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AGENT SKILLS ECONOMY

AI Skills Marketplace 2026: Every Store Compared

Agent skills became a real product category in early 2026 — and the payouts are all over the map. We compared the fee structures, formats, and track records of every major AI skills marketplace, including the one that pays creators 80% from day one: the VibeFuse marketplace for widgets, skills, and styling packs.

Browse the VibeFuse marketplace How selling works

The agent skills marketplace exploded in 2026

Anthropic published Agent Skills as an open standard in December 2025, OpenAI adopted the same SKILL.md format, and Vercel launched skills.sh in January 2026 as the first big open directory with a public install-count leaderboard. Within months, LobeHub indexed more than 170,000 skills, agentskill.sh crossed 110,000, and SkillsMP aggregated over 900,000 entries from public GitHub repositories. KDnuggets now ranks skill marketplaces alongside package managers and model catalogs as core infrastructure.

But there is a catch for creators: most of these catalogs are free directories, not stores. Publishing is easy; getting paid is the hard part. The difference between the platforms is almost entirely in the revenue share, the review process, and who actually holds the customer relationship.

AI skills marketplace payout comparison

Platform Creator keeps What you sell Watch out for
VibeFuse Marketplace 80% — every sale, no tiers Canvas widgets, agent skills, styling packs Buyers need the free VibeFuse harness
Agensi 70% flat (platform handles VAT) SKILL.md bundles, one-time or subscription 24–48h human + AI review before listing
AgentPowers 85% (fees absorbed) Markdown skills for .claude/skills/ $5 minimum price; payout tier delays
SkillExchange 80–85% by plan tier MCP tools with per-call pricing Revenue depends on agent call volume
skills.sh (Vercel) No payments — directory + leaderboard SKILL.md packages via npx Discovery only; monetize off-platform
LobeHub / agentskill.sh / SkillsMP Free catalogs SKILL.md from public repos Huge supply; quality signals vary
GPT Store (OpenAI) Invite-only pilot Custom GPTs Most builders never got paid — WIRED, 2024

Fees and terms change; check each platform's current creator terms before you commit. Comparison compiled September 2026.

The GPT Store lesson: promised payouts are not payouts

When OpenAI opened the GPT Store in January 2024, Sam Altman promised that revenue sharing was "important to us." Ten months later, WIRED reported that payments were limited to an invite-only pilot; most builders — including creators of GPTs with over two million conversations — had earned nothing and couldn't even see real analytics. One developer's rough math: the payout rate works out to roughly $0.03 per conversation, meaning $1,000 a month requires 33,000 quality conversations.

The lesson for 2026 creators: a marketplace only counts if the revenue share is concrete, universal, and verifiable — a published percentage, applied to every sale, visible in a dashboard you control. That is why the VibeFuse marketplace publishes a flat 80% creator payout with no invite list, no tiers, and no "coming later."

Why widgets beat file-only skills for sellers

A SKILL.md file is invisible until an agent loads it. A widget is demonstrable: buyers see the live component on a canvas before they buy it — a pricing table, a voice console, a dashboard panel. In every other digital marketplace (themes, templates, plugins), visual products convert better because the buyer can see exactly what ships.

VibeFuse is the first ever free widget-based AI harness, so its marketplace has a format nobody else lists: canvas widgets that run inside the harness itself, alongside skills and styling packs. Sellers get three product types from one account, and buyers install with one click because the marketplace is built into the app they already run.

New to publishing? Start with the creator guides: how to publish a VibeFuse skill, how to sell AI widgets, or the revenue share explainer.

How to choose an AI skills marketplace

Five checks before you upload anywhere. One: is the revenue share published as a number, or described as a "program"? Two: does the platform absorb payment processing fees, or deduct them after quoting you a percentage? Three: who owns the customer — can buyers find you again, or only the platform? Four: what does review cost you — minutes, or days? Five: is there a free runtime (a harness, an app, an agent) where buyers actually use what you built?

The open directories (skills.sh, LobeHub, agentskill.sh) are excellent for distribution and reputation. For income, publish where the payout is structural: flat percentages, visible dashboards, and a runtime that makes your work instantly usable. That combination is exactly what the VibeFuse marketplace was built for.

  • ✓ 80% flat creator payouts
  • ✓ Widgets + skills + styling packs
  • ✓ Buyers install in one click
  • ✓ Free harness for buyers
Publish on the VibeFuse marketplace See the 80% payout terms

Explore VibeFuse & harness guides

AI skills marketplace FAQ

What is the best AI skills marketplace for creators in 2026?

It depends on what you sell. For income, compare published revenue shares: AgentPowers keeps 15% (you keep 85%), the VibeFuse marketplace pays a flat 80% on widgets, skills, and styling packs, Agensi pays 70%, and SkillExchange pays 80–85% by plan. The big free directories — skills.sh, LobeHub, agentskill.sh — are for discovery and reputation, not direct payouts.

How much do AI skills marketplaces pay creators?

Paid marketplaces keep 15–30% and pass the rest to creators. On a $29 skill that is roughly $20.30 at Agensi's 70% or $24.65 at AgentPowers' 85%. Directory-only platforms (skills.sh, SkillsMP) pay nothing directly — creators monetize by linking out. Compare against the GPT Store, where most builders never received a payout at all.

Does the GPT Store pay creators?

Barely. OpenAI announced a builder revenue program in 2024 but limited payments to an invite-only US pilot; WIRED reported that most GPT creators — including makers of GPTs with millions of conversations — never earned anything. Community estimates put the effective rate near $0.03 per conversation. Treat "revenue program coming soon" as "no revenue share".

What is skills.sh and can you sell skills there?

skills.sh is Vercel's open directory for agent skills, launched January 2026, with a leaderboard ranked by real install counts. It uses the SKILL.md standard and installs via npx. There is no payment system — it is discovery infrastructure. Most creators list there for visibility and sell through a paid marketplace.

Can I sell widgets as well as skills?

Yes — that is the differentiator of the VibeFuse marketplace. Because VibeFuse is a widget-based AI harness, creators sell canvas widgets (live UI components), agent skills, and styling packs from one account, all at an 80% revenue share. File-only skill stores have no equivalent of a visual, demoable widget.

What should I check before uploading to a skills marketplace?

Five things: the published revenue share (a number, not a "program"), whether payment processing fees are absorbed or deducted after the quoted percentage, who owns the customer relationship, how long review takes, and whether buyers get a free runtime where your skill actually runs. If any answer is vague, list elsewhere.