How To Make Money Selling Prompts (PromptBase Review)
Did you know that you can take advantage of your AI prompts and earn money? Everything you need to know about PromptBase, including how to sell prompts on their website and how payouts work, are in this article.
John Angelo Yap
Updated June 14, 2024
A storefront for prompts, generated with Midjourney
Reading Time: 6 minutes
With the release of AI tools, people quickly took advantage of the hype and devised ways on how to earn money using their outputs. But what if I told you there's a way to turn your prompts into passive income?
PromptBase has quickly become the go-to marketplace for buying, selling, and sharing prompts for large language models. As someone who's been in the AI game for a while, I'm excited to share my insights on how you can start making money by selling your prompts on this platform.
But before we dive in, let me be clear — this isn't about churning out generic prompts. Successful prompt selling requires a bit of finesse. So if you're ready to turn your prompt prowess into profit, let's get right to it!
What is PromptBase?
PromptBase is an online marketplace that allows users to buy, sell, and sometimes share their prompts for large language models. The prompts cover a wide range of use cases, from creative writing to task-oriented applications, as well as unique prompts for AI image generators.
Launched in 2022, PromptBase has quickly become a popular hub for prompt engineering, as it allows the public to “borrow” the work of prompt designers without having to start from scratch. It’s also great for sellers who are looking to monetize their prompt creation efforts by listing their prompts for sale on the platform.
PromptBase currently only allows prompts for the following models: GPT, Llama, DALL-E, Midjourney, Leonardo, and Stable Diffusion. If you’re a buyer, you can also choose between getting a single prompt or buying a couple as a bundle.
How to Sell Prompts on PromptBase?
Let me tell you this now: it’s incredibly easy to sell prompts on PromptBase. In fact, you could press the “Sell” button now and I guarantee that you won’t get lost along the way. But if you need extra help, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to sell your prompts on the marketplace:
- Press the “Sell” button on the top-left corner of the interface.
- For Prompt Type, select the model you’re selling the prompt for.
- For Prompt Title and Description, create a descriptive brief of your prompt. Be as specific as you can to improve reachability.
- Select a price.
- In the next page, input your prompt and declare all interchangeable variables with brackets. (For example, [Subject of the image] for Midjourney or DALL-E prompts)
- Include some examples of the prompt and its final outputs.
- Press the “Next” button, and then “Finish.”
At this point, you may think that your prompt is officially on the marketplace. It’s not. You still need to wait for their manual approval process which takes about 1 to 3 days. Once they’ve tagged your prompt as safe and marketable, your prompt will automatically be available to the public.
Things to Keep in Mind When Selling on PromptBase
If you’re looking to sell your prompt, here are a couple of things to consider before uploading it to PromptBase:
- Making prompts isn’t the same as prompt engineering. This is my most important advice of all. You can’t go on PromptBase and sell straightforward prompts. There has to be a degree of prompt engineering involved so that users will generate outputs consistent to your sample images. That said, there’s also the misconception that prompt engineering means more complexity — it’s not. It’s simply knowing what should and shouldn’t be on the prompt. For more information, I highly suggest reading this article.
- Always submit prompts with handpicked outputs. Remember that buyers are looking for prompts that are valuable, and the biggest determiner of that is the creativeness of its outputs.
- You need to wait for their approval. This is in line with the first two. The PromptBase team is incredibly diligent in filtering out prompts that they believe wouldn’t be safe or valuable, and that takes a lot of time. So, be patient and wait until your prompts are approved.
- Consider showcasing your outputs outside of PromptBase. Reddit has an active Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, and GPT community where you can showcase your prompt.
- You can’t sell your prompts for more than $6.99. PromptBase only has five pricing options for prompts: $2.99, $3.99, $4.99, $5.99, and $6.99.
How Do PromptBase Payouts Work?
To get PromptBase payments, you need a Stripe account linked to your profile. It’s also important to note that PromptBase takes 20% of your total revenue, which means you only get to keep 80% of your sales.
PromptBase Alternatives
If you’re looking for a place to buy or sell your prompts other than PromptBase, keep these websites in mind:
That said, I still highly urge you to use PromptBase instead. Their strict selling guidelines and manual approval ensure that every prompt you buy has high quality and comes from a reputable seller.
There’s also the issue of trust. When I visit these websites, I can’t help but feel that they’re inferior copies of PromptBase.
Promptrr, in particular, seems like a cheap knock-off, even going as far as to copy PromptBase’s interface. Then you have AIFrog, which doesn’t have manual approval and has a lot of suspicious typos in their website; and PromptAttack, which only covers Midjourney and ChatGPT prompts.
The only other website I’m comfortable recommending is Etsy, but it’s not well-known for being a prompt marketplace. This means that you may have a harder time reaching people looking to buy prompts if you use their website.
All Said and Done
All in all, PromptBase provides a fantastic opportunity for everyone to use AI models to sell their prompts. By following the steps I’ve outlined, you'll be well on your way to building a passive prompt business.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Prompt engineering is a rapidly evolving field, and there's always more to learn. But if you stay diligent, creative, and focused on delivering value, the sky's the limit for what you can achieve on PromptBase.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for different ways of earning money with AI image generators, might I direct you to this article? Good luck!
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