April 21, 2026 7 min read

    Auto-post Google News to Instagram with OpenAI, PDF API Hub & Google Sheets

    Automatically fetch trending news from Google News RSS, rewrite headlines into viral captions with OpenAI, generate branded breaking-news images using PDF API Hub's HTML-to-Image API, and publish directly to Instagram — all tracked in a Google Sheet.

    → Get this n8n workflow template on n8n.io

    How it works

    1. Every hour, the workflow pulls the latest articles from Google News RSS for your chosen topic
    2. New articles are deduplicated against a Google Sheet to avoid reposting
    3. OpenAI (GPT-4o-mini) rewrites the headline into a short, high-impact viral caption
    4. PDF API Hub converts a branded HTML template into a mobile-format breaking-news image via the HTML-to-Image API
    5. The image is published to Instagram, and the Google Sheet row is updated with the image URL and marked as posted

    Set up steps

    1. Create a Google Sheet with a tab named rss and add the required column headers (~2 min). See the sticky note inside the workflow for the exact structure.
    2. Connect your four credentials:
      • Google Sheets OAuth2
      • OpenAI API
      • PDF API Hub API — get your key
      • Instagram API
    3. Set your news topic in the Set Topic node (e.g. ai, crypto, sports)
    4. Optionally customize the HTML/CSS in the Generate News Image node to match your brand
    5. Activate the workflow

    API call used

    The workflow uses the HTML-to-Image endpoint to generate the branded news card:

    POST /api/v1/generate/image
{
  "html": "<div style='...'><h1>{{headline}}</h1>...</div>",
  "width": 1080,
  "height": 1080,
  "output": "url"
}

    Pipeline overview

    Schedule Trigger (hourly)
  → Fetch Google News RSS
  → Check Google Sheet for duplicates
  → Filter new articles only
  → OpenAI: rewrite headline → viral caption
  → PDF API Hub: HTML → branded news image (1080×1080)
  → Post image to Instagram
  → Update Google Sheet (mark as posted)

    Google Sheet structure

    ColumnPurpose
    titleOriginal article headline
    linkSource URL (used for deduplication)
    captionAI-rewritten viral caption
    image_urlGenerated image URL from PDF API Hub
    postedTRUE / FALSE — marks whether it was posted to Instagram

    Customization tips

    • Edit the HTML template in the Generate News Image node to match your brand colors and fonts
    • Adjust the schedule trigger frequency — hourly works well for breaking-news accounts
    • Swap Instagram for Twitter/X or LinkedIn by replacing the publish node
    • Add multiple topics by duplicating the workflow per topic keyword

    Next steps