The AI Tools Pack, free edition.

Find what's working, then write 30 seconds that hold attention.

• Claudecloud→The best writer here for short scripts. Paste 3 scripts you like and it holds the voice.Free tier; Pro $20/mo
• ChatGPTcloud→Great for 30 hooks in a minute. The scripts come out samey unless you feed it examples.Free tier; Plus $20/mo
• Perplexitycloud→Fact-check the claim in your clip before you post it. It cites sources you can show on screen.Free tier; Pro $20/mo
• Wispr Flowcloudaffiliate→Talk the script out loud instead of typing it. First drafts come out faster and sound more like speech.Free plan (capped); Pro $15/mo or $12/mo yearly✓ checked
• Lightreelcloud→Trend reports built from millions of TikToks. Use it to pick formats, not to copy videos.Check the site
• social-media-research-skillslocal or cloud→Agent skills that find outlier posts on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X. The quickest look at what your niche rewarded this week.Free skills; needs a paid ScrapeCreators API key
• InkOSruns locally→Overkill for one clip. For a series with recurring characters, its memory keeps the story straight.Free, open source (AGPL)

The voice is most of a faceless clip. Spend here before visuals.

• ElevenLabscloudaffiliate→Still the voice everyone compares to. The free tier is non-commercial, so posting needs Starter.Free ~10 min/mo (non-commercial); Starter ~$6/mo✓ checked
• Fish Audio Drama 3local or cloud→Drama 3 lets you set the emotion per line or per word. Open weights, or their API if you don't have a GPU.Free weights; paid API
• Chatterboxruns locally→MIT license, clones a voice from 5 seconds, takes tags like [laugh]. Best free pick if you have a GPU.Free, open source
• Kokoro 82Mruns locally→82M parameters, runs on a laptop CPU. Flat, but free and fast for plain narration.Free, open source
• Qwen3-TTSruns locally→Clone a voice and dial in emotion, age and accent. Wants a decent GPU.Free, open source
• Sunocloud→Background music in a minute. Free songs are non-commercial, and upgrading later doesn't license them.Free 50 credits/day (non-commercial); Pro $10/mo✓ checked

Closed models look best per clip. Open ones cost nothing per clip once set up.

• Higgsfieldcloudaffiliate→One subscription, many video and image models, and an MCP so Claude can drive it. Worth it if you'd otherwise pay for three tools.Free tier; Starter ~$19/mo (varies by country)✓ checked
• Klingcloud→Strong motion for the money. Free credits are watermarked and not for commercial use.Free credits (watermarked); Standard ~$10/mo✓ checked
• Runwaycloudaffiliate→Polished and dependable, but pricier per second than Kling. The free credits are a one-time test.125 free credits once; Standard $15/mo✓ checked
• HeyGencloudaffiliate→Avatar presenters for a channel with no face. Label it as AI, and watch for the uncanny valley.Free 3 videos/mo (watermark); Creator $29/mo✓ checked
• Kreacloud→Fast image edits and real-time generation. The free plan has no commercial license.Free daily credits; Basic ~$9/mo✓ checked
• FLUX 3 (Black Forest Labs)cloud→FLUX 3 does precise multi-turn edits with layout boxes. Pay per image through the API.Pay per image (API)
• Qwen-Image 2.1runs locally→An open 7B image model that holds up against the closed ones. Train your own style on top of it.Free weights
• LTX-2 (open)runs locally→An open video model that runs on a consumer GPU. Rougher than Kling, but $0 per clip.Free, open source
• ComfyUIruns locally→The workbench for running open models yourself. One steep day, then everything plugs in.Free, open source
• Internet Archive APIcloud→Public-domain film and audio with a free, no-key API. Old footage plus a new voiceover is a whole faceless genre.Free

Captions do the work when people watch on mute.

• CapCutlocal or cloud→Where most shorts still get finished. The free plan covers a lot; Pro-only effects add a watermark.Free; Pro $19.99/mo✓ checked
• Submagiccloudaffiliate→Animated captions in one pass. Plans changed in Oct 2026, so check what's included.From ~$12/mo yearly✓ checked
• OpusClipcloudaffiliate→Long video in, ranked short clips out. Free clips are watermarked and expire after a few days.Free 60 min/mo (watermark); Starter $15/mo✓ checked
• Descriptlocal or cloudaffiliate→Edit the video by editing the transcript. The fastest way to clean up a voiceover.Free 60 min/mo (720p, watermark); Hobbyist $16/mo yearly✓ checked
• DaVinci Resolveruns locally→A free pro editor with color and audio built in. Too much for a 30-second clip, right for anything longer.Free; Studio is a one-time purchase
• OpenCutruns locally→Open-source CapCut alternative, no watermarks. Younger and rougher, but yours.Free, open source
• Remotionruns locally→Videos written as React code. With its agent skills, Claude can build a whole motion-graphics clip.Free for individuals; company license for teams
• video-useruns locally→A Claude Code skill: point it at raw footage and get a cut with dead air removed and subtitles on.Free, open source
• Cineticruns locally→Agent skill for short cinematic motion-graphics films, with sound effects made in code.Free, open source
• WhisperXruns locally→Word-level timestamps for burned-in captions. Free and runs on your machine.Free, open source

One clip, four platforms, and a list you own.

• n8nlocal or cloudaffiliate→Wire render, upload and logging into one workflow. Self-hosting is free; cloud is less hassle.Free self-hosted; Cloud Starter ~$20–24/mo✓ checked
• Kitcloudaffiliate→Email list, free up to 10,000 subscribers. Your list is the one audience an algorithm can't take away.Free to 10k subscribers; paid plans add automations✓ checked
• Postizlocal or cloud→Open-source scheduler for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X. Self-host it and post everywhere from one place.Free self-hosted; hosted plans paid
• Buffercloud→Simple scheduling with a small free plan. Fine until you want real analytics.Free for a few channels; paid per channel
• ffmpeg-skillruns locally→42 FFmpeg tools an agent can call: cut, caption, reframe, fix loudness. The glue for automated exports.Free, open source

The tools that run the other tools.

• Claude Codelocal or cloud→The agent we use most. Give it a folder of skills and it runs a whole clip pipeline.Needs a Claude Pro plan ($20/mo) or API credits
• Codexlocal or cloud→OpenAI's coding agent, included with ChatGPT plans. A good second opinion next to Claude Code.Included with ChatGPT Plus and up
• Cursorruns locally→A code editor with agents built in. The easiest start if you've never opened a terminal.Hobby free; Pro $20/mo✓ checked
• Lovablecloudaffiliate→Describe an app, get a working one. Good for a landing page or a small tool; credits run out fast.Free daily credits; Pro $25/mo✓ checked
• OpenMausBotruns locally→Open-source agent desktop. Each AI worker gets its own VM and asks before risky steps.Free, open source (bring your own model)
• Exacloud→A search API built for agents, so your research agent reads the web without scraping it.Free tier; pay per search
• Lightpandaruns locally→A headless browser for agents, far lighter than Chrome. Good for scraping on a small server.Free, open source
• CLI-Anythingruns locally→Generates command-line wrappers for apps like Blender and GIMP, so agents don't click through menus.Free, open source