Since AgentKit 2.0 shipped on Antigravity, building a useful AI agent as a solo developer has become genuinely tractable. Earlier ecosystems — OpenAI's GPTs, Claude's Skills — kept your agent locked inside their distribution. AgentKit 2.0 lets you ship an agent as a real piece of software you control. That's a meaningful unlock for monetization.
But where most builders actually get stuck is after the agent works. Marketplace? Direct site? Subscription? Custom contract? Each choice changes both the operations cost and the revenue ceiling.
This article maps the five distribution paths I've seen work for indie agent builders, with judgment criteria for picking among them. It's about selling, not building.
Why distribution is the fork in the road right now
After AgentKit 2.0 and Gemma 4 launched, the number of solo developers shipping real agents on Antigravity has climbed rapidly. At the same time, the buyers — both consumers and businesses — split into multiple acquisition channels: marketplaces, embedded SaaS plugins, direct purchase, paid subscriptions.
A year ago, "just SaaS it" was the default answer. In 2026, channel choice has become a real strategic decision that determines whether an agent makes money or quietly dies. So we'll start by laying out the five paths cleanly.
Path 1 — List on an agent marketplace
Publish your agent to the Antigravity marketplace (or an adjacent third-party marketplace) and earn a share of usage fees or revenue. Think App Store / Play Store, but for AI agents.
When it fits
- General-purpose agents: translation, summarization, formatting — things that work across industries
- Solo builders without marketing capacity: the marketplace brings the traffic
- Visibility-first goals: you need brand recognition before you need margin
The trap
Marketplaces collect 20–30% of revenue and, more painfully, block you from owning the customer relationship. You can't email your users. You can't tell what they hated. You can't cross-sell.
I shipped my first agent as marketplace-only for a few months and ran into "I have no idea who my buyers are." Marketplace is a fine entry, but it should never be your only channel long-term.
Path 2 — Sell direct from your own site
Host the agent on your own domain, charge through Stripe directly. Picture an indie creator's personal site (like dolice.design) with an agent product hanging off it.
When it fits
- Specialist niches with an audience you can reach without an aggregator
- You already have an audience — blog, X, YouTube readers/viewers
- You want full control over pricing and churn flow
The implementation core
If you're using the AgentKit 2.0 SDK rather than calling Anthropic or Google directly, the agent invocation looks different. Here's a representative pattern:
import { Antigravity } from '@google/antigravity-agent-sdk';
const ag = new Antigravity({ apiKey: process.env.ANTIGRAVITY_API_KEY });
export async function POST(req: Request) {
const { input, userId } = await req.json();
// 1. Auth and quota
const user = await getUser(userId);
if (!user.canUseAgent('translation-agent')) {
return new Response('Quota exceeded', { status: 402 });
}
// 2. Run the agent
const session = await ag.agents.create({
agentId: 'translation-agent',
inputs: { text: input },
});
// 3. Wait for completion (or stream)
const result = await session.waitForCompletion();
await recordAgentUsage({ userId, agentId: 'translation-agent', tokens: result.usage });
return Response.json({ result: result.output });
}The win on this path is keeping 100% of revenue minus Stripe's 3.6%. Your gross margin is roughly double the marketplace path's.
The trap
You own all the acquisition. SEO, social, content marketing — none of it stops, ever. Path 2 is sustainable only if you're prepared to publish two pieces a week for at least six months before the funnel matures.
Path 3 — Embed inside an existing SaaS (B2B2C)
Provide your agent as a plugin or integration inside an existing platform — Slack, Notion, Shopify, etc. The platform's app store distributes you.
When it fits
- Specific SaaS audience with a known pain point
- B2B-leaning products where buyers expect plugins
- Agents that are weak standalone but strong inside an existing workflow
Why it works for indies
Path 3 punches above its weight for solo developers because a single platform with 10–30 paying companies a month is enough income. A Notion-AI-complementing agent at $30/month per company × 10 companies is a $3,000/month product on infrastructure you didn't have to build.
The catch is B2B sales rhythm — typical close cycles run 1–3 months, not the same-day conversion you'd see in marketplaces. If you're impatient, this isn't your path.
Path 4 — Productize from consulting
Start with custom agent builds for companies, then extract common functionality into a packaged product after a few engagements. From what I've seen, this is currently the highest-success path for indie agent builders.
When it fits
- Vertical expertise — legal, healthcare, real estate, niche manufacturing
- You have a consulting track record and can land a first client
- You want cash flow now, not in six months
The shape
Pragmatic order of operations:
- Land an initial client at $3,000–$8,000/month for custom agent work
- Repeat with two or three clients in the same vertical, finding the shared 70%
- Productize that 70% as a packaged offering
- Launch the package at ~$100/month per seat
- Migrate existing custom clients onto the package, drastically reducing your ops load
The advantage is fast cash flow: marketplaces and direct sales can take six months to break even, but consulting pays you starting month two.
The trap
Stalling at consulting forever. I've seen many indie builders win their first client, fall in love with the cash flow, and never productize — three years later they're still doing custom work and burning out. Pre-commit: three custom clients max, then productize. Hard cap.
Path 5 — Subscription agents
Run your agent as a monthly product with tiered plans by usage and features. Standard SaaS shape, but agent-specific design choices matter.
When it fits
- High-frequency use cases: agents that get used daily
- Compounding value: the agent improves with continued use
- Predictable revenue desired: MRR visibility helps you plan
Pricing structure I'd start with
- Free / Trial: 10 uses per month, the on-ramp
- Pro: $8–$15/month, 100–300 uses, covers the typical user
- Premium: $30–$50/month, additional features (customization, API access, priority support)
Never offer "unlimited" in any form. AgentKit 2.0 calls hit Gemini or other model APIs underneath, and a single heavy user can wipe your margin. Hard monthly cap, with token top-ups for overage.
How to combine paths
Reading through, you may have noticed: these aren't mutually exclusive. Most successful indie agent builders run two or three paths simultaneously. Three combinations stand out.
Combination A: Direct sales + marketplace listing The default for most solo builders. Marketplace surfaces you to new users; direct sales captures higher margin from your own audience.
Combination B: Consulting + productization Cash-flow first, gradual product shift. From everything I've watched, this is the most reliable path to a sustainable indie agent business.
Combination C: SaaS embed + own subscription B2B-leaning play. Embed inside an existing platform while also running a direct subscription site for self-serve buyers.
For detailed go-to-market plays, Stripe implementation patterns, marketplace listing logistics, and contract templates, the companion deep-dive is here: Antigravity Agent Product Launch Blueprint.
Building an agent has gotten dramatically easier with AgentKit 2.0. Selling one is a different skill. The indie developers who learn both — building and distribution — are the ones who actually make a living from agents.