Hey everyone! I’ve been working on a few APIs and thinking about monetizing them. RapidAPI keeps coming up as an option but I’m not sure if it’s actually profitable in the current market.
Has anyone here tried publishing their APIs on RapidAPI recently? I’m curious about the real earning potential and whether the platform still drives decent traffic to developers. The fees seem reasonable but I want to know if people are actually making money there or if it’s become too saturated.
Also wondering about the approval process and how long it typically takes to get an API listed. Any insights from folks who have been through this would be super helpful!
I’ve published three APIs on RapidAPI over 18 months with mixed results. My best one makes $400-500/month, but took almost a year to get there. The other two barely scrape $50 combined monthly. Approval time depends on complexity - simple data APIs get through in a week, but anything with auth or complex endpoints takes 2-3 weeks. They test everything thoroughly. Biggest lesson: don’t underprice thinking it’ll attract users. I raised my prices and made more money without losing much traffic. RapidAPI takes their cut but payments work smoothly. You’ll need to market outside the platform though - their internal discovery sucks, so don’t expect organic growth without promoting elsewhere.
Been running an API on RapidAPI for 8 months. Experience varies wildly by niche. Mine pulls $150-300/month in a specific domain with little competition. Good docs and responsive support are everything - users bail fast if your API’s unreliable or poorly documented. The platform handles billing and infrastructure, which is nice, but you’re fighting in a crowded marketplace with real pricing pressure. Approval took 10 days after fixing endpoint issues they flagged. If you’ve got something unique or nail a specific use case, it works. Just don’t think it’s passive income - you’ll be constantly maintaining and improving based on user feedback.
launched 2 apis there last summer - honestly pretty disappointing. made about $200 total, which isn’t awful, but it took months to get any real user base. approval was fast though, maybe 3-4 days max. main problem is getting found - there’s tons of apis now so yours just disappears unless you’re promoting it.
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