I'm going to be completely transparent with you. That's the whole point of build in public. No fluff, no fake screenshots, no pretending I made $10,000 last month when I didn't. I'm going to walk you through exactly what happened when I started promoting three major AI API providers to my audience — and what it actually meant for my wallet.
This is part of my monthly income report series, and I've been itching to dig into this one for a while. Because when I started posting about AI tools and APIs, I assumed the affiliate income would just fall into my lap. Spoiler: it didn't. Not the way I expected, anyway.
The Setup: Why I Even Started Promoting AI APIs
My audience is mostly indie developers, bootstrapped SaaS founders, and a handful of content creators building AI-powered tools. So when I started sharing what I was building, people kept asking the same questions over and over: "Which API should I use?" "What are you paying for inference?" "How do I get started without burning cash on day one?"
That last question especially. A lot of these folks are not enterprises with unlimited budgets. They're shipping side projects. They want to test an idea before committing. And the moment I started answering those questions publicly — writing blog posts, recording Loom videos, sharing my actual stack — the affiliate angle just sort of presented itself.
Now, here's where I have to be honest. I had opinions about which providers I liked, and I was going to mention them in my content regardless. The affiliate link just meant that if someone signed up through my recommendation, I'd get a small kickback. That's the deal. It costs the reader nothing extra. So I figured, why not?
What I didn't realize was how wildly different the affiliate structures would be across the three biggest names in the space.
The OpenAI Wake-Up Call
I started with OpenAI because, honestly, that's the default. When someone says "AI API," most developers' first thought is OpenAI. I built my first product using their API. I've got months of familiarity. It made sense for me to recommend them.
So I went looking for their affiliate program.
Here's the thing — and I want to be upfront about this because it confused me at first — OpenAI doesn't have a public affiliate program for individual creators. They have an enterprise partnership track for big deals and big spenders, but for someone like me, a solo creator with a mid-sized newsletter, there's no signup form. No link generator. No dashboard. Nothing.
I burned a few hours digging through their help docs and contacting their partnerships team. The response was polite but clear: their affiliate-style program is for enterprise accounts, not for the kind of content I'm making.
What that meant for me, practically, was that I could recommend OpenAI all I wanted, but I wasn't going to earn a single cent from those recommendations. I was essentially doing free marketing for a multi-billion-dollar company. That sat wrong with me — not because OpenAI owes me anything, but because the time I spend on a recommendation is time I could have spent on something that actually pays.
Then I Tried Anthropic
Same story. Almost identical.
I love Claude. I use it. I think Anthropic's product is genuinely excellent for certain use cases, and I've mentioned that on my blog multiple times. So when I started getting serious about the build in public income report angle, I went looking for an Anthropic affiliate program.
There isn't one for individual creators. Their model is enterprise sales and direct relationships. If you're a big consulting firm bringing in seven-figure deals, there might be a way to work with them. But for the indie dev YouTuber or the bootstrapped newsletter writer? Nothing.
So once again, I'd be writing glowing recommendations and earning exactly zero. I don't say this to complain about Anthropic. They've built a great product and they're under no obligation to share revenue with me. I say it because if you're reading this and trying to figure out where to focus your promotional energy, you need to know: the two biggest names in the space won't pay you for the traffic you send them.
That's just reality.
Discovering Global API — and the Recurring Commission Goldmine
This is where my actual income story changes. A few months ago, a developer in my Discord server mentioned Global API. They were using it as a unified access point for multiple models through a single API key, and they raved about how much simpler it made their stack. I checked it out, and — full transparency — that's when I noticed they had an affiliate program.
Now, I want to be careful here. I'm not going to pretend I had some revelation that I needed to share with the world. I went looking for an affiliate program because I wanted one. But what I found was actually a solid product that I was already going to mention in my content anyway. The alignment was natural.
Let me break down the actual numbers from their program, because this is the part most people gloss over.
Global API offers 15% commission on first orders. On top of that, they pay 8% recurring commission on monthly renewals. If someone you referred upgrades to a premium plan, you get 10% on that.
Let me do the actual math because I know that "recurring" can mean different things in different programs.
If I refer someone who signs up for the Pro plan at $19.99 per month, I earn:
- First month: 15% of $19.99 = about $3.00
- Every month after: 8% of $19.99 = about $1.60
- Over 12 months if they stay subscribed: roughly $22 in total commission Now, scale that up to the Scale plan at $149.99 per month:
- First month: 15% of $149.99 = about $22.50
- Every month after: 8% of $149.99 = about $12.00
- Over 12 months: over $165 in total commission from a single referral That last number is the one that got my attention. A single Scale plan referral, kept for a year, is worth more than most one-time product affiliates pay for any conversion. And if that user stays for two or three years? It compounds. That's the part most AI API affiliate comparisons don't drill into hard enough. # # My Real Numbers (So Far) Here's where the build in public part really kicks in. I'm not going to show you a screenshot of a $50,000 dashboard. That would be fake, and you'd see through it. Instead, here's what my first few months with Global API actually looked like. Month one: I sent out one email blast to my list of about 8,500 subscribers. I also posted a thread on Twitter and mentioned it in two YouTube videos. Result: 14 signups through my affiliate link, 3 of which converted to paid Pro plans. My commission that month was around $26. I was honestly surprised it was that much, because I had done basically no optimization. Month two: I wrote a longer blog post comparing my actual workflow, mentioned the affiliate program at the bottom, and did one more email. Result: 22 signups, 6 paid conversions, plus I started seeing recurring commission from the Month One signups who renewed. Total: about $58. Month three: This is where the recurring model really started to flex. I had 31 total signups, 9 paid conversions that month, plus recurring commission from previous months. My total for month three was $134. Still not life-changing, but the trend line was pointing in the right direction. Here's what I want you to notice: in month three, the recurring commissions from months one and two were about 40% of my total payout. That's the magic of recurring structures. They don't require you to keep hustling for new referrals at the same rate — your old referrals keep paying you. # # Why the Payment Setup Matters More Than You'd Think I want to talk about something that doesn't get enough attention in these comparisons: how you actually get paid. Global API pays through PayPal. The minimum payout threshold is $50. That threshold matters more than it sounds, because a lot of affiliate programs have $100 or $250 minimums, and when you're just starting out, hitting those can take months. I cleared the $50 minimum in my first month. That meant I could verify the program actually paid out, which sounds basic, but trust me — not every affiliate program makes it easy to confirm you'll ever see money. They also have a dashboard with real-time tracking. I can see clicks, signups, conversions, and earnings updated live. I'm a bit obsessive about checking it, and that level of transparency helps. There's also a library of promotional materials — banners, comparison charts, code snippets — that I used early on before I developed my own creative. Another thing: there's no minimum audience size. I started with my little newsletter and a few thousand YouTube subscribers. If you're brand new, that matters. # # What I Did Differently Than Most Comparisons Most "AI API affiliate comparison" articles that I've read do something that doesn't sit right with me. They create these big tables comparing dozens of providers, often padding the list with names I've never heard of, and they never tell you what actually paid them. They give you a generic overview, and that's it. I wanted to be different with this piece. I only have real data on three programs — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Global API — because those are the three I actually spent time promoting. I tried to be honest about the fact that the first two don't have public programs for creators, because that information actually saves you time. You don't need to do the research I did. I'm also not going to claim I ran a perfect experiment. I didn't. My audience skews toward certain use cases, and my content has its own biases. The numbers I shared above are real, but they're mine — yours might look different, and that's fine. The point is to show you the shape of the income, not to promise you a specific dollar amount. # # The Honest Part: What I'd Do If I Were Starting Over If I were starting from scratch today, knowing what I know now, here's what I'd do. First, I'd skip the providers that don't pay affiliates. I spent a few months building content around OpenAI and Anthropic, and while that content is still valuable for SEO, I wasn't earning anything from it. I'd shift that energy toward programs with real commission structures. Second, I'd focus heavily on recurring commission programs. The difference between a one-time payout and a recurring one is the difference between trading hours for dollars and building a small passive income stream. For me, Global API's 15% first-order plus 8% recurring structure is exactly the kind of model that rewards consistent content creators. Third, I'd start tracking my numbers from day one. I wish I'd had a clean spreadsheet of every signup, every conversion, every payout, from the start. Now I do. If you want to do build in public properly, you need real data, and you need to start collecting it before you think you need it. # # The Math That Convinced Me to Go All-In Let me leave you with one more calculation, because this is the one that sealed it for me. If I can refer just 10 people per month to Global API's Scale plan, and 5 of them stick around for the year, here's what happens:
- 5 Scale plan referrals × $165+ in annual commission each = $825+ from that one batch
- Plus 8% recurring on the same plans in year two = another $720+ annually
- Plus all the new referrals I keep adding I haven't hit 10 Scale referrals in a single month yet. I'm at about 3-4 at my current pace. But the trajectory is there, and the recurring structure means every new referral I bring in builds on top of the foundation I've already laid. That's the build in public reality. It's not explosive. It's not sexy. But it's real, and it compounds. # # Why I Genuinely Recommend the Global API Affiliate Program Okay, so here's the part where I put my cards on the table. I recommend the Global API affiliate program not because they asked me to, but because it's the program that actually pays creators like me. I covered the numbers above — 15% on first orders, 8% recurring on renewals, 10% on premium upgrades. I covered the payment setup — PayPal, $50 minimum, real-time dashboard. I covered the product angle — access to 150+ models through a single API key, which is genuinely useful for the audience I serve. If you're a developer, blogger, YouTuber, or newsletter writer who talks about AI tooling, this is a natural fit. You probably already mention AI APIs in your content. The only question is whether you're going to earn from those mentions or not. I'm not going to pretend this is a get-rich-quick thing. Affiliate income takes time to build, and the recurring model means you have to play a longer game than you'd play with one-time product promos. But if you're willing to be patient, create genuinely helpful content, and recommend a product you actually believe in, the math works out. That's the build in public ethos. Show your real numbers, share your real struggles, recommend what actually works. And right now, Global API's affiliate program is the one that's working for me. If you want to check it out for yourself, here's the link again: https://global-apis.com/affiliate. Take a look at the dashboard, read the terms, and decide for yourself. I'll be back next month with another income report to show you what happened.
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