MAKING MONEY WITH AI · MY ONGOING EXPERIMENT
Can You Make Money with ChatGPT? My Real-World Experiment
I wanted to find out whether ChatGPT could help me do more than talk about ideas. Could I use it to build something people would actually play or use—and could those projects eventually make money?
That question became AI Built Projects. I am Florin, and this is where I document the games, apps and websites I am working on with AI assistance. I share what I am building, what I am paying for and what the projects begin to earn.
This is not a finished success story. The early game advertising income is only a few pounds, while the tools, testing and promotion cost considerably more. I want to show the beginning as it really looks, rather than wait until I have an impressive number to put in a headline.
From experimenting to building
I first used ChatGPT through a free Plus trial, then became a paying user. For a while I was simply experimenting: asking questions, trying ideas and seeing what the tools could do.
In September 2026, I began putting sustained work into real projects. I worked on GottaPics, my existing photography website, continued developing Gem Forge Idle and started the foundations of Swarmloom Idle towards the end of the month. October brought more development, public releases, testing and promotion.
There is no single button that turned those conversations into finished products. I had to choose the direction, explain the requirements, review the results and keep returning to things that did not work well enough.
The projects behind the experiment
Gem Forge Idle
An idle mining and gem-collecting game built in Unity. Mining leads into automation, collecting rough specimens and turning stones into finished gems. It gives me a way to bring an interest in gemstones into a game that I can keep developing.
Explore Gem Forge Idle · Get it on Google Play
Swarmloom Idle
A garden invasion from the insects’ side. Instead of protecting plants, the player grows the colony that consumes them. It has developed through direct testing and player feedback, including practical improvements to readability and buying upgrades.
Explore Swarmloom Idle · Get it on Google Play
Gems of Luna
A fantasy match-3 game with an illustrated story discovered through play. It began with an existing project bought through Fiverr and additional freelance work. I used AI assistance to help transform its visual identity, expand the content and develop the story experience—not to claim I wrote its original engine from scratch.
Explore Gems of Luna · Get it on Google Play
Chaos Booth
A creative Android photo-challenge app that turns guided photos into editable collages. It takes the experiment beyond games. Its initial design works locally without accounts, ads or in-app purchases, so it is not being presented as another source of game advertising revenue.
GottaPics and AI Built Projects
GottaPics is an older photography website I have been rebuilding with AI assistance. AIBuiltProjects.com is the home for documenting this work. One is an existing site I am improving; the other brings the project stories and this experiment together.
Read the GottaPics rebuild story · Visit GottaPics · About building this site
Where ChatGPT and Codex fit
I use AI for programming assistance, visual development, explanations, writing and working through ideas. Codex helps with implementing and changing the game code. ChatGPT helps me shape the requirements and think through what the project needs.
ChatGPT Work is also part of the process of organising the material and developing this website’s pages and articles. These tools help me do the work; they do not make every creative choice or test the experience on my behalf.
I still select the artwork, try the builds, spot problems and decide what to change. The games are not generating themselves in real time while people play.
The money: a small beginning
September ended with £115.45 spent on AI access, credits and testing, and £0 earned. In October, my subscription, testing and advertising bill came to £150.72, while the games generated £2.31 in estimated advertising revenue. Across those two months, that is £266.17 spent on those items and £2.31 generated. The income was tiny beside the cost, but the games were beginning to earn.
The costs include AI access, testing, freelance work and promotion. Paying for an advert to bring someone to a game is a cost; an advert shown inside a game can generate revenue. Both belong in the story.
I will keep sharing the amounts and the work behind them as the experiment develops. I am not promising a shortcut, a particular income or the same result for someone else.
Follow the experiment
The first two chapters follow September and October. More stories about the costs, the development work and finding players will follow as the experiment continues.
September 2026: My AI Income Experiment — Costs, Progress and Revenue
September was when I moved from experimenting with ChatGPT to sustained work on real projects. Here is what I built and what I paid.
October 2026: My AI Income Experiment — Published Games and Early Earnings
My games began generating small advertising earnings while I kept paying for development, testing and promotion. Here is October’s story.
So, can you make money with ChatGPT?
My projects have started generating small earnings. Whether I can turn that beginning into something worthwhile over time is the question I am still working on.
For now, there are real games to play, real development problems to solve and real costs to keep in view. I will show what happens next—including the parts that take longer, cost more or do not work out as I hoped.
Directed by human. Created with AI assistance.