How much AI-built apps really make (October 2026)
What 85 apps built with AI coding tools say they earn, how much of it is verified, and which tools and channels show up most. Medians, not hype, with every number traceable to a source.
Summary
- 85published cases of AI-built apps that report revenue
- $17,165median monthly revenue across the 43 cases with a monthly figure in US dollars
- $2,280median for the 18 of them verified through the payment provider
- 31%of all cases are verified (26 of 85)
Key findings
- Most revenue claims are unaudited. Only 26 of 85 cases (31%) have revenue read from the payment provider (Stripe, RevenueCat, Superwall and others) through a public profile such as TrustMRR. 17 show a dashboard screenshot and 42 (49%) rest on the founder’s word.
- The typical figure is about $17,000 a month, with a wide spread. Across the 43 cases that give a monthly figure in US dollars, the median is $17,165; the middle half runs from $1,932 to $43,212, and the range is $39 to $120,000.
- Verified apps report far less than unverified ones. The verified median is $2,280 a month (n=18), against $16,000 for self-reported figures (n=16) and $33,000 for screenshots (n=9). 11 of the 18 verified apps make under $10K a month. Part of the gap is how cases are found (see caveats), but it is a reason to read big unverified numbers with care.
- Claude Code is the most-named tool. 36 of 85 cases (42%) name Claude Code, ahead of Cursor (30, 35%) and OpenAI Codex (15). 38 cases name two or more tools, and 7 don’t name any.
- Almost nobody relies on a single channel. Of the 82 cases that name how they got customers, only 10 credit one channel; the median is 3 channels per case.
- X is the most-cited channel. 29 cases (34%) credit X, then SEO (20) and Building in public (19). Counting X and building in public together, 35 cases (41%).
- An existing audience goes with bigger numbers. Founders with a large following before launch report a median $40,000 a month (n=9), against $2,000 for those with a small one (n=19). Only 4 of 85 say they started with no audience at all.
- Nearly half the numbers can’t be compared. Only 43 of 85 cases (51%) give a monthly figure in stated US dollars. The rest give an all-time total (15), an annual figure (8), or a monthly figure with no currency (17) or in another currency (2).
How strong is the proof?
Every case carries one of three labels. Verified: the revenue shows on a public third-party profile that reads it from the payment provider and matches the founder’s claim within about 20%. Screenshot: the founder showed a revenue dashboard. Self-reported: the founder’s own words. How we label numbers
Monthly revenue: the 43 comparable cases
Only cases that state a monthly figure in US dollars are used here: MRR, revenue in the last 30 (or 28) days, or revenue in a stated month. Totals, annual figures and other or unstated currencies are left out and listed below, never converted.
| Proof | Monthly USD cases | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 43 | $17,165 | $1,932 to $43,212 |
| Verified | 18 | $2,280 | $922 to $35,386 |
| Screenshot | 9 | $33,000 | $20,000 to $50,000 |
| Self-reported | 16 | $16,000 | $8,075 to $42,319 |
Highest verified monthly revenue
- Brawler: $55,118 in the last 30 days (Rork)
- Post Bridge: $48,821 MRR (Cursor)
- Laper: $46,509 MRR (Claude Code, OpenAI Codex)
- AbMaxx: $46,251 in the last 30 days (Lovable)
- GETebook.ai: $35,469 in the last 30 days (Claude Code)
Full ranking: Top AI-built apps by verified revenue.
Which AI tools they were built with
Share of all 85 cases naming each tool (a case can name several). “Codex” and “OpenAI Codex” are counted as one tool. Medians only where at least 3 cases give a monthly US dollar figure.
| Tool | Cases | Monthly USD cases | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 36 (42%) | 22 | $14,500 | $1,763 to $35,386 |
| Cursor | 30 (35%) | 10 | $32,500 | $17,041 to $54,205 |
| OpenAI Codex | 15 (18%) | 8 | $13,100 | $3,013 to $25,356 |
| Claude | 12 (14%) | 6 | $22,100 | $9,925 to $38,250 |
| ChatGPT | 8 (9%) | 1 | n<3, not shown | |
| Lovable | 7 (8%) | 4 | $45,626 | $36,550 to $59,688 |
| Rork | 5 (6%) | 2 | n<3, not shown | |
| Replit | 4 (5%) | 3 | $33,000 | $1,005 to $45,000 (range) |
| Bolt | 2 (2%) | 0 | n<3, not shown | |
| Windsurf | 2 (2%) | 0 | n<3, not shown | |
Named once: Base44, Gemini 3.1 Pro, Google AI Studio, GPT-5.4, Grok, Manus.
How they got customers
The growth channels each founder credits, as a share of all 85 cases. Top 12 shown; every channel.
How many channels per case
10 of the 82 cases that name a channel credit only one: Lumoo (Warm network), ChartDetector AI (Paid ads), Profit AI (Word of mouth), AppAlchemy (Reddit), LicitaCerta (Paid ads), Kiiwi (Reddit), 3AK (Own audience (track videos)), One-feature tool (Warm network), Maxed AI (UGC videos) and Stealth SaaS (SEO).
| Group and the labels it includes | Cases | Monthly USD cases | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short-form video and creators TikTok, Instagram, UGC videos, Influencers, Influencers (French), Creator content, Instagram Reels, Organic short-form video, Paid creator collabs, YouTube creators, Own audience (TikTok, Instagram), TikTok Spark Ads, TikTok ads, RedNote | 28 (33%) | 14 | $31,500 | $11,900 to $44,688 |
| Paid ads Meta ads, Paid ads, Google ads, Apple Search Ads, TikTok ads, TikTok Spark Ads, Ads | 20 (24%) | 11 | $41,425 | $34,068 to $46,380 |
| X (Twitter) and building in public X, X threads, X (organic), Building in public | 35 (41%) | 21 | $22,281 | $1,729 to $40,000 |
| Search (SEO, blog, app store) SEO, Blog content, App Store search (ASO), Chrome Web Store, Free tools | 24 (28%) | 16 | $11,602 | $701 to $35,034 |
What kind of apps
| App type | Cases | Monthly USD cases | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS & tools | 21 (25%) | 7 | $17,000 | $1,795 to $40,234 |
| Productivity & lifestyle | 13 (15%) | 8 | $9,514 | $932 to $32,856 |
| Marketing & social | 11 (13%) | 7 | $22,281 | $1,192 to $55,366 |
| Health & fitness | 10 (12%) | 4 | $39,626 | $28,250 to $48,468 |
| Video & content | 10 (12%) | 6 | $9,702 | $3,551 to $25,300 |
| Developer tools | 8 (9%) | 4 | $25,000 | $12,200 to $35,034 |
| Finance & money | 5 (6%) | 3 | $20,000 | $9,500 to $56,000 (range) |
| Games | 3 (4%) | 3 | $40,000 | $13,000 to $87,000 (range) |
| Content sites & ads | 2 (2%) | 0 | n<3, not shown | |
| Education & learning | 2 (2%) | 1 | n<3, not shown | |
Did they start with an audience?
What the source says about the founder’s following before launch.
| Before launch | Cases | Monthly USD cases | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No audience before launch | 4 | 3 | $17,000 | $13,000 to $46,251 (range) |
| Small audience | 39 | 19 | $2,000 | $803 to $32,568 |
| Large audience | 16 | 9 | $40,000 | $20,000 to $48,821 |
| Not stated | 26 | 12 | $22,000 | $6,827 to $42,319 |
Left out of the monthly numbers
These 42 cases count everywhere else in the report but not in the monthly revenue stats, because turning their figure into a monthly US dollar amount would mean guessing.
All-time or to-date totals (15)
- ClaudeKit: $279 all time
- UIDrop: $115 all time
- Appthetics: $2,292 all-time
- InspoAI: $6,281 all-time
- Interni IA: $396 all-time
- Karvi: $8,577 all-time
- AI Renamer: $7,625 all-time
- CNVS: $49,986 in all-time sales
- Flowfy: $22K in total revenue and $300+ a day, about five months after launch
- Creator Hunter: $30K in total revenue, about seven months after launch
- TrustMRR: Just over $300,000 in revenue plus around $30,000 in acquisition fees in its first nine months
- Coherence: around 85,000 in eight months
- LicitaCerta: R$ 10 mil in 30 days
- Kiiwi: $310 all time
- 3AK: around 70,000 so far
Annual or ARR figures (8)
Not divided by 12: founders use “ARR” and “annualized” loosely, so we don’t turn them into a monthly figure.
- Klar: 1.3 million Swedish kronor in ARR one month after launch
- BridgeMind: ARR: $250,772
- Clairvo: a million dollars in ARR
- Gift My Book: 'Pretty close to annualized revenue of one million dollars' about three months after launch
- Lumoo: €700K ARR within 9 months of a February 2025 launch
- Plinq: ARR: R$2.2M (USD ~$456K), 10k+ users in 3 months
- Creator Buddy: 300K ARR within two weeks of launch
- Kid's content site: >$1K AdSense this year
Monthly, but in another currency (2)
- Algrow: £10,250.61 gross volume in the last four weeks, about six months after launch
- One-feature tool: £25 MRR
Monthly, but no currency stated (17)
The founder never said the currency. A dollar sign in a video title isn’t enough for us. Why
- Fastlane: around 69K a month in recurring revenue for the software, about two months after launch
- Revid: a little bit more than 600,000 per month
- CreatorLookup: nearly 100K MRR
- Payout: 20K per month, currency not stated
- Voicy: 11K MRR
- Cat on Chair: over 18K in the last 30 days
- Stella: 300K MRR within two months
- Profit AI: 30K MRR for the app
- ToneAdapt: over 25,000 in four weeks
- CutCoach: 20,000 a month
- Prayer Lock: over 20K a month
- LaunchFast: about 21.8K MRR
- Wrestle AI: 17,000 per month, within six months of launch
- STOPPR: 12,000 per month, five months after building it
- CodeGuide: 42K MRR, about three months after launch
- Cal Buddy: over 81K
- Instagram-bot app: 81 MRR
Methodology
- Data. Every published case on Shipped & Paid as of Oct 22, 2026: 85 AI-built apps whose founders publicly reported revenue, posted between Mar 11, 2025 and Oct 21, 2026. Each case links to its original source. 1 case whose source was deleted (Tradr) and cases still under review are not counted.
- Figures. Each figure is the headline number on the case page, as the source states it. “Over $X” and “$XK+” count as X, “almost $X” and “about $X” as X. MRR, last-30-days revenue and revenue in a stated month are treated as monthly figures; they are close but not identical (last 30 days can include yearly plans and one-off sales).
- No conversion. We never convert currencies, annualize or de-annualize. Anything that isn’t a monthly US dollar figure is kept out of the revenue stats and listed above.
- Statistics. Medians, not averages, because a few large numbers would pull an average up. “Middle half” is the 25th to 75th percentile (inclusive method). Breakdowns show a median only where at least 3 cases give a monthly US dollar figure; small groups are noisy, so read them as hints.
- Tools and channels are what the founder or source names. A case can have several. Channel groups use the label lists shown in the table.
- Reproducible. The numbers come from a script run on our public case data. Download the per-case CSV or the computed stats (JSON); all cases with full details are in data.json.
Caveats
- Survivorship bias. These are apps that made money and said so in public. Apps that made nothing rarely post about it, so this is not a picture of what a typical AI-built app earns, and it can’t show that any tool or channel causes revenue.
- Self-reported figures. 59 of 85 figures are the founder’s own claims (with or without a screenshot) and have not been audited.
- How cases are found. Verified cases come from public revenue profiles, which list many small apps; unverified cases mostly come from posts, interviews and videos, which favor big wins. That explains part of the gap between verified and self-reported medians.
- A snapshot. Each figure is from the date of its source or check, between early 2025 and October 2026. Revenue changes; the case pages are kept up to date, this report is not.
Cite this report
Shipped & Paid, “How much AI-built apps really make (October 2026),” Oct 22, 2026, https://shippedandpaid.com/reports/ai-built-app-revenue-2026/
Free to use with a link. The text, charts and data are licensed CC BY 4.0: quote them, chart them, republish them, as long as you credit Shipped & Paid and link to this page. Questions or a correction: contact@shippedandpaid.com.
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