Why I Built a 10% Referral Program for AI Agent APIs (And How You Can Copy It)

Description and use

A 10% revenue‑share referral program for 12 months drives organic adoption of the x402 payment gateway among AI developers, reducing acquisition costs and aligning incentives.

Problem

Distributing an AI agent API payment gateway without cold outreach, ads, or direct sales.

Outcome

The referral program increased API integrations by leveraging developer networks, providing a self‑liquidating incentive that aligns revenue sharing and reduces acquisition costs.

Workflow

• Register as a referrer via the Python module to receive a unique referral code and link.
• Share the referral link with other developers or embed it on landing pages.
• When a new client signs up through the link, the system records the referral.
• As the referred API generates revenue, the module automatically records revenue events and credits the referrer 10% of the amount.
• After 12 months, the referral expires and is cleaned up automatically.
• Referrers can view earnings through the provided dashboard API.
• The code is open source and can be cloned or installed via pip for immediate use.

Evidence

10% revenue share for 12 months.

Source

Full module at: github.com/roblambert9/nano-empire-tollbooth/referral_program.py

Source