7 Python Side Projects That Quietly Pay My Bills

I used to think you needed to build the next billion-dollar app to make money with code. Turns out, you just need to build useful micro-tools. Python became my cashflow engine, not because of big projects, but because of dozens of tiny ones that solved real problems.

Here are 7 that turned into passive income streams:

1. Flask + OpenAI: Daily Blog Writer for Niche Sites I built a micro-app that generates short blog posts for niche affiliate sites. Flask for backend, OpenAI API for content. Users paste keywords → get a formatted SEO draft in seconds.

pip install flask openai
from flask import Flask, request
import openai
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route("/", methods=["POST"])
def blog():
    keyword = request.form["keyword"]
    res = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
        model="gpt-4",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": f"Write a blog post on {keyword}"}]
    )
    return res["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]

Deployed on Railway + Payhip checkout. Earns me ~$120/month.

2. Streamlit + Pandas: Etsy Fee Calculator Etsy sellers hate doing math. I built a simple Streamlit app that calculates exact Etsy fees and profit margins.

pip install streamlit pandas
import streamlit as st
price = st.number_input("Selling Price")
cost = st.number_input("Item Cost")
fee = price * 0.065 + 0.20
profit = price - cost - fee
st.write(f"Net Profit: ${profit:.2f}")
Shared in Etsy Facebook groups. Added a $3 unlock for advanced features. Brings in ~$200 passive.

3. FastAPI + Stripe: Tiny API That Summarizes PDFs
Freelancers, students, and lawyers upload PDFs → get a 300-word summary. Hosted with FastAPI + Stripe checkout.

pip install fastapi uvicorn openai
from fastapi import FastAPI, UploadFile
import openai
app = FastAPI()
@app.post("/summary")
async def summary(file: UploadFile):
    text = await file.read()
    res = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
        model="gpt-4",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": text.decode()[:2000]}]
    )
    return {"summary": res["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]}

$5/month API → ~50 paying users.

4. Selenium + Telegram Bot: Flight Price Drop Alerts Instead of refreshing Skyscanner, my bot scrapes fares daily and sends Telegram alerts.

pip install selenium python-telegram-bot Sold access to travelers for $10/month group subscription. Currently ~$150 MRR.

5. Pandas + Matplotlib: Weekly Fitness Reports I tracked my workouts in Google Sheets. Automated it with a Python script that sends PDF reports.

pip install pandas matplotlib Clients at my gym asked for it → I sold them access. $20 each → $300 total.

6. Gradio + Whisper: Meeting Transcriber Uploaded Zoom recordings → Python auto-transcribes with OpenAI Whisper + Gradio UI.

pip install gradio openai-whisper One-time product on Gumroad. Made $500 in two months.

7. Flask + BeautifulSoup: Local Job Scraper I scraped my city’s gov site for new IT jobs → emailed subscribers daily. Flask backend, cron job, Gmail API.

$5/month subscription → 40 subscribers = ~$200/month.

Why This Works Not one of these tools took more than a week. They’re ugly, lightweight, and niche. But niche is what pays. Python lets me build micro-tools that solve tiny problems at scale — and those tiny problems add up.

Read the full article here: https://medium.com/@sa82912045/7-python-side-projects-that-quietly-pay-my-bills-8f1ec392494b