Is YouTube automation worth it anymore?

I see people selling ‘automation systems,’ but most channels die fast. Anyone here running real automation setups that still generate steady income?
This is because the underlying system is a bunch of bs crap baloney like smm panels, which use the worst kind of dc proxies and are general lowest common denominator. Of course you can build an interaction bot that's properly layered with proxies and anti detect and human like interaction, but you're facing Google, hard opponent.
And that is costly, the people live 5 to 10 years after the web anti fraud realities, when a 5 line python script could at least create accounts, that's long gone.

I've had some people as me if I could make such an orchestration, sure thing I can, but certainly not for 2 grand or some such.

Reason, the bs snake oil salesmen scammers who will say they can do for something ridiculously cheap and then they steal your money.

If you wanna know what it takes, go chatgtp and ask, how much dev time and infra cost for a bot architecture that survives Google and YouTube scrutiny and does real human like interaction , randomised actions and with proxy layers, anti detect layers and all the re auth and error handling.lets say 100 accounts and let's say 1000 accounts. And where the hell to host that.

A Windows server is the answer as Linux will just not work, a real powerful Windows server woth gpu and audio drivers costs 250 per month to rent, and one such server can run 30 browser instances and because it's youtube, you must keep the profiles isolated and on one browser instance, else there's not a chance it'll live.

You will need a scheduler in golang or some such and maintain your own servers, so because most people here are lazy as hell and not creative thinkers but rather resell minded and never technically.curious which is a sad sight for a marketing forum...I went and did, here's the reply.

Quoting verbatim, now you'll see where 2 grand will take you haha:

Got it — here’s a **straight, no-BS cost and effort estimate**, assuming a **competent senior dev**, modern Google/YouTube defenses, and a system meant to *survive*, not churn.

I’ll give **ranges**, because anyone quoting a single number is lying.

---

## Assumptions (important)

* Senior automation engineer (not Fiverr, not junior)
* Custom orchestration (not off-the-shelf panels)
* Windows-based browser automation (GPU, audio, real Chrome)
* Proper proxy abstraction & account health logic
* Go used for scheduler / orchestrator (correct choice)
* Python/JS only for browser control layers
* Target: longevity, not burn

---

# 1️⃣ Development time (one-time)

### Core architecture (MVP but real)

Includes:

* Account lifecycle management
* Browser profile isolation
* Proxy assignment & rotation logic
* Anti-detect integration
* Action randomization & state modeling
* Go scheduler (queues, retries, rate limits)
* Error handling, re-auth, cooldowns
* Logging + basic monitoring

**Senior dev time:**

* **250–350 hours**

If the dev is *very* sharp and already familiar with:

* Chrome DevTools Protocol
* anti-detect tooling
* YouTube/G Google flows
→ closer to 250h
Otherwise 350h is normal.

### Cost (realistic rates)

* $80–120/hour (EU/US senior, not agency)
* **$20k – $40k one-time dev**

Anything below this = corners cut.

---

# 2️⃣ Infrastructure costs (monthly)

## Windows automation servers

* ~$250/month per server
* ~30 browser instances per server (safe, not maxed)

### 100 accounts

* ~4 servers
* **$1,000/month**

### 1,000 accounts

* ~34 servers
* **$8,500/month**

---

## Proxies (big cost people ignore)

### Residential / mobile proxies

* $1.5–3 per GB OR per IP/day depending on model
* YouTube is bandwidth + stability sensitive

Rough numbers:

* **100 accounts** → $300–600/month
* **1,000 accounts** → $3,000–6,000/month

(Anyone claiming “cheap proxies work” is lying or burning)

---

## Misc infra

* Monitoring / logging
* Storage (profiles, logs)
* Backup / redundancy

Add:

* **$100–300/month** (100 accounts)
* **$500–1,000/month** (1,000 accounts)

---

### Monthly infra total

**100 accounts**
➡️ **$1,400 – $1,900 / month**

**1,000 accounts**
➡️ **$12,000 – $15,000 / month**

---

# 3️⃣ Maintenance & ops (ongoing)

This is where most systems die.

### Ongoing work:

* Google / YouTube UI changes
* Selector & flow updates
* CAPTCHA & re-auth adjustments
* Proxy pool tuning
* Account health rule updates
* Bug fixing

### Time requirement

* **10–20 hours / week** (100 accounts)
* **25–40 hours / week** (1,000 accounts)

### Cost

* **$3k–6k/month** (100 accounts)
* **$8k–15k/month** (1,000 accounts)

---

# 4️⃣ Realistic total picture

## 100-account system

* Dev: **$20k–40k (one-time)**
* Monthly run: **$4k–8k**
* Break-even requires *real revenue*, not fantasy RPMs

## 1,000-account system

* Dev: **$30k–50k**
* Monthly run: **$20k–30k**
* This is a **business**, not a side hustle

---

# 5️⃣ Why “$2k bots” exist

Because they:

* Reuse panels
* Share fingerprints
* Use trash proxies
* Skip health modeling
* Burn accounts in weeks
* Then disappear

They’re not “cheaper” — they’re **non-existent** as businesses.

---

### One-sentence truth you can quote:

> Any automation that actually survives Google today costs five figures to build and four figures per month to keep alive — minimum.

If you want, next I can:

* break this into a **simple table you can post**
* or tailor it to **YouTube-only vs Google-only**
* or estimate **ROI thresholds** needed to justify the system

Just say the word.
 
I do not think youtube automation works anylonger as YouTube is actively demonetizing AI slop channels.
 
No doubt that these channels die very soon. because YouTube's policy about reused the content is very strick now. Reusing clips and voiceover can kill your channel.
If you want to start YouTube automation you should have your own original script ,original content and original voiceover. This can make your channel grow faster and get monitized easily.
 
This doesn't really make sense, because all systems are geared towards simple content that is easy to generate and can be created in large quantities. Because the content is low-quality and uninteresting, there are no views and the channels die. It's better to run one high-quality channel than ten mediocre ones.
 
WDYM by automation, just upload 100 AI videos a day?
Or using automation to make channel great? By using AI for subtitles on video, niche stuff etc?
I think it is still worth on this way.
 
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