AI Side Hustles
AI Coding AgentNamed in 12 case studies

Claude Code

Anthropic's agentic coding tool. It reads a codebase, edits files and runs commands from the terminal or an IDE. Documented founders say they used it to build mobile apps, a data API and a store builder, and to run daily content and client routines. This is separate from chatting with Claude itself. In our data, 12 sourced cases name Claude Code as a tool they used. Of those, 11 report a monthly figure, ranging from $8,200 to $583,333 a month (median $47,500). These figures are as reported by each source: 0 independently documented, 0 source-supported and 12 self-reported. They are examples, not typical results.

Dark Claude Code Docs preview card reading Getting started, Overview, and a line describing Claude Code as an agentic coding tool.
Image: Anthropic (official Claude Code docs). View source (opens in a new tab)
Visit Official SiteOfficial Pricing PageNo affiliate relationship. This is a plain link.
Pricing

Included in the paid Claude plans, not the Free plan. Pro is $20/month billed monthly or $17/month with annual billing; Max starts at $100/month with higher usage.

Free plan: No. The official comparison lists Claude Code on Pro and Max, not on Free.

Checked on the official pricing page on October 27, 2026. Prices change and can vary by region, tax, and billing period.

How It Is Used in Our Cases
  • Building a first app or API with an AI coding agent
  • Adding features and documentation to an existing app
  • Running repeat tasks such as client setup or content pipelines
Limitations
  • Usage limits apply on every paid plan
  • Heavier use needs the Max plan
  • Code it writes still needs review and testing
In the Case Studies

Case Studies Using Claude Code

12 case studies
Maxed app icon: a blue crossed dumbbell mark on white.
Image: Maxed (official App Store listing)
October 7, 2026
1 source

A Michigan grad who had never built a mobile app made an AI lifting coach app that brings in about $14K to $15K a month

Maxed AI (Max Hirsch)

Max Hirsch graduated from the University of Michigan after summer internships in finance that he says he did not enjoy. After an earlier app idea stalled because he could not code, he saw people with no coding background shipping apps and started building with Claude. Lifting was his favorite hobby, so he built Maxed AI, an all-in-one lifting and health app. He says it has about 1,000 active subscribers, 20,000 iOS downloads and brings in roughly $14,000 to $15,000 a month.

Read original source
Reported figure
About $14K to $15K a month(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Social preview image from usefastlane.ai, the official site.
Image: usefastlane.ai
August 30, 2026
1 source

Two founders built an AI short-form video tool for app makers that they say reached $69K a month two months after launch

Fastlane (Gaurav)

Gaurav and his cofounder Jock set out to solve marketing for small software makers. Their first product, a broad AI marketing tool, did not stick, so they narrowed down after about 20 customer calls a week, roughly 2,000 in total. Fastlane learns what is trending in a user's niche, creates short-form content for the product, and schedules it to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Read original source
Reported figure
About $69K a month in recurring revenue
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Screenshot of the toneadapt.com homepage.
Image: toneadapt.com
June 14, 2026
1 source

A 21-year-old college student vibe coded a guitar tone app that he says makes $25K a month five months after launch

ToneAdapt (Kyan)

Kyan is a college student who had never built anything before. As a guitarist, he was using ChatGPT to work out how to recreate the guitar tones of songs he liked, but the answers were not accurate. Guitarists on Reddit and Instagram had the same problem, so he built ToneAdapt, a website and mobile app that helps a user sound like their favorite song in under 30 seconds.

Read original source
Reported figure
$25K a month(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Screenshot of the nubela.co homepage.
Image: nubela.co
July 7, 2026
1 source

After LinkedIn sued his $10M ARR company, a founder used Claude Code to build a new data API that did over $15K in a month

NinjaPear (Steven Goh)

Steven Goh is a software engineer with more than 20 years of experience who has sold two companies. His previous company, Proxycurl, was a LinkedIn data API at $10M ARR until LinkedIn sued it in January 2025; he settled and sold it. After fracturing a bone in his foot, he started building with Claude Code and launched NinjaPear, a B2B company intelligence and data enrichment platform, two weeks later.

Read original source
Reported figure
Over $15K in a month(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Social preview image from firstmovers.ai, the official site.
Image: firstmovers.ai
October 15, 2026
1 source

A former content agency owner says her AI clone business brings in about $250K a month, run on Claude

Julia McCoy (First Movers AI)

Julia McCoy spent ten years building Express Writers, a content agency with 100 staff, and sold it in 2021. In November 2024 she started First Movers AI, which builds AI clones of entrepreneurs. She says it reached about $250K a month roughly 21 months after founding, with about 15 people on the team.

Read original source
Reported figure
About $250K a month(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
AI Central logo on a light paper texture background.
Image: AI Central
June 26, 2026
1 source

An AI tutorial newsletter for professionals has earned more than $150,000 from one ad network alone

Alex Fiore (AI Central)

AI Central teaches busy senior professionals to use AI at work through practical tutorials and has about 300,000 readers. beehiiv reports it has earned more than $150,000 from its ad network alone, with brand and affiliate partnerships now the larger share.

Read original source
Reported figure
More than $150,000 from the ad network to date(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Screenshot of the ravenopus.com homepage.
Image: ravenopus.com
August 17, 2026
2 sources

A laid-off eBay analyst runs a one-person marketing agency on AI agents, with retainers of $20,000 to $30,000

Linara Bozieva (Ravenopus)

Linara Bozieva spent 11 years at eBay before being laid off, then founded Ravenopus in San Jose in May 2024. She is the only human, running about 30 to 35 specialized AI agents for strategy, research, creative, media and conversion work. Forbes reports retainers in the $20,000 to $30,000 range and that the bootstrapped company has been profitable since its first day, she says.

Read original source
Reported figure
Retainers of $20,000 to $30,000 a month(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Dropmagic logo, a silver 3D letter D on a black background.
Image: Dropmagic
October 6, 2026
2 sources

A French founder built an AI store builder for first-time online sellers and says it reached $120K in monthly recurring revenue

Dropmagic (Loic Berthelot)

Loic Berthelot is a French founder who says he launched more than ten software products, most of which failed, before three worked. One was Minea, a product research tool for online sellers that he says peaked at $750K MRR. His latest, Dropmagic, creates online stores for e-commerce beginners with AI. In November 2025 he told Starter Story it had passed $45K MRR in its first four months, and in October 2026 he posted on X that he had scaled it to $120K MRR.

Read original source
Reported figure
$120K MRR(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Visualizee social preview: "Photoreal renders for your next client review" over a living room shown half as a render and half as a wireframe.
Image: Visualizee
September 2, 2026
1 source

A Polish developer with a full-time job grew his AI rendering tool for architects from about $150 to nearly $10K a month after one pivot

Visualizee (Piotr)

Piotr is a software engineer and tech lead in Poland who built Visualizee, an AI rendering tool, alongside his full-time job. Architects and interior designers upload a sketch or model and get a realistic render of a home or interior in seconds. He says the product was stuck at around $100 to $150 a month for its first two years. About six months before the interview he simplified it into a chat-style assistant and switched to subscriptions, and he says revenue grew to an $8.2K MRR, close to $10K a month with one-time payments.

Read original source
Reported figure
About $8.2K MRR, close to $10K a month with one-time payments(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Erly app icon, a white rising sun over a curved horizon on a black rounded square.
Image: Erly (official App Store listing)
July 5, 2026
1 source

A former accountant built a push-up alarm app with AI coding help and says it reached $50K a month in four months

Erly (Jake Glacer)

Jake Glacer, 24, trained as an accountant, earned his CPA and worked at a Big Four firm before teaching himself to code. To wake up early he used to promise a friend a video of himself doing push-ups by 6 a.m. He turned that habit into Erly, an alarm app you switch off by doing push-ups. He told Starter Story it launched at the end of 2025 and went from zero to over $50,000 a month in four months, with more than 200,000 downloads in 2026.

Read original source
Reported figure
Over $50K/month(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
FirstIndex social card on a blue background reading Get named when buyers ask AI, with a pixel hand cursor.
Image: FirstIndex
October 20, 2026
1 source

A solo founder tweeted a $1,000 a month AI SEO offer and says it reached about $570K ARR in under a month

FirstIndex (Josh Pigford)

Josh Pigford, known for founding the subscription analytics company Baremetrics, had gotten good at using Claude to get his own sites to rank on Google and in AI tools such as ChatGPT. He tweeted an offer to do the same for other companies for $1,000 a month, with all the work handled in Slack. He told Mixergy that FirstIndex had about 30 clients and was at about $570,000 in annual recurring revenue less than a month later.

Read original source
Reported figure
About $570K ARR(recurring revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Wave social card reading Press a button, Catch every word, with a phone screen showing a new recording waveform.
Image: Wave
February 3, 2026
1 source

A non-developer vibe coded an AI note-taking app and says it is at about $7M ARR as a one-person company

Wave AI (Josh Mohrer)

Josh Mohrer is not a developer, but Mixergy describes how he vibe coded Wave AI into a $7 million a year note-taking company. The app records what you say in meetings, on calls or straight into your phone, then transcribes and summarizes it. He says that over about three years a few people helped with higher-end engineering and marketing, but he has done most of the engineering and all of the support himself.

Read original source
Reported figure
About $7M ARR(recurring revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Alternatives

Related Tools in AI Coding Agent

Claude logo and wordmark on a cream background.Official image

Claude

AI Assistant

Anthropic's AI assistant. Documented cases use it to write long video scripts, draft newsletter summaries, and run client offers on a single monthly subscription.

Free plan: Yes. Free plan for chat on web, desktop, and mobile.

Pricing: Free plan. Pro is $20/month billed monthly or $17/month billed annually. Max starts at $100/month. Team seats start at $20/seat/month billed annually.

Checked October 17, 2026

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AI Coding

AI code editor with an agent that writes and edits code. Several documented founders say they built their apps with it, often with little or no prior coding.

Free plan: Yes. Free plan with limited agent and chat requests.

Pricing: Free $0/month with limited AI usage. Plus $8/month, Premium $30/month, Super $100/month, Ultra $200/month, Teams from $30 per user per month. Third-party model usage is billed separately at API list price. Plans are sold together with X and Grok features.

Checked October 20, 2026

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The word Codex in white on a soft blue and purple gradient.Official image

OpenAI Codex

AI Coding Agent

OpenAI's coding agent, used through a ChatGPT plan or an API key. Documented founders say they used it to vibe code a paid budget app in a weekend, to build card scanner apps and an AI video clipping app, and to run a one-person marketing agency.

Free plan: Yes. The Free plan includes Codex for quick coding tasks, with limits.

Pricing: Comes with ChatGPT plans. The official page listed Free at $0, Go at $8/month, Plus at $20/month and Pro at $100/month for individuals, and Business at $20. It can also be used with an API key at API rates.

Checked October 27, 2026

Used in 4 documented casesView Profile
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