API Relay Business-in-a-Box - AI API relay business — deploy in 5 mins, keep 90% margin

Launch your own AI API relay business in 24 hours. Chinese AI models cost 85-99% less than OpenAI. Buy cheap, sell competitively, keep 80-95% margin with an automated gateway. Includes 5 skill files: One-API deployment, multi-provider routing (DeepSeek/Qwen/Claude), user billing, ops guide & acquisition playbook. 10 users at $29/mo = $265 profit/mo. Startup cost: ~$7.

Hey Product Hunt! 👋 I noticed that Chinese AI models are 85-99% cheaper than OpenAI's — same quality, fraction of the cost. But most developers don't know how to access or resell them. I've been running a multi-provider AI API relay for months, and I kept getting asked "how do I start my own?" So I packaged everything into a business-in-a-box. What's inside: ✅ One-API gateway — Docker, production-ready ✅ Multi-provider routing (DeepSeek, GLM, Qwen, OpenAI, Claude) ✅ User management, Stripe billing, and quota tracking ✅ Customer acquisition playbook (the part most technical guides skip) Margins are 80-95%. Startup cost is ~$7. Happy to answer any questions about running an API relay business! 🙌

API Relay Business-in-a-Box — FAQ

Q: I'm not a developer. Can I still do this?

Yes. Every step comes with detailed documentation. It's a one-command Docker deploy. If you know basic Linux (cd, docker), you can get it running in 30 minutes.

Q: What's the profit margin like?

Chinese AI models cost 85–99% less than OpenAI. Get DeepSeek V4 Pro at ~$2-8/M tokens, sell at $10-15/M — gross margin 80-95%. With 10 users at $29/mo, that's ~$265/mo profit.

Q: Which models are supported?

DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, GLM-5, Qwen, MiniMax, Kimi K2.5, plus OpenAI GPT, Claude — covers nearly every major model. Fully OpenAI API format compatible.

Q: What's the startup cost?

~$7/month for a low-end cloud VPS. One-API itself is free & open-source.

Q: Which provider accounts do I need?

The kit includes registration guides for DeepSeek, GLM, Qwen, and others — takes just minutes to set up.

Q: How do I charge users?

Supports Stripe (global) + Alipay/WeChat Pay (China). Can also accept USDT crypto payments.

Q: Where do I find customers?

Comes with 5 acquisition channel playbooks: Reddit, Hacker News, Product Hunt, Zhihu, Dev.to. Pitch is simple — "same API, fraction of the cost."

Q: What if a provider goes down?

Built-in failover. If one upstream fails, traffic auto-routes to a backup — zero downtime for your users.

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Questions? Drop a comment, I'll reply 🙌

API Relay Business-in-a-Box - AI API relay business — deploy in 5 mins, keep 90% margin

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