The state of AI revenue, October 2026

The top 10 earn more than a third of everything

The 10 biggest earners take 36% of the $1,231,432 combined verified MRR, and the top 25 take 61%. The bottom half of the board, 74 businesses, adds up to just 6%.

Method. 148 listings with verified MRR, sorted by MRR. Shares of combined verified MRR.

Year one is the grind

AI businesses founded in 2026 have a median verified MRR of $929. The 2025 cohort sits at $5,208, 5.6x higher, while the 2024 and 2023 cohorts sit at $6,377 and $5,032. The big gap is between year one and year two.

Method. 135 listings with verified MRR and a founding date (mostly founder-entered on their verification profile). Median verified MRR per founding year; years with fewer than 5 businesses are grouped.

Sales and marketing tools earn the most

Sales tools have the highest median verified MRR at $14,067, followed by Marketing ($8,146) and Design ($6,502). Recruiting ($581) and Mobile apps ($1,136) sit at the bottom.

Method. 124 listings in the 10 categories with at least 5 verified businesses. Category is our label per listing. Median verified MRR.

Cheap plans, small businesses

Businesses whose cheapest monthly plan is under $15 have a median verified MRR of $2,098. Those starting at $30 a month or more have a median of $10,576, about 5x higher. By pricing model, weekly app subscriptions have the highest median ($3,702, n=10), ahead of regular subscriptions ($2,136) and credit packs ($2,226).

Median verified MRR by pricing model (a business can use more than one):

Method. 81 listings with verified MRR and a dated pricing snapshot that lists monthly plan prices in USD. Entry price = the lowest paid monthly plan on the latest snapshot (Wayback capture, our own check of the live page, or a dated founder post). Annual-only and non-USD prices are left out. Correlation, not cause: B2B tools both charge more and earn more. Pricing model per listing as published by the business; 104 listings.

Most are shrinking, not growing

Only 36 of 102 businesses (35%) made more in Sep 2026 than in Mar 2026; the median change was -21%. And 80 of 127 (63%) ended Sep 2026 more than 30% below their best month of the last year. Only 23 were at their peak.

Method. Monthly revenue collected, from payment-provider data, complete calendar months only. Six-month change: 102 listings with at least $1,000 in Mar 2026. Peak check: 127 listings with 6+ months of history and a best month of $1,000+. Revenue, not MRR, so one-off sales and refunds count; part of the drop can be seasonal.

When founders and Stripe disagree, the founder's number is higher

13 of 202 listings carry a "sources disagree" flag. In 9 of them, one side is the founder's own public figure, and in 8 of those 9 the founder's number is higher than the payment data. Agreement is common too: 10 listings have a founder figure and payment data within 25% of each other.

Method. Flags are set when two independent sources differ by more than 35% at about the same time, or when a stated figure can't be reconciled with payment data (each flag explains itself on the listing). Founder higher: SEOBOT, Audn.AI, MagicSlides.app, Solvent Global, VideoDubber.ai, Garden Ai app, Terse, ReddGrow AI. 'Not a founder claim' = two payment accounts or an own revenue page vs Stripe. Small sample: read it as a pattern to watch, not a rate.

Agent-run businesses are smaller, but real

The 7 ⚡ Run by AI businesses with verified revenue have a median of $17,187 in total revenue. The 157 human-run AI businesses with a verified total have a median of $54,433. That's about 3x apart, and the agent-run group is months old. One of them, FelixCraft, has passed $211,707.

Method. Median verified total (lifetime) revenue; fundraisers and overlapping listings excluded. Run by AI = an agent makes the day-to-day calls (criteria). Agent-run businesses are months old, so this compares young experiments to established products. See the Autonomous business index.