Building an online community used to mean stitching together a Discord server, a course platform, a payment processor, and a website. AI Horizons replaces all of that with a single platform — one where you can create your community, host your courses, run your chat, and collect payments in one place.
Here's everything you need to know about creating a community on AI Horizons.
What You Can Build
An AI Horizons community is a branded, customizable space that combines:
- Live community chat (real-time messaging, reactions, file sharing, pinned messages)
- A post feed (visual posts created with Post Studio, with likes, comments, and sharing)
- Course hosting (your own courses available to members, free or paid)
- Project showcases (member projects shared and displayed in the community)
- Member management (roles: member, moderator, admin, owner)
- Monetization (free or paid membership, powered by Stripe)
Your community gets a custom URL, your own branding (name, logo, cover image, accent colors, gradient theme), and full control over who can access what.
What Plan Do You Need?
Creating your own community on AI Horizons requires the Visionary plan ($39.99/month or $359.99/year). This is the top tier, and community creation is one of its signature capabilities.
All other plan holders can join and participate in existing communities — but to create and own a community, Visionary is the plan you need. All plans include a 7-day free trial.
Setting Up Your Community
1. Community Basics
Start with your community identity: name, tagline, description, and about section. This is what potential members see when they discover your community. Be specific about who it's for and what they'll get.
2. Visual Branding
Upload a community icon, a cover image, and configure your theme. AI Horizons communities support custom accent colors, gradient color schemes, and background settings — meaning your community can feel distinctly yours, not like every other community on the platform.
3. Monetization Settings
Decide whether your community is free or paid.
Free communities are open to any AI Horizons subscriber. Good for building an audience first.
Paid communities set a monthly membership price. Members pay through Stripe, and you receive payments directly to your connected Stripe account. AI Horizons takes a 10% platform fee on community subscriptions — you keep 90%.
You can also offer a free trial (7 days recommended) to reduce friction for new members, and configure a grace period if you're transitioning an existing free community to paid.
4. Permissions and Moderation
Control what members can do at each role level:
- Can members post, or only moderators?
- Can members create projects, or is that admin-only?
- Do posts require approval before going live?
You can also configure banned words, community rules, and spam detection to keep the space high-quality.
5. Invite and Grow
Once your community is live, share your community URL. Members can also discover it through AI Horizons' community explore page, where users browse trending and featured communities.
Monetizing Your Community
When you set a paid membership price, here's how the money flows:
- A member subscribes to your community
- Stripe processes the payment
- AI Horizons takes 10%
- You receive 90% in your connected Stripe account
A community with 100 members at $15/month generates $1,500/month, $1,350 of which goes to you.
You can also host paid courses inside your community — giving members access to exclusive learning content as part of their membership, or selling courses separately.
What Makes a Great Community
The AI Horizons communities that grow fastest share a few qualities:
- A specific, clear focus: "AI for marketers" beats "AI stuff"
- Active moderation: Regular posts, engaged moderators, responsive ownership
- Courses or exclusive content: Reasons to join beyond the chat
- A consistent posting rhythm: The community feels alive, not abandoned
Start with a free community, build engagement, then transition to paid when you have an audience that's ready. The platform makes that transition manageable with grace period settings that give existing free members time to decide whether to subscribe.
