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Monetize Actors

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You can monetize your automation, AI agent, and web scraping projects by publishing them as paid Actors on Apify Store.

Pricing models

You can publish Actors on Apify Store under one of the following pricing models:

  • Pay per event (PPE): Users pay for specific events that are programmatically triggered from the Actor's source code. You can define these events and include actions such as generating a single result or starting an Actor. You can also choose whether to pass the platform usage costs on to users.
  • Pay per usage: Users can run the Actor without any additional charges beyond the platform usage costs generated by the Actor.

For a detailed comparison of pricing models from the perspective of your users, see Actors in Store.

Make your Actor eligible for agentic payments

Agentic payments let AI agents discover, run, and pay for your Actor without an Apify account, using protocols such as x402 and Skyfire. Eligible Actors are flagged with allowsAgenticUsers=true and surface in agentic discovery, for example when searching the store via API with allowsAgenticUsers=true.

To be eligible for agentic payments, an Actor must:

  • Use the pay-per-event pricing model. Rental and pay-per-usage Actors are not supported.
  • Charge only for events, not for platform usage. Actors with the Pay per event + usage option switched on are excluded.
  • Run with limited permissions. Actors that request full permissions are excluded.
  • Not use Standby mode.

The Actor's developer must also have completed identity verification (KYC). Until they do, none of their Actors are eligible.

Actors that meet these requirements become available to agentic users automatically - there is no separate opt-in.

Handle free users

When monetizing your Actor, you might want to limit features or usage for users on the Apify free plan. If you choose to do this, you must handle it transparently:

  • Communicate upfront: Clearly state any limitations in your Actor's README and input schema. Users should know about restrictions before they run the Actor.
  • Graceful exits: If a free user hits a limit, don't crash the Actor or return a system error. Instead, exit gracefully with a clear status message explaining the limit (e.g., "Free tier limit reached").
  • Avoid confusion: Never make a policy restriction look like a bug or platform error.

Actor analytics

Monitor your Actors' performance through the Actor Analytics dashboard under Development > Insights > Analytics.

The analytics dashboard allows you to select specific Actors and view key metrics aggregated across all user runs:

  • Revenue, costs and profit trends over time
  • User growth metrics (both paid and free users)
  • Cost per 1,000 results to optimize pricing
  • Run success rate statistics
  • User acquisition funnel analytics
  • Shared debug runs from users

All metrics can be exported as JSON for custom analysis and reporting.

Promote your Actor

Create search-engine-optimized descriptions and README files to improve search engine visibility. Share your Actor on multiple channels:

  • Post on Reddit, Quora, and social media platforms
  • Create tutorial videos demonstrating key features
  • Publish articles about your Actor on relevant websites
  • Consider creating a product showcase on platforms like Product Hunt

Remember to tag Apify in your social media posts for additional exposure. Effective promotion can significantly impact your Actor's success, differentiating between those with many paid users and those with few to none.

Learn more about promoting your Actor with Apify's marketing checklist.