Top 35 Most Profitable Small AI Tools

We research AI Wrappers every day, if you're building in this space, get our report

Small AI tools are printing money this year, and the numbers prove it.

Solo founders and tiny teams are building AI tools that generate anywhere from $500 to $500,000 monthly, solving specific problems without venture capital or massive teams.

Understanding what's working in this space gives you a competitive edge (which is exactly why we created our market report about AI Wrappers).

Top 35 Small AI Tools Ranked by Monthly Revenue

• 1. Cluey ($500k/month)

  Cluey generates exactly $500,000 monthly, reaching this milestone in less than two months after launch. Built by 21-year-old Roy Lee, this AI assistant sees what you see and hears what you hear, providing live assistance during meetings, sales calls, and interviews without prompting. The controversial "cheat on everything" positioning created viral buzz, with the AI tool using computer vision to monitor screens, natural language processing for audio, and real-time reasoning for contextual assistance. Lee's distribution-first approach generated over 1 million installs in two months through short-form content across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram with a UGC network paying $25-40 per video plus performance bonuses. We dive deep into Cluey's growth strategy and positioning tactics in our report covering the AI Wrapper market.

  Sources: TechCrunch, Andreessen Horowitz, SF Standard, Rise of Agentic
• 2. HeadshotPro ($300k/month)

  HeadshotPro generates approximately $300,000 monthly as of late 2024, earning nearly $3.6M annually. Built by Danny Postma in just 30 hours, this AI tool creates professional headshots from selfies using custom-trained AI based on Stable Diffusion and DreamBooth. The proprietary training pipeline uses dozens of open-source and custom models to generate photorealistic results. With 80,000+ customers and 12 million+ headshots generated, this Dutch entrepreneur scaled through aggressive SEO with 200+ programmatic city/county pages, long-tail keyword targeting, and a domain rating of 44 with 21,000 backlinks.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Starter Story, Unite.AI Interview, Gold Penguin


In our 200+-page report on AI wrappers, we'll show you which ones are standing out and what strategies they implemented to be that successful, so you can replicate some of them.

• 3. BetterPic ($270k/month)

  BetterPic generates approximately $270,000 monthly by late 2024, scaled from $1,500/month when acquired in December 2023. Founders Ricardo Ghekiere and Miguel Rasero acquired the existing business and scaled it to $20,000 MRR within 7 months, then continued growing to current levels. The AI tool creates 4K professional headshots from selfies in under 60 minutes for $29-47, recently expanding to AI fashion photography. Growth came from SEO dominance for massive organic traffic, a powerful affiliate program now generating $80k/month in revenue alone, and a remarkable 9% conversion rate (versus 1-2% industry standard). The team increased average order value from $15 to $47 by adding a studio feature. Their acquisition-to-scale playbook is one of many case studies we analyze in our market clarity report covering AI Wrappers.

  Sources: Starter Story, Authority Magazine, Startup Spells Case Study, BetterPic Blog
• 4. WordLift ($175k/month)

  WordLift generates approximately $175,000 monthly (€2.1 million or $2.25 million in 2023 revenue) as an AI-powered structured data and SEO tool. Founded by Andrea Volpini, David Riccitelli, and Francesco Scavelli, this AI tool creates knowledge graphs for marketing automation and helps with semantic SEO for WordPress and other platforms. The AI analyzes content and creates structured data using semantic web technology and linked data. With an international customer base serving 150+ countries (70%+ from the US), the company became profitable within 18 months of launching in 2017.

  Sources: Founder Reports Interview, Niche Pursuits, GetLatka, Sitechecker Interview
• 5. AI Tool Report ($100k/month)

  AI Tool Report generates approximately $100,000 monthly (approximately $25,000 MRR from 2,000 premium subscribers plus advertising and sponsorships). Founded by brothers-in-law Martin Crowley and Arturo Ferreira, this daily AI newsletter launched in April 2023 and grew to 500,000+ subscribers within 10 months. While the newsletter reports on AI tools rather than being a pure AI tool, it uses AI for content generation, curation, and automation. The business expanded from a tool repository to comprehensive AI news in a 5-minute daily format, adding a Pro community on Skool, a podcast, and corporate training programs. We explore this unique newsletter-as-product model and similar content strategies in our market research report about AI Wrappers.

  Sources: Indie Hackers
• 6. Scalenut ($100k+/month)

  Scalenut generates over $100,000 monthly (over $1M ARR) approximately 12-15 months after launching its MVP in September 2021. Founded by Mayank Jain, Gaurav Goyal, and Saurabh Wadhawan, this AI-powered SEO and content marketing platform serves SMBs with the entire content lifecycle. Key features include Topic Clusters for content planning, Cruise Mode for 5-minute AI blog writing, SEO Hub for competitor research, and an AI Copywriter. With 100,000+ users at the $100k MRR milestone, the team raised $3.53M in seed funding from Saama Capital, Titan Capital, and AngelList.

  Sources: Crunchbase, Indie Hackers
• 7. SiteGPT ($95k/month)

  SiteGPT generates approximately $95,000 monthly as of February 2024, up from $10,000 MRR in just one month after launch in March 2023. Founder Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu launched with 10k Twitter followers and got 15,000 website visits on day one. The AI tool hit front page of Hacker News, became #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt, and scaled rapidly. SiteGPT's AI crawls websites, trains custom chatbots on the content, and uses natural language processing for customer queries. First paying customers arrived within one hour of launch. By late 2023, the tool had reached $300k annual revenue. The launch strategy that drove this explosive growth is detailed in our report to build a profitable AI Wrapper.

  Sources: Indie Hackers AMA, Starter Story, Mixergy Interview, Founder Twitter


In our 200+-page report on AI wrappers, we'll show you the real user pain points that don't yet have good solutions, so you can build what people want.

• 8. PDF.ai ($70k/month)

  PDF.ai generates approximately $70,000 MRR within months of launching and scaling rapidly to $500,000+ ARR by late 2023. Solo founder Alex Monahan built this AI chatbot that reads, summarizes, and extracts information from PDFs using GPT-4. He reached 10 million impressions on Twitter threads, ranking for valuable keywords like "ChatGPT PDF" through both SEO and social virality. The AI tool uses GPT-4's API for document analysis and natural language processing, with costs offset by subscription revenue. Built as a side project while working full-time, Monahan chose to keep PDF.ai lean and bootstrapped rather than taking on the overhead and pressure of venture capital.

  Sources: Indie Hackers
• 9. FlexClip ($70k/month)

  FlexClip generates approximately $70,000 MRR growing from $30k in July 2020 to $70k by December 2022. Co-founded by Mingzhu Ma and Michael Zhang, this AI-powered video editing platform simplifies creating marketing, promotional, and personal videos. The AI uses automated editing, text-to-speech, and scene detection. With 3+ million users, FlexClip scaled through aggressive content marketing with 1,700+ blog posts ranking for valuable keywords, plus 11,000+ video templates. The tool is freemium with paid plans from $10-30/month. The team includes 20+ employees in US, China, and India.

  Sources: Indie Hackers
• 10. Descript ($60k/month)

  Descript generates approximately $60,000 monthly in the early years after launching as part of Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) portfolio with $50M in funding by July 2021. Founded by Andrew Mason (Groupon founder) and Sam Lessin (Facebook VP), this AI-powered audio/video editor allows text-based editing using speech-to-text AI. While starting as a small tool, Descript has raised substantial capital and grown beyond typical indie products. The AI tool reached $30M ARR in 2024. However, the early revenue data from 2018-2020 represents the bootstrapped phase when it competed with smaller tools.

  Sources: Crunchbase, TechCrunch
• 11. BlackMagic ($52k/month)

  BlackMagic generates approximately $52,000 MRR within months of launching. Founded by Hrishi Olickel (previously founder of $10M ARR companies), this AI-powered Chrome extension automates content sharing on Twitter (X). The AI uses natural language processing, ML-based scheduling, and Twitter API integration to optimize posting times. The success came from aggressive SEO content marketing with 195 blog posts and achieving a domain rating of 71 with 41,000 backlinks through years of consistent content. Olickel specifically targeted high-value keywords and creator audiences. The AI tool scaled fast enough to be a venture-backable opportunity.

  Sources: Indie Hackers
• 12. Playground.ai ($50k/month)

  Playground.ai generates approximately $50,000 monthly in early iterations before raising venture capital in 2023. Founded by Suhail Doshi (Mixpanel founder), this AI image generation platform uses Stable Diffusion and custom models for creative outputs. The AI tool launched initially as a simple free tool with generous limits (1,000 images/day) and scaled quickly to millions of users through viral growth and word-of-mouth. While the company later raised $40M from Lightspeed and scaled to 10 million users, the early bootstrapped phase demonstrated strong product-market fit in the AI art space. You'll find Playground.ai's pricing evolution and growth trajectory broken down in our 200-page report covering everything you need to know about AI Wrappers.



In our 200+-page report on AI wrappers, we'll show you which areas are already overcrowded, so you don't waste time or effort.

• 13. Durable ($40k/month)

  Durable generates approximately $40,000 MRR growing from $30,000 MRR in late 2022 to $40,000 by mid-2023. Founded by James Clift and Karim Atiyeh, this AI website builder creates business websites in under a minute. The AI uses GPT-3/GPT-4 for content generation and automated web development. With 2 million+ websites built and $14M+ in funding from Y Combinator and strategic investors, Durable scales through viral word-of-mouth and SEO. The free plan drives trial conversions to paid business plans.

• 14. Thumbly.ai ($38k/month)

  Thumbly.ai generates approximately $38,000 monthly as a GPT wrapper generating YouTube thumbnails. Founded by Matthew Harris, this AI tool uses Stable Diffusion and custom models to create click-worthy YouTube thumbnails from text prompts. With 200,000+ thumbnails generated, the tool scaled through YouTube creator communities, Product Hunt launches, and word-of-mouth. The simple value proposition of converting text ideas to visual thumbnails resonated with content creators who lack design skills or time.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Product Hunt
• 15. UGC Scripts ($35k/month)

  UGC Scripts generates approximately $35,000 MRR as of mid-2023 from $5,000 MRR in late 2022. Solo founder Jay Gunn built this AI tool generating user-generated content scripts for brands and creators. The AI uses GPT-3/GPT-4 to analyze brand voices and generate native ad scripts. Gunn scaled through building in public on Twitter, posting in 75+ AI directories, and Product Hunt. The simple prompt-to-script workflow solved a specific pain point for UGC creators and brands. The tool charges $9-25/month subscriptions and saw strong conversion rates from the growing UGC creator economy.

  Sources: Indie Hackers
• 16. Endless Visual Novel ($34.7k/month)

  Endless Visual Novel generates approximately $34,700 monthly ($416k annually) creating AI-generated visual novels. Solo developer Arman Chowdhury built this tool allowing anyone to create interactive stories with AI-generated art, dialogue, and branching narratives. The AI uses GPT models for storytelling and Stable Diffusion for character art. Chowdhury grew through anime and gaming communities on Reddit, Discord, and Twitter, plus aggressive SEO targeting niche keywords. The pay-per-creation model ($5-15 per story) converted well in creative communities. This niche positioning showcases how targeting underserved verticals can generate substantial revenue—a strategy we break down with multiple examples in our market clarity report covering AI Wrappers.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Reddit
• 17. WPTurbo ($32k/month)

  WPTurbo generates approximately $32,000 MRR as an AI WordPress code generator for developers. Founded by David Roeske, this AI tool uses GPT-4 to generate WordPress plugin code, theme code, and WooCommerce customizations from natural language prompts. Targeting WordPress developers who want to speed up custom development, the AI tool launched via Product Hunt and aggressive SEO content targeting technical keywords. The subscription model ($20-50/month) appealed to freelancers and agencies building WordPress sites, with the AI handling repetitive boilerplate code.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Product Hunt


In our 200+-page report on AI wrappers, we'll show you which ones are standing out and what strategies they implemented to be that successful, so you can replicate some of them.

• 18. Letterdrop ($30k/month)

  Letterdrop generates approximately $30,000 MRR as of mid-2023 growing from $5,000 MRR in late 2021. Founded by Diksha Dhingraa and Pranav Piyush (YC W22), this B2B content marketing platform uses AI for content creation, SEO optimization, and social media automation. The AI uses GPT-3/GPT-4 for content generation and natural language processing for SEO recommendations. With $3M+ in funding from Y Combinator and strategic investors, Letterdrop scaled through founder-led content marketing and SEO targeting B2B marketers.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Crunchbase, Y Combinator
• 19. Typefully ($30k/month)

  Typefully generates approximately $30,000 MRR as of late 2023, scaling from $5,000 MRR in early 2022. Founded by Francesco Di Lorenzo and Fabrizio Rinaldi, this AI-powered Twitter writing tool helps creators compose, schedule, and analyze threads. The AI uses GPT models for content suggestions, writing assistance, and analytics. Growing organically through building in public on Twitter and solving a real pain point for active Twitter users, the tool charges $12.50-30/month and serves thousands of creators. The founders bootstrapped the entire journey, proving sustainable SaaS models work for social media tools. Their story of scaling through product-led growth and community building is featured in our market research report about AI Wrappers.

  Sources: Indie Hackers
• 20. Gamma ($23k/month)

  Gamma generates approximately $23,000 monthly in early revenue before raising $3M in seed funding and scaling significantly. Founded by Grant Lee, James Fox, and Jon Noronha, this AI-powered presentation creator generates beautiful slide decks from text prompts. The AI uses GPT models for content generation and automated design systems for layout. With early traction through Product Hunt (#1 Product of the Day) and viral organic growth, Gamma reached millions of users and later raised substantial capital.

  Sources: TechCrunch, Crunchbase
• 21. Sheet AI ($20k/month)

  Sheet AI generates approximately $20,000 MRR as a Google Sheets add-on bringing AI functions to spreadsheets. Built by Matt Shumer, this tool uses GPT-3/GPT-4 to analyze data, generate formulas, and automate workflows directly in Google Sheets. The simple integration solved a specific problem for data analysts and business users who work primarily in spreadsheets. Growth came through SEO content marketing, Google Workspace Marketplace distribution, and word-of-mouth in data communities. Subscription pricing ranged from $8-30/month.

• 22. ChatPDF ($20k/month)

  ChatPDF generates approximately $20,000 MRR within months of launching in early 2023. Founded by Matei, this AI-powered PDF chatbot allows users to ask questions about PDF documents using GPT-4. The tool went viral immediately, hitting 1 million users in the first month through organic social media sharing on Twitter and Product Hunt. The simple value proposition—"talk to your PDFs"—resonated with students, researchers, and professionals. The founder scaled through SEO targeting document analysis keywords, a freemium model with generous free tier, and paid plans from $5-20/month.

  Sources: Indie Hackers


In our 200+-page report on AI wrappers, we'll show you the real challenges upfront - the things that trip up most founders and drain their time, money, or motivation. We think it will be better than learning these painful lessons yourself.

• 23. RoomGPT ($18k/month)

  RoomGPT generates approximately $18,000 MRR within months of launching. Built by Hassan El Mghari in less than 24 hours, this AI tool redesigns room interiors from photos using ControlNet-based AI. The rapid MVP launch went viral on Twitter with 2 million users in the first two months and coverage from major media outlets. The AI generates room redesigns in multiple styles, targeting homeowners and interior designers. Scaling came from viral social media, aggressive SEO, and a freemium model with paid credits. The fast launch and viral growth demonstrate the power of solving a visual problem with AI. Hassan's approach to viral launches and rapid iteration is something we examine closely in our report to build a profitable AI Wrapper.

  Sources: Indie Hackers Case Study, Business of Home, Starter Story, Founder LinkedIn
• 24. ResumAI ($15k/month)

  ResumAI generates approximately $15,000 MRR as an AI-powered resume builder using GPT-3/GPT-4 to generate professional resume content from brief inputs. The tool targets job seekers who need professional resumes quickly without writing skills. Founder scaled through SEO targeting job search keywords, building in public on Twitter, and Product Hunt launches. The subscription model ($9-20/month) and one-time purchase options converted well in the competitive resume space.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Product Hunt
• 25. Lex ($10k/month)

  Lex generates approximately $10,000 MRR in early stages before raising $2.75M led by True Ventures. Founded by Nathan Baschez (former Product Hunt), this AI-powered word processor integrates GPT-3 for writing assistance. The clean minimalist interface appeals to writers, with AI helping with brainstorming, editing, and completing thoughts. Early growth came from Product Hunt, Twitter, and writing communities. While the tool later raised capital and scaled beyond typical indie projects, the early bootstrapped phase demonstrated strong product-market fit with writers and creators.

  Sources: TechCrunch, Crunchbase
• 26. Simplified ($10k/month)

  Simplified generates approximately $10,000 MRR in early iterations before raising $3M and scaling significantly. Founded by KD Deshpande, Saurabh Wadhawan, and others, this all-in-one design and content platform uses AI for graphic design, video editing, copywriting, and social media management. The AI uses GPT models for content and various visual AI models for design. With a freemium model and paid plans from $15-30/month, the tool scaled through aggressive content marketing and SEO targeting design and marketing keywords.

• 27. Notion AI ($10k/month)

  Notion AI generates approximately $10,000 monthly in initial rollout before integrating into the main Notion product with 35M+ users and $10B valuation. While Notion itself is far beyond typical "small AI tools," the AI assistant feature launched as a separate add-on initially, targeting knowledge workers with writing assistance, brainstorming, and document analysis using GPT models. The feature grew through Notion's existing massive user base, word-of-mouth, and viral social media buzz. This demonstrates how AI features can add revenue to existing products. The way Notion bundled their AI functionality into their core product—and what founders can learn from this integration strategy—is explored in depth in our 200-page report covering everything you need to know about AI Wrappers.



In our 200+-page report on AI wrappers, we'll show you dozens of examples of great distribution strategies, with breakdowns you can copy.

• 28. aiCarousels ($5k/month)

  aiCarousels generates approximately $5,000 MRR quickly after launch. Founder Fernando Pessagno built the AI tool in just 10 days during a potential layoff period, identifying a gap in the LinkedIn carousel market. The AI generates carousel content, layouts, and designs, automating the time-consuming process that typically requires design skills. Built as a side project by a self-described "index.php kind of guy" without formal programming training, the AI tool grew through building in public on Twitter/LinkedIn and a Product Hunt launch. Pessagno ended up losing his job but the product provided alternative income.

• 29. AI2SQL ($5k/month)

  AI2SQL generates approximately $5,000 MRR with 400+ paying users through content marketing, SEO strategies for technical keywords, and building in public. Solo founder Mustafa serves a technical audience by converting natural language into SQL queries, making database interactions accessible to non-technical users. The AI uses natural language processing and LLMs to understand user intent and generate accurate SQL queries across multiple database types. The product bridges the gap between technical and non-technical users, solving a real problem in data teams where not everyone knows SQL but everyone needs database insights.

  Sources: Indie Hackers

• 30. TalkNotes ($5k/month)

  TalkNotes generates approximately $5,000 monthly ($4,000 MRR plus yearly subscriptions generating additional cashflow) within months of launching. Founder Nico Jeannen built this AI tool in 2023 and reached $5k/month quickly. The AI transcribes voice recordings in 50+ languages and can output blog posts, emails, meeting notes, to-do lists, or transcripts in 100+ format styles. Jeannen, a self-taught developer who learned to code in just two months, launched with an aggressive growth strategy: a viral Product Hunt launch (#1 Product of the Day with 900+ upvotes), posting in 100+ AI directories, and building in public on Twitter. The tool made $700 in its first few days. Jeannen later sold TalkNotes for $200,000.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Product Hunt
• 31. CoverLetterGPT ($550/month)

  CoverLetterGPT generates approximately $550 MRR after one year while requiring virtually zero maintenance. Built in one week using the Wasp framework, this GPT wrapper generates personalized cover letters from résumés and job postings. Operating costs total approximately $15/month for hosting and OpenAI API fees, making this highly profitable for its size. The founder posted on Reddit for initial traction and requires zero marketing spend, with only three Stripe disputes to date. With three trial credits to prove value and minimal customer support needs, this AI tool runs on autopilot while the founder maintains a full-time job.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Reddit


In our 200+-page report on AI wrappers, we'll show you the best conversion tactics with real examples. Then, you can replicate the frameworks that are already working instead of spending months testing what converts.

• 32. Podnotes ($500+/month)

  Podnotes generates over $500 MRR as part of the 1811 Labs portfolio, a micro-products studio that shipped multiple AI tools in 2023. Podnotes transcribes podcast files and converts them to various formats. The studio achieved $500+ MRR for Podnotes through a combination of AppSumo launches, Product Hunt features, and building in public on Indie Hackers. The 5-person floating team took inspiration from Pieter Levels' rapid shipping approach, launching products quickly and validating through real sales.

  Sources: Indie Hackers
• 33. Elephas ($500/month)

  Elephas generates approximately $500 MRR in four months from launch. Solo indie developer Kamban S built this native Mac app that integrates GPT-3/GPT-4 into daily tasks for writing assistance, document analysis, and productivity. The focus on native Mac apps provided less competition than web-based AI tools. Kamban posted the first version on Hacker News and got early paid customers, building in public on Twitter while always charging from day one for validation. This success came after $0 MRR for 3+ years and building many failed products, highlighting the persistence required in indie hacking.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Hacker News
• 34. Audionotes ($24k total)

  Audionotes generated $24,000 in total revenue (not monthly) as part of the 1811 Labs portfolio. Audionotes records voice notes and converts them to text, summaries, and tasks. The studio achieved this through a combination of AppSumo launches, Product Hunt features, and building in public on Indie Hackers. The 5-person floating team took inspiration from Pieter Levels' rapid shipping approach, launching AI tools quickly and validating through real sales. While not generating high monthly recurring revenue, the total revenue demonstrates successful validation.

  Sources: Indie Hackers
• 35. VisualizeAI ($24k total)

  VisualizeAI generated $24,000 in total revenue as reported in the 1811 Labs studio's 2023 year-in-review. Part of the same portfolio mentioned earlier, this AI tool uses ControlNet-based AI for interior design visualization. Like RoomGPT, it targets interior designers who need to visualize spaces using AI-generated images. The tool demonstrates the portfolio approach where a studio ships multiple AI tools quickly to validate different ideas, with some generating more revenue than others.

  Indie Hackers