Top 35 Most Profitable Small AI Tools

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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 create our market clarity reports on over 100 different product categories).

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.

  Sources: Multiple indie hacker reports, CB Insights
• 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: Multiple indie hacker reports, founder social media
• 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.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder interviews, case studies
• 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: Company reports, indie hacker interviews
• 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.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder interviews
• 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, company announcements, 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.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder Twitter, Product Hunt
• 8. PDF.ai ($70k/month)

  PDF.ai generates approximately $60,000-80,000 monthly, currently maintaining around $60k-$80k/month. Founder Damon Chen, a former Cisco engineer, purchased the project for $20k with $0 revenue and scaled it within six months. The critical investment was the $10,000 purchase of the premium domain PDF.ai, which proved crucial for SEO (the tool now gets 350k organic monthly visitors with 50% from the "PDF AI" keyword alone). The AI uses large language models with embeddings and vector search for semantic Q&A over PDF documents. Chen hired a full-time influencer for viral Instagram content (growing to 20k+ followers in months).

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder interviews, Starter Story
• 9. Chatbase ($64k/month)

  Chatbase generates approximately $64,000 MRR just six months after launch by Yasser Elsaid, a college student at York University. Launched February 2, 2023, this custom ChatGPT chatbot builder lets businesses train AI chatbots on their data to answer customer questions. The AI stack uses OpenAI API, Langchain, and Pinecone vector database to create chatbots that understand company-specific content. Elsaid's timing was perfect (he launched as the first-to-market "ChatGPT for your data" solution during peak AI hype). His viral Twitter launch with only 16 followers generated massive engagement, and the company later scaled to $5M ARR by the two-year mark.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder social media, case studies

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• 10. InstaText ($50k+/month)

  InstaText generates over $50,000 monthly with 500,000+ active users from 150+ countries. Founded by Matej Guid and team in Slovenia, this AI writing assistant goes beyond grammar checking to enrich content and improve readability using sophisticated NLP. The bootstrapped company reached $50k+ MRR within two years of launching in early 2020, winning "Slovenian Startup of the Year 2020" by Repubblica newspaper. The AI tool targets non-native English speakers in professional settings, positioning for professionals who need to write like native English speakers.

  Sources: Company announcements, indie hacker reports
• 11. Eightify ($45k/month)

  Eightify generates approximately $45,000 monthly as a Chrome extension that creates AI summaries of YouTube videos. Built by Alex Kataev in just two days, this AI tool uses natural language processing and AI summarization to extract key points from videos. The former CTO at an EdTech company for seven years built the extension with starting costs of $23k and grew it to 70M+ visitors per year through the Chrome Web Store distribution channel and organic viral growth. With 6.6 million monthly traffic, three employees, 50% gross margin, and profitable operations, Eightify solved a common pain point.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Chrome Web Store data
• 12. Cuppa ($43k/month)

  Cuppa generates approximately $41,000-45,000 MRR (currently at $460K ARR, targeting $1M) as an AI writing tool for creating SEO-ready articles in minutes. Currently run by Ryan Darani and Chris Riley, who acquired the existing product rather than building from scratch, the AI tool focuses on agencies and content marketers. The primary growth driver is influencer marketing combined with a strong affiliate program. Despite converting 2,500 new customers monthly, the tool faces 15% churn due to price-based value proposition. A spin-off done-for-you AI automation service launched in November 2024 generates an additional $13.5k MRR.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder interviews
• 13. AudioPen ($36.5k/month)

  AudioPen generated approximately $36,500 monthly average in its first two months ($73,000 total), later settling to a sustainable $15,000 monthly. Built by Louis Pereira during a "Half Day Build" hackathon in March 2023, this AI-powered voice note app listens to rambling thoughts and rewrites them into polished text. The AI capabilities combine OpenAI's Whisper for speech-to-text with GPT for intelligent rewriting. Pereira charges $99/year for unlimited use, and the tool attracted 1,000+ paying customers before even launching publicly. Growth came from a viral tweet from a 200k-follower account, Product Hunt #1 Product of the Day with 1,000+ upvotes, and word-of-mouth amplified by an affiliate program.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder blog posts, Product Hunt
• 14. My AskAI ($25k/month)

  My AskAI generates approximately $25,000 monthly ($300,000 annual revenue) by connecting to Zendesk, Intercom, help docs, Drive, Notion, and Confluence. Founded by Alex Rainey and Mike Heap, this AI tool creates chatbots trained exclusively on company documentation. If the AI can't answer a question, it passes to human agents. The positioning as 5x cheaper than Zendesk, Intercom, or HubSpot's native AI offerings attracted 12,000 customers. The founders built in public on Twitter, launched on Product Hunt, and went through multiple pivots before finding product-market fit. The bootstrapped company maintains 2 employees with a 3% conversion rate.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder Twitter, company blog
• 15. FormulaBot ($24k/month)

  FormulaBot (originally ExcelFormulaBot) generates approximately $14,000-24,000 MRR within months of launch. Founder David Bressler, who has a full-time job and family, built this as a side project during paternity leave. The AI uses OpenAI's API to interpret natural language and generate Excel/Google Sheets formulas, VBA code, and SQL queries with minimal token usage for cost efficiency. Bressler's growth strategy was legendary: a viral Reddit post with 10,000+ upvotes drove 81,000+ visitors, SEO-focused keyword-rich domain, and aggressive social media engagement. The AI tool accumulated 650,000+ freemium users and 10,900 paid users. Built in just two months, the tool made $20k in the next two months.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Reddit, founder interviews
• 16. RoomGPT ($23k/month)

  RoomGPT generates approximately $23,000 monthly within six months, generating $241k total revenue and $168k profit before being listed for sale at $720k. Hassan El Mghari, a Senior Developer Advocate at Vercel, built this AI tool that uses ControlNet protocol with Stable Diffusion to redesign room photos while maintaining structure. A TikTok video with 3.5 million views, open-sourced GitHub code with 4,500+ stars, and listing on TheresanAIforthat.com drove 1.6 million registered users and 3+ million unique visitors. The tool charges $9 for 30 credits, $19 for 100 credits, and $29 for 200 credits.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder Twitter, GitHub
• 17. Backlinker AI ($20k/month)

  Backlinker AI generates approximately $20,000 MRR after 13 months. Founded by Bennett Heyn from San Francisco, this AI tool uses AI and machine learning to identify backlink opportunities, analyze competitor backlinks, and automate outreach. Heyn previously led the Artificial Intelligence Club at Ohio State University and created a successful blog generating over $70k in revenue before building Backlinker AI. The growth came from leveraging his SEO and digital marketing expertise, building based on personal pain points, and focusing on organic growth through content marketing.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder LinkedIn
• 18. TypingMind ($15k/month)

  TypingMind generates approximately $15,000 MRR from subscriptions plus significant one-time purchase revenue. The AI tool reached $1 million in total revenue within 20 months (November 2024). Vietnamese indie hacker Tony Dinh launched one day after the ChatGPT API was released, making $10k in the first week and $22k in the first seven days. The static web app features folders, search, chat history, custom prompts, and better UX than the official ChatGPT interface, with users bringing their own OpenAI API key. With 168k Twitter followers, Dinh leveraged his audience for a viral Product Hunt #1 launch.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder Twitter, Product Hunt
• 19. Mockey.ai ($12k/month)

  Mockey.ai generates approximately $12,000 MRR as an AI-powered online mockup generator. Founders Pranay Agarwal and Mofid Ansari started with a free tool integrated into Blinkstore.in (an existing platform with strong SEO), then turned on paid subscriptions in April 2024. The AI tool reached $12k MRR in just 11 months through heavy SEO investment in content creation and link building. The breakthrough came when they implemented download limits (revenue tripled after converting from unlimited free downloads to a freemium model). With approximately 100k visitors per month and $700/month from ads, the core subscription business drives the $12k monthly revenue.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder interviews

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• 20. FounderPal ($10k/month)

  FounderPal generates approximately $10,000 monthly ($126k total over 19 months). Co-founded by Sveta Bay and Dan Kulkov, this interactive AI platform creates marketing strategies and transforms them into actionable tasks, including user persona generator, positioning generator, market analysis, and pricing strategies. The AI (likely GPT-based) generates strategic marketing plans from basic business descriptions. Building 13 products in 18 months using no-code on Bubble, they hit $1.2k on launch day and added $19k in the next two months. Both quit corporate jobs (Sveta from project management at Unilever, Dan from COO roles in EdTech and HR startups).

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder blog
• 21. Setter AI ($10k/month)

  Setter AI generates approximately $10,000 MRR twice in an unusual journey. Founded by German entrepreneur Timo Nikolai in Bangkok, the AI tool initially started with AI phone calls but failed due to low pickup rates and technical issues. After dropping from $10k MRR to $0, Timo pivoted to text messaging (WhatsApp/SMS) and rebuilt back to $10k MRR within six months. The conversational AI handles inbound leads, qualifies prospects, and schedules appointments automatically 24/7. The founder validated the pivot by collecting $500 upfront payments before building, focusing on B2B enterprise clients with pricing from $49 to $5,000/month.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder interviews
• 22. ReplyGuy ($10k/month)

  ReplyGuy (formerly Replyze) generates approximately $10,000 MRR within 10 months after rebranding. Founder Alexander Belogubov from Ukraine built the AI tool to scan social platforms for keyword mentions and generate natural-sounding replies recommending products. The initial launch as "Replyze" with an unsuccessful Product Hunt debut generated only $300 MRR after three months. The turning point came when Belogubov brought on a marketing-focused partner who handled growth while the founder focused on development. The AI tool eventually sold for a six-figure sum, demonstrating the classic story of a technical founder needing marketing expertise.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder social media
• 23. Map-This ($8k/month)

  Map-This generates approximately $8,000 monthly as part of Kushank Aggarwal's portfolio. Built after a viral video about custom GPT workflows in November 2023, the AI tool uses AI to analyze documents and automatically generate visual maps with connected concept boxes. Initially struggling with pricing (free plan too generous), locking popular features behind a paywall drove conversions. The $5.99/month pricing came after experimentation. Like Prompt-Genie, this AI tool benefited from Aggarwal's existing 1M+ social media audience and content marketing through his channels.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder social media
• 24. Buildpad ($7.3k/month)

  Buildpad generates approximately $7,300 monthly within seven months by serving solo builders and indie hackers with AI-powered product validation and development guidance. Brothers Felix and David Heikka built this "AI co-founder" tool that remembers project context across conversations, provides structured processes, and helps with market research and MVP planning. Using OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Stability AI, the tool grew from $2,400 MRR in February 2024 to $7,300 by August through authentic building in public on Twitter, Reddit, and IndieHackers. With approximately 100 paid users at the $2.4k milestone and pricing of $20/month Starter and $40/month Pro.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, Product Hunt, founder Twitter
• 25. Vidon.ai ($6k/month)

  Vidon.ai generates approximately $6,000 MRR in just five months by serving 200+ companies. The AI automatically converts blog posts into shareable videos with generated visuals, voiceovers, and editing. Positioned for content marketers and businesses with existing blog content who want to repurpose across YouTube, TikTok, and social media, the AI tool addresses the growing need for video content without requiring video production skills.

  Sources: Indie Hackers reports
• 26. Olympia ($6k/month)

  Olympia generates approximately $6,000 MRR by February 2024 with almost entirely organic growth. Founded by Victoria Loskutova and Obie Fernandez in May 2023, the AI tool positioned as an AI-powered virtual team of consultants (strategist, copywriter, legal expert) for solopreneurs. The AI features role-based consultants with memory and context retention, performing tasks like outbound email, link reading, and web search. Growth came from AI tool directories (especially "There Is an AI for That" which generated 5-10 pages of signups daily), content marketing across Medium and Hacker News, and Twitter Spaces appearances. With 141 subscribers at $6k MRR and 12% churn, the LTV reached $343.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder blog posts
• 27. Supermeme.ai ($5k/month)

  Supermeme.ai generates approximately $5,000 MRR organically. Founded by Sanjeev NC and two co-founders from Chennai, India, this AI meme generator helps users create culturally relevant content without creative skills. The three-person team (zero employees beyond founders) focused on helping businesses "cut through the noise" with meme marketing. Previous experience included stints at Capgemini, Freshworks, and SuperOps.ai before founding Supermeme. The organic growth strategy centered on positioning for time-strapped marketers who need to quickly produce engaging social media content.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, company announcements
• 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.

  Sources: Indie Hackers, founder LinkedIn
• 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 reports

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• 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, founder Twitter
• 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
• 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, 1811 Labs year-in-review
• 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, founder Twitter
• 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, 1811 Labs reports
• 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.

  Sources: 1811 Labs year-in-review, Indie Hackers

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