AI app monetization without a paywall
Most free products die because inference and hosting bills grow faster than conversions. Zerocost gives you three revenue streams that run side by side, so you can cover costs and grow MRR without putting your product behind a paywall.
Contextual Ads
Non-intrusive ads relevant to your domain, industry, or niche. Video, text links, and inline chat ads. Advertisers pay per impression and click — you earn without degrading UX.
LLM Training Data
Startups integrating our SDK can sell anonymized interaction data to companies looking to improve domain-specific LLM models. All PII is scrubbed client-side before it reaches our servers. Learn more in our docs.
Session Recordings
Opt into annotated session recordings for UX research buyers. Inputs are automatically blurred, and you control sample rates and duration limits.
Why a paywall is usually the wrong first move
A paywall converts a small slice of your users and quietly caps the rest of your growth. For most early products, the free tier is the distribution channel. Monetizing that free tier with contextual ads and consented data keeps signups high, keeps word of mouth alive, and still pays the bills. Teams that need a paid plan later launch it from a much larger base.
How the revenue adds up
Ad revenue scales with impressions, so it tracks engagement rather than conversion rate. Dataset revenue scales with consented sessions and conversation volume. Together they turn usage into predictable monthly income you can forecast next to your infrastructure spend. Every impression, click, and payout is visible in your dashboard, so you can compare RPM across placements and formats before you commit to any of them.
What it takes to get started
Install the SDK, drop a placement into a stable part of your layout, and ship. There is no upfront fee, no minimum traffic requirement, and no contract. If a placement hurts retention, you can pause it from the dashboard in seconds.