What type of virtual machine or automation should I use for my Python project?

You have a few solid options:
1. You could run it locally on a cron job. If you want portability, consider using a Docker container, though it's not necessary if you're keeping it local.
2. An economical cloud option would be Cloudflare Workers' free tier. If your processes fit within their limits, it's a great solution since you won't have to keep your computer on all the time.
3. There are other similar cloud services, but running a full VM for just a few minutes of work three times a day seems inefficient. Look for serverless options!

For your project, I'd recommend using a container instead of a traditional VM. A lightweight Linux container can provide the isolation and portability you need. You can easily deploy containers across various hosting solutions. I've mostly worked with AWS for this kind of setup, and it's pretty straightforward. For the uploading part, you can just make a simple API call in your Python script to send updates to YouTube.