Where each kind of AI asset sells
A file or tool is built once, and every buyer downloads and reuses it. Implementation work has to be delivered again for each client, so it sells as a service, the subject of our post on starting an AI automation agency.
Most of these places take the buyer's money for you. The n8n Creator hub doesn't. There you track payments and deliver each paid template yourself, and only verified creators may charge at all.
| Where | What you list | How the seller is paid | Cut or terms, as stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apify Store | Actors: scrapers and automations that run on Apify | Pay per event, invoiced monthly after identity verification | 20% commission, plus the platform usage costs your Actor runs up |
| Gumroad | Digital files such as n8n templates, prompt packs and skill packs | Direct deposit or PayPal, depending on your country | 10% plus a flat fee on direct sales, 30% when its own marketplace brings the buyer |
| PromptBase | Prompts | From its marketplace, or from your own link | 20% on marketplace sales, 0% when the buyer arrives through your own link |
| n8n Creator hub | Workflow templates, paid ones only from verified creators | You track payments and deliver the template yourself | The docs page lists no fee |
| MCPize and MCP Marketplace | Paid MCP servers | MCPize bills through Stripe and issues API keys. MCP Marketplace gives the buyer a license key | 20% on MCPize servers added from 10 June 2026. MCP Marketplace says it takes a commission and names no rate |
| Claude Code marketplaces | Plugins, in your own marketplace or Anthropic's directory | The docs describe no checkout | Your own marketplace is a JSON file in a git repository. Anthropic's directory asks for a paid claude.ai plan to submit |
| MCP Registry | Public MCP servers | It does not handle payment: it holds metadata only | Names are verified through GitHub or DNS, and private servers are not accepted |
| Mindket | Prompt skills, agents, automations and kits, plus free MCP server listings | In credits on your Mindket account, a share of each sale after a holding period | The Sell page states the share and the wait |
Sources: Gumroad pricing (read November 2, 2026), Apify docs (read November 2, 2026), CartMango, quoting PromptBase (read November 2, 2026), MCPize (read November 2, 2026)
PromptBase's pages returned an access error when we read them, so its fee comes from its seller page as search results and a CartMango comparison quote it.
What sellers who posted numbers say they made
Nobody below showed us their books. Apify posted the ParseForge figure itself, and the two Apify rows are its own totals across all developers. Every other figure is a seller's own, linked to where they posted it.
Rafael Silva's 54 sales on Gumroad came 42% from direct traffic or Gumroad's own marketplace, 28% from his dev.to articles, 15% from Reddit and the rest from other links. Ryan Doser sells his Claude Code skills stack from his own site rather than a marketplace, and credits SEO, YouTube and email. Boon wrote 28 articles that drew 76 views between them. He blames that weak distribution, not the Actor, for how little it earns.
The two workflow-template rows come from one January thread on the Latenode community forum, and not every poster names the platform they sold on. Our search of X, YouTube and the n8n forum on 2 November 2026 turned up no n8n template seller who gave a sum, a platform and a period together. Every per-use figure in this post comes from Apify.
$18K+
Ryan Doser's Claude Skills Stack, revenue since its February launch
Source: Ryan Doser on X (read November 2, 2026)
$334
Rafael Silva's Manus AI skill on Gumroad, sales in 30 days
Source: DEV Community (read November 3, 2026)
$200
a month, roughly, from Boon's Apify Actor after Apify's cut
Source: DEV Community (read November 3, 2026)
What the templates did for one seller
…usually a lead generation vehicle, not a revenue center.
| Seller and what they sell | What they posted | Where and when | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boon, an Apify Actor | “netting roughly $200/month after Apify's 20% platform cut” | DEV Community, May 2026 | No, self-reported |
| Rafael Silva, a Manus AI skill on Gumroad | “I Made $334 in 30 Days Selling a Digital Product on Gumroad”, with 54 sales and net revenue of $264.35 after fees in his table | DEV Community, May 2026 | No, self-reported |
| Ryan Doser, a Claude Skills Stack on his own site | “My Claude Skills Stack digital product has hit over $18K in revenue since I launched in February” | X, 6 August 2026 | No, self-reported |
| Keith AI, n8n templates | “How I Made $1,310 Selling n8n Templates”, the video's title | YouTube, 2025, as the title says | No, self-reported |
| QuantumWeaver, five workflow templates | “made maybe $1200 over 6 months on 5 published templates” | Latenode community forum, January 2026 | No, self-reported |
| bluefalcon_solo, templates plus services | “probably $40K in the first year, mostly from implementation services rather than template sales” | Latenode community forum, January 2026 | No, self-reported |
| ParseForge, Actors on Apify | “Now it pays $1K/month. Every month.” | X, posted by Apify, 20 February 2026 | No, posted by the platform |
| Apify, all developers | “Apify hit $1M paid to creators in a single month.” | X, 13 May 2026 | The platform's own figure |
| Apify, all developers | “$1.7M paid out last month. Many developers earn over $3k.” | apify.com, read 2 November 2026, undated | The platform's own figure |
Select a post to open it on X.
Selling Actors on Apify Store
On Apify Store, an Actor for a site no other developer covers sells better than one more copy of a popular scraper. Olivier Reynaud published 98 Actors there in six months (Apify blog, 22 July 2026). His failures went head-to-head with the established LinkedIn, Amazon and Instagram scrapers, or came with READMEs written like API docs. The ones that paid off sat in niches nobody else had built, such as Welcome to the Jungle and Skool, with READMEs that led with use cases and sample output. In his pricing comparison, the pay-per-event version won ten of eleven matched pairs. Under pay per event, the developer sets a price for each event the code triggers, such as a finished result. He now publishes only that kind, and he chose not to post revenue.
Apify set rental pricing to sunset on 1 October 2026, after a 30 September deadline to migrate. A rental Actor its developer hasn't moved switches to pay per usage, which Apify's own post calls "free", and the developer collects no revenue from it (Apify, 25 August 2026). By April Apify had already moved 2,000 Actors from pay per result to pay per event, and in a survey 73% of its customers preferred it to fixed rentals (Apify, 14 April 2026).
Your payout is revenue minus Apify's commission minus the platform usage your Actor consumes (monetization docs), so a price below what a run costs you is a loss. An Actor that earns nothing pays no commission.
10/11
matched pairs won by the pay-per-event version in Olivier Reynaud's pricing comparison
Source: Apify blog, 22 July 2026 (read November 3, 2026)
Apify announces standard pricing on pay per event
Source: Apify blog, 14 April 2026 (read November 3, 2026)
The migration guide for rental Actors goes up
Last day to move a rental Actor
Rental pricing ends
Source: Apify blog, 25 August 2026 (read November 2, 2026)
What buyers pay for
Silva's skill does one job: it saves Manus AI users credits through model routing.
Boon's hardest bug was a run that found nothing. Whenever a site served a bot challenge, his runs still finished as succeeded with zero items, and those users didn't come back. A final check now fails any run with no items (DEV Community, May 2026).
Say on the listing whether the buyer may use it in client work and whether they may resell it. On AWS you can pick its Standard Contract or upload your own end-user license agreement. On Microsoft's marketplace the publisher sets the terms, its FAQ says.
An MCP server or agent works with the buyer's own tools and data. Its listing should show the exact command that starts it, who publishes it and the least access it needs.
One-time, subscription or per use?
Boon's per-run start fee made small jobs expensive, "killing 58% of customers", until he reworked it.
Subscriptions show up elsewhere: a paid MCP server on MCPize sells that way.
| One-time Our pick | Subscription | Per use | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suits a file the buyer keeps | Yes | Partly | No |
| Paid once | Yes | No | No |
| Where this post found it | Gumroad, MCP Marketplace, a paid Mindket listing | MCPize, the cloud marketplaces | Apify Store |
Our pick: One-time. For a prompt pack or a workflow file. Once the buyer has downloaded it, there is nothing left for you to run.
Sources: Gumroad pricing (read November 2, 2026), MCP Marketplace (read November 2, 2026), MCPize (read November 2, 2026), Apify docs (read November 2, 2026)
How a paid MCP server charges
The official MCP Registry won't charge for you. It points to a package on npm, PyPI or Docker Hub, or to a remote server, and leaves code scanning to those registries and the marketplaces built on top.
On servers added from 10 June 2026, MCPize gives sellers 80% of revenue, paid monthly, and keeps the rest for Stripe, hosting, tax compliance, support and fraud prevention. On MCP Marketplace, the buyer pays for a license key that sits in an environment variable, where a small SDK checks it, so the server's code itself can stay open to read.
On AWS Marketplace the seller decides how keys reach buyers. Buyers authenticate to an agent or an MCP server with API keys or OAuth. The seller either plugs into AWS's deployment API to issue keys on subscription or sends buyers to their own site to get them (AWS docs).
Getting to a first sale
- Write the job in one sentence with its result, such as "turns a pasted job post into a checked summary". "Helps with job hunting" is too broad to show in a preview.
- Write the setup as numbered steps that name every account and key the buyer needs, then install it on a clean machine using only those steps. Strip your own keys, tokens and customer ids from every file. For an n8n file, go through our import guide as a buyer would. Ship a skill as one folder, with every file its instructions call for inside it (how to create an Agent Skill).
- Make the preview: one real input beside what your asset made from it. For Silva's skill that could be one Manus task and its credit cost with and without it. For an MCP server, add the tool list and the exact line that starts it.
- List it where buyers of that kind already shop: Apify Store for an Actor, PromptBase for prompts, Gumroad for a file, and Mindket for a prompt skill, an agent or a kit.
- Post the preview and one real result where people already ask how to get that job done, as Silva did in his dev.to articles.
- Apify shows each developer's issue response time on their profile, where buyers can compare it. Reynaud's was 6.2 hours. Pick a reply time you can keep, state it on your listing and ship each fix as a new version.
Reference: selling to companies on cloud marketplaces
These sell to companies that already pay through a cloud or software contract, so expect a partner agreement, a security review or a vendor sign-up before your first listing goes live.
- AWS Marketplace lists an API-based agent or tool as a SaaS product: an agent, an MCP server, a knowledge base or a guardrail. An agent must use reasoning LLMs and show autonomous capabilities, and its listing needs an API schema, rate limits and usage examples. Pricing is by subscription, by contract or by contract plus pay as you go, and AWS's published fee for public SaaS subscriptions is 3%. Settle the price before launch, because a product set to free can't later become a paid one. The AI agents and tools category opened in July 2025.
- Listing on Microsoft Marketplace costs nothing, but your organization must be a Microsoft partner. It takes AI apps and agents, grouped as Azure agents and Microsoft 365 agents. When a customer buys through Microsoft's own checkout, which it calls a transact offer, Microsoft keeps a standard store service fee of 3%, the same as AWS (publisher FAQ).
- Google Cloud Marketplace accepts A2A agents, SaaS, Kubernetes apps and professional services. New sellers sign up as a vendor first, and the page names no fee. An A2A agent can be free, a flat monthly subscription, usage-based or a base fee plus usage.
- Salesforce AgentExchange is the former AppExchange. Its partner page mentions a revenue-share fee without a percentage, and an ISV partner signs a commercial agreement and passes a security review before publishing.
- Claude Marketplace is a limited preview, and no commission is named. Organizations with an Anthropic commitment can put part of it toward listed agents and products. Anthropic's team reviews each submitted product.
- OpenAI's Apps SDK monetization page still limits approved apps to physical goods sold through the merchant's own checkout, the same limit it had in December 2025. The page does not mention selling digital goods, or payouts to builders.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need before I can sell?
On Apify, identity verification: your earnings roll over until you pass it. On Mindket, a free account is enough. You describe what you sell and set a price in credits or leave it free. An MCP server lists free, and a paid service behind it charges through its own sign-in or key. A new or changed listing passes an automatic check, and one the check holds waits for a moderator.
Can an AI agent pay for my Actor without an account?
Yes, on Apify, within limits. Its docs say agents can run and pay for an Actor without an Apify account. An agent paying per request, through Skyfire for example, is limited to a narrow set of Actors. They must be pay per event, charge for events alone, run with limited permissions, skip Standby mode and belong to a developer who passed identity verification.
How long until the money reaches me?
Apify pays the previous month's profit between the 21st and 25th of the next month (payout docs). Microsoft pays monthly and holds a card sale for a further 30 days. Mindket pays into your credits after the holding period its Sell page states.
Who can review my listing on Mindket?
Only people who bought it or got it free, and they have to sign in first.
Does Gumroad handle sales tax for me?
Yes, by its own account. Gumroad's pricing page says it has handled all of a seller's tax obligations since 1 January 2025. On Microsoft's marketplace, its FAQ says, Microsoft manages tax payment in many countries and regions.
Sources
- Apify docs: monetize your Actor https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/monetize
- Apify docs: monthly payouts https://docs.apify.com/actors/publishing/monetize/monthly-payouts
- Apify blog: why Apify is standardizing Actor pricing https://blog.apify.com/standardizing-actor-pricing
- Apify blog: migrate your Actors from rental to pay per event https://blog.apify.com/migrating-to-pay-per-event-pricing/
- Apify blog: how I built 98 production Actors in 6 months https://blog.apify.com/building-98-actors-on-apify-store/
- Apify: monetize your code (developer page) https://apify.com/partners/actor-developers
- Apify on X: $1M paid to creators in a month https://x.com/apify/status/2054547299485745273
- Apify on X: ParseForge's first Actor https://x.com/apify/status/2024871296006311994
- DEV Community: 3 months shipping my first Apify Actor https://dev.to/boo_n/3-months-shipping-my-first-apify-actor-64-users-200mo-and-everything-i-got-wrong-52i7
- DEV Community: $334 in 30 days selling a digital product on Gumroad https://dev.to/rafsilva85/i-made-334-in-30-days-selling-a-digital-product-on-gumroad-complete-breakdown-4nn0
- Ryan Doser on X: Claude Skills Stack revenue https://x.com/ryan_doser13/status/2085445795277385821
- Ryan Doser: the Claude Code Skills Stack https://ryandoser.com/?p=2058
- Keith AI on YouTube: selling n8n templates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBAexJcc8UA
- Latenode community: can teams monetize workflow templates https://community.latenode.com/t/can-teams-actually-monetize-workflow-templates-on-a-marketplace-or-is-that-aspirational/60118
- Gumroad: pricing https://gumroad.com/pricing
- PromptBase: sell your prompts https://promptbase.com/sell
- CartMango: how to sell AI prompts https://cartmango.com/sell-ai-prompts/
- n8n docs: create templates https://docs.n8n.io/contribute/create-templates
- MCPize: MCP business models https://mcpize.com/blog/mcp-business-models
- MCP Marketplace: how to monetize an MCP server https://mcp-marketplace.io/blog/how-to-monetize-mcp-server
- Model Context Protocol: the MCP Registry https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/about
- Claude Code docs: publish and distribute a plugin https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins/publish
- AWS Marketplace docs: listing SaaS API-based AI agent products https://docs.aws.amazon.com/marketplace/latest/userguide/listing-saas-ai-agents.html
- AWS: simplified and reduced listing fees for sellers https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2024/01/aws-marketplace-simplified-reduced-listing-fees/
- AWS: AI agents and tools in AWS Marketplace https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2025/07/ai-agents-tools-aws-marketplace
- Microsoft Learn: Microsoft Marketplace FAQ for publishers https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/marketplace-offers/marketplace-faq-publisher-guide
- Microsoft Learn: build and publish AI apps and agents https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/marketplace-offers/artificial-intelligence-apps-agents-publish
- Google Cloud docs: AI agents on Cloud Marketplace https://docs.cloud.google.com/marketplace/docs/partners/ai-agents
- Salesforce: become an ISV partner https://www.salesforce.com/partners/become-an-isv-partner/
- Anthropic: Claude Marketplace https://claude.com/platform/marketplace
- OpenAI: Apps SDK monetization https://developers.openai.com/apps-sdk/build/monetization