Weekly Shorts idea engine: a free n8n workflow

What it does

The workflow reads Google Trends' public trending searches feed for the country you choose. At the same time it asks the YouTube Data application programming interface (API) for short videos about your keyword published in the last 7 days, sorted by views, and fetches their view counts. It combines both lists. By default you get them as a clean email. Switch on use_ai and Google Gemini, a large language model (LLM), turns them into 10 Shorts ideas, each with a title and an opening hook. You can also save every row to Google Sheets.

1. Every Monday at 9:00Runs on a schedule, no clicks needed
2. Read Google TrendsTrending searches for your country
3. Search YouTubeShort videos about your keyword from the last 7 days
4. Add view countsSorted from most to least viewed
5. CombineBoth lists in one place
6. Write ideas (optional)Gemini turns them into 10 titles and hooks
7. DeliverEmail with Gmail, and rows in Google Sheets if you want

What you need

• n8n: Free to run on your own computer as the Community edition. n8n hosting docs.
• Google Trends: No account needed. The workflow reads its public trending searches feed.
• YouTube Data API key: Free. Create a project in Google Cloud, enable the YouTube Data API v3 and make an API key.
• Gmail: To email you the report. Connected once in n8n with your Google account.
• Google Sheets: Optional. A tab named Ideas with the headers week, type, title, hook and source.
• Gemini: Optional. A free API key from Google AI Studio if you want written ideas.

Set it up in 7 steps

1. Run n8n. Install it with Docker using the official n8n guide. This workflow does not need Postiz.
2. Import the JSON file. In n8n, open a new workflow, click the three-dot menu and choose Import from File (n8n guide).
3. Add your credentials. Connect Gmail (and Google Sheets if you use it) with your Google account (how). Add a Google Gemini credential only if you want written ideas (how).
4. Set the top variables. In the Settings node, set your country code (US, GB, IN and so on), your niche keyword, your YouTube API key, your email, and use_ai, send_email and save_to_sheets (true or false).
5. Check your time zone. The Monday 9:00 run uses the time zone in the workflow settings, or your n8n default.
6. Test it once. Click Execute workflow and check your inbox. If the YouTube list is empty, the email says why, for example an invalid key.
7. Activate it. Publish the workflow so it runs every Monday (n8n guide).

Run n8n for free

n8n's Community edition is free to run on your own computer with Docker. Follow the official n8n Docker guide. Your computer needs to be on at 9:00 on Monday for the scheduled run, so some people move n8n to a small server later.

Prefer not to self-host? n8n offers a cloud version with its own pricing (n8n pricing). The workflow file works with either.

Limits

• YouTube Data API quota: Google's docs list a default of 100 search.list calls per day in their own bucket, at 1 unit each, plus 10,000 units per day for other methods. This workflow makes 1 search call and 1 videos call per run. Sources: quota costs and search.list.
• "Short" means under 4 minutes: YouTube's videoDuration=short filter covers videos under 4 minutes, so a few results may not be Shorts (search.list docs).
• Google Trends feed: the trending searches RSS feed (US example) is public but not a documented API, so Google can change it. It returns a short list of recent searches, mostly news and sports.
• Gemini: the free tier has rate limits that Google changes over time. Check the current numbers on the official rate limits page.

Questions

Checked against the official n8n, Postiz, Google, Meta and TikTok documentation on October 24, 2026. The workflow was imported and test-run in n8n 2.44. Steps that need your own accounts (Google, Gmail, Gemini) were not run.