Module 1 · Lesson 1
Building an AI SaaS in 2026
What this course is, and is not
This course walks you through building and launching one AI-powered software product with Claude, Next.js, Supabase, Vercel and Stripe. You finish with working software and a launch plan. Nothing here guarantees customers or revenue: that depends on the problem you pick and how well you validate it, which is why Module 1 starts there.
Prices, model names and plan limits in this course were checked against official sources in October 2026 and are linked so you can re-check them. They change often.
What has changed, and what has not
It is cheaper to start. Next.js is open source, Supabase and Vercel have free tiers for learning and development, and model APIs bill per token, so a prototype costs little more than the tokens you use. AI coding tools such as Claude Code and Cursor handle much of the boilerplate, although you still have to review what they write.
The hard parts remain. You need a problem people already pay to solve, a way to reach them, and output reliable enough to trust. Two things are newer:
- Every request costs money. Each AI call has a token cost, so pricing and usage limits are part of the design, not an afterthought.
- Rules apply. Since 2 August 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires telling people when they are interacting with an AI system (European Commission), and the US FTC has acted against deceptive AI claims.
The six parts of a first version
- One job done well for a specific kind of customer, such as turning supplier contracts into a list of obligations and deadlines.
- One AI feature that does that job, with prompts and output formats tested on real examples.
- Accounts, so each customer's data stays private (Supabase Auth plus Row Level Security).
- Usage limits per plan, because every request has a cost.
- Billing, including tax and receipts (Stripe).
- Cost and quality tracking: tokens per customer, and a test set you re-run whenever you change a prompt or model.
- 1One job done well
For a specific kind of customer, such as turning supplier contracts into a list of obligations and deadlines.
- 2One AI feature
Does that job, with prompts and output formats tested on real examples.
- 3Accounts
Each customer’s data stays private: Supabase Auth plus Row Level Security.
- 4Usage limits per plan
Because every request has a cost.
- 5Billing
Including tax and receipts, with Stripe.
- 6Cost and quality tracking
Tokens per customer, and a test set you re-run whenever you change a prompt or model.
Team seats, dashboards and integrations can wait until paying customers ask for them.
