StoryShort
StoryShort is a faceless video generator. A faceless video is a short clip in which no real person appears on camera: a computer voice tells a story over pictures or generated clips. You type an idea, and StoryShort writes the script, plans the scenes, makes the images and clips, adds the voice, music and captions, and can post the result to TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. A series, a schedule that you set once, lets it pick the next topic in your niche and post a new video every day without you opening the app. It also makes long videos, talking avatars and UGC ads, product advertisements made to look as if a customer filmed them on a phone (UGC means user-generated content).
Samuel Rondot, the founder, writes on the site that StoryShort is built and run by one person, who writes the code, picks the AI models and answers the support email. The Internet Archive saved the working site on 27 July 2024, with the line "Powered by GPT-4o". In November 2024 he said it had passed US$10,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR), the amount that active subscriptions bring in each month, and that he promoted it with ads and affiliates, people who earn a commission on each customer they send. On 15 October 2026 TrustMRR, a site that reads revenue directly from a company's payment processor, showed US$18,003 of MRR from 327 active subscriptions in StoryShort's Stripe account, US$321,908 in the last 12 months and US$588,328 since the start.
These Stripe figures are grade A. They also show a fall: the best month was January 2026 with US$44,459, and September 2026 brought US$21,767, 51% less. The business has been listed for sale on TrustMRR since 18 December 2025 at US$1.2 million. The page also covers the rules that decide whether the customers' videos can earn money and stay online: YouTube's July 2025 update on mass-produced content, TikTok's labels for AI content, the US rule against fake testimonials, and copyright when a tool rebuilds another creator's video.
The numbers, graded
Each row shows the evidence grade and the source numbers from the list at the end of this page. The grades are explained in How Aiolum verifies.
| Fact | Value | Grade | How we know | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly recurring revenue, 15 October 2026 | US$18,003 | A | TrustMRR reads it from the company's Stripe account through an API key, last synced 15 October 2026. 327 active subscriptions. | [1] |
| Run rate from that MRR | about US$216,036 a year | calc | Calculated: US$18,003 times 12. This is the headline figure on this page. | [1] |
| Revenue in the last 30 days and the last 12 months | US$20,877 and US$321,908 | A | Stripe data on TrustMRR, to 15 October 2026. | [1] |
| Revenue since the start | US$588,328 | A | Stripe data on TrustMRR. US$266,420 of it came before mid-October 2025 (calculated: all-time revenue minus the last 12 months). | [1] |
| Best month | US$44,459, January 2026 | A | 64.3% more than December 2025, US$27,062 (calculated). The public monthly table starts in November 2025 with US$24,626. | [1] |
| Revenue in September 2026 | US$21,767 | A | 51.0% below January 2026. July to September 2026 averaged US$22,279 a month, 49.9% below January (both calculated). October 2026 up to the 15th: US$11,640. | [1] |
| Change in the last 30 days | MRR -16.3%, revenue -9.9% | A | TrustMRR snapshots on 15 October 2026. | [1] |
| Average revenue per active subscription | about US$55 a month | calc | Calculated: US$18,003 divided by 327 subscriptions is US$55.06. The monthly plans cost US$39 to US$199. | [1, 4] |
| Profit margin, last 30 days | 75.0% | C | A TrustMRR snapshot. Costs are not part of the payment data that TrustMRR verifies, so this value is treated as unverified. | [1] |
| MRR, November and December 2024 | passed US$10,000, then US$14,000 by 10 December 2024 | C | Founder statement reported by the gaps.com newsletter, which spells his name "Rondont". MRR grew 28.6% from US$14,000 to the October 2026 figure (calculated). | [2, 1] |
| Earliest dated copy of the product | 27 July 2024 | C | Internet Archive copy of the home page: "Faceless Videos on Auto-Pilot", "Powered by GPT-4o" and "Trusted by 27,000+ creators". TrustMRR gives a founded date of 6 August 2024, entered by the founder; the copy shows the product was live before that date. | [6, 1] |
| Team | 1 person | C | The About page: "built and run by one person", with "no growth team and no outsourced support". The terms name no operating company and are governed by the laws of France. | [3, 11] |
| Outside funding | none found | C | The About page calls StoryShort "an independent product". No source mentions an investor. | [3] |
| Sale listing | asking US$1,200,000 since 18 December 2025 | C | Seller's asking price on TrustMRR; 21 offers received, still listed on 16 October 2026, no team size given. TrustMRR's 4.8x multiple equals the price divided by 12 times the last 30 days of revenue (4.79, calculated). | [1] |
| Creators claimed | 90,000+ | C | Home and pricing pages, October 2026. The founder's TrustMRR entry estimates 27,000 users. | [5, 4, 1] |
| Affiliate commission | 30% of each payment, for the life of the customer | C | Affiliate page: 60-day attribution period, monthly payouts, US$100 minimum payout. | [7] |
| Time from the first archived copy to the October 2026 figure | 27 months | calc | Calculated: July 2024 to October 2026. From the TrustMRR founded date it is 26 months. | [6, 1] |
How to read this table: a grade A value comes from TrustMRR's reading of the company's Stripe account. A grade C value is a statement by the founder, the company's own pages, or a field the founder entered on TrustMRR. A "calc" value was computed on this page from the rows above it.
| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 23 | 39 | 400 credits, 1 series: about 26 videos of 30 seconds |
| Growth | 42 | 69 | 1,200 credits, 2 series: about 80 videos of 30 seconds |
| Influencer | 75 | 129 | 2,400 credits, 3 series: about 160 videos of 30 seconds |
| Ultra | 117 | 199 | 5,000 credits, 4 series: about 330 videos of 30 seconds |
Yearly billing costs US$279, US$499, US$899 or US$1,399 a year, about 40% less than monthly. Each plan gives a number of credits per month, and the page lists typical costs: about 15 credits for a 30-second video with AI images, about 115 for a UGC video ad and more than 270 for a talking avatar video. The credit table marks long-form video as not in the Starter and Growth plans. Signing up is free; making a video needs credits from a paid plan.
The timeline
From a site that already claimed 27,000 creators in July 2024 to a business listed for sale, in 27 months. Each entry carries its grade.
- 27 July 2024CFirst Internet Archive copy of storyshort.ai: "Faceless Videos on Auto-Pilot", "Powered by GPT-4o", series that publish daily on TikTok and YouTube, and "Trusted by 27,000+ creators". [6]
- 6 August 2024CFounded date that the founder entered on TrustMRR. [1]
- November 2024CThe founder says StoryShort passed US$10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, promoted with ads and affiliates. [2]
- 10 December 2024Cgaps.com reports US$14,000 of monthly recurring revenue. [2]
- November 2025AUS$24,626 of Stripe revenue, the first month in TrustMRR's public monthly table. [1]
- 18 December 2025CListed for sale on TrustMRR, asking US$1,200,000. [1]
- January 2026ABest month in the table: US$44,459. [1]
- February to September 2026ARevenue falls from US$33,251 in February to about US$22,000 to US$23,000 a month from June, and US$21,767 in September. [1]
- 15 October 2026AUS$18,003 of MRR from 327 active subscriptions and US$588,328 since the start. Still for sale after 21 offers. [1]
- October 2026CThe site offers long videos, UGC ads, talking avatars, a video cloning tool, an API and an MCP server, and names its models: Claude, ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Qwen, Seedance, Grok, Wan, Veo and p-video. [5, 8, 9]
Why it worked
Four causes, in the order they mattered. Each one is a reusable lesson.
A channel, not a video
Since at least July 2024 the core feature has been the series: the customer chooses a niche and a schedule once, and StoryShort picks the next topic, writes it, makes it and posts it to TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. The customer pays every month for a stream of videos, which fits a subscription better than a tool used once.
Ads and affiliates
In November 2024 the founder said that he promoted the app with ads and affiliates. The affiliate program pays 30% of every payment from a referred customer for as long as that customer pays, with a 60-day attribution period (the time after a click in which a sale still counts for the affiliate) and monthly payouts from US$100. The TrustMRR profile connects no traffic or ads data, so the split between the two channels is not known.
Copy what already works
The 2026 product follows creators that the customer picks, shows the videos that did much better than their usual (the page's example: 12 times the average), and rebuilds one with the customer's style and characters in one click. A separate Clone Video with AI tool extracts the full transcript of a TikTok, YouTube or Instagram video and makes a new video from it.
Credits per video type
Every plan is a monthly number of credits, and the pricing page lists what each video type costs: about 15 credits for a 30-second video with AI images, about 115 for a UGC ad and more than 270 for a talking avatar. Longer scripts and premium models use more credits, so the cost of an expensive model falls on the credits that the customer spends.
How it was built
These details come from the company's own pages, an archived copy of its home page and the TrustMRR profile. They are grade C, except the payment provider, which TrustMRR reads through an API key. [3, 5, 6, 1, 9, 4]
- One person writes the code, picks the AI models and answers support, with no growth team and no outsourced support (About page, October 2026).
- Scripts: written by Claude in October 2026. The archived home page of 27 July 2024 said "Powered by GPT-4o".
- Voices: ElevenLabs, OpenAI and Qwen. Qwen can also copy a customer's own voice from a short recording.
- Video: Seedance, Grok, Wan, Veo or p-video, depending on the quality level chosen. The FAQ says: "We swap these when a better one comes out."
- Payments: Stripe, read by TrustMRR through an API key. StoryShort is not a merchant of record, a reseller that sells in its own name and handles sales tax.
- A REST API with webhooks and an MCP server (a standard way for AI assistants to call outside tools) let other programs generate and publish videos; the example script makes a 30-second UGC ad.
- Every page links about 55 tool pages under /tools/, from meme video generators ("Italian Brainrot" and others) to thumbnail makers. The page code loads the DataFast and PostHog analytics scripts.
Tools named in the sources
Each one opens its page in the Tools tab, with every story that uses it.
The dead that came before
Five companies in the Loot Drop database promised easier video making, or a better deal for video creators, on platforms that they did not control. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.
Viddy
The promiseInstagram for video: filters that make phone clips look professional.
Why it diedLost to better-funded rivals with more distribution. People tried it once and did not come back.
Vine
The promiseSix-second video loops for quick, shareable creativity.
Why it diedTwitter, its owner, never made it a priority, and creators could not make money. When Instagram added video and YouTube paid creators, the top creators left.
ReelSurfer
The promiseCut and share segments of online videos with a simple tool.
Why it diedYouTube and Facebook built similar editing and sharing features into their own products.
Vidme
The promiseA simpler place for creators to upload videos and earn from them.
Why it diedCould not match YouTube's scale. Content moderation and video hosting cost too much.
FameBit
The promiseSelf-service matching of brands with YouTube creators for sponsored videos.
Why it diedGoogle bought it in 2016 and phased it out as YouTube moved to large brand deals and TikTok grew.
What changed
All five depended on a platform that they did not control, and all five lost when that platform built the same feature, paid creators better or changed its priorities. StoryShort depends on platforms twice: TikTok, YouTube and Instagram decide whether its customers' videos are shown and paid, and outside model companies make every script, voice and clip.
Two things differ. StoryShort hosts no videos and runs no social network, so it carries none of the hosting and moderation cost that the database names for Vidme; its TrustMRR snapshot shows a 75% margin. And it charges the creator, not the platform: the subscription is paid before any video earns anything, so StoryShort earns money even when its customers' channels do not, until those customers decide that the videos are not worth the price. No source says why revenue fell after January 2026.
Can one person copy it now?
The niche is crowded. The structure can be copied.
Faceless short-video tools were already many in 2024: this site has two other stories in the field, and TrustMRR lists more video businesses for sale next to StoryShort. What can be copied is the structure: a subscription for a stream of output instead of one file, prices in credits that follow model costs, and growth paid through ads and recurring affiliate commissions from the first months.
Where it is still open: Video formats that new models made possible only recently: the same character across scenes, characters that talk on screen, long videos, and API access for companies that make ads in volume. Each needs the platforms' rules on AI labels and original content built into the product.
- 1Sell a schedule of finished output, such as a video every day, so the subscription matches what the customer gets.
- 2Price in credits per output type and publish the cost of each type, so that a new, more expensive model does not reduce your margin.
- 3Start ads and a recurring affiliate commission early, as StoryShort had by November 2024.
- 4Keep the model layer swappable: StoryShort moved from GPT-4o on its 2024 home page to Claude for scripts by 2026.
What to watch
The risks are the mirror image of the causes above.
Revenue has halved since January 2026
Stripe revenue peaked at US$44,459 in January 2026 and was US$21,767 in September 2026, 51.0% lower. MRR fell 16.3% in the last 30 days, to US$18,003. No source explains the fall. The business has been listed for sale since 18 December 2025 at US$1,200,000, 4.8 times its last 30 days of revenue counted for a year, and it was still listed on 16 October 2026 after 21 offers. The listing gives no team size.
YouTube does not pay for mass-produced videos
On 15 July 2025 YouTube renamed its "repetitious content" policy to "inauthentic content" and made clear that it includes content that is "repetitive or mass-produced"; YouTube says such content has always been ineligible for money from the YouTube Partner Program. Its reused content policy also covers channels that repost others' content without significant original commentary or changes. A series that posts a new AI video every day is the kind of channel these reviews look at. StoryShort's own guide repeats the rule and says that "nobody can promise you a number".
TikTok labels for AI content
TikTok's synthetic media policy, introduced in 2023, "requires people to label AI-generated content that contains realistic images, audio or video". In September 2023 TikTok also began testing an "AI-generated" label that it plans to apply automatically to content that it detects was made or edited with AI. Videos that StoryShort posts for its customers fall under this rule when they look real.
AI testimonials and the US rule on fake reviews
The US Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, published on 22 August 2024 and in force from 21 October 2024, covers testimonials that misrepresent "that the reviewer or testimonialist exists", and the Commission wrote that "AI-generated reviews are covered by the final rule". StoryShort's API page uses the example prompt "Make a UGC testimonial ad for our new skincare line". An AI person shown as a real customer in such an ad is the case that the rule describes; the sources read here do not say how the rule applies to the tool that made the video.
Rebuilding another creator's video
The Clone Video with AI tool finds videos that did well on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, extracts "the full word-for-word transcript" and makes a new video that "mirrors the original's winning formula". A word-for-word transcript is the original creator's text, and the US Copyright Office explains that "only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, an adaptation of that work". YouTube's monetization page adds that copyright still applies to reused content. StoryShort's terms forbid content that infringes copyrights and make the user "solely responsible" for what the tool generates.
A crowded field
This site's AutoShorts.ai story (one founder, US$97,000 a month in May 2025) and Arcads story (AI UGC ads, US$6 million a year with 5 people in May 2025, then a US$16 million seed round) both rest on founder statements, grade C, while StoryShort's smaller US$18,003 a month is the only one of the three read from the payment processor.
Built on other companies' models
Claude writes the scripts; ElevenLabs, OpenAI and Qwen make the voices; Seedance, Grok, Wan, Veo and p-video make the clips. A price rise, a usage limit or a content rule at any of these companies changes what a credit costs StoryShort or what it can make. The models have already changed once: the 2024 home page said "Powered by GPT-4o". The 75% profit margin is a TrustMRR snapshot that does not come from the verified payment data.
Numbers that do not match
The site says "Trusted by 90,000+ creators"; the founder's TrustMRR entry estimates 27,000 users; Stripe shows 327 active subscriptions. The July 2024 home page already claimed 27,000 creators, although TrustMRR gives 6 August 2024 as the founded date. The affiliate page invites promoters to start "earning passive income"; it offers a commission to affiliates, not an income promise to customers.
Sources
The grade next to each source is the best grade that the source can support. "Read in full" means that the text of the page was downloaded and the numbers were checked in it.
- A TrustMRR markdown profile: StoryShort, revenue last synced 15 October 2026Read the markdown profile once, on 16 October 2026 (revenue last synced 2026-10-15T20:14Z). Grade A for the Stripe metrics in its Verification Sources section; the founded date, user estimate, description, margin and listing price are founder-entered or unverified, grade C. Source for every revenue figure and the sale listing.
- C gaps.com, 10 December 2024: Gaps Income Report, November 2024, insight #26Read the section on StoryShort (insight #26). A founder statement reported by the newsletter. Source for the 2024 MRR and the ads and affiliates.
- C StoryShort: About, read 16 October 2026Read in full. Source for the one-person team and the founder's roles.
- C StoryShort: Pricing, read 16 October 2026Read in full. Source for the plans, yearly prices, credits and the cost of each video type.
- C StoryShort home page, read 16 October 2026Read in full, including the questions and answers in the page code. Source for the product features and the AI models.
- C Internet Archive copy of storyshort.ai, 27 July 2024Read in full. The first copy that the archive saved. Source for the early product and the GPT-4o line.
- C StoryShort: Affiliate Program, read 16 October 2026Read in full. Source for the commission terms.
- C StoryShort: Clone Video with AI, read 16 October 2026Read the sections on how cloning works. Source for the transcript extraction and the recreation.
- C StoryShort: Automate AI UGC videos, read 16 October 2026Read the section with the example API script. Source for the testimonial example and the API.
- C StoryShort: YouTube Automation Tool, read 16 October 2026Read the sections on YouTube's rules and on income. Source for the company's own warning.
- C StoryShort: Terms of Service, read 16 October 2026Read in full. Source for the governing law, the prohibited content and the user's responsibility.
- C YouTube Help: YouTube channel monetization policies, read 16 October 2026Read the update list (15 July 2025) and the sections on inauthentic and reused content.
- C TikTok Newsroom, 19 September 2023: New labels for disclosing AI-generated contentRead in full. Source for the label rule and the automatic label test.
- A Federal Register, 22 August 2024: Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (FTC)Read the sections on fake testimonials and AI-generated reviews in the Federal Register's full-text file, and the dates from its API record. ftc.gov refused the download, so the Federal Register copy is cited.
- A U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 14: Copyright in Derivative Works and CompilationsRead in full. Source for the right to prepare adaptations.
- C Aiolum stories: AutoShorts.ai and ArcadsRead the published story data for both. Their figures are founder statements, grade C.
- C Loot Drop database export, failed startupsLocal export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.