How to Sell Your AI Agent: 4 Channels and Listing on Employee Store

There are 4 sales channels

Ways to sell an AI agent or workflow you built fall into the following four groups. You do not have to pick just one; some people combine them.

1. Sell on your own site

Selling on your own site lets you set the price and terms. In exchange, you handle marketing, payments, delivery and inquiries yourself.

Selling online in Japan brings in the mail-order rules of the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions (Japan). The guide to this act from Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) lists items to show in mail-order advertising, such as the following.

• Sales price (or the fee for a service)
• When and how payment is made
• When goods are delivered or services are provided
• Terms for withdrawing an offer or canceling the contract
• The seller's name, address and phone number
• For software transactions, the operating environment
• If the contract must be renewed 2 or more times, a statement to that effect and the sales terms

Check the disclosures carefully if you sell on a monthly plan or if the AI requires specific accounts to run. For the full list of items and exceptions, see the CAA guide in the sources.

You also decide how to deliver. If you send a URL anyone can open, people who did not buy may use it. Use a form that limits access, such as issuing an account per buyer or a link that expires. Do not send API keys or passwords directly; guide buyers through issuing their own.

2. Sell as contract build and operation

In this model, you build, set up and maintain an AI agent for each client company. What you sell is the building work and the operating effort.

If you build with n8n, check the license. Self-hosted n8n is offered under the Sustainable Use License. n8n's license FAQ lists the following as allowed.

• Building automations for clients on your own instance, in a way clients cannot create or edit
• Charging clients for building, configuring and maintaining workflows
• Charging clients for training or consulting
• Using n8n behind your own product and letting users run automations you built

The same FAQ lists as not allowed, among other things, hosting n8n as a service and letting clients build workflows, or offering n8n as-is with its branding removed. If you are unsure, check with the n8n contact listed in the FAQ.

In contract work, set out in the contract how things are handled after the build. Points to settle are as follows.

• Where it runs: your server or the client's environment
• Whose accounts it uses: accounts for connected services and AI models
• Maintenance scope: handling bugs, handling changes in connected services, and work not covered
• When the contract ends: how workflows and data are handed over or deleted

Once you deliver the same system to several companies, you can switch from contract work to a marketplace listing. That cuts the sales and quoting effort for each client.

3. Publish as a template

n8n and Dify both let users publish templates. This channel makes it easier for a tool's users to find your work.

• n8n: apply through the Creator hub. New creators submit one template at a time and can submit the next once it is approved. With 3 approved templates you become a verified creator and can publish paid templates
• Dify: submit templates from the Creator Center. After submission they wait for review, and approved templates are published on the marketplace. Plugins used in the app must be installed from the marketplace

Dify's docs recommend that a template's name alone tells people where it runs and what it does. As a naming example, they suggest combining the channel or target with the core task. They ask you to choose only the 1–3 categories that best describe the content.

With templates, buyers set them up and use them in their own environment. If you want to sell setup support and maintenance too, combine this with another channel.

4. List on a marketplace

Here you list where companies looking for AI agents gather. You can sell without building payment or delivery systems yourself. In exchange, fees apply and you follow the listing terms and review.

When choosing a marketplace, compare the following.

• Fees: when, on what, and what percentage. Whether there is a listing fee or upfront cost
• Payments: how buyers pay. Monthly or one-time
• Delivery: where you hand over deliverables and how receipt is confirmed
• Review: what is checked before listing
• Payouts: when and how sellers receive their sales
• Format: whether your build method (n8n, Dify, in-house development, etc.) can be listed

What to sort out before setting a price

An AI agent can keep costing money and effort after the sale. Before setting a price, sort out the following.

• AI model fees: whether it runs on the buyer's API key or yours
• Hosting costs: a cloud plan or your own server
• Support time: inquiries, bug investigation, configuration changes
• Update effort: fixes when connected services or AI models change

If it runs on your API key, your bill grows the more the buyer uses it. If it runs on the buyer's API key, state on the sales page that the buyer bears that cost. Either way, deciding the scope and period of support in advance lets you estimate the effort to build into the price.

Licenses to check before selling

Whatever the channel, check the licenses and terms of the tools you built with.

If you sell something built with GPTs, be ready to explain to buyers how they can keep using it after the retirement date. The three tools are compared in n8n vs. Dify vs. GPTs.

How listing on Employee Store works

Employee Store is a marketplace where companies can adopt AI agents built by developers, with a one-time purchase or a monthly plan. Any format is welcome, including n8n and Dify workflows and in-house agents.

1. Enter your AI agent's details in the listing form
2. Employee Store Operations reviews the content
3. Once it passes review, it is published
4. When a company hires it, you get a notification
5. Deliver what is needed for setup through the on-site delivery box
6. The buyer checks the delivery and confirms receipt
7. A review is posted after the deal

Costs and fees

There is no listing fee and no upfront cost. The commission is 20% of the deal amount and applies only when a deal closes. For example, on a ¥10,000 deal, the commission is ¥2,000.

Buyers pay through Stripe, and pricing is one-time, monthly, or a setup fee plus monthly. A monthly plan can be canceled from contract management in the deal room. Sellers can withdraw sales after the buyer confirms receipt, or 14 days after delivery. You can request a payout from ¥500 under “Sales and payouts” on My Page. Employee Store Operations sends payouts manually, and funds usually arrive within 5 business days. Bank transfer and remittance fees are deducted from the payout amount.

What to prepare before listing

• An AI agent that actually works
• A clear split between work the AI does and work people check
• Setup steps buyers can follow on their own
• An explanation of required accounts and APIs, and who pays for them

One person (or one company) can list multiple AIs. Employee Store has just launched and is looking for early listing partners. What to write on a listing page is covered in How to Write an AI Agent Listing. See the seller guide for detailed terms.