How to Make Money with a GPT Store App

Could you start and run a billion-dollar digital company with just a few employees?

Instagram is maybe the first startup to make that dream a reality. 

In 2010 they launched their photo-sharing app in the Apple App Store and just 2 years later they sold their business to Facebook for $1 Billion with just 13 employees. 

But AI is promising to take that a lot further and faster.

 Why does that matter?

Instagram’s rapid rise was thanks to the explosion of social media and the widespread use of smartphones. A perfect storm. But we are now heading into another level that has increased velocity, leverage, and intelligence. 

The world of AI.

It’s a tsunami. 

It’s faster and has more potential than anything we have seen before. 

If we are looking at the speed of adoption of technology and how that impacts business and society then we can compare the speed of adoption between AI, Apple store apps, and social media.

Velocity of growth

The velocity of growth for businesses, apps, and platforms has changed since the rise of the internet. Local and country-based markets now have access to global markets. Millions became billions.

• The GPT store opened with 3 million apps. Compare that to Apple which took 5 years to reach 1 million apps.
• ChatGPT reached 100 million users in less than 2 months. It took Facebook nearly 5 years. It took Instagram only 1 year.
• Meta’s answer to Twitter, “Threads” took 5 days to reach 100 million users. But they had access to Facebook’s eco-system of 4 billion global users. Fair comparison? Not really.  

Looking ahead: Making money with AI

Mustafa Suleyman, the Founder of DeepMind and the author of “The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma ”-  stated that he could see the day when AI would ideate, source, launch and run an online business. 

He mentioned this during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum 

“It’s my belief that an AI system could invent, manufacture, market, and sell a product — essentially running its own business — before 2030”.

At the moment generative AI is good for ideas and setting processes but the function and the doing is still the big gap. 

In the news

The launch of the GPT store with its 3 million apps has opened a world of possibilities. Everyone is trying to work out what the road ahead looks like and what it means for themselves and for their business.

So what are some of the top news items about the GPT store?

Digiday has some insights into what it all means with their piece “Why Publishers are Hesitant to Add Their Chatbots to OpenAI’s GPT Store.”

They are concerned about the following:

1. Not enough resources
2. No real audience or revenue opportunities
3. Lack of features and functionality

Campaign Asia has taken a look at why the GPT store is shaking up the app economy. And this includes:

1. Building an accessible community
2. How can brands join the GPT revolution

Meanwhile Tech.co covers the 11 Best Apps in the GPT store that will Save You Time. They include the following:

1. Canva – Best Low-Effort Graphic Design Tool
2. Image Generator – Best for Generating Images
3. Merlin – Best Job Application Automator
4. Veed.io – Best for Generating Video Content
5. Diagrams: Show Me – Best GPT for Generating Diagrams
6. Consensus – Best for Searching Academic Papers
7. Tech Support Advisor – Best GPT for Troubleshooting Tech Issues
8. Briefly – Best Text-Shortening GPT
9. Prompt Perfect – Best for AI Prompt Optimization
10. Logo Generator – the Best GPT for Generating Unique Logos
11. Scheduling Wizard – Manage Appointments and Meetings

Going deeper

Now let’s take a closer look at what’s involved if you want to create your own money-making app for the GPT store.

How do you create an AI app for the GPT Store?

Step 1: Sign up to the premium subscription version of ChatGPT 4 which costs $20 a month

Step 2: Log in to ChatGPT and click on “Explore GPTs in the top left corner.

Step 3: Click on the top right corner tab “+Create” tab.

Step 4: Enter your instructions in the message box in the bottom left side of the page of the “Create” page where it says “message GPT builder”. And keep messaging until you get the results you want. 

Step 5: Click “Configure” to add advanced changes that you may want to add such as adding the ability to use ChatGPT to add a profile picture, images, upload files, or connect to other apps like Slack etc.

Step 6: Click “Save” and choose how you want to share your app.

Step 7: Click “Confirm” 

Tip: If you want a more detailed step-by-step process check out this guide from Zapier. 

How are companies making money from GPT Store apps?

The gold rush to create and monetize ChatGPT apps in the newly launched “GPT Store” has begun, capitalizing on the big promise of AI.

But there are some things to consider when playing in this new universe.

Tip #1

OpenAI has not yet announced its exact business model for the GPT store, they say it’s coming but it is very opaque and no details have been released yet. 

This promise was delivered during the November 2023 DevDay event, when the former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the GPT store would “Pay people who build the most useful and the most used GPTs, a portion of our revenue. We’re excited to foster a vibrant ecosystem with the GPT Store.”

Tip #2

One way to make money with a ChatGPT app is to use your app for lead generation. For most apps, you will need to enter your email to use it or gain access to the design or image created. Here’s what Canva’s screen looks like when you want to view the image created.

Tip #3

Once you have captured someone’s details then you can upsell to the paid or premium version for additional features.

So at the moment the 3 million GPT app developers are holding their breath and making money by generating leads and upselling subscribers from free to paid. 

Nothing on offer yet from Sam Altman. Just a vague promise and the old chestnut “trust me”, I am a salesman. Or a lawyer.

How does your App get found in the GPT store amongst millions of others?

In a crowded world with 5.3 billion Internet users, 1.1 billion websites and millions of “Apps” trying to be found is the first step. How do you become seen and be visible so you can make money with a GPT Store app?

The tactics for making this possible are still emerging but here are a few basics that can be applied. These are the fundamentals of marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) that still apply:

1. Keywords that rank well for search engines
2. A description  that tells the user what they will get when using the app
3. A logo or favicon that stands out
4. Great reviews
5. Sharing it on social media helps with the “signal to noise” ratio

How long does it take to create a GPT Store app?

This is like asking “How long is a piece of string?” And we know what the answer to that is. 

It depends.

Tyler Dane, a skilled developer, says that he can do it in 4 minutes. Well, he is a programmer and makes it look easy. 

It is certainly easier to do than creating an app for the Apple “App store” as AI and ChatGPT have democratized programming and a lot of the technical parts. 

But as always “the devil is in the detail”, and it will take you longer than a few minutes.  

Wrapping it up

The AI landscape is the wild west and there are many opportunities. 

The reality?

Many of the GPT store apps are crap.

And therein lies the opportunity and the enigma. It is the promise of a future.

In my time I have seen many rising tech trends and made money from many of them.

• The PC revolution in the 1980s. This put a computer on everyone’s desk.
• The Internet turned up in the 1990s which allowed us to find global information and knowledge with a few searches. 
• Social media platforms emerged at the beginning of the 2000s allowing everyone to create, publish, and share their streams of consciousness.
• In 2007 Apple introduced the smartphone and promised to put “an iPod, a phone and internet communicator in one device” 
• Now in the 2020s, we have Generative AI. I have never seen the velocity of this runaway train before. 

I have seen the future and it is AI. Lean in or just put on your slippers and bury your head in the sand.  

Creating an AI App is about doing three things well:

1. Identifying a problem to solve with your app
2. Being unique 
3. And standing out 

It’s simple but it’s hard. 

The joy is in the paradox and leaping into the conundrum of a future that could be a Utopia or a Dystopia. 

But the only way to learn is to do. 

The only way to win is to try. 

Standing on the sidelines and looking back in a few years and saying “what if” is just a recipe for regret.