Umax app revenue: the AI looks-rating app that went viral

Most consumer apps spend heavily to be seen. Umax got its users to advertise it for free, by giving them a screen they wanted to post. The app rates a selfie, returns scores for features such as jawline and skin, and suggests changes. Its founder, Blake Anderson, claimed to Fortune in July 2024 that it was making about $500K a month. Fortune could not verify that number, and raised mental-health concerns about the whole category. Both halves of that sentence are part of this case.

Why did Blake Anderson create Umax?

Anderson had already built the viral dating-reply app RizzGPT, so he knew how consumer AI apps spread among young users. He noticed the “looksmaxxing” trend among young men on TikTok, where people discuss and try to improve their appearance. An app that rates a face and suggests changes fit that trend exactly.

The “pain” here is different from a productivity tool. It is a desire for feedback that users were already seeking in public videos. Umax did not need to create that demand; it packaged an existing conversation into an app.

How does Umax work?

Users take front and side selfies. The mobile app sends them to vision models, partly OpenAI, and returns scores for features such as jawline and skin, along with suggested improvements. The result is presented as a score screen, which is designed to be shown to others.

That result screen is the core mechanic. It is personal, comparable and easy to screenshot, which makes it ideal content for the platforms where the trend lives.

How was Umax built?

He built the app quickly, reportedly with much of the code written by ChatGPT, and launched in December 2023. The intelligence comes from third-party vision models rather than a proprietary model, so the work was mainly in the app experience, the scoring presentation and the subscription flow. Team size is not disclosed.

How did Umax market and price the app?

Marketing was almost entirely organic social. Users post their Umax score screens in their own videos, which acts as free advertising. Anderson claims over a billion impressions (founder-reported, Fortune).

Pricing is a weekly subscription of $3.99 (media-reported, Fortune), with a referral option to skip the first fee. The referral option turns sharing into a direct financial incentive, reinforcing the organic loop.

What risks and challenges does Umax face?

The most serious challenge is ethical. Products rating appearance draw ethical scrutiny, and Fortune’s July 2024 article raised mental-health concerns about looksmaxxing apps that rate teen boys’ faces (Fortune). An app whose growth depends on young users comparing their faces carries a reputational and regulatory risk that a spreadsheet tool does not.

Durability is the second question. Trend-driven apps can fade with the trend.

How much money does Umax make?

Anderson claimed about $500K a month in subscription revenue in July 2024 (unverified, Fortune). It is labelled unverified because Fortune itself could not verify the claim. At the same time, he reported 7M+ total downloads (founder-reported, Fortune). Total revenue is not disclosed.

The timeline is short: launch in December 2023, and by July 2024 the founder was claiming 7M-plus downloads and roughly $500K a month.

Why did Umax work so well at first?

It rode an existing cultural trend instead of creating demand. The audience was already making videos about appearance; Umax gave them a new prop for those videos.

And it made the result screen the growth engine. Every shared score is an ad seen by exactly the right audience. Cal AI used social creators to grow a consumer health app in a similar period, while HeadshotPro shows a calmer, search-led way to sell face-based AI.

What can founders learn from Umax?

Ride an existing cultural trend instead of creating demand. It is cheaper to join a conversation than to start one.

A shareable result screen is the growth engine. Design the moment a user wants to show someone else.

Products rating appearance draw ethical scrutiny, and Fortune raised mental-health concerns. Growth built on insecurity carries real costs, for users and for the business. Finally, treat unverified revenue claims as claims: the $500K figure is the founder’s word, not an audited number.