Only 3% of agent users convert to paid; founder pitches in-agent ads with 50/50 rev share
Kaavyatheexplorer · reddit · 2026-08-17
The founder of Kili, an ad network for AI products, sparked a discussion on free-tier inference costs: every agent builder they've talked to in the past two months sees only 3% of users convert to paid, and agents burn more than chatbots since a single user action can fan out into dozens of model calls. Common workarounds each have costs—hard caps kill the hook, BYOK pushes friction onto users, going paid-only too early, or eating the bill until the round closes. Kili's proposed model serves ads inside agent interfaces (loading/thinking states or in-answer) with a 50/50 revenue split, publisher veto rights, and no competitor ads. Advertisers are signed (generative AI, crypto, dev tools), integration is via SDK, and pilot partners are being recruited.
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