Superpower ChatGPT
Superpower ChatGPT is a browser extension, a small program that the browser loads into a web page to add features to it. It runs on OpenAI's ChatGPT website and adds what the page lacked: folders and subfolders for conversations, search in the whole chat history, bulk export, pinned messages, a prompt library, highlights and a tree map of conversation branches. It does not sell access to an AI model; the user signs in to ChatGPT as usual, and OpenAI bills its own plans separately. The core features are free. A Pro plan costs US$10 a month billed yearly or US$15 billed monthly.
Saeed Ezzati, a full-stack engineer in San Francisco with about ten years of experience, built the first version in three days and released it on the Chrome Web Store within a week of ChatGPT's release in late 2022. At the time he was posting the growth of the AI writing startup Copy.ai as "our startup". He kept the extension free and earned money from Superpower Daily, a daily AI newsletter that he showed inside it: about US$250 in March 2023, then US$100,000 to US$150,000 a year from the newsletter by November 2023. He switched on the Pro subscription in September 2023. In August 2024 Starter Story reported more than US$20,000 a month, and in July 2026 he wrote that the business has a five-figure MRR, monthly recurring revenue, the income that repeats every month, with 150,000 weekly active users and 350,000 newsletter subscribers. He still runs it alone.
Every money figure on this page is the founder's own statement, grade C, and the 2026 figure is only a range: five figures means US$10,000 to US$99,999 a month. No payment processor has confirmed it. A TrustMRR profile with a similar name, Superpower for AI, belongs to a different seller and is not used here. The Chrome and Firefox user counts and ratings are the stores' own figures. The page also shows what happened to earlier companies that built on a platform they did not control.
The numbers, graded
Each row shows the evidence grade and the source numbers from the list at the end of this page. The grades are explained in How Aiolum verifies.
| Fact | Value | Grade | How we know | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue per month, August 2024 | more than US$20,000 | C | Starter Story video interview of 18 August 2024. Its description says he built the extension to over US$20,000 a month. The sources do not split this between Pro subscriptions and newsletter sponsors. | [2, 3] |
| Run rate from the August 2024 figure | more than US$240,000 a year | calc | Calculated: US$20,000 times 12. This is the headline figure on this page. | [2] |
| Revenue per month, July 2026 | five figures, which means US$10,000 to US$99,999 | C | Founder in the Indie Hackers article of 8 July 2026 and on X on 16 July 2026: "5-figure MRR". The article's header gives more than US$10,000 a month and says this is the total of the business, extension and newsletter together. | [1, 4] |
| Newsletter revenue, November 2023 | US$100,000 to US$150,000 a year | C | Founder quoted in a customer story by beehiiv, the newsletter platform that he uses. Divided by 12 on this page: about US$8,333 to US$12,500 a month. | [6] |
| Revenue, March and April 2023 | about US$250 in March; about US$650 in April by the time of the interview | C | Founder interview published 23 May 2023. The money came from newsletter sponsors and donations, because the extension was free. He expected about US$1,000 by the end of April. | [5] |
| Newsletter subscribers | 96,000 in July 2023; more than 180,000 in September 2023; more than 350,000 in July 2026 | C | Founder's posts on X of 6 July 2023 and 1 September 2023, and the Indie Hackers article. In July 2023 he removed inactive subscribers on purpose to keep the count under 100,000; the open rate was 32%. | [8, 1] |
| Newsletter sponsor price, September 2023 | minimum spend US$4,000, average US$6,000 | C | Founder's post on X of 1 September 2023. Some placements were already sold until November. | [8] |
| Chrome Web Store, 14 October 2026 | 100,000 users; 4.6 stars from about 3,700 ratings; Featured | B | Google's own figures on the listing, which is titled Superpower for ChatGPT. Version 8.4.9, updated 13 October 2026. The developer has declared itself a trader under EU rules. | [10] |
| Firefox Add-ons, 14 October 2026 | 1,610 average daily users; 3.36 stars from 136 ratings | B | Mozilla's own record. Listed since 22 January 2023, version 8.4.9. Calculated on this page: about 1.6% of the Chrome user count. | [11] |
| Downloads and weekly active users, July 2026 | more than 420,000 downloads; more than 150,000 weekly active users | C | Founder in the Indie Hackers article and on X. He also reports thousands of reviews across browser stores. | [1, 4] |
| Installs, spring 2023 | almost 80,000 | C | Founder interview published 23 May 2023. The Discord group then had almost 2,000 users. | [5] |
| Pro price, October 2026 | US$10 a month billed yearly (US$120), or US$15 billed monthly | C | Company pricing page. The Free plan costs nothing. | [12] |
| First paid plan | September 2023, almost ten months after launch | C | Founder's post on X of 27 September 2023: "Turned on Superpower ChatGPT Pro subscription last night. Almost 10 months after I first launched it." | [7] |
| Product releases since December 2022 | more than 500 | C | Company pricing page, which also calls it the first ChatGPT browser extension. | [12] |
| Team | 1 person | C | Founder, July 2026: "I still run it as a solo founder." | [1] |
| Outside funding | none found | C | No source mentions a funding round. A third-party teardown of July 2026 lists the stage as bootstrapped and revenue and funding as not disclosed. | [1, 19] |
| Public code of the early versions | 1,703 stars and 277 forks on GitHub | B | A fork is a copy of the code made by another GitHub user. GitHub's record of the repository saeedezzati/superpower-chatgpt: created 14 April 2023, last updated 18 June 2024. | [14] |
| Time from launch to the August 2024 figure | 20 months | calc | Calculated: December 2022 to August 2024. | [1, 2] |
How to read this table: a grade C value is a statement by the founder in his posts and interviews, by the company on its own pages, or a third-party estimate that says so. A grade B value is a count published by the Chrome Web Store, by Mozilla or by GitHub, not by the founder. A "calc" value was computed on this page from the rows above it. No money value is grade A or B.
| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 | core workspace tools, with caps |
| Pro | 10 | 15 | no caps; full tree map, highlights and annotations, audio player |
Pro is a subscription: US$120 billed once a year, which saves US$60 compared with paying US$15 each month. The Free plan keeps the core organization tools with limits. ChatGPT Plus and the other OpenAI plans are separate and are billed by OpenAI. The page also describes Showcase, where users publish AI image galleries; until 31 October 2026 Showcase sellers receive the sale price minus Stripe's processing fees, with no Superpower fee.
The timeline
From a three-day project in the first week of ChatGPT to a five-figure monthly business run by one person, in about three and a half years. Each entry carries its grade.
- Late 2022CChatGPT launches. Ezzati, a full-stack engineer in San Francisco, builds the first version of the extension two or three days later, for his own use. [6, 1]
- December 2022CRelease on the Chrome Web Store, within a week of ChatGPT's release. In the same weeks he posts the user and revenue milestones of Copy.ai as "our startup". [1, 7, 8]
- 22 January 2023BThe Firefox version is listed. [11]
- March to April 2023CAbout US$250 of revenue in March and about US$650 in April, from newsletter sponsors and donations. Almost 80,000 installs. [5]
- 14 April 2023CHe publishes the code on GitHub, because some users do not install an extension whose code they cannot read. [14, 5]
- 6 July 2023CThe newsletter has 96,000 subscribers and a 32% open rate. [8]
- 9 August 2023CThe Chrome Web Store marks the extension as Featured. [8]
- 1 September 2023CMore than 180,000 newsletter subscribers. Sponsor placements sold until November, from US$4,000. [8]
- 27 September 2023CHe writes that he switched on the Pro subscription the night before, almost ten months after launch. [7]
- 17 November 2023Cbeehiiv reports that the newsletter earns US$100,000 to US$150,000 a year and that the extension and the newsletter together reach 380,000 people. [6]
- 26 November 2023CHe asks Google in public about four look-alike ChatGPT extensions with the same screenshot. The next day he writes that more keep appearing. [9]
- 18 August 2024CStarter Story publishes a video interview: more than US$20,000 a month. [2, 3]
- 13 December 2024BOpenAI adds Projects to ChatGPT, with custom folders for chats, files and instructions. [15]
- 10 April 2025COpenAI announces that ChatGPT memory can now refer to all past chats. [16]
- 8 July 2026CIndie Hackers interview: more than 420,000 downloads, 150,000 weekly active users, 350,000 newsletter subscribers, five-figure MRR, still one person. [1]
- 16 July 2026CVersion 8, with an ad blocker for the sponsored cards inside ChatGPT and better export and print tools. [4]
- 13 October 2026BVersion 8.4.9 on the Chrome Web Store, with 100,000 users and 4.6 stars from about 3,700 ratings. [10]
Why it worked
Four causes, in the order they mattered. Each one is a reusable lesson.
Speed
He built the first version in three days and released it within a week of ChatGPT's launch. In spring 2023 he said that no other extension offered folders and search, and that finding users had never been this easy. The company now calls it the first ChatGPT browser extension, with more than 500 releases since December 2022.
A newsletter inside the extension
He did not want to put ads in the middle of the ChatGPT interface, so he put a daily AI newsletter inside the extension, then moved it to beehiiv with a link back to the extension in every issue. It grew from 96,000 subscribers in July 2023 to more than 350,000 in 2026, with sponsor placements from US$4,000. By November 2023 it earned US$100,000 to US$150,000 a year.
Free first, Pro after ten months
The extension was free for almost ten months before he switched on a Pro subscription in September 2023. His rule is that the free plan must feel like the real product, not a demo, and that Pro is for heavier use, higher limits and advanced tools. Pro now costs US$10 a month billed yearly or US$15 monthly.
The stores as the sales channel
Users find it in the Chrome Web Store, which marked it as Featured in August 2023 and in October 2026 shows 100,000 users and 4.6 stars from about 3,700 ratings. A Firefox version has existed since January 2023. In his words, Reddit, reviews, Discord, emails and support all became his product research.
How it was built
These details come from the founder's interviews, his replies under the Indie Hackers article, the company's pages and the public code record. They are grade C, except the GitHub and store records, which are grade B. [5, 1, 6, 12, 13, 14, 11]
- Built in three days as a Chrome extension for his own use, on top of the ChatGPT web page, and released within a week of ChatGPT's launch.
- It is a workspace layer on OpenAI's page: the user signs in to ChatGPT as usual, and OpenAI bills its own plans separately.
- Written in JavaScript. The code of the early versions has been public on GitHub since April 2023; the public repository was last updated in June 2024.
- In spring 2023 the founder named GitHub, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, AWS and Discord as tools he uses. The Discord group had almost 2,000 users.
- The newsletter first appeared inside the extension. He then moved the issues and the contacts to beehiiv.
- Payments go through Stripe, according to the company's pricing page and the payment link on its home page.
- OpenAI shows different versions of ChatGPT to different users at the same time, so the extension supports several variants of the page, and each fix must pass Chrome Web Store review before users get it.
Tools named in the sources
Each one opens its page in the Tools tab, with every story that uses it.
The dead that came before
Five companies in the Loot Drop database built on top of a platform that they did not control, and the platform owner copied the feature, cut off access or kept changing the interface. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.
Xmarks
The promiseA browser extension that synced your bookmarks and tabs across browsers.
Why it diedChrome, Firefox and Safari built sync in, for free.
Readability
The promiseA browser extension for clutter-free reading of any web article.
Why it diedBrowsers added a free reader mode, and few readers paid.
Xobni
The promiseA smarter inbox inside Microsoft Outlook.
Why it diedIt depended on Outlook, which Microsoft improved itself. Yahoo bought the remains.
Meerkat
The promiseLive video from your phone to your Twitter followers.
Why it diedIts growth ran on Twitter's network. Twitter bought a rival, Periscope, and cut off Meerkat's access.
Flux
The promiseOne inbox for Slack, email, WhatsApp and the other messaging apps.
Why it diedThe platforms kept changing and breaking the integrations, and the money went into repairs.
What changed
Each of the five built on a platform that it did not own. The platform owner then added the same feature for free, cut off access, or kept changing until the repairs cost more than the product earned. Superpower ChatGPT is in the same position on the ChatGPT website: OpenAI added Projects, with custom folders for chats, in December 2024 and memory across all past chats in April 2025, and every change to the page can break the extension.
Two things differ. It was built by one person in a few days and is still run by one person, where the predecessors raised US$5 million to US$42 million. And it built a second asset that does not depend on the ChatGPT page: a newsletter with 350,000 subscribers that sponsors pay to reach. TypingMind, also on this site, replaces the ChatGPT window with its own app that calls the models through the customer's API key (a password that lets a program use a model on the customer's account), while Superpower ChatGPT adds features to OpenAI's own page, so its core features are free but it breaks when OpenAI changes the page.
Can one person copy it now?
The timing, no. The structure, yes.
Being first with folders and search for ChatGPT was possible only in the months after its launch in late 2022, and OpenAI has since built folders and memory itself. The structure can be copied: a free extension on a new product that is growing fast, an audience channel built into the extension, and a paid plan for heavy users once the free version is part of their daily work.
Where it is still open: The newer AI products whose web pages still lack organization tools. The TrustMRR profile of a different seller shows a suite of such extensions for Gemini, Claude, NotebookLM and ChatGPT, with most of its small verified revenue, US$14,533 in total, from the Gemini extension.
- 1When a new web product becomes popular and its interface lacks basic organization, ship an extension that adds it within days.
- 2Keep the core free, so that store ratings and word of mouth do the marketing.
- 3Put a channel inside the product, such as a daily newsletter, and sell sponsorships to that audience.
- 4Add a paid plan for heavy users once they depend on the free version.
- 5Test against every variant of the host page, because the host shows different versions to different users.
What to watch
The risks are the mirror image of the causes above.
Self-reported, and only a range
All money figures are the founder's own. Five figures a month can mean anything from US$10,000 to US$99,999, and no source splits it between Pro subscriptions and newsletter sponsors. The more exact figure, more than US$20,000 a month, is from August 2024. A third-party teardown in July 2026 lists revenue as not disclosed.
OpenAI ships the same features
OpenAI added Projects, with custom folders for chats, on 13 December 2024, and memory that refers to all past chats on 10 April 2025. Each built-in feature removes a reason to install the extension. The extension now lets users move chats into OpenAI's projects as well as into its own folders.
Every change to the ChatGPT page can break it
The extension works by changing OpenAI's web page. The founder writes that ChatGPT's interface, its DOM structure (the tree of page elements that a script reads), its buttons and its routes kept changing, and that OpenAI runs experiments, so different users see different versions at the same time. In July 2026 he wrote that, starting over, he would invest earlier in automated testing and resilience against these changes.
Store review and store rules
Every update must pass Chrome Web Store review, which the founder says takes from a few hours to a few days, so users can leave while a finished fix waits. The store's spam policy forbids one developer or related accounts from publishing several extensions with duplicate functionality, and the founder has asked Google in public to explain four look-alike extensions.
Copycats and look-alike names
In November 2023 the founder showed four ChatGPT extensions with the same screenshot, all with 1,000,000+ users and all but one with exactly 22 five-star reviews, and the next day wrote "They keep popping up". The code of the early versions is public on GitHub with 277 forks. This extension's own store listing is titled Superpower for ChatGPT, and a different seller, in the Czech Republic and founded in December 2025, now sells a suite called Superpower for AI that includes an extension with the same name. Its TrustMRR profile shows US$14,533 of verified revenue in total.
Sponsor income must be sold again
In November 2023 the newsletter alone earned US$100,000 to US$150,000 a year from sponsors. Sponsors buy single placements, with a minimum spend of US$4,000 in September 2023, so this part of the revenue must be sold again and again.
Sources
The grade next to each source is the best grade that the source can support. "Read in full" means that the text of the page was downloaded and the numbers were checked in it.
- C Indie Hackers, 8 July 2026, by James Fleischmann: Building a free Chrome extension in 3 days and turning it into a 5-figure-MRR ecosystemRead the free part in full and the founder's replies under it, July 2026. The rest of the article is for subscribers and could not be read. Source for the 2026 figures, the solo team and the account of ChatGPT changes and store review.
- C Starter Story on YouTube, 18 August 2024: How I Built It: $20K/Month Chrome ExtensionRead the video page: title, description, publication date and view count. The captions could not be downloaded.
- C Podwise page for the Starter Story episode with Saeed EzzatiRead the free summary and chapter list, which include the monetization from free to premium features and the OpenAI risk. The transcript needs a login.
- C Superpower ChatGPT on X (@spchatgpt), posts of 16 to 31 July 2026: version 8 and the founder's thread on his Indie Hackers storyRead the account's 12 latest posts through api.fxtwitter.com. Source for the 5-figure MRR post, the user counts, the version 8 release and the move-to-projects feature.
- C Founder Club, 23 May 2023: AI Chrome extension with 80,000 downloads and $1000 MRRRead in full. Founder interview. Source for the early revenue, the installs, the tools and the reason for public code.
- C beehiiv blog, 17 November 2023: Superpower Daily: $150,000 Annual Revenue In Only 5 Months on beehiivRead in full. A customer story by the newsletter platform, with the founder's own figures. Source for the newsletter revenue, the move to beehiiv and the combined audience.
- C Saeed Ezzati on X (@eeeziii), 27 September 2023: the Pro subscription is switched onRead through api.fxtwitter.com.
- C Saeed Ezzati on X (@eeeziii), timeline from 2020 to August 2026Read 245 posts page by page through api.fxtwitter.com. Source for the newsletter posts of 6 July and 1 September 2023, the Featured post of 9 August 2023 and the Copy.ai posts of December 2022.
- C Saeed Ezzati on X (@eeeziii), 26 and 27 November 2023: look-alike ChatGPT extensionsRead through api.fxtwitter.com, with the two follow-up posts of 27 November 2023.
- B Chrome Web Store listing of Superpower ChatGPT, read 14 October 2026Read in full. Google's own user count, rating, version and developer details.
- B Firefox Add-ons record of Superpower ChatGPT, read 14 October 2026Read the public API record of the add-on page: daily users, ratings, creation date, version and author.
- C Superpower ChatGPT pricing page, read 14 October 2026Read in full. Source for the plans, the release count, the Showcase fee terms and the statement that OpenAI bills its plans separately.
- C Superpower ChatGPT home page, read 14 October 2026Read the links: Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons, a Stripe payment link, Discord, Reddit and X.
- B GitHub repository saeedezzati/superpower-chatgptRead the repository record through the GitHub API: creation and last-update dates, stars, forks and language.
- B TechCrunch, 13 December 2024, by Cody Corrall: ChatGPT now has Projects to organize your chatsRead in full. Source for OpenAI's own folders feature.
- C OpenAI developer community forum, 10 April 2025: ChatGPT can now reference all past conversationsRead the first posts through the forum's JSON. Post 6 quotes OpenAI's announcement on X that memory can now reference all past chats.
- C Chrome Web Store program policies: Spam and abuseRead the section on duplicate extensions.
- A TrustMRR profile: Superpower for AI, a different sellerRead the markdown profile, data as of October 2026. A suite of four extensions from a seller in the Czech Republic, founded December 2025, verified through Lemon Squeezy. Used only to show a look-alike name, not for this story's revenue.
- C Systemaic teardown, 26 July 2026: Superpower ChatGPT revenue, ad spend and growth channelsRead the summary section. A third-party estimate that lists revenue and funding as not disclosed and the stage as bootstrapped.
- C Loot Drop database export, 1,749 failed startupsLocal export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.