Where the money comes from
AvatarAI, the app that became Photo AI, started as a Stripe payment link and a Typeform. Pieter Levels trained each customer's model by hand and emailed the photos back.
Without an audience or a budget, offer a business you know to automate one task it already pays someone to do, such as a weekly report. The test costs one conversation. A client willing to discuss a price for that report is a lead worth building for, and the first paid invoice tells you the service sells.
| Route | What you sell | Who pays | Where to start |
|---|---|---|---|
| An app | One job done by a model behind a simple screen | Subscribers, monthly or yearly | A task people already pay someone to do |
| A service | Automations, chatbots, research or writing for clients | Businesses, by the project or each month | A workflow you already run for yourself |
| Assets | Agent Skills, n8n workflows, prompts and MCP servers | Buyers on a marketplace or your own site | Something you use every week |
| Content | Videos, newsletters or books made with AI help | Ad networks, sponsors and readers | A subject you know, inside each platform's rules |
Founders who posted their numbers
TrustMRR reads revenue straight from Stripe, and on 2 November 2026 it listed none of Photo AI, TypingMind or Chatbase, so their figures have had no check of that kind.
Photo AI's March 2026 came in nearly a third below its September 2025 record, though Levels still reported 80,000 in profit that month. Smart Notes, near the bottom, is a side income.
Cal AI's three rows count three different things. The founder posted annual recurring revenue, and the press release a year of sales. MyFitnessPal, which closed its purchase in December 2025, gave TechCrunch yearly revenue, the only figure here a founder didn't post.
| Founder and product | What they posted | Where and when | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pieter Levels, Photo AI | “Photo AI just reached a new record of $150,000/mo” | X, September 2025 | No, self-reported |
| Pieter Levels, Photo AI | “Photoai.com is a 40,870 line index.php making 105,000/mo revenue and 80,000/mo profit” | His blog, March 2026 | No, self-reported |
| Tony Dinh, TypingMind | “TypingMind has reached $1M in revenue in the last 12 months” | His newsletter, November 2024 | No, self-reported |
| Tony Dinh, TypingMind | “$148k revenue last month. All-time high for TypingMind.” | X, April 2025 | No, self-reported |
| Tony Dinh, TypingMind | “TypingMind is making ~$130-160k/month” | His newsletter, October 2025 | No, self-reported |
| Yasser Elsaid, Chatbase | “Today, @Chatbase crossed $8M in ARR. 100% bootstrapped.” | X, December 2025 | No, self-reported |
| Yasser Elsaid, Chatbase | “crossed $10M in ARR” | X, May 2026 | No, self-reported |
| Zach Yadegari, Cal AI | “generating over $40 million in sales in the last 12 months” | MyFitnessPal's press release, March 2026 | No, self-reported |
| Zach Yadegari, Cal AI | “we broke $50m in ARR along the way” | X, March 2026 | No, self-reported |
| Cal AI | Over $30 million in yearly revenue | MyFitnessPal, its buyer, to TechCrunch, March 2026 | By the buyer |
| Michael Piazza, Smart Notes for Anki | “Making almost exactly $500/mo on an Anki extension” | Hacker News, December 2025 | No, self-reported |
| The maker of Olly, an AI assistant in iMessage | “Right about $500 now, down from $5K at peak” | Hacker News, December 2025 | No, self-reported |
Sources: Pieter Levels on X: Photo AI's record month (read November 2, 2026), Tony Dinh on X: TypingMind's best month (read November 3, 2026), Pieter Levels' blog: Photo AI's revenue and profit (read November 2, 2026), Hacker News: Olly's maker on its revenue (read November 2, 2026), Hacker News: Michael Piazza on Smart Notes (read November 2, 2026)
Screenshots of X's own embed of each post, taken on 2 and 3 November 2026, with times in US Pacific time. Select one to open the post on X.
How they found their first customers
Levels posted Photo AI to his followers on X, and about a thousand customers came on the first day (his Lex Fridman interview).
TypingMind shipped five days after OpenAI opened the ChatGPT API (his newsletter). Buyers brought their own API key and paid once for a license, and Tony Dinh credits that for the early sales. Launch posts on X and Product Hunt brought buyers. Paid ads and sponsorships didn't, so he stopped them. By October 2025, teams paying monthly brought in more than half of each month's revenue.
Yasser Elsaid had 16 followers on X when he posted a Chatbase demo in February 2023: a ChatGPT-style chat, built on Langchain and Pinecone, answering from a company's own documents. Both companies reshared it, and that one post brought most of the early traction (Starter Story).
Cal AI paid for its reach. After one influencer's post brought about a thousand users in two days, the plan became paying as many creators as possible to post (TechCrunch, October 2026).
Danny Postma found his customers through search. He picked HeadshotPro's niche from keyword research and ranked first for AI headshots (The Bootstrapped Founder). He stopped sharing its revenue in 2023, so it isn't in the table.
What posted numbers leave out
On 23 February 2026, after Claude and Manus added connectors that read Meta Ads accounts directly, Ira Bodnar posted on X: "I woke up today, and Claude killed my startup." Ryze, her company, ran ad accounts with an AI agent. By her account its sales close rate fell from 70% to 20%, and she was already moving to larger workflows for ad agencies (Business Today).
Olly, an AI assistant inside iMessage, fell to a tenth of its peak monthly revenue, and its maker didn't say why. Another founder put his chat app's slide through 2024 down to his own pause in marketing more than the AI labs' new features.
Every services seller in our search who posted income was also selling education, and by their own numbers the course earns more than the service. Nick Saraev's site puts his paid community, Maker School, at several times his automation agency's best months (his biography). Nate Herk's video on selling four AI agents to businesses as a beginner sits beside his paid Skool community.
Revenue posts come mostly from products that earn, so they can't tell you the odds. A census of 10,150 products listed on TrustMRR, pulled on 4 September 2026, counts the rest, and its data and scripts are public. A quarter of the AI products had never earned anything, and under 4% had reached the table's top band. Calling a product AI made no difference to those odds.
| Products | Listed | Never earned | Earning revenue | Reached $5K MRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI | 5,049 | 25.1% | 49.3% | 3.8% |
| Not AI | 5,101 | 27.2% | 49.0% | 3.9% |
Selling a service: automations, chatbots and integration
In the second quarter of 2026, Upwork's gross services volume from AI-related work rose more than 22% while its total fell 4%, and AI strategy and consulting grew over 50% (Upwork's results). With the total still falling, that AI money looks moved from other freelance work, not added on top.
Fiverr publishes search growth, not earnings. Searches for n8n AI automation rose 125% over the six months to April 2026, and demand for Claude Code specialists 938%, both from small bases (Fiverr's release).
In 2025, demand on Upwork for skills that mention AI outgrew the rest of its in-demand list (Upwork, February 2026), and AI integration grew faster still. That's wiring a model into the tools a business already runs, which is most of what an AI automation agency sells.
Source: Upwork: In-Demand Skills 2026 (read November 2, 2026)
Selling skills, workflows and MCP servers
Selling through the big AI platforms has paid builders little so far, while some marketplaces do pay sellers a share of each sale (compared here). OpenAI promised GPT builders a revenue program when the GPT Store opened in January 2024. Its own FAQ later called it a pilot with a select group of US builders that wasn't taking anyone new (as quoted on OpenAI's forum). By October 2024, Wired reported, most small builders had been left out.
The ChatGPT app directory, opened in December 2025, let apps link out to sell physical goods only. Digital goods weren't allowed yet (VentureBeat). We searched OpenAI's pages and the press for a later statement opening builder payouts to everyone and found none.
On n8n, a creator who sells a template tracks the payments and delivers the file, and the buyer imports it into their own n8n. Only verified creators can sell, a status that follows once n8n approves three of your free templates (n8n docs). The money n8n itself pays outsiders comes through its affiliate program: 30% of n8n Cloud referrals for 12 months.
For prompts sold on their own, we found no PromptBase seller who publishes income numbers, only anecdotes passed from one blog post to the next.
Will YouTube or Amazon pay for AI-made content?
On 15 July 2025, YouTube renamed its "repetitious content" policy to "inauthentic content". Its monetization policies list "AI-generated content made with generic or unoriginal templates giving the impression of mass production" among what can't earn. YouTube's creator liaison called the change a new name for a rule that already applied. Automated tools and templates are fine, as long as the video shows your own creative vision.
Faceless channels are allowed, and buyers still want them: Fiverr searches for faceless YouTube video creators rose 488% in the six months from May 2025.
Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing now allows two new titles per format each week (help page), a limit the Alliance of Independent Authors dates to 21 September 2026. Its first cap, in September 2023, was three a day, which still let one account publish by the dozen each week. KDP's content guidelines also ask you to declare AI-generated text, images and translations when you publish.
How to spot a make-money-with-AI scheme
Each of the six FTC cases we list worked the same way: buyers paid first, and the income was a promise. Three of the five cases in Operation AI Comply, which the FTC announced in September 2024, sold the opportunity itself, AI-powered online stores that came with promises of income (FTC). Lina Khan, then the FTC's chair, said the cases "make clear that there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books."
Walk away if you see any of these:
- A promise of income, passive or guaranteed. "Only scammers will guarantee profits or big returns," the FTC warns.
- No disclosure document. In the US, a seller of a business opportunity has to give you one, plus an earnings claim statement if it claims any income, as the FTC's guide to vetting one explains.
- A big fee for a done-for-you store, agent or channel, often with a pricier tier pitched on the same call.
- Profit testimonials you can't check. Click Profit promoted them while Amazon was cutting off most of its stores.
- Pressure to pay on the first call. The FTC tells buyers to steer clear of high-pressure sales tactics.
Business and job opportunity scams ranked third among reported fraud categories in the FTC's figures for 2024. Report a scheme at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
A first month, in six steps
- List five tasks that you or people you know repeat every week, with the hours each one takes.
- Pick one where a mistake is cheap and the result is easy to check, such as a weekly meeting summary you can hold against the notes.
- Build it for yourself first, as an Agent Skill (our guide walks through one), an n8n workflow or a short script against a model's API.
- Before you build a sign-up page, ask three people with the same task, one by one, whether they want it.
- Charge the first person who says yes, rather than handing it over free for feedback.
- Post what you built where those people already read, such as a plugin directory, a marketplace, a forum or X, with a real number like the hours it saved.
Every fact in this post comes from the pages linked above and the sources below, read on 2 November 2026. The three Cal AI pages were read again on 3 November, and the two X posts about TypingMind and Cal AI were read that day too.
Reference: the FTC's cases against AI income schemes
| Case | What it promised | What it cost buyers, per the FTC | How it ended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ascend Ecom, 2024 | AI-powered online stores and "five-figure monthly income by the second year" | At least $25 million | A proposed ban on selling business opportunities, June 2025 |
| FBA Machine, also called Passive Scaling, 2024 | "AI-powered" pricing tools and a "7-figure business" | More than $15.9 million | Its owner banned from selling business opportunities, July 2025 |
| Ecommerce Empire Builders, 2024 | An "AI-powered Ecommerce Empire", with clients who "can make $10,000 monthly" | Up to $35,000 for a store | A permanent ban and a $9.8 million judgment, May 2025 |
| Click Profit, 2025 | "a proprietary system powered by artificial intelligence" and "passive income" | At least $14 million, with about 95% of its stores cut off by Amazon | Its operators banned, August 2025 |
| Air AI, 2025 | Licenses to resell "conversational AI" that would earn back "tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of days or months" | Up to $250,000 each | A ban and an $18 million judgment, largely suspended, March 2026 |
| Growth Cave, 2025 | "$20,000 to $50,000 in passive income" and an "AI-fueled" program called PassiveApps | About $50 million taken | A ban and judgments of $48.6 million, January 2026 |
Frequently asked questions
Can you make money with ChatGPT or Claude without coding?
Yes. An n8n workflow or an Agent Skill is mostly configuration and writing, so you can sell one as it is, or build them for clients as a service. An app people subscribe to is where coding usually comes in.
How much do people make from AI side hustles?
The TrustMRR census counts what products earn, not what their makers take home, and no one publishes a representative figure for take-home pay. Of the founders' posts, only Levels' March 2026 one gives profit as well as revenue.
Do I need my own model or GPU to make money with AI?
No. Photo AI, TypingMind, Chatbase, Cal AI and Smart Notes all rent their models through APIs. In 2024 Photo AI ran fine-tuned Stable Diffusion models on Replicate. Chatbase customers choose their own model, from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others, and Cal AI runs on Anthropic's and OpenAI's, TechCrunch reported in March 2025.
Do I have to tell Amazon if AI only helped me edit my book?
No. KDP calls that AI-assisted: you wrote the book and used an AI tool to edit, refine, error-check or otherwise improve it. That needs no disclosure. Content an AI tool created, such as a chapter or a cover image, does.
Sources
- Pieter Levels on X: Photo AI's record month https://x.com/levelsio/status/1970858876212756506
- Pieter Levels' blog: Photo AI's revenue and profit https://levels.io/photoai-40870-line-index-php-105k-mo-revenue
- Lex Fridman Podcast #440: Pieter Levels transcript https://lexfridman.com/pieter-levels-transcript
- Tony Dinh's newsletter: the $500K milestone https://news.tonydinh.com/p/500k-milestone-my-reflections-after
- Tony Dinh's newsletter: my first million https://news.tonydinh.com/p/nov-2024-my-first-million
- Tony Dinh's newsletter: October 2025 update https://news.tonydinh.com/p/oct-2025-updates-code-money-and-travel
- Tony Dinh on X: TypingMind's best month https://x.com/tdinh_me/status/1908345028327727335
- Yasser Elsaid on X: Chatbase at $8M ARR https://x.com/yasser_elsaid_/status/1995526388820877598
- Yasser Elsaid on X: Chatbase at $10M ARR https://x.com/yasser_elsaid_/status/2056394356769366166
- Starter Story: Yasser Elsaid interview https://www.starterstory.com/yasser
- MyFitnessPal press release: acquiring Cal AI https://finance.yahoo.com/news/myfitnesspal-acquires-cal-ai-expanding-140000022.html
- Zach Yadegari on X: Cal AI has been acquired https://x.com/zach_yadegari/status/2028473704359874652
- TechCrunch: MyFitnessPal has acquired Cal AI https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/02/myfitnesspal-has-acquired-cal-ai-the-viral-calorie-app-built-by-teens
- TechCrunch: Cal AI, built by two teenagers https://techcrunch.com/?p=2979629
- TechCrunch: Cal AI and its paid influencers https://techcrunch.com/?p=3178431
- Hacker News: Michael Piazza on Smart Notes https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46311005
- Hacker News: Olly's maker on its revenue https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46309480
- The Bootstrapped Founder, episode 240: Danny Postma https://share.transistor.fm/s/1fbba06a
- Ira Bodnar on X: Ryze https://x.com/irabukht/status/2025846968245948795
- Business Today: a founder says Claude crushed her startup https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/san-francisco-based-founder-claims-anthropics-claude-update-crushed-her-startup-518052-2026-02-26
- TrustMRR census data and scripts (GitHub) https://github.com/mifanr/trustmrr-research
- TechStartups: what share of indie products make money https://techstartups.com/2026/09/28/what-percentage-of-indie-hacker-products-make-100k-in-arr/
- Upwork: In-Demand Skills 2026 https://investors.upwork.com/news-releases/news-release-details/upworks-demand-skills-2026-demand-top-ai-skills-more-doubles-ai
- Upwork: second quarter 2026 results https://investors.upwork.com/news-releases/news-release-details/upwork-reports-second-quarter-2026-financial-results
- Fiverr: Business Trends Index, June 2026 (wire copy) https://finviz.com/news/360535/businesses-race-to-hire-claude-code-specialists-as-demand-surges-938
- Fiverr: Fall 2025 Business Trends Index https://www.fiverr.com/news/2025-fall-business-trends-index
- Nick Saraev: biography https://nicksaraev.com/biography/
- Nate Herk on YouTube: selling four AI agents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNKlFTd1maM
- OpenAI: Introducing the GPT Store https://openai.com/index/introducing-the-gpt-store/
- OpenAI developer forum: GPT Store revenue share status https://community.openai.com/t/what-is-the-status-with-gpt-store-revenue-share/839172
- Slashdot: summary of Wired on the GPT Store https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/10/11/1033247/openais-gpt-store-has-left-some-developers-in-the-lurch
- VentureBeat: ChatGPT app submissions open https://venturebeat.com/technology/openai-now-accepting-chatgpt-app-submissions-from-third-party-devs-launches
- n8n docs: Create templates https://docs.n8n.io/contribute/create-templates
- n8n: Affiliate program https://n8n.io/affiliates
- YouTube Help: channel monetization policies https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1311392
- Social Media Today: YouTube clarifies its monetization update https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-clarifies-monetization-update-inauthentic-repeated-content/752892/
- Amazon KDP: content guidelines https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200672390
- Amazon KDP: create a book (title limits) https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202172740
- Publishers Weekly: KDP will limit new titles https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/93207-kdp-will-limit-daily-number-of-new-titles.html
- Alliance of Independent Authors: KDP cuts its weekly upload limit https://selfpublishingadvice.org/amazon-cuts-kdp-weekly-upload-limit/
- FTC: Operation AI Comply https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/09/ftc-announces-crackdown-deceptive-ai-claims-schemes
- FTC: Ascend Ecom order https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/06/ftc-case-leads-order-banning-ascend-ecom-its-owners-business-opportunity-marketing
- FTC: FBA Machine ban https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/07/ftc-obtains-permanent-ban-e-commerce-business-opportunity-scheme-operator
- FTC: Ecommerce Empire Builders ends https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/05/ftc-action-ends-ecommerce-empire-builders-online-business-opportunity-scam
- FTC: Click Profit halted https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/ftc-acts-stop-click-profit-online-business-opportunity-has-cost-consumers-least-14-million
- FTC: Click Profit ban https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/08/ftc-case-against-e-commerce-business-opportunity-scheme-its-operators-results-permanent-ban-industry
- FTC: Air AI sued https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/08/ftc-sues-stop-air-ai-using-deceptive-claims-about-business-growth-earnings-potential-refund
- FTC: Air AI settlement https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/03/air-ai-its-owners-will-be-banned-marketing-business-opportunities-settle-ftc-charges-company-misled
- FTC: Growth Cave sued https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/ftc-takes-action-stop-sprawling-growth-cave-business-opportunity-credit-repair-scam
- FTC: Growth Cave settlement https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/01/ftc-secures-settlement-banning-growth-cave-defendants-marketing-selling-business-opportunities
- FTC consumer alert: vetting a business or coaching opportunity https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/08/vetting-business-or-coaching-opportunity-you-buy
- FTC consumer alert: big-money business opportunities are often scams https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/11/business-opportunities-trainings-claim-youll-make-big-money-are-often-scams
- FTC: fraud losses reported in 2024 https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/new-ftc-data-show-big-jump-reported-losses-fraud-125-billion-2024