How to Sell AI Credits on WordPress

The most durable way to make money from AI on a WordPress site isn’t a one-off sale — it’s reselling generation as prepaid credits to your members, at a margin, over and over. StudioUI is built for exactly this: you buy compute wholesale, set your own retail credit price, and bill through standard WooCommerce so any payment gateway you already use just works. This guide explains the model and the concrete steps to turn it on. For the business case — margins, worked pricing examples and pricing strategy — see selling AI credits on your website.

The model in one paragraph

StudioUI’s hosted compute is sold to you in credits that start at 0.1¢ each (wholesale). Your members spend credits per generation — a FLUX Turbo image is 50 credits, a standard image 100, a GIF 150, a music track 250, a video clip 450, a chat message 5. You decide what a credit costs your members. The gap between your wholesale cost and your retail price is your margin, and StudioUI takes no cut of your sales.

A worked margin example

Suppose you sell members a 1,000-credit pack for $20. At a 0.1¢ wholesale cost those 1,000 credits cost you about $1, so your gross margin on the pack is roughly $19 (95%). If a member spends that pack on standard images at 100 credits each, that’s 10 images — $2 of retail value per image to them, about ten cents of cost to you. Multiply across an active membership and the credit line becomes recurring revenue, not a novelty. The exact numbers are yours to set; the point is that every generation on your site carries a margin you control.

Step 1 — Install StudioUI and connect compute

Install the plugin and connect your site to hosted compute with a one-time connect code. This is what gives you wholesale credits to resell. (Pro self-hosting is for running on your own hardware; for reselling hosted credits, the hosted connection is what you want.)

Step 2 — Set your retail credit price

Decide what your members pay per credit, then create the credit packs they’ll buy. A common approach is a few tiered packs (a small starter, a mid “most popular” with a modest discount, and a larger best-value pack) to nudge bigger top-ups — the same shape StudioUI’s own store uses. Price for your audience: a hobby community and a professional agency tolerate very different per-credit prices.

Step 3 — Wire up WooCommerce checkout

StudioUI sells credits through standard WooCommerce, so you don’t need a special payment integration. Connect whatever WooCommerce-compatible gateway you already use — the processor you trust — and members buy credit packs like any other product. Because it’s plain WooCommerce, we never touch your funds or take a percentage.

Step 4 — Decide who can generate

Use WordPress permissions to gate the studio: members-only, a specific role, or a freemium page where the public gets a small free allowance to hook them before they buy. The credit balance ties spend to generation automatically.

Step 5 — Watch your unit economics

StudioUI includes a reporting dashboard showing revenue, wholesale cost, gross margin and ARPU by day, week or month. This is the part most DIY setups never build — it tells you whether your retail price is right and which members are profitable. Check it after your first week of real sales and adjust pricing accordingly.

FAQ

Do you take a cut of credit sales?

No. Credits sell through your own WooCommerce checkout on your own gateway. You pay for hosted compute wholesale; what you charge members and what you keep is entirely yours.

What payment gateways can I use?

Any WooCommerce-compatible gateway. If you already accept payments through WooCommerce, you’re ready — connect the same processor.

What happens when a member runs out of credits?

Generation pauses until they top up — nothing breaks. Members are never charged for failed generations; credits are refunded automatically if a job fails on the hosted side.

Can one account power several sites?

Yes. A single developer account and balance can run multiple connected sites, so you top up once and spend across all of them — useful for agencies managing several client sites.

How do I price credits sensibly?

Start from your 0.1¢ wholesale floor, add the margin your market supports, and watch the reporting dashboard. Raise or lower until margin and conversion both look healthy. There’s no single right number — it’s your market.

Start reselling AI generation

Install StudioUI free, connect compute, set your credit prices, and turn AI generation into a recurring revenue line on your own WordPress site.

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