Living reference · verified public numbers · updated August 4, 2026
App revenue case studies: the verified numbers
Real app revenue numbers are rare: the stores publish none, and most "success story" lists are unsourced. This page keeps the short list that survives verification — eight apps whose owners put a number on the record, from a solo habit tracker at $1K MRR to an AI calorie tracker reported at ~$1.4M a month in gross profit — each with the source, the date, and what the store listing shows today. Free, in full, no paywall.
Ground rules: every figure below is reported by the app's own founder or documented press coverage — attributed in plain text with a date — and none of it is generated by our estimate model. Reported ≠ audited: founders round, quote peak months, and define "revenue" differently, so read the basis notes. Store-listing facts (category, ratings, release date) are from our catalog snapshot of August 4, 2026.
The reference table
Eight on-the-record numbers
| App | What it is | Latest reported | As of | Reported by | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cal AI | AI photo calorie tracker | ~$1.4M/mo gross profit | Sep 2025 | CNBC profile | Acquired by MyFitnessPal (announced Mar 2026) |
| Opal | Screen-time control | $10M ARR (~$833K/mo) | 2025 | Its investor Speedinvest | Active, venture-backed |
| Coconote | AI note-taking | $6.7M ARR (~$558K/mo) | 2026 | Founders on the Sub Club podcast | Acquired by Quizlet |
| QUITTR | Quit-porn companion | $250K MRR | Jan 2025 | Startup Spells breakdown | Active |
| Puff Count | Quit-vaping tracker | $40–44K MRR at peak | 2024 | Founder Steven Cravotta, public posts and interviews | Sold to an app studio (late 2024) |
| HabitKit | Grid-style habit tracker | $28K MRR | Jan 2026 | Founder update on Indie Hackers | Active, solo developer |
| Gem AI | AI chatbot assistant | ~$1.1K/mo | Oct 2025 | Public Flippa listing | Listed for sale |
| Habit Pixel | Pixel-grid habit tracker | $1K MRR | Jan 2026 | Founder post on Indie Hackers | Active, solo developer |
Sources are named in plain text by editorial policy. ARR figures are shown with their ÷12 monthly equivalent for comparability; "gross profit" and "net proceeds" bases are noted where the source specified them. For the patterns these eight share — and the survivorship-bias warning that comes with them — see iOS app success stories: the patterns behind the numbers.
The two tiers
Indie tier and breakout tier, to scale
Public numbers cluster into two bands so far apart that one chart can't hold them honestly. The indie tier is what one or two people reach with a subscription app and organic distribution; the breakout tier is what happens when distribution goes vertical.
The gap between the tiers is the honest story: going from $1K to $44K MRR is execution; going from $44K to $250K+ has, in every case here, involved a distribution breakout — short-video virality, creator content, or an audience the founder already had.
From eight numbers to any app
Size the apps that never talk
Eight verified points are calibration, not a market map — the other 99.9% of founders stay quiet. GetAppNiche models estimated revenue and downloads for 3.6M+ apps across the App Store and Google Play, so you can size the competitors in your niche, not just the ones that gave interviews.
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The case cards
Every number, with its story and store context
Cal AI — from teenage side project to a MyFitnessPal exit
Launched in spring 2024 by two teenage founders, Cal AI turned photo-based calorie counting into one of the fastest consumer-app runs on record: a CNBC profile (September 2025) described roughly $1.4M a month in gross profit after store fees on a ~$30M annual run rate, with no outside funding. MyFitnessPal's acquisition of the app was announced in March 2026. Growth was influencer-led from day one — short-video creators demonstrating the "photograph your meal" moment.
Store listing today: Health & Fitness · free with subscription · 348,778 ratings at 4.80★ on the US App Store listing · released April 2024 (catalog snapshot, August 4, 2026).
Opal — the venture-backed outlier
Opal sells focus: a screen-time controller with a premium subscription. Its investor Speedinvest described (2025) a business that reached $10M ARR in about two years with over a million daily active users. It's the one case on this list with venture backing — a reminder that the "indie subscription playbook" and the funded playbook can land on the same revenue model.
Store listing today: Productivity · free with subscription · 85,104 ratings at 4.73★ on the US listing · released December 2020 (catalog snapshot, August 4, 2026).
Coconote — $100K ARR in 45 days, Quizlet exit in under two years
An AI note-taker for students, bootstrapped by two founders. On the Sub Club podcast (2026) they laid out the timeline: $100K ARR in the first 45 days, $1M ARR in four months, $6.7M ARR — and an acquisition by Quizlet — in under two years, reportedly without paid ads. Distribution ran on creator content positioned around the problem ("never transcribe a lecture again") rather than the product.
Store listing today: Education · free with subscription · 16,200 ratings at 4.77★ on the US listing · released April 2024 (catalog snapshot, August 4, 2026).
QUITTR — $250K MRR four months in
A quit-porn companion app that reached $250K MRR roughly four months after launch, per a Startup Spells breakdown (January 2025), with 350K downloads across 120 countries in its first six months. The engine was volume short-video content aimed at a young male audience — an uncomfortable niche most builders avoid, which is precisely why it paid.
Store listing today: Health & Fitness · free with subscription · 33,057 ratings at 4.72★ on the US listing · released July 2024 (catalog snapshot, August 4, 2026).
Puff Count — the solo TikTok playbook, then an exit
Steven Cravotta built the quit-vaping tracker in 2019 and grew it with hundreds of self-made TikToks to $40–44K MRR and over a million users, then sold it to an app studio at the end of 2024 (his own public posts and interviews). A footnote our catalog makes visible: success attracts squatters — more than ten look-alike "puff count" apps now sit in the store listings around the original (catalog snapshot, August 4, 2026).
Store listing today (original app): Lifestyle · freemium · 2,561 ratings at 4.34★ on the US listing · released November 2019 (catalog snapshot, August 4, 2026).
HabitKit — the build-in-public solo benchmark
Sebastian Röhl's grid-style habit tracker is the cleanest public view of a solo subscription app compounding: $15K/mo in November 2024, $28K MRR by January 2026 with roughly 25 thousand paying subscribers at low price points (his own updates on Indie Hackers). No breakout moment — years of shipping and honest numbers.
Store listing today: Productivity · free with subscription · 2,310 ratings at 4.85★ on the US listing · released November 2022 (catalog snapshot, August 4, 2026).
Gem AI — what a $1K/mo app looks like on the open market
An AI chatbot assistant listed publicly on Flippa (October 2025) at ~$1.1K a month in subscription revenue on organic installs. Marketplace listings are the least glamorous and most honest tier of public numbers — net proceeds, documented, priced for sale.
Store listing today: Productivity · freemium · 2,544 ratings at 4.55★ on the US listing · released March 2023 (catalog snapshot, August 4, 2026).
Habit Pixel — the first $1K, documented
A pixel-grid habit tracker by a solo developer: $1K MRR about eight months after its spring 2025 launch (founder post on Indie Hackers, January 2026), freemium at $4.99/month. The most reproducible case on this page — and a useful antidote to the breakout tier above it.
Store listing today: Productivity · free with subscription · 23 ratings at 4.65★ on the US listing · released March 2025 (catalog snapshot, August 4, 2026).
Notice what the store lines add: HabitKit runs $28K MRR on just 2,310 US ratings, while Cal AI's 348,778 ratings sit behind a ~$1.4M/mo report — rating mass and revenue are correlated but nowhere near proportional, which is why converting ratings to downloads needs category-level data. We measured that relationship on 252,554 Google Play apps in the Downloads-per-Rating Study 2026.
Methodology
What gets on this list — and what doesn't
- Four requirements per entry: a named app, a specific number, a named public venue (press, the founder's own post or interview, a marketplace listing), and a date. Anonymous screenshots and "a friend's app" stories don't qualify.
- Store revenue only. We exclude numbers that mix in billing outside the app stores (B2B invoices, web-only subscriptions), because they can't be compared with store-based subscription apps.
- Reported ≠ audited. Founders round up, quote peak months, and switch between gross, net, and profit. We keep the source's own wording and basis where stated.
- Survivorship bias is the headline caveat. Winners talk; the median app earns very little and says nothing. For the market-wide base rates, see how many apps actually make money.
- Store-listing context (category, rating count, release date) comes from our own catalog snapshot of August 4, 2026 — public listing data, not estimates. This page contains no output from our revenue-estimate model.
Want the aggregate picture instead of case studies? Start with the State of iOS App Niches 2026 study, or check what any app's public signals look like with the free app revenue checker.
FAQ
Verified app revenue — quick answers
How much revenue do successful indie apps actually make?
Among apps whose owners put numbers on the record, the verified range is wide: solo-built apps like Habit Pixel ($1K MRR, January 2026) and HabitKit ($28K MRR, January 2026) sit in the indie tier, Puff Count peaked at $40–44K MRR before selling in 2024, and the breakouts run from QUITTR ($250K MRR, January 2025) to Cal AI (~$1.4M a month in gross profit, per a CNBC profile in September 2025). Most apps never publish numbers at all, and the ones that do skew toward winners.
How are these revenue numbers verified?
Every entry needs four things on the public record: a named app, a specific number, a named venue (press coverage, a founder's own post or interview, a marketplace listing), and a date. We exclude numbers that mix in revenue billed outside the app stores, anonymous claims, and screenshots that can't be attributed. Reported still isn't audited — founders round, cherry-pick peak months, and define revenue differently — so every figure here carries its source and date.
Do these numbers include Apple's and Google's commission?
It varies by case, and that's part of why public numbers are hard to compare. Cal AI's ~$1.4M/month was described by CNBC as gross profit after store fees; subscription MRR figures like HabitKit's $28K are typically gross (before the 15–30% store cut); marketplace listings like Gem AI's usually state net proceeds. Where the source specified the basis, we note it in the case card.
Why are there so few verified app revenue numbers?
Because neither Apple nor Google publishes per-app revenue, the only real numbers come from founders who choose to talk — in interviews, public posts, or sale listings. That creates survivorship bias: winners talk, failures stay quiet. Treat this list as a set of calibration points, not a picture of typical outcomes — across the wider market, most apps earn very little.
What do these successful apps have in common?
All eight monetize with subscriptions. Six of eight are self-improvement products (calorie tracking, habit building, screen time, quitting vaping or porn). Seven of eight reported no outside funding at the time of the cited numbers — Opal is the venture-backed exception. And four of eight describe short-video distribution (TikTok, creator content) as the growth engine behind the numbers.
How often is this page updated?
It's a living reference: we add new points when a founder puts a number on the record with a source we can name, and we mark stale numbers when an app is sold or the figure ages. The date stamp at the top reflects the latest revision.