How to sell a Claude Artifact or AI built mini tool
Once an AI built calculator, template or mini tool turns out to be genuinely useful, the next question is whether somebody would pay for it. There is no single correct answer to how you sell it, because the right shape depends on whether the buyer is meant to keep a copy or to use the thing where it lives. This guide separates those two paths and then explains Sentway's hosted access route in full.
Path 1: sell the file
If the buyer is supposed to download something and own it, sell it as a digital product. Marketplaces and digital download platforms handle the payment, the delivery of the file and the receipt, and the buyer walks away with a copy they can edit and keep.
This is the better path for spreadsheets, templates, source files and anything the buyer is expected to adapt. Once the file is delivered you have no further control over it, which is exactly the point.
Path 2: sell hosted access
If the value is in using the tool rather than owning the file, sell access to it where it is hosted. The buyer pays, gets in, and uses it. You keep control over the page, can fix and improve it after the sale, and can decide how long access lasts.
This is the better path for calculators, interactive tools, courses, briefings and anything you expect to keep updating. Sentway does this part.
How Paid Access works in Sentway
1. Connect your Stripe account. Paid Access is a Pro feature and payment runs through your own Stripe account, connected to Sentway through Stripe Connect. Sentway does not hold your money for you.
2. Publish the page or tool as a normal Sentway site, exactly as you would if it were free.
3. Configure Paid Access: a price in GBP, the scope it protects, which is the whole site or the appropriate page scope, and the access duration where you want access to expire rather than last indefinitely.
4. The buyer arrives, meets whatever buyer requirements you configured, and pays through Stripe Checkout, which is hosted by Stripe.
5. A successful purchase grants the entitlement that unlocks the protected content. Sentway checks that entitlement on the server before any protected bytes are sent.
6. Your connected AI can inspect the paid access configuration and the commerce setup state over MCP, so you can ask it whether a site is actually ready to take payments.
Decide the scope first. Protecting a whole site suits a tool that is the product. Protecting a page scope suits a site where an introduction is free and the useful part is behind the price.
Then decide the duration. Access that does not expire suits a one off tool. Timed access suits something you keep adding to, or anything where you want a renewal conversation later.
Then decide what you need from the buyer at checkout, since that is what you will have to work with afterwards.
Steps
1. Upgrade to Pro and connect your Stripe account through Sentway.
2. Ask your AI to publish the tool to Sentway.
3. Ask it to set Paid Access with your price, scope and duration.
4. Ask it to confirm the commerce setup is ready, then buy your own access once to see what the buyer sees.
5. Share the URL.
When Sentway is the wrong answer
If the buyer is supposed to receive an editable or downloadable file, a digital download platform is the cleaner choice and you should use one. Sentway sells access to something hosted. It does not deliver files, it is not a marketplace, and it will not find buyers for you.
Build a freelance pricing calculator that takes an hourly rate, weekly hours and unpaid time off, and works out an effective annual figure with a short explanation of the result. Publish it to Sentway, then set Paid Access on the whole site at 19 GBP for access that does not expire. Tell me the public URL and confirm the site is ready to take payments.
Produces: A published calculator on its own address with a price on it, taking payment through your own connected Stripe account.
19 GBP is an example so the prompt is copyable, not a recommendation. Pick your own price.
Needs Pro. On the free plan this prompt returns a permission error for Paid Access.
You do. Payment runs through your own Stripe account, connected to Sentway through Stripe Connect. Sentway is not the merchant of record and does not sell your product on your behalf.
Do I need Pro to sell access?
Yes. Connecting a Stripe account and configuring Paid Access are Pro features.
Can I charge for part of a site rather than all of it?
Yes. Paid Access carries a scope, so you can protect the whole site or the appropriate page scope and leave the rest open.
Does access last forever after somebody buys?
That is your choice. You can configure an access duration so the entitlement expires, or leave access in place indefinitely.
Will Sentway find buyers for me?
No. There is no marketplace and no discovery surface. Sentway handles hosting, the price, the checkout and the access rule. Getting people to the page is your job.