# Faceless YouTube (budget)

> When you're testing whether a channel concept will work at all, this is the cheapest viable pipeline. Trade Runway for Pexels stock, ElevenLabs Pro for the free voice tier, and Perplexity Pro for free Claude.

Source: https://aistack.sh/stack/faceless-youtube-budget
Category: Video · Creator
Level: Beginner
Last verified by a human: 2026-05-05

## The tools

### Claude — Research + script

- Pricing: Free · $20/mo Pro · $100/mo Max 5x · $200/mo Max 20x · Sonnet API $2/$10 per M tokens (input/output)
- Site: https://claude.ai
- Why this one: Free Claude tier handles topic research and 1,200-word scripts. Skip Perplexity until you're sure the niche works.
- Swap in instead: ChatGPT
- More: https://aistack.sh/tool/claude

### ElevenLabs — Voiceover

- Pricing: $6/mo Starter · $22/mo Creator
- Site: https://elevenlabs.io
- Why this one: Free tier gives you 10k characters/month, enough for ~3 short scripts. Use a marketplace voice, not a clone.
- More: https://aistack.sh/tool/elevenlabs

### CapCut — Edit + b-roll + captions

- Pricing: Free · $9.99/mo Standard · $19.99/mo Pro
- Site: https://capcut.com
- Why this one: Free, ships with stock footage built in plus AI captions and auto-cut to beat. The whole pipeline collapses into one app.
- Swap in instead: Descript
- More: https://aistack.sh/tool/capcut

## Monthly cost

### $0/mo — 1 video / week (small)

- Claude: Free
- ElevenLabs: Free
- CapCut: Free

### $6/mo — 2 videos / week (medium)

- Claude: Free
- ElevenLabs: $6 Starter
- CapCut: Free

### $25/mo — Daily uploads (heavy)

- Claude: $0 (rate-limit ok)
- ElevenLabs: $22 Creator
- CapCut: $3 pro-rated

## Workflow

### 1. Pick a topic + script (Claude)

One Claude session: research the topic, then write the script. Skip the dedicated research tool.

**Prompt: One-shot research + script**

```
I'm writing a 7-minute faceless YouTube script for {{audience}}.

Topic: {{topic}}
Angle: {{angle}}
Tone: {{e.g. documentary, sardonic explainer}}

Step 1: Brainstorm 6 to 8 specific facts, dates, names, or quotes you'd cite if you had research access. Mark anything you're uncertain about with [VERIFY].

Step 2: Write a 1,200-word script using ONLY the items from step 1. Hook in the first line, one retention beat per minute, [B-ROLL: …] tags every 8 to 12 seconds.

I'll spot-check the [VERIFY] items myself before recording.
```

### 2. Generate voiceover (ElevenLabs)

ElevenLabs free tier. Pick a marketplace voice, paste the script, render at default settings.

### 3. Edit + ship (CapCut)

CapCut: drop voiceover, use the built-in stock library for b-roll (search by [B-ROLL] tags), auto-captions, export 1080p, upload.

## What it produced

**First test channel, week 4**

Solo creator validating a 'historical disasters' niche. Shipped 4 videos at $0 cost; the third hit 12k views and confirmed the angle. Then they upgraded to the recommended stack.

## Pitfalls

- **Stock b-roll loops fast** — CapCut's stock library is shallow per-niche. After 3 to 4 videos you'll see the same clips repeat. Move to Runway/Pika once you commit.
- **Free voices flatten retention** — Marketplace free voices kill watch time within the first 30 seconds for narrative content. Validate with this stack, then pay for ElevenLabs Creator.

## Recent changes affecting this stack

- **Scribe v2 Medical speech recognition model released** (2026-09-11, release) — Scribe v2 Medical is now generally available as a specialized batch speech recognition model for medical and clinical audio. It maintains the same billing rate as Scribe v2 and supports keyterm prompting, entity detection, speaker diarization, and no-verbatim mode. Pass scribe_v2_medical as the model_id parameter. Source: https://elevenlabs.io/docs/changelog
- **Twilio outbound calls now support answering machine detection** (2026-09-07, feature) — Outbound calls through Twilio can now detect whether they reach a human or answering machine. Configure detection mode to trigger early detection or wait for voicemail greetings to complete. Results arrive via a new answering_machine_detection webhook event. Source: https://elevenlabs.io/docs/changelog
- **ElevenAgents WebSocket responses now support file attachments** (2026-09-07, feature) — Agent response WebSocket events include optional attachments with URL, name, and optional MIME type. Enables agents to send files and documents to users during conversations. Source: https://elevenlabs.io/docs/changelog
- **Twilio answering machine detection added to ElevenAgents outbound telephony** (2026-09-07, feature) — Outbound telephony configurations now support Twilio answering machine detection with two modes: early human-or-machine verdict or waiting for voicemail greeting to finish. Detection results are delivered via the new answering_machine_detection webhook event. Source: https://elevenlabs.io/docs/changelog
- **Agent response attachments in ElevenAgents conversations** (2026-09-07, feature) — agent_response WebSocket events now include an optional attachments field, allowing agents to send files with metadata including URL, filename, and MIME type. Source: https://elevenlabs.io/docs/changelog

## Other ways to do this

- [Faceless YouTube](https://aistack.sh/stack/faceless-youtube): Premium pipeline, generative b-roll — $92/mo

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Curated by ryan-c on aistack.sh. Last updated 2026-05-05.