Give your team a simple way to search Google Drive and return clean text from files. It turns files into text that an AI tool or teammate can read fast. Great for teams that need quick answers from reports, policies, or media stored in Drive.

An endpoint exposes two actions. Search finds up to ten files in your drive using a query. Read downloads a chosen file and converts it to text based on type. PDF and CSV files are parsed to plain text. Google Docs become text and Slides are converted to PDF first. Images are described using an AI vision model. Audio is transcribed to text. Switch nodes route each file type, and set nodes return one clear response field for easy use. This removes manual downloading and format changes.

To run it, you need Google Drive and OpenAI accounts. Add authentication to the server before sharing it with others. Expect faster report checks, quicker policy lookups, and fewer clicks. It suits finance, operations, and admin teams that store monthly reports, policy files, receipts, screenshots, and voice notes in Drive.

• Search Google Drive files with a query and return up to ten matches.
• Download files from Drive and convert Google Docs to plain text and Slides to PDF.
• Route by file type to the right parser using a switch node.
• Extract text from PDF files with a built in PDF extractor.
• Parse CSV rows with custom encoding and options for quotes and empty cells.
• Describe images using an AI vision model for readable summaries.
• Transcribe audio files to text for fast review.
• Return a single response field so agents and apps can consume results easily.
• Expose two actions to clients: search files and read a selected file.
• Support a callable subflow to process files when triggered by another workflow.

• Reduce document search time from 30 minutes to 2 minutes
• Automate 90% of download and file conversion steps
• Cut copy paste errors by up to 80% with direct text extraction
• Handle PDFs, CSVs, images, and audio in one place
• Connect Google Drive and OpenAI without custom code

1. Import the template into n8n: Create a new workflow in n8n > Click the three dots menu > Select 'Import from File' > Choose the downloaded JSON file.
2. You'll need accounts with Google Drive and OpenAI. See the Tools Required section above for links to create accounts with these services.
3. In the n8n credentials manager, create a Google Drive OAuth credential. Double click the Google Drive nodes named Search Files from Gdrive or Download File1, choose Create new credential, then follow the on screen steps to sign in and approve access. Name the credential clearly, such as Google Drive account.
4. Create an OpenAI API credential. Double click the Analyse Image or Transcribe Audio nodes, choose Create new credential, then paste an API key from your OpenAI account API keys page. Name it OpenAI account.
5. Open the node Search Files from Gdrive. Select the drive you want to search, set Limit to the number of files to return, and keep What to search as files. Use a simple query in Query string to test, such as expense report.
6. Open the Read File From GDrive tool node. Confirm Workflow ID points to this workflow and that inputs include fileId, folderId, and operation. Leave these as provided.
7. Check the When Executed by Another Workflow trigger. Make sure workflow inputs are operation, folderId, and fileId so the read action receives the right values.
8. Open the Operation switch node and confirm it routes the ReadFile operation to the download step.
9. Open the Download File1 node and keep conversion settings so Google Docs become text and Slides become PDF. This ensures clean text output.
10. Open the server trigger node and enable authentication before sharing the endpoint. Set a secret or token so only approved clients can access it.
11. Test a search. Run the workflow and call the search action with a simple query. Confirm you receive a list of matching files.
12. Test file reading. Pick a PDF, a CSV, an image, and an audio file in your drive. Call the read action with each fileId and check that the response field contains clear text.
13. Troubleshoot common issues: if you see a permission error, recheck Google Drive credential scopes. If a file is not found, verify the fileId value. If PDF text is empty, the PDF may be scanned; try an OCR version. If OpenAI calls fail, confirm the API key and model access.