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AI paid Pieter Levels $105,000/mo in revenue from Photo AI, a one-person AI photo app

Self-reported Source: levels.io (Pieter Levels' own site, reposted from X) (Mar 6, 2026) Facts re-checked Oct 15, 2026

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AI PAID ME · RECEIPTCHECKED OCT 15, 2026

Paid to
Pieter Levels (@levelsio), a Dutch indie founder
For
Photo AI, a website where people upload selfies and generate AI photos and videos of themselves
Tools used
Photo AI, PHP
Type
Revenue and profit, per his post

Amount, exactly as the source states it

“$105,000/mo revenue”

  • “photoai.com is a 40,870 line file called index.php”
  • “$105,000/mo revenue”
  • “$80,000/mo profit”

These figures come from Levels' own public post (March 6, 2026). He has shared his revenue publicly for years, but no outlet checked these documents, so we label it self-reported.

Self-reported

Who he is

Pieter Levels, known online as @levelsio, is a Dutch indie entrepreneur. He’s known for building and running internet businesses on his own, without investors, and for posting his revenue in public. His site lists earlier posts like “Remote OK is a single PHP file generating $101,101 this month” (2021).

What Photo AI does

According to its homepage, Photo AI lets you upload selfies, train an AI model of yourself, and then generate photos and videos of yourself in any setting. Think LinkedIn headshots, dating-profile photos, travel shots, or product videos. It sells monthly and yearly subscriptions with a credit system.

The site’s FAQ says, in Levels’ words: “I run it all by myself, with the help of thousands of AI robots.” It also calls Photo AI “a 100%-owned independent business without investors.”

The post

On March 6, 2026, Levels posted three lines:

photoai.com is a 40,870 line file called index.php $105,000/mo revenue $80,000/mo profit

The point he was making: a business doesn’t need fancy code to make money. The whole app lives in one very long PHP file.

How AI fits in

Here, AI is the product. Customers pay to use image and video models that Photo AI runs for them. The FAQ says it uses its own “Hyper Realism” pipeline plus other models for upscaling, video, and voice. The source post doesn’t say which tools Levels uses to write the code.

Worth knowing

  • These are his numbers. No outlet audited them. He has a long track record of public revenue posts, but that’s still self-reported.
  • He had a big head start. Photo AI’s FAQ says he’s known for earlier projects like Nomads.com and Remote OK, and his post about Photo AI was viewed more than 1.5 million times. Most of us launch to a much smaller crowd.
  • AI costs are real. His FAQ says generative AI costs are “extremely high,” which is why he doesn’t offer refunds once you’ve used it.
  • It grew out of an earlier product. Photo AI’s site says the success of his viral Avatar AI app “led directly to the creation of Photo AI.”

Try it yourself: step by step

Test a tiny, paid AI tool for one narrow audience before writing much code.

What you'll need

  • One specific audience and one job AI does well for them (for example, product photos for Etsy sellers)
  • An account on an AI model platform such as Replicate (pay per use)
  • A Stripe account to take payments
  • Free hosting for a one-page site (Cloudflare Pages has a free plan)
  • A short privacy policy if customers upload photos

  1. Step 1: Pick one audience and one job

    Narrow beats broad. "Headshots for realtors" is easier to explain and sell than "AI photos for everyone."

    • Cost Free
    • Time 1–2 hours

  2. Step 2: Work out your cost per result

    Look up the per-use price on the model's page. Replicate lists examples like $0.025 per image for flux-dev and $0.04 per image for flux-1.1-pro. At $0.04, a 20-image order costs $0.80 in model fees before anything else.

    • Tool Replicate
    • Cost Pay per use
    • Time 1 hour

  3. Step 3: Run 10 test jobs by hand

    Try the model on realistic examples and save the best and worst results. If you wouldn't pay for the output, customers won't either.

    • Tool Replicate
    • Cost A few dollars at listed rates
    • Time 2–3 hours

  4. Step 4: Put up a one-page site

    Use an AI coding assistant to build one page that explains the result, shows real examples, and states the price. Cloudflare Pages' free plan allows 500 builds a month.

  5. Step 5: Take payment with a no-code link

    Stripe Payment Links let you sell without building checkout. Standard pricing is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card payment.

    • Tool Stripe
    • Cost 2.9% + 30¢ per card payment
    • Time 1 hour

  6. Step 6: Do the first orders by hand

    For the first customers, run the model yourself and email the results. You'll learn what people actually want before you automate anything.

    • Cost Model costs only
    • Time 30 minutes per order

  7. Step 7: Automate only what's proven

    Once a few people have paid, have your AI coding assistant automate the steps you've repeated. Levels' point stands: simple code is fine if it works.

  8. Step 8: Share progress in public

    Post what you're building, what broke, and (when you're ready) real numbers. Levels has done this for years.

    • Cost Free
    • Time Ongoing

Beginner pitfalls

  • Pricing below your per-use AI cost
  • Collecting people's photos without saying how long you keep them and how to delete them
  • Not checking each model's license for commercial use
  • Promising refunds after costly AI processing. Photo AI's FAQ explains why it doesn't refund once you've used it.
  • Building lots of features before anyone pays

Realistic expectations

Most small software ideas don't take off, so plan to test several. In 2021 Levels posted that "only 4 out of 70+ projects I ever did made money and grew." He also had a big audience and earlier products before Photo AI.

Prices and plan details come from each tool's own pricing page or help docs, checked Oct 15, 2026. They change often, so re-check before you pay. Time estimates are our rough guesses for a beginner. Sources: Replicate pricing; Stripe pricing; Cloudflare Pages limits (Free plan).

Tools mentioned

  • Photo AI the product itself
  • PHP the post says the app is one 40,870-line index.php file

Plain links to each tool's homepage. We don't earn anything from these links. Affiliate disclosure.

Source and verification

Photoai.com is a 40,870 line index.php making 105,000/mo revenue and 80,000/mo profit, levels.io (Pieter Levels' own site, reposted from X), Mar 6, 2026.

Self-reported: The numbers come from the person themselves. No documents were checked by the outlet. How we verify.

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