Automating Course Completion Certificates with n8n, PDF.co, and Google Drive

Oct 9, 2025·4 Minutes Read

What You’ll Build

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have an automated workflow that:

Listens for new form submissions from a Google Form.
Retrieves the submitted student/course data from Google Sheets.
Uses a custom HTML template (hosted in PDF.co) to generate a professional course completion certificate.
Converts the certificate into a binary PDF file.
Automatically uploads the PDF certificate to Google Drive for safekeeping and sharing.

This workflow eliminates the need to manually design or issue certificates. Each submission instantly generates a polished, personalized PDF certificate.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

A Google Form → To collect student name, course title, and completion date.
A connected Google Sheet → Linked to the form to store responses (used as the workflow trigger).
A PDF.co account + API key → To generate the certificates from an HTML template.
A PDF.co HTML template → Created using the PDF.co HTML Template Editor.
- Example: [Link to the certificate template]
- Template ID used: 15032
A Google Drive account → Where generated certificates will be saved.
An n8n instance (self-hosted or cloud).

Quick Start Options

Option A: Import and Run Immediately

Import the provided workflow JSON into n8n.
Connect your Google Sheets, PDF.co, and Google Drive credentials.
Replace the templateId with your own from the Template Manager.
Test by submitting the Google Form.
Confirm that the PDF certificate is generated and saved in Google Drive.

Option B: Build It Step-by-Step

Follow the steps below to build the workflow from scratch.

Automation Overview

Here’s what the finished workflow does:

Google Sheets Trigger – Watches for new rows in the responses sheet.
Create Certificate Using PDF.co HTML Template – Populates an HTML template with student/course data.
Convert to Binary File – Prepares the generated certificate for upload.
Upload to Google Drive – Saves the certificate in your specified folder.

IN THIS TUTORIAL

Trigger on New Google Form Submission

Create Certificate Using PDF.co HTML Template

Convert Certificate to Binary File

Upload Certificate to Google Drive

Final End-to-End Test

Step 1: Trigger on New Google Form Submission

What happens in this step: Whenever a student submits the Google Form, the linked Google Sheet gets a new row. This step listens for that new row and triggers the workflow.

Node: Google Sheets Trigger

Settings:

Event: Row Added
Document: Course Completion Form (Responses)
Sheet: Form Responses 1

Success looks like: Every time a new student submits the form, the workflow starts and captures their Name, Course Title, and Date of Completion.

Step 2: Create Certificate Using PDF.co HTML Template

What happens in this step: The captured student data is injected into a pre-designed HTML certificate template hosted in PDF.co.

Node: PDF.co API → URL/HTML to PDF

Settings:

Operation: htmlTemplateToPDF
Template ID: 15032 (from Template Manager)

Template Data Mapping:

{

"student_name": "{{ $json['Student\'s Name'] }}",

"course_name": "{{ $json['Course Title'] }}",

"completion_date": "{{ $json['Date of Completion'] }}"

}

Output File Name: Certificate_{{ $json["Student's Name"] }}.pdf

Success looks like: A professional certificate PDF is generated with the student’s details filled in.

Step 3: Convert Certificate to Binary File

What happens in this step: The generated certificate is prepared in a binary format, so it can be uploaded to Google Drive.

Node: HTTP Request Settings:

URL: ={{ $json.url }} (certificate URL from Step 2)

Success looks like: The PDF is converted into binary data ready for storage.

Step 4: Upload Certificate to Google Drive

What happens in this step: The binary PDF file is uploaded into your chosen Google Drive folder.

Node: Google Drive

Settings:

Drive: My Drive
Folder: OUTPUT1 (or the folder of your choice)

Success looks like: Each new certificate is uploaded to Google Drive with the filename Certificate_StudentName.pdf.

Step 5: Final End-to-End Test

Submit a test entry in the Google Form.
Wait for the Google Sheets Trigger to run.
Check Google Drive → the certificate PDF should appear with the student’s name.

Congratulations!

You’ve successfully automated certificate creation and delivery. Your workflow now:

Captures student responses from Google Forms.
Populates a certificate HTML template.
Generates a polished PDF automatically.
Saves it into Google Drive for access and sharing.

This setup can be extended further—for example, automatically emailing certificates to students, logging them in Airtable, or notifying an instructor in Slack.

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