DRAFT – not for publication
Can you make money with AI? Some people can, but the evidence behind their claims varies a lot. We assessed 30 cases and graded each one by how well its income figure can be checked: 3 reach grade A, 13 grade B and 10 grade C, and 4 were rejected. This page lists the 16 grade A and B cases.
Key takeaways
- Of 30 assessed cases, 3 are grade A, 13 are grade B, 10 are grade C, and 4 were rejected. Only the 16 grade A and B cases are listed here.
- Grade A means the figure is verified by a payment platform. Even then, it measures one product, not a person’s pay.
- Grade B means the figure is reported, not independently verified: it comes from the founder or a press outlet and has not been independently confirmed.
- Grade C cases are not verified and are not listed on this page. Rejected cases are never published.
- No single case here is typical. Most are products with teams, audiences, or years of prior work behind them.
How we graded these cases
We apply the standard from our methodology.
| Grade | What it means | How we label it |
|---|---|---|
| A | Revenue verified through a payment platform, identity confirmed, concrete AI role | Verified (with scope noted) |
| B | Clear AI role and identifiable source, but the amount is self-reported and not independently confirmed | “Reported, not independently verified” |
| C | Figure not evidenced (estimate, price, bid, unreachable or secondary source), or vague AI role, or weak identity link | “Not verified” (not listed) |
Every figure below states what it measures, where it comes from, and its date. Grade C and rejected cases are not included.
Grade A: verified by a payment platform
These cases show revenue connected through the Stripe API on TrustMRR, a revenue-verification site. Verification covers the listed product only. It does not show profit, costs, or what the founder takes home.
Postiz (case 001)
Nevo David founded Postiz, an open-source social media scheduler. AI agents plan, generate, and schedule posts across platforms.
- Figures: $265,825 MRR (monthly recurring revenue) from 7,770 active subscriptions. $296,526 in the last 30 days. $1,417,222 in all-time revenue.
- Measures: Revenue, not profit. Stripe-verified, last updated 2026-10-13.
- Source: TrustMRR listing, fetched 2026-10-14.
Vid.AI (case 004)
Priyam Raj founded Vid.AI, a tool that turns ideas or scripts into short videos. It uses AI for voiceovers, visuals, and edits. Vid.AI has a co-founder.
- Figures: $47,215 MRR from 716 active subscriptions. $38,983 in the last 30 days. $1,632,871 in all-time revenue.
- Measures: The company’s (VidAI LLC) revenue, not Raj’s personal income. Stripe-verified, last updated 2026-10-13.
- Source: TrustMRR listing, fetched 2026-10-14. A press profile in The Quint is sponsored content, and we do not use its valuation claim.
SEO Bot, by John Rush (case 012)
John Rush runs SEO Bot, an AI agent for keyword research, content, internal linking, and backlinks. According to a May 2025 interview, SEO Bot had a two-person team (Rush and CTO Vitalik), so it is not a solo project.
- Figure: $36,850 MRR from 512 active subscriptions, as shown on TrustMRR (updated 2026-10-13).
- Measures: Stripe-verified subscription MRR for SEO Bot only, as of 2026-10-13. It does not cover sales outside Stripe, such as invoiced enterprise deals.
- Not verified: In a Latka interview on 2025-05-15, Rush claimed SEO Bot made over $100K a month. That is his own unverified claim. It is not confirmed by TrustMRR and is not part of this grade A rating.
- Source: TrustMRR listing, fetched 2026-10-14.
Grade B: reported, not independently verified
None of these amounts is independently confirmed. We repeat each as the person or outlet stated it, with its date. Where a case is a team project or an exception applies, we say so.
Products with payment-platform data, but weaker identity or freshness
These cases have revenue listings on TrustMRR. We still grade them B because of team size, stale data, or a thin founder profile.
| Case | What it is | Reported figures | Caveats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 003 Boothie | AI photo app that re-styles selfies; Gemini named in its terms | $51,923 MRR (2,226 active subscriptions); $43,611 last 30 days; $141,532 all-time (reported 2026-10-14) | RevenueCat-linked. Listed for sale on TrustMRR (asking $1.5M). App is about four months old and the founder profile is thin. |
| 005 Rank Prompt | SaaS that tracks brand visibility in AI search | $43,672 MRR (212 active subscriptions); $50,335 last 30 days; $289,263 all-time (Stripe-linked, last updated 2026-10-13) | Reported by a founding engineer, not a founder. TrustMRR lists Tomas Marengo’s handle, but the company site names him as Founding Engineer, with four others as co-founders. Treat it as the team’s revenue. |
| 007 LLM Gateway | Open-source API gateway for large language models | $78,764 MRR; $259,539 last 30 days (reported by the company; last updated 2026-09-07) | Team project with two named founders. Stripe key expired, so data is stale. The 30-day figure is above MRR, and the page does not say why. |
| 008 Chatbase | Platform for building AI customer-support agents | $863,632 MRR; $865,869 last 30 days (reported by the company; last updated 2026-07-31) | Team project with about 12,400 subscriptions. Stripe key expired, so data is stale. Do not read it as solo income. |
Sources: Boothie, Rank Prompt, LLM Gateway, Chatbase. All fetched 2026-10-14.
Founder-reported revenue
| Case | What it is | Reported figure | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 009 Pieter Levels | Photo AI, a solo-built app that generates photos from selfies | $132,000 per month, per Levels’ own disclosures, reported by PPC Land on 2025-05-25 | Monthly revenue, not MRR or profit. |
| 010 Tony Dinh | TypingMind, a chat interface for LLMs, sold as license keys | $1M in revenue over 12 months, per his newsletter of 2024-11-22 | Revenue, not profit. About half of monthly revenue was one-time purchases. |
| 015 Jozef Gherman | StealthGPT, an AI text-rewriting web app | About $190,000 MRR, which Gherman says “took us about 15 months”, per the interview | Self-reported in a Starter Story interview. Team has grown to six or seven people. |
| 020 Chad Vavra | Chat Agency AI, an AI consultancy | $10K revenue per month, per a Starter Story interview published 2026-02-15 | Self-reported. Vavra is a co-founder. |
| 027 Ben Tossell | Ben’s Bites, an AI newsletter that became a paid AI education portal | Described as a “7-figure business” and “$1M+” in under a year, per a 2024-09-29 interview | Not stated whether revenue or profit. Approximate. |
Sources: Levels (PPC Land), Dinh newsletter, Gherman (Starter Story), Vavra (Starter Story), Tossell (Behind the Craft).
AI agencies and services
These founders sell AI services to businesses. Some also sell courses or coaching, which is a different income stream from client work.
- 017 Liam Ottley (Morningside AI): In his own newsletter (2024-11-12), Ottley says the agency reached a consistent $20,000–30,000 per month and later had a first $100,000+ month. He gives no dates. His separate “$3M+” total mixes several businesses, and we do not use it. Ottley also sells AI training through YouTube and a Skool community. Reported, not independently verified. Source.
- 019 Monk AI (Mert Yerlikaya and Arda Ali Güçsav): They say the agency passed $320,000 in revenue (no period given) and, on their community page, “$1M+” from 50+ projects since 2023. That page also sells coaching. Reported, not independently verified. Source.
Courses and side businesses
- 028 Lance Junck: Business Insider reports $34,913 in profit in about three months from a ChatGPT course on Udemy, after reviewing screenshots of his sales dashboard (article updated 2023-04-18). The dashboard itself is not public. Reported, not independently verified (relayed by Business Insider). Source.
- 030 Nicole Cueto: Business Insider reports that her ChatGPT-assisted vacation-planning side business averages $670 per month since January 2023, according to documents CNBC reviewed (2023-07-31). The documents are not public. Reported, not independently verified (relayed by Business Insider). Source.
Risks, limits, and pitfalls
- Revenue is not profit. Most figures here are revenue. Among the grade A and B cases, only Junck’s is reported as profit.
- Company revenue is not personal income. Postiz, Vid.AI, Rank Prompt, and others are businesses, some with teams.
- Stale data. Cases 007 and 008 use TrustMRR data from July and September 2026, after the Stripe connection expired.
- Selling the method. Several agency founders also run courses or communities. That income is separate from client work, and it gives them a reason to show big numbers.
- Survivorship. We list people who made money. We do not know how many tried the same thing and did not.
What to do next
- Check what a figure measures (revenue, profit, MRR, or price) before you compare it with anything.
- Prefer claims that show a payment-platform record over claims that only show a number.
- Read the income claim red flags before paying for a course or coaching.
Related reading
- How we verify AI income claims
- AI automation agencies: what the income claims actually show
- AI income scam check: red flags and how we verify
- A reader checklist for any AI income claim
Sources
Each case links to its primary source above. Full evidence records, including archive links where they exist, are in the case files in cases/godkjent/. All sources were fetched on 2026-10-14. Wayback archiving is still pending for most of them.
Disclaimers
Not financial advice. Proof of AI Income provides information and analysis for educational purposes only. Nothing on this site is financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
Results vary. Income examples are not promises or predictions. Outcomes depend on skills, effort, market conditions, and many other factors. Most people will not achieve the results described in any single example.
