App Store and Google Play Fees in 2026: Every Rate on One Page

A $9.99 subscription pays you $6.99 at Apple's standard rate in its first year, and $8.49 on Google Play.

Same price, same app, $1.50 apart, unless you joined Apple's Small Business Program. App Store and Google Play fees moved a lot in the last twelve months. Apple set new rates in Japan (from December 2025), China, Brazil and Taiwan, and put the EU on new terms on 1 October. Google split its fee in two from 30 June, and a US court case reaches the Supreme Court in January.

I wanted one page I could check before setting a price, so I made it. Every rate below links to the Apple or Google page it comes from. Where a rule is still moving, I say so.

I checked every rate in this post against Apple's and Google's developer pages on 11 November 2026.

The short answer

• Apple, standard: 30% of the price, without tax.
• Apple, reduced: 15% if you're in the Small Business Program (up to $1M in proceeds a year), and 15% on subscription renewals after a subscriber's first year of paid service.
• Apple, EU from 1 October 2026: 26%, or 15% for the same small developers and year two subscriptions. In Japan and Brazil, Apple's in-app purchase also costs 26% in total (21% commission plus 5% payment processing). China is 25% (12% reduced) and Taiwan 26%.
• Google Play, subscriptions: 15% everywhere with Google Play Billing. In the US, UK, EEA, Australia and Japan that's now a 10% service fee plus a 5% billing fee.
• Google Play, one-time purchases: 15% on your first $1M a year. Above that, 25% to 30% depending on the country and when the user installed.
• Developer accounts: Apple costs $99 a year. Google costs $25, once.

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What you keep from $9.99 and $19.99

Rates are easier to compare as money. Here is a $9.99 a month subscription and a $19.99 one-time purchase, in the situations most indie developers end up in. All amounts are the price without sales tax or VAT, which is what both stores take their cut from. I rounded to the cent, so a real payout can be a cent off.

In the US that's the price people see, because US store prices don't include sales tax. In Europe and China the shop price includes VAT, so the EU and China rows treat $9.99 or $19.99 as the price before VAT. A €9.99 shop price in Europe leaves you less, and the VAT section below has that example.

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The one-time purchase:

On subscriptions, Google is the same 15% for everyone, while Apple's first year costs you twice that unless you're in the Small Business Program. If you're under $1M a year and enrolled in the Small Business Program, which most indie developers can join, both stores pay you the same $8.49.

Apple's App Store fees in 2026

Apple's commission is the share of each sale Apple keeps. What's left is your proceeds.

The base rule hasn't changed. Apple's license agreement gives Apple "a commission equal to thirty percent (30%) of all prices payable by each End-User". For auto-renewable subscriptions, it drops to 15% once a subscriber has more than one year of paid service in the same subscription group.

There are three ways to get the 15% rate:

• The Small Business Program. You qualify if you and your associated accounts made up to $1M in proceeds last calendar year, or if you're new to the App Store. You have to enroll, it isn't automatic. If you pass $1M during the year, Apple's standard rate applies to future sales. The rules are on Apple's program page, and I wrote a whole post on the Small Business Program with the details.
• Subscribers past their first year. The year counts per subscription group, and upgrades or downgrades inside the group don't reset it. Free trials don't count as paid days. If someone cancels and comes back within 60 days, their paid days carry on. Apple says that 60-day window can change.
• Partner programs. The Video Partner Program pays 85% on qualifying sales, the News Partner Program offers 15% "from day one" to news publishers in Apple News, and the Mini Apps Partner Program gets the reduced rate in Apple's 2026 country tables. Most indie apps don't qualify.

Then there are the countries with their own rates, most of them changed in the last year after talks with regulators:

In Japan and Brazil, Apple splits the in-app purchase charge into a commission and a 5% payment processing fee. If you use your own payment system there, you pay the commission but not the 5%. In South Korea, if you use a third-party payment provider, Apple charges 26%.

Taxes changed in a few countries too. That's a separate story, with the full list, in my post on Apple's 2026 tax and price changes.

The US: linking out of the App Store

Since a court order in Epic v. Apple on 30 April 2025, US apps can link to a website to buy. Apple's App Review Guidelines say US apps don't need a special entitlement to include "buttons, external links, or other calls to action".

Today, as far as I can find, Apple takes nothing on those web purchases. There's no US link-out rate on any Apple page I read. But that can change:

• On 11 December 2025, the Ninth Circuit agreed that Apple had broken the 2025 court order, but said a total ban on any commission went too far. Apple may charge for costs that are "genuinely and reasonably necessary", and the district court has to set the number.
• In August 2026, Apple asked that court for 15% on linked-out purchases, 10% for some partner programs and 5% for Small Business Program members. That's from press reports, I haven't read the filing.
• The Supreme Court agreed to hear Apple's appeal on the contempt finding and set the argument for 11 January 2027.

If you link out in the US, I'd plan for a rate showing up later and not build a business case on zero.

The EU from 1 October 2026

Apple moved every developer in the EU to one set of terms on 1 October 2026. Apple's own summary: the Core Technology Fee "has been replaced by the Core Technology Commission, a simple 5% commission on digital transactions in apps distributed outside the App Store." The two other fees from the old EU terms, the Initial Acquisition Fee and the Store Services Fee, are gone.

For an app on the App Store in EU storefronts, three rates now apply:

• Apple's in-app purchase: 26%, or 15% for Small Business Program members, Video Partner and Mini Apps Partner apps, and subscriptions after their first year.
• Your own payment system inside the app: 20%, or 10% for the same group.
• A link to buy on your website: 15%, or 10%. It only counts sales made within 7 days of the tap.

The 5% Core Technology Commission is for apps distributed outside the App Store, like alternative marketplaces and web distribution. It doesn't stack on top of the App Store rates.

If you offer your own payments or links, you have to keep that setup for 12 months. And for every sale that doesn't go through Apple, you collect and pay the VAT yourself.

Google Play fees in 2026

Google's service fee is what Google charges on every sale, however the user pays. The billing fee is an extra 5% when the payment goes through Google Play Billing.

Google is in the middle of switching models, so your rate depends on the user's country.

In the US, UK and EEA (since 30 June 2026), and in Australia and Japan (since 30 September 2026), Google charges a service fee plus a 5% billing fee when the purchase goes through Google Play Billing:

• Subscriptions: 10% + 5%, at any size.
• Everything, on your first $1M a year: 10% + 5%.
• One-time purchases above $1M: 20% + 5% for users who installed on or after the rollout date, 25% + 5% for users who installed before it. The Apps Experience and Play Games Level Up programs bring those down to 15% and 20%, plus the 5%.

South Korea follows on 31 December 2026, and the rest of the world on 30 September 2027.

Everywhere else, for now, it's the old model: 15% on subscriptions, and 15% on your first $1M a year for developers enrolled in the 15% tier, then 30%.

For a normal subscription on Google Play Billing, you pay 15% in both models. I did the full math on that in Google Play's 10% subscription fee and why most indies still pay 15%.

Alternative billing is the Google version of using your own payment system. In the US, UK, EEA, Australia and Japan you pay the service fee without the 5% billing fee: 10% on subscriptions and on your first $1M. In South Korea, India, Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa, the service fee is reduced by 4%. On top of that you pay your payment processor.

Links to buy on the web also carry Google's service fee. In the new model, Google's fee table puts them at 10% for subscriptions, and says the program details will come "in the coming months".

Fees come off the price without tax

Both stores take their percentage after removing VAT, GST or sales tax, in almost every case.

• Apple's license agreement says the prices it takes commission on "shall be net of any and all taxes collected".
• Google says that where developers pay the VAT themselves, it will "calculate the service fee off the net price of the product". In the EU, Google collects and pays the VAT for purchases through Google Play Billing.

One exception: in South Korea, Apple takes its 26% on third-party payments from the price with VAT.

Prices in Europe include VAT, so this changes real money. Take €9.99 with 20% VAT, the rate Google uses in its own example. The price without tax is €8.33. Apple's 26% leaves you €6.16, Google's 15% leaves you €7.08. The VAT took €1.66, more than Google did.

How to pay lower App Store and Google Play fees

1. Join the Small Business Program if your proceeds were up to $1M last year. It halves Apple's cut on everything, starting about two weeks after the end of the month Apple approves you. Outside Google's new-model countries, also check that you're enrolled in Google's 15% tier.
2. Keep subscribers past a year. On Apple, every renewal after the first year of paid service costs 15% instead of 30%. Annual plans get there in one renewal.
3. Sell on the web where it's allowed. In the US, a link out of an iOS app costs you no Apple commission today. In the EU it's 15% or 10%. But you pay a payment processor, you handle sales tax and VAT yourself (or pay a merchant of record to do it), you handle refunds, and some people won't finish a purchase outside the app. I think that last one is the biggest cost for small apps, but I haven't measured it.
4. Use alternative billing on Google if your prices are high enough. You save the 5% billing fee and pay your processor instead. On low prices, the processor's fixed fee per payment can eat the whole saving.
5. Join Google's programs if you sell one-time purchases above $1M a year. Apps Experience or Play Games Level Up take 5 points off those rates.

A merchant of record collects and pays your taxes. It doesn't pick a fair price for India or Brazil. When you leave store billing, you also leave the store's price conversion and rounding behind, so that work becomes yours.

Fees and localized prices

The fee is a percentage of your price. Apple's 30% is 30% in India, Mexico and Switzerland alike, and Google's 15% on subscriptions is 15% in all three. A localized price changes how much you keep per sale, but not the rate.

For example, PricePush's default strategy puts Brazil at 48% of the base price. A $9.99 subscription there is then about $4.80 in dollar terms. Google takes 15% of that, about $0.72, and you keep about $4.08 before any local tax. That only works out if about twice as many people buy at that price as at $9.99. My post on localized pricing for apps explains how to pick those prices.

If you want to see your own numbers, the free price localizer suggests a fair price per country from one base price, free and with no account needed. When you're ready to push those prices to App Store Connect and Google Play, you can try PricePush free for 7 days, and the plans are here.

If you spot a rate that changed after 11 November, let me know and I'll update the page.

Antonio

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