💬 Answer WhatsApp questions from PDF documents using RAG, Google Drive and Pinecone
⚡ 1,383 views · 💬 Support Chatbots
Description
Good to know:
This workflow creates a WhatsApp chatbot that answers questions using your own PDFs through RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation). Every time you upload a document to Google Drive, it is processed into embeddings and stored in Pinecone—allowing the bot to respond with accurate, context-aware answers directly on WhatsApp.
Who is this for?
-
Anyone building a custom WhatsApp chatbot.
-
Businesses wanting a private knowledge based assistant
-
Teams that want their documents to be searchable via chat
-
Creators/coaches who want automated Q&A from their PDFs
-
Developers who want a no-code RAG pipeline using n8n
What problem is this workflow solving?
This workflow eliminates the need to manually search through documents or upload data every time someone asks a question. It turns your PDFs into a smart, searchable knowledge base and delivers instant, accurate answers to WhatsApp users—without hallucinations or manual work.
What this workflow does:
✅ Monitors a Google Drive folder for new PDFs ✅ Extracts and splits text into chunks ✅ Generates embeddings using OpenAI/Gemini ✅ Stores embeddings in a Pinecone vector index ✅ Receives user questions via WhatsApp ✅ Retrieves the most relevant info using vector search ✅ Generates a natural response using an AI Agent ✅ Sends the answer back to the user on WhatsApp
How it works:
1️⃣ Google Drive Trigger detects a new or updated PDF 2️⃣ File is downloaded and its text is split into chunks 3️⃣ Embeddings are generated and stored in Pinecone 4️⃣ WhatsApp Trigger receives a user’s question 5️⃣ The question is embedded and matched with Pinecone 6️⃣ AI Agent uses retrieved context to generate a response 7️⃣ The message is delivered back to the user on WhatsApp
How to use:
-
Connect your Google Drive account
-
Add your Pinecone API key and index name
-
Add your OpenAI/Gemini API key
-
Connect your WhatsApp trigger + sender nodes
-
Upload a sample PDF to your Drive folder
-
Send a test WhatsApp message to see the bot reply
Requirements:
✅ n8n cloud or self-hosted ✅ Google Drive account ✅ Pinecone vector database ✅ OpenAI or Gemini API key ✅ WhatsApp integration (Cloud API or provider)
Customizing this workflow:
🟢 Change the Drive folder or add file-type filters 🟢 Adjust chunk size or embedding model 🟢 Modify the AI prompt for tone, style, or restrictions 🟢 Add memory, logging, or analytics 🟢 Add multiple documents or delete old vector entries 🟢 Swap the AI model (OpenAI ↔ Gemini ↔ Groq, etc.)
🔗 Nodes Used
Google Drive, Google Drive Trigger, WhatsApp Business Cloud, AI Agent, Embeddings OpenAI, Simple Memory
📥 Import
Download workflow.json and import into n8n:
Workflow menu → Import from File