Shipped my first paid Chrome extension. $19 lifetime, BYOK, $210 to launch.
First-time poster here. Solo dev from India, just shipped my first paid product.
The product: a Chrome extension that converts webpage screenshots into Tailwind code using Claude's vision API. You drag-select any UI on any site, get production-ready HTML/Tailwind back. Five free conversions, then $19 lifetime.
The economics:
Pricing is $19 one-time, lifetime access, 3 device activations. Users bring their own Anthropic API key (about 1 cent per conversion at cost, no markup from me). No subscription, no servers, no markup.
Why this model: I find BYOK simpler to ship as a solo dev. No payment-per-API-call infrastructure, no managing customer credit balances, no surprise costs from heavy users. The customer pays Anthropic directly. I just sell the tool.
The build:
10 days from idea to Chrome Web Store approval. Stack:
- Manifest V3, vanilla JS, no framework
- Tailwind bundled locally for the live preview iframe (CDN approach failed under MV3 CSP)
- chrome.storage.local for license state, API key, free counter
- Dodo Payments for $19 checkout and license key delivery
- Dodo's validate and activate APIs are public, so the extension talks to them directly with zero backend code
Total cash spend to ship: $210. Breakdown:
- $200 Claude Max subscription (used Claude Code in VS Code to build basically everything)
- $5 Chrome Web Store one-time dev fee
- $5 in Anthropic API testing credits
Built without writing a line of code by hand. Just staged prompts to Claude Code.
Two hardest technical problems:
First, Tailwind classes not rendering in the preview iframe under MV3's CSP rules. Bundled the full Tailwind stylesheet locally and served it via chrome.runtime.getURL. Works perfectly now.
Second, JSX leakage from the AI output. Claude kept returning React syntax like className= instead of class= and {" "} expressions in the middle of text. Fixed with a tighter system prompt plus a regex sanitizer that strips JSX expressions.
Open questions for this community:
Pricing — $19 lifetime BYOK. Too cheap? Too expensive? Most "AI tools" charge $9-20/month subscription with their own API key behind the scenes. Mine flips the model. Curious which converts better.
Distribution — no audience, no Twitter, no newsletter. This launch is literally testing whether good product alone can find buyers, or whether audience is mandatory now.
Open to honest critique on the model, the pricing, or anything else.
chromewebstore.google.com/detail/snaptocode/jpchamlmjfoccmkdoiaibbpgkidapcnk