TL;DR: We'll build a bot that sends the top AI headlines to your inbox every morning. It's three modules in Make (RSS → Text aggregator → Email) and runs on Make's free plan in Make's cloud, so there's no server, no Docker, and no code. One run costs 3 credits, about 90 a month out of the free 1,000.
🧪 Try it while you read
#ad / Affiliate disclosure: this is my affiliate link. If you sign up through it, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Make has a free plan, so you don't need to pay anything to follow this tutorial.
Open a free Make account in another tab and build along: Make (free plan)
Why not just n8n?
n8n is great, and its Community Edition is free if you self-host it. The catch is that "self-host" means a server or Docker, plus keeping it online. If you'd rather not run anything yourself, Make's free plan runs the same kind of workflow in Make's cloud.
| Make (Free plan) | n8n | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Runs in Make's cloud, nothing to install | Community Edition: free, self-hosted · or n8n Cloud |
| Free option | 1,000 credits / month | Community Edition, free if you self-host |
| Billing unit | Credits per action (this bot: 3 per run) | Per full workflow execution |
| Cloud starting price | Free plan (paid plans optional) | Cloud Starter €20/month, billed annually |
Plans checked on make.com/pricing and n8n.io/pricing in October 2026. Prices and limits change, so check before you sign up.
What you need
- A free Make account (affiliate link, #ad: I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you)
- An email inbox (or Telegram/Slack, see Variations)
- An RSS feed. I use TechCrunch's AI feed:
https://techcrunch.com/category/artificial-intelligence/feed/
Step 1: Add the RSS trigger
- In Make, create a new scenario and click the big +.
- Search RSS and pick Watch RSS Feed Items. It only picks up items it hasn't seen before, so you won't get yesterday's news twice.
- Paste the feed URL.
- Set Maximum number of returned items to 5, so the digest stays short.
- When Make asks where to start, choose where to start. For your first test, "All" gives you items to see immediately.
Step 2: Combine the headlines (Text aggregator)
The feed returns five separate items, but we want one message, not five.
- Add Tools → Text aggregator.
- Set Source Module to the RSS module.
- In Text, map the item title, add a new line, then map the item URL:
{{title}}
{{url}}
Now five headlines become one block of text.
Step 3: Send it to your inbox
- Add Email → Send an Email to a Team Member (built in, so there's no SMTP setup).
- Pick your own address as the recipient.
- Give it a subject like "AI news for today", and map the Text aggregator's output into the content.
Prefer Telegram or Slack? Those modules work the same way: connect your account and map the same aggregated text.
Step 4: Run once and check credits
- Click Run once. All three modules should show a success bubble.
- Check your inbox.
- Open the scenario's History tab to see the run.
On my account, one run used 3 credits: one per module action. At once a day that's about 90 credits a month, well inside the free 1,000.
Step 5: Schedule it daily
- Open the schedule settings (the clock on the trigger).
- Choose Every day and set a time. I used 08:00.
- Save, then switch the scenario on.
Done. It now runs in Make's cloud, even when your laptop is off.
Make vs n8n: when to choose which
- Make counts credits per action. A 3-step bot is cheap, but big workflows with many steps (or loops over many items) eat credits fast.
- n8n counts one execution per full run, no matter how many steps.
- Make's free plan limits: 2 active scenarios, and a 15-minute minimum scheduling interval.
My rule of thumb: if you want a free plan with nothing to install or host, start with Make. If you're happy to self-host (free Community Edition), or you run huge workflows, n8n is worth it.
Variations
-
Another feed: swap in any site that has RSS (many blogs add
/feed/to the URL). - Telegram or Slack: replace the Email module and map the same aggregated text.
- Keyword filter: add a filter between RSS and the aggregator, for example "title contains 'OpenAI'".
Troubleshooting
- No email? Check spam, then open History to confirm the run succeeded.
- "No items" on a test run: the RSS trigger only returns items it hasn't processed yet. Wait for new posts, or re-pick where to start.
- Scenario stopped? If you run out of credits, scenarios stop running until the credits reset. Check your usage in Make.
Watch it and build it
- 🎥 Full walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7JmClC5dbo
- 🛠 Prefer to self-host? Here's the same bot in n8n: https://youtu.be/DtHBb7h04qo
👉 Ready to build yours? Start on Make's free plan. It takes about ten minutes to build.
Disclosure (#ad): links to make.com in this article are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I built the bot in this tutorial with Make myself.
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