Help

FAQ

Short answers. Deeper setup is in the step-by-step guide; failures are in Troubleshooting.

Does a ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro plan work as the AI key? No. Official OpenAI and Anthropic billing keep those subscriptions separate from the API. Plus is not eligible for OpenAI’s API-credits benefit. Use an API key (OpenAI or OpenRouter).

Is there a free way to render without a watermark? JSON2Video’s free 600 credits are watermarked and non-commercial. Paid JSON2Video is the keys-only default here.

Where do captions come from? JSON2Video auto-subtitles (official subtitles element, default model: whisper). That is Whisper inside JSON2Video, not a second OpenAI Audio node. A standalone Whisper call would need you to download the clip as binary and stays under OpenAI’s 25 MB upload limit — not the default.

Can I paste a Google Drive link as the clip? JSON2Video needs a URL it can download during the render. A public HTTPS file URL is the supported path. Zernio can ingest some Drive links at post time; do not assume the same for JSON2Video. If in doubt, use a direct MP4 URL.

Can I upload a file in the form? v1 asks for a URL. Form element types include File, but this pack does not wire a binary upload or presign flow.

When should I approve? After you have watched preview_url. Change status to approved. You can edit title, description, tags, visibility, scheduled_at, made_for_kids, and contains_synthetic_media on the row first.

Will it auto-post without me? Not from queued or awaiting_approval. Only approved rows are sent to Zernio.

What if I want it public immediately? Set the row (or Config) visibility to public before you approve. Keep the first tests private.

How do I schedule a Short? Put an ISO-8601 time in scheduled_at. If it is still in the future when Post Approved runs, the workflow sends scheduledFor + timezone and does not wait until that clock time (Zernio uploads early). If the time is already past, it publishes in that request.

Why is default visibility private? So a first-time setup cannot accidentally publish a test clip to a public channel.

How much does one 30-second Short cost? On paid JSON2Video, official billing is 1 credit per second (30 credits for a 30-second render). Add a fraction of a cent for the title model, plus Zernio (possibly nothing extra if the YouTube channel is one of the two free accounts). Check current vendor pages for pack and subscription prices.

Can I change caption style? Yes. Edit Config subtitle_settings using only official keys (style can be classic, classic-progressive, classic-one-word, boxed-line, boxed-word). Invalid keys fail the render before it starts.

Do I need the official n8n JSON2Video or Zernio community node? No. This pack uses HTTP Request so it is portable and can send Idempotency-Key. You may install those community nodes later if you prefer; they are not required.

Can I run this on n8n Cloud? Yes. All vendor calls are HTTP. You still need public clip URLs and a published form URL if you use the form.