an API key we also send a real one-token request to one model, and its failures are counted separately from the host’s. Time to first byte says nothing about tokens per second once the model runs, or about model quality. Full rules: methodology.
Other agents: OpenClaw · Hermes Agent · VPS region for agents · data & licence