- Decody AI
- Posts
- 5 stupid simple AI apps printing $10k to $10m/month + bonus idea inside
5 stupid simple AI apps printing $10k to $10m/month + bonus idea inside
Receipts inside - Sensor Tower screenshots, zero VC, all cash flow.
Ananay Batra
June 14, 2025
These five throwaway AI apps mint serious money
You wouldn’t be here if you listened to some simple business lessons by Uncle Mike.
An app that scans plants? and it makes $150m/year? which simulation is this?
Everyone keeps yelling “distribution > product!”.
Meanwhile a few bootstrappers are quietly siphoning App Store money like it’s the world’s easiest ATM. No VC term sheets, no 80‑hour sprints—just one sharp niche, rented AI, and a bright‑yellow “Subscribe” modal.
Today we’re reverse‑engineering five of those machines (Sensor Tower receipts included) and pitching you a sixth idea you can ship in a week.
1️⃣ PictureThis: the $13m/month leaf scanner
What it does | Snap a plant → app IDs species, spits out care schedule |
Revenue | ≈ $13 m / month (May ’25, Sensor Tower) |
Why it works | Spring arrives → suburban dad realises ficus is dying → annual plan auto‑renews |
Steal‑this‑move | Hide monthly option; push $39.99 yearly upfront, CAC recovered in one swipe |
Copy‑paste angle: a succulent‑only scanner. Etsy moms will melt.
2️⃣ PlantIn: the “little brother” still banking $3 m/month
What it does | Same concept, sassier UI, chatty bot named Florence |
Revenue | ≈ $3 m / month on iOS alone |
Edge | Talks to you like Duolingo’s owl, minus the guilt trip |
Builder takeaway | Micro‑niche the niche: “Herb‑garden AI” with pest alerts & grow‑light recs |
Dozens of me‑too leaf apps still carve out six‑figure pockets because users never comparison‑shop once the first scan works.
3️⃣ Solvely: a homework photographer at $650 k/month
What it does | OCRs any math problem → step‑by‑step answer |
Revenue | ≈ $650 k / month (App Store + Play downloads × $39.99/yr) |
Why students pay | One wrong answer on WebAssign costs more than a month of Solvely Plus |
Builder takeaway | Bundle essay drafts & citation bot → upsell finals‑week “panic pass” at $9.99 |
4️⃣ EWA: English lessons pulling $500 k/month
Product | Netflix clips + spaced repetition so you learn phrasal verbs from Friends |
Revenue | ≈ $500 k / month (Sensor Tower, June ’25) |
Edge | Feels like binge‑watching, not homework |
Builder takeaway | Spin an accent‑coach add‑on targeting call‑center agents; same LTV, zero competition |
5️⃣ Solvo AI: $250 k/month via gem‑gated answers
What it does | Users buy in‑app “gems” to unlock solutions |
Revenue | ≈ $250 k / month on just 45 k downloads |
Margin secret | GPT‑4 Turbo costs pennies; each gem sells for quarters |
Builder takeaway | Usage‑based pricing beats subs when parents only panic twice a semester |
💡 Bonus build: Hyper‑personalised AI meditation
Calm cranks $300m/year selling a dusty MP3 library behind a paywall. Your move:
Inputs - Apple Health sleep, heart‑rate, calendar stress windows.
Outputs - ElevenLabs‑voiced scripts & Suno‑scored ambience tailored to your cortisol curve.
Pricing - $9.99/mo, plus $2 on‑demand “panic sessions.”
MVP stack - Flutter, Firebase, Suno loop, ElevenLabs API. One‑week sprint.
Reply with a demo and we’ll feature you here.
TL;DR
Pick a razor‑sharp pain, rent the smartest model you can afford, and charge people to skip friction - the earnings scale from $10 k to eight figures.
Data: Sensor Tower, Appfigures, public App Store pages.