It works like Apple's App Store or Google Play: you build it, set your price, and get paid automatically when Apify users run your Actor.
Getting paid
First, you choose the pricing model that works best for your Actor:
Pay per result - paying for the produced dataset results.
Pay per event - paying for events defined by the Actor creator. An event can be anything from starting a run, processing a page, or making an external API call.
Pay per usage - paying for the used platform resources.
Rental - paying a flat monthly fee and the use of platform resources.
Once your Actor is published, you will see all your earnings in your personal dashboard, Actors > Insights > Monetization, and Apify will pay you the proceeds every month.
Who pays for the infrastructure, proxies, and storage?
The platform costs for running your Actor are deducted from your payout. If you set your pricing lower than the infrastructure costs, the worst thing that can happen is running into a negative profit. You will never have to pay anything to Apify for other users running your Actors.
What does Apify get out of it, then?
For the rental model: Apify keeps a 20% commission from your earnings. There are no other hidden fees. We only make money if you make money.
For pay-per-result or pay-per-event models: Apify deducts the Apify platform costs used to run the Actor, plus a 20% commission from your profits. Again, we will not charge you anything unless you are actively earning money with your Actor.
How much can you earn?
We cannot share specific names and numbers, but at the time of writing this, the most successful independent creators on Apify Store make over $10,000 monthly recurring revenue. Many others make more than $1,000 every month, and these numbers keep growing.
What about competition between web scrapers?
Just like in the Apple App Store, Google Play, or other stores, competition between Actors is permitted. You can publish a scraper for a website even if one (or many) is already there. The only thing we penalize is copyright infringement. If someone copies elements of our Actor, report it to the Support team.
Do I have to pay to test my scraper?
Just like with any other Actor run, the usage of your scraper will be deducted from your Apify credits. However, with the Creator plan, you get $500 of bonus usage to test your Actors for the price of $1/month.