This guide helps you deploy n8n for free on Oracle Cloud using the Always Free Tier with an ARM-based VM. You don’t need a domain name or SSL, but both can be added optionally for production use.

Production note For a secure setup, it is highly recommended to run n8n behind an NGINX reverse proxy with HTTPS enabled. This protects the login cookie and other traffic. See docs/nginx-ssl.md for instructions.

• A free Oracle Cloud account → Sign up
• A private SSH key to access your VM
• Use of the Always Free Tier (ARM): VM.Standard.A1.Flex with:
  • 1 OCPU
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 50 GB block storage

When creating your Oracle Cloud account, you must provide a valid credit card for identity verification. You won't be charged as long as you stay within the Always Free tier.

This project uses the VM.Standard.A1.Flex instance type, which is part of the Always Free tier with the following limits:

• 4 OCPUs
• 24 GB RAM
• 2 VMs max per tenancy

n8n will run comfortably within those limits.

You can use the button below to provision the instance and network infrastructure:

Terraform provisions the VM, installs Docker, and install n8n automatically via scripts/install_n8n.sh.

The Terraform stack creates a security list that allows inbound traffic on the following ports:

• 22 – SSH access to administer the VM.
• 80 – HTTP traffic, required if you plan to run a reverse proxy or obtain certificates with Certbot.
• 443 – HTTPS traffic once you configure SSL for n8n.
• 5678 – The n8n editor listens on this port.

You can review these rules in terraform/main.tf inside the oci_core_security_list resource.

Once deployment completes, continue below to access your n8n editor.

If you want to connect via SSH to you VM, use the default ubuntu user and provide the private key you used during stack creation:

ssh -i /path/to/private/key ubuntu@YOUR_PUBLIC_IP

• Go to your browser and open:

 http://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:5678/setup

On first run, connecting to http://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:5678/setup allows you to create your own credentials. Note: During automatic deployment the script changes to the root user's home directory, so docker-compose.yml and the n8n_data/ folder will be inside /root.

By default, n8n is accessible via:

http://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:5678

This is sufficient to work with n8n which does not require a domain name or reverse proxy. But for security reason, I strongly recommand the use of HTTPS (domain name required) and NGINX

See docs/nginx-ssl.md for help with domain, NGINX setup, and HTTPS.