Monetising plugins - ideas

[iamflimflam1]

Thought it might be good to start a thread on how people are planning on monetising plugins.

This is probably quite straightforward if your plugin is a bolt-on to existing services that you already monetise. But what about standalone plugins?

I’m not sure what OpenAI have in the works in terms of an “App Store” like experience. I’d be interested in what people think the options are.

Some plugins are naturally monetisable, others would probably be more suitable for donations or patreon like systems.

[Chase-W-Norton]

This is our company’s plan for monetization using OAuth and a payment process for users accessing our plugin via the ChatGPT platform:

1. Implement OAuth to allow users to authenticate using their preferred platform.
2. Upon exchanging the auth code for a token, we will check if the user exists in our database.
3. If the user is not in the database, they will be directed to a payment screen.
4. After successful payment, the database will be updated, and the user will be redirected back to the ChatGPT redirect URL.

For users already in the database, we will verify if their payment is up-to-date. If it is, they will be granted access to the installation. If not, they will be redirected.

In situations where a user’s payment needs renewal, or they have exhausted their credits, we will send a generic response message informing the user to update their payment. We can generate a dynamic Stripe link specific to that user, which ChatGPT will share. This method eliminates the need to create a separate frontend for handling payments. Alternatively, one can also develop a frontend to manage payments and other information such as terms of service, privacy policy, and landing page.

Another option we are considering, pending improvements from OpenAI, is to enhance the expired access token experience. We would periodically check if a user has an active account and force expire the access token if they do not. At present, this would result in an error message on the UI. Ideally, the user would be redirected back to the OAuth screen, allowing our server to manage the payment flow again.

Few options out there and in the end we will see what has the better user experience.

Chase W. Norton

Message AI - The AI-Powered Texting Companion You'll Love

[iamflimflam1]

What is going on with @chambers Is he/she some kind of bot?

[duncansmothers]

great question – specifically was looking for an answer to this.

assuming the 2nd cohort of plugins might have an integration for this but interested to see – currently working through a plugin and would be cool to have a subscription model (prob less than $5/mo) to not bleed api calls.

once plugins are live to all ChatGPT users it’ll be awesome to see what happens with the supply/demand. Also ample opportunities for plugin operators to run marketing to educate users and push to the platform

[360macky]

I like the idea of something external where users can pay to get better access to their favorite plugins. Chase Do you plan to implement this system soon or do you have other ideas?

[Chase-W-Norton]

It shouldn’t be too difficult to implement into The Ansible as a demo/test. We are already doing oauth for that plugin. Give me a moment and don’t worry, I don’t plan on charging for Ansible - just an easy test bed. I see youre already a member so give me like 20 minutes and Ill respond back then uninstall the plugin and reinstall it to see the flow

Chase W. Norton

[Chase-W-Norton]

Interesting. Using the payment links, you can’t specify the success url. You can only create a webhook which doesn’t help for our use case of auth flow. Looks like we will need to implement session checkout, let me play with that for a moment

---

alrighttt It works

You have to do the check during the auth code route instead of the token exchange route since openai is waiting for the response during the token exchange. other than that - straight forward and smooth. Now, $1,000 /month please and thank you

Let me know if you have any questions @360macky. Youre welcome to try it yourself. Uninstall the Ansible and then reinstall it and then will come up for you. Stripe’s test credit card is 42424242424242424242424242 (I forget how many 42’s but just repeat until you can’t) and all other data you can make up (just make sure the exp date is past today. Then you will become an active paid member of the social network and every month Ill charge you $1,000.

Im gonna turn this off soon since it was just a test and is currently live in prod

Chase W. Norton

[alejandrolazkano]

I don’t currently have access but as a consultant I really see the value of helping clients to develop their own implementations for internal efficiency. Small things could have a huge impact, we are currently helping an small Peruvian bank to improve the efficiency of their onboarding process in rural areas and that is implementing GPT API with a WhatsApp bot, Chat GPT is going to have a tremendous impact since it will be able to run python code, I can see already an alternative credit scoring solution coming from this…

[360macky]

Hi Chase! Sorry for the late reply Today I was busy. I’ve just uninstalled and installed the plugin again. I guess you turned off this option since I don’t see the Stripe link after login. Can you please turn on again? By the way thank you for the information about how it could work!

[Chase-W-Norton]

Hi @360macky !

Yup, I did turn it off shortly after posting. It is back on now though if you want to play around with it

Best,

Chase W. Norton

[360macky]

Hi Chase! I still can not make it work. I mean: It directly redirect me to the ChatGPT UI instead of the Stripe Payment link. I recorded a video focusing on that URL bar to show how it redirects directly to the ChatGPT UI after the login: Testing monetization with The Ansible - YouTube

Edit: Maybe I should sign up with another account?

[Chase-W-Norton]

Alright, lets see whats going on. One moment

[Chase-W-Norton]

Okay, @360macky - everything is working now on my end. Please uninstall and try again.

[360macky]

Awesome! It works! I see the better the process: ChatGPT → Google → Stripe → ChatGPT.

You have to do the check during the auth code route instead of the token exchange route since openai is waiting for the response during the token exchange. other than that - straight forward and smooth. Now, $1,000 /month please and thank you

I got it. Thank you! Tried this like 3 times already .

[Chase-W-Norton]

You got it This is a general example of the code if it can help anyone.

  async success(res, query) {
    const openaiRedirect = query.openaiRedirect;
    res.redirect(openaiRedirect);
  }

  async ansibleCallback(req,  res,  query) {
    const redirect_url = query.state;
    const auth_code = query.code;
    const url = `${redirect_url}?code=${auth_code}`;

    const priceId = 'yourPriceId';
    const successUrl =
      `https://www.theansible.ai/api/v1/auth/success?openaiRedirect=${url}`;
    const cancelUrl = 'https://www.theansible.ai/cancel';

    // Create a Checkout Session
    const session = await this.stripe.checkout.sessions.create({
      payment_method_types: ['card'],
      mode: 'subscription',
      line_items: [
        {
          price: priceId,
          quantity: 1,
        },
      ],
      success_url: successUrl,
      cancel_url: cancelUrl,
    });

    res.redirect(session.url);
  }

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Chase W. Norton

[Chase-W-Norton]

Also, in case it helps for anyone looking for the happy path details of the the install process, it is:

ChatGPT → Google Oauth → Ansible Auth Code → Stripe → ChatGPT → Ansible Token Exchange → Google Token Verify/Exchange → Ansible → ChatGPT

Best,

Chase W. Norton

[oli]

This is great, Chase! Thank you very much for sharing your process and code above. This is really helpful

[ChengFu]

Hey Chase, what’s the plan for publishing your plugin? I’d love to be a trial user.

[Chase-W-Norton]

Hi @ChengFu! It already has been submitted for verification and public publication back on April 11th. Until then it is limited to the 15 developer limit, but last I checked a few days ago - there are a few slots still open. The manifest can be found at the base url https://www.theansible.ai My name in the ansible is chase - send me a friend request and I can help show you around if you need.

Best,

Chase W. Norton