Content creation · Do this yourself

Turn PDFs and articles into audiobooks for readers.

In short: an AI-agent-run business you oversee about an hour a week. Tools cost $30–$80/mo, agent setup is intermediate, and our estimate is 60 books a month × $9 = $540/mo.

How it makes money: Charge readers $9 per book to turn their own PDFs into chaptered audiobooks, with speech billed to their own key.

Agent setup: Intermediate · Connects several tools (Vercel, Supabase) with payments and simple data. How we rate this

✅ Show HN post with 174 points.

No X data

Based on janpmz on Hacker News (opens in new tab)

Who it’s for

Creators, freelancers, musicians and businesses that need images, video or writing.

Adapt it to your industry

  • Restaurant: short videos of dishes with captions
  • Coach: turn one talk into clips, posts and a newsletter
  • Agency: produce first drafts for clients faster

Step by step

  1. Pick one repeatable format (a 30-second tip video, a weekly post, a product image).
  2. Open ChatGPT, Claude or Grok and paste the prompt below with your topic.
  3. Ask for 5 scripts or drafts, then pick the best one.
  4. Make the visuals in Canva, CapCut or an AI image/video tool, using only material you have the rights to.
  5. Edit the result so it sounds like you and check facts.
  6. Post it, then reuse the same template for the next piece.

Ready-to-copy prompt

Here is the text of a 40-page PDF [paste]. Remove headers, footers, page numbers and reference lists, split it into chapters with short spoken titles, and flag tables or figures a listener would need described.

Start with AI

Opens the AI with this guide and the prompt filled in.

Open in ChatGPT (opens in new tab)Open in Claude (opens in new tab)Open in Grok (opens in new tab)
Time
1–2 weekendsOur estimate

Your autonomous stack

Autonomy: Upload, text cleanup, chapter split, speech generation and delivery of MP3s or a podcast feed run automatically. Your part: Weekly: review rights complaints and failed conversions (about 30 minutes).

Every layer an agent-run business needs, in order. Prices are public list prices, checked Oct 16, 2026.

  1. Agent (the brain): Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). Grok Bot runs the business day to day: writes, answers, decides small things and reports to you. Claude Code or Codex are alternatives.
  2. Build and hosting: Vercel hosting (opens in new tab) (Hobby free · Pro $20/mo), Supabase database (opens in new tab) (Free tier · Pro from $25/mo). The product or service your customers use.
  3. Payments: Stripe payments (opens in new tab) (No monthly fee · 2.9% + 30¢ per card payment). Automatic checkout and receipts. Other options: PayPal Checkout (3.49% + 49¢) or Lemon Squeezy (5% + 50¢, handles sales tax).
  4. Customer acquisition: Buffer (scheduled X posts) (opens in new tab) (Free plan (3 channels, 10 queued posts each) · Essentials $5/mo per channel, billed yearly), beehiiv newsletter (opens in new tab) (Free up to 2,500 subscribers). Agent-written SEO pages, scheduled X posts and a weekly newsletter.
  5. Delivery: Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). A Grok Bot routine delivers the product or result as soon as someone pays.
  6. Support: Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). Grok Bot answers the support inbox; anything unclear is flagged for you.
  7. Monitoring and schedule: Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). Grok Bot scheduled routines run each day: send, check for failures, alert you if something breaks.
  8. Analytics: Google Analytics (opens in new tab) (Free). Tracks visits, signups and sales so the agent can report what works.
  9. Human checkpoint: Weekly: review rights complaints and failed conversions (about 30 minutes).
  10. Price: charge $9 per book (pay per converted book (customer’s own speech key) or monthly plan). Offer the first 3 customers a founding price for honest feedback.
Monthly cost$30–$80/monthFree tiers → paid plans of the tools above. Card fees come out of each sale.
What you could earn · EstimateEstimate: 60 books a month × $9 = $540/moOur estimate, not a fact or a promise. It’s simple math if you land these customers at this price.
Details: source, numbers and tags

What they did

The user attaches a PDF in their AI chat and asks for an audiobook; an MCP server cleans the text, splits it into chapters and sends it to a text-to-speech API, then returns MP3 files. One commenter runs a similar setup that turns saved articles into a private podcast feed.

How it went

Show HN post with 174 points. Commenters asked for audio samples, longer files and EPUB support, and raised voice-imitation concerns. No revenue reported.

Worth knowing

This is the builder launching their own product on HN. Convert only documents the customer has the right to (their own files, public-domain or licensed texts); never imitate a real person’s voice; speech is billed per character by the TTS provider, so price long books accordingly.

Difficulty
IntermediateOur rating
Time to build
Not reportedOur estimate
Monthly cost
Not reported
Revenue
Not reportedWe only show revenue the source states
Engagement
174 HN points91 comments · fetched Oct 20, 2026
X buzz
No X data

Posted · Added Oct 20, 2026

Original builder recipe

  • Upload or AI-chat connector
  • Text cleanup and chapter split
  • Text-to-speech API
  • MP3 files and private podcast feed
  • Stripe checkout
  1. Pick a repeatable format.
  2. Let the agent generate drafts or assets from your inputs.
  3. Edit and check facts and rights before publishing.
  4. Reuse the template for the next piece.

Tags

Read the original

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