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Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#81

Post by em-bee »

698969 wrote: post #67
soared wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local grocery prices. Let me upload a shopping list and allow me to optimize for cost (visit this store for these items, this store for these items) and a trail to follow through the store for optimal pathing. Same thing for home improvement - Lowe’s in stock indicator is wildly wrong to the point that I sometimes call and ask an employee to go physically look at the item.

For groceries at least, the time cost + fuel cost of buying from different stores would probably cancel out any minor variations in prices

depends on where you live. in european cities you tend to have multiple grocery stores within walking distance from each other. also you don't have to go to all of them on the same day. i delay buying certain things until i have a chance to go to the place where those are cheaper. it just takes a bit planning ahead.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#82

Post by mtlynch »

tkiolp4 wrote: post #76
mtlynch wrote: post #44

Not making a living, but I make about $200/mo from an API that parses recipe ingredients like "2 cups finely chopped onions" into structured JSON.[0] I put it in maintenance mode in 2019, so it's about 99% passive income, as I spend only about an hour or two on maintenance per year. I'm surprised all my clients haven't switched to LLMs, but maybe I still outdo LLMs on price/accuracy since it's so niche. I'd like to s…

In my country it costs around 200 euro/month to be a freelancer (I think most of that money is for health insurance). So making $200/month would be a no go for me. How do people manage to legally earn that money when the margins are so low?

In the US, it doesn't really cost anything to run a business as a sole proprietor. So, I can't live on Zestful, but it's definitely more profitable than not having the business.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#83

Post by mtlynch »

philipodonnell wrote: post #55
mtlynch wrote: post #44

Not making a living, but I make about $200/mo from an API that parses recipe ingredients like "2 cups finely chopped onions" into structured JSON.[0] I put it in maintenance mode in 2019, so it's about 99% passive income, as I spend only about an hour or two on maintenance per year. I'm surprised all my clients haven't switched to LLMs, but maybe I still outdo LLMs on price/accuracy since it's so niche. I'd like to s…

What kind of customers are using this API? I’ve had many similar thoughts but I get hung up on the idea that customers are “developers” from a marketing standpoint, because those developers are developing something and that something is probably a bigger driver of utility that a truly generically developer tool like Cursor.

It's generally apps that let users import or enter recipes. The apps want to do more with the recipes like create shopping lists or provide nutritional information.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#84

Post by vernon99 »

jlundberg wrote: post #63

I make a living from the SMS & telephony API I made. Our MRR is ~500 000 EUR and our pricing model is pay-as-you-go (per SMS, per MMS, per phone call minute, per month for virtual mobile phone numbers). The problem we solve is programmatic access to the mobile networks, specifically in Europe/Sweden. We got out first paying customers through offline networking: going to hackathons, meetups and poking tech friends to…

So like Twilio but for some local European networks?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#85

Post by bad_haircut72 »

jlundberg wrote: post #66
vsupalov wrote: post #2

I'm also curious about ways to provide value with a technical project. The challenge when exploring this topic: the incentive to stay under the radar. Those succeeding don't have much to gain from sharing details here. Worst case: it could invite competitors into their space. Communities that thrive on growth (e.g., open-source) tend to share freely, but API businesses, especially ones which are easy to execute, ofte…

As a tech person, it is easy to wrongly think that ”anyone can build this” about a prototype you just built. At the end of the day, it is about what the customer is willing to pay for. Back when The Pirate Bay was huge, music was essentially free. But Spotify came along and proved people are ready to pay for something better. ImageMagick is an open source tool for resizing images etc. But some people successfully bui…

If the cops hadnt also aggressively pursued people "stealing" music (a bullshit proposition to begin with) Spotify would not have won. For most people avoiding a potentially big fine, even if the chance is small, tips the balance into just paying a few bucks (which is itself a huge price concession from the music industry, who would love to charge what CDs used to cost) - but they cant, that would tip the balance back into piracy

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#86

Post by hollerith »

bad_haircut72 wrote: post #85
jlundberg wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a tech person, it is easy to wrongly think that ”anyone can build this” about a prototype you just built. At the end of the day, it is about what the customer is willing to pay for. Back when The Pirate Bay was huge, music was essentially free. But Spotify came along and proved people are ready to pay for something better. ImageMagick is an open source tool for resizing images etc. But some people successfully bui…

If the cops hadnt also aggressively pursued people "stealing" music (a bullshit proposition to begin with) Spotify would not have won. For most people avoiding a potentially big fine, even if the chance is small, tips the balance into just paying a few bucks (which is itself a huge price concession from the music industry, who would love to charge what CDs used to cost) - but they cant, that would tip the balance bac…

Which police force was involved in that? In the US, it was the RIAA using private investigators to find people to sue.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#87

Post by Havoc »

Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #8

I know of a guy, but his scenario was quite unique. I was working for an energy company who shall remain nameless, but who's internal IT was a tangle of external consultants milking the place for millions, and ineffective/underserved full time staff who couldn't run a query on a database without a change control committee of consultants milking them for yet more cash. Anyway, this guy was the go to guy for gas custom…

aka he joined the squad of consultants. Just with better and more automated process

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#88

Post by xelxebar »

jlundberg wrote: post #63

I make a living from the SMS & telephony API I made. Our MRR is ~500 000 EUR and our pricing model is pay-as-you-go (per SMS, per MMS, per phone call minute, per month for virtual mobile phone numbers). The problem we solve is programmatic access to the mobile networks, specifically in Europe/Sweden. We got out first paying customers through offline networking: going to hackathons, meetups and poking tech friends to…

Mind if I ask what stack you use? I've got some acquaintances working with Swedish infrastructure, and they have lots of stories.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#89

Post by calderarrow »

joewhale wrote: post #62

Market data delivered via API for hedge funds and quants.

Are you able to share a bit more about this? Specifically:

1. How did you find your first customers?

2. How did you determine a price?

3. What are the payment plans based on? Usage? Flat rate? Something else?

4. How much are you currently earning MRR and what are your costs like?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living from a paid API?

#90

Post by monero-xmr »

vsupalov wrote: post #2

I'm also curious about ways to provide value with a technical project. The challenge when exploring this topic: the incentive to stay under the radar. Those succeeding don't have much to gain from sharing details here. Worst case: it could invite competitors into their space. Communities that thrive on growth (e.g., open-source) tend to share freely, but API businesses, especially ones which are easy to execute, ofte…

Every company has secrets that few people know. If you know an industry intimately you can reverse engineer what the competition is doing. But generally speaking the “tricks of the trade” are non-obvious and make the business.

I know right this very second exactly how I could do a unique twist on my existing business and conservatively make another $1 million a year in profit within 2 years. But I already work 60+ hours a week on this business and I’m making tons of money, and the risk of revealing my secrets to another person to build the new business is simply too high.

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