Generate Educational Social Media Carousels with GPT-4.1, Templated.io & Google Drive

🎯 Description Automatically generates, designs, stores, and logs complete Instagram carousel posts. It transforms a simple text prompt into a full post with copy, visuals, rendered images, Google Drive storage, and a record in Google Sheets.

⚙️ Use case / What it does This workflow enables creators, educators, or community managers to instantly produce polished, on-brand carousel assets for social media. It integrates OpenAI GPT-4.1, Pixabay, Templated.io, Google Drive, and Google Sheets into one continuous content-production chain.

💡 How it works 1️⃣ Form Trigger – Collects the user prompt via a simple web form. 2️⃣ OpenAI GPT-4.1 – Generates structured carousel JSON: titles, subtitles, topic, description, and visual keywords. 3️⃣ Code (Format content) – Parses the JSON output for downstream use. 4️⃣ Google Drive (Create Folder) – Creates a subfolder for the new carousel inside “RRSS”. 5️⃣ HTTP Request (Pixabay) – Searches for a relevant image using GPT’s visual suggestion. 6️⃣ Code (Get first result) – Extracts the top Pixabay result and image URL. 7️⃣ Templated.io – Fills the design template layers (titles/subtitles/topic/image). 8️⃣ HTTP Request (Download renders) – Downloads the rendered PNGs from Templated.io. 9️⃣ Google Drive (Upload) – Uploads the rendered images into the created folder. 10️⃣ Google Sheets (Save in DB) – Logs metadata (title, topic, folder link, description, timestamp, status).

🔗 Connectors used OpenAI GPT-4.1 (via n8n LangChain node) Templated.io API (design rendering) Pixabay API (stock image search) Google Drive (storage + folder management) Google Sheets (database / logging) Form Trigger (input collection)

🧱 Input / Output Input: User-submitted “Prompt” (text) via form

Output: Generated carousel images stored in Google Drive Spreadsheet row in Google Sheets containing title, topic, description, Drive URL, status

⚠️ Requirements / Setup Valid credentials for: OpenAI API (GPT-4.1 access) Templated.io API key Pixabay API key Google Drive + Google Sheets OAuth connections Existing Google Drive folder ID for RRSS storage Spreadsheet with matching column headers (Created At, Title, Topic, Folder URL, Description, Status) Published form URL for user prompts

🌍 Example applications / extensions Educational themes (mental health, fitness, sustainability). Extend to auto-publish to Instagram Business via Meta API. Add Notion logging or automated email notifications. Integrate scheduling (Cron node) to batch-generate weekly carousels.