Definition
What a price point is on the App Store
A price point is one specific rung on Apple's official pricing ladder. When you set a price for an app or in-app purchase in App Store Connect, you do not type a free-form local-currency number. You pick a price point, and Apple's storefront table renders that point as a specific value in each of the 175 storefronts.
The US storefront might render a price point as $9.99. The Indian storefront renders the same point as ₹799. The Brazilian storefront as R$49.90. You pick once, every country moves together.
Price point vs price tier
This is where most devs get confused. Apple used the term price tier for years (Tier 1 = $0.99, Tier 2 = $1.99, etc.) with a ladder of about 90 tiers. In 2023 Apple redesigned the system and renamed the unit to price point.
The practical changes:
- The number of available price points grew from ~90 to roughly 900
- Devs can now pick prices much closer to any target number
- The ladder still has fixed steps; you cannot pick arbitrary local-currency values
- Apple aligned currency-specific endings (₹ values end in 99 or 9, ¥ values end in round 100s)
- Old tier IDs were mapped to new price point IDs for backwards compatibility
The legacy term price tier still appears in older blog posts, Stack Overflow answers, and third-party tools. Both terms refer to the same underlying ladder; price point is the current Apple-official name.
How price points work across storefronts
Each storefront carries its own price point set. The same point ID has 175 different local-currency representations:
- The mapping is set by Apple based on FX rates, local conventions, and minimum-price floors
- Apple updates the mappings periodically when currencies move significantly
- You cannot override a single storefront's price point value (you can pick a different point, but not arbitrary numbers)
- Country overrides in App Store Connect let you decouple specific storefronts from the base price point, picking a different point per country
How does the price point ladder look in different currencies?
Each currency follows a culturally familiar rounding pattern. Roughly:
- USD ends in 0.99 (charm pricing): $0.99, $1.99, $2.99
- INR ends in 9 or 99: ₹79, ₹89, ₹99, ₹149, ₹199, ₹249
- JPY uses round 100s: ¥100, ¥120, ¥150, ¥200, ¥250, ¥300
- EUR ends in 0.99 like USD: €0.99, €1.99, €2.99
- BRL ends in .90 or .99: R$4.90, R$5.99, R$6.90
The rounding pattern is set by Apple, not the developer. PricePush maps your target localized price to the nearest legal price point in each storefront, so what you see in the dashboard is what actually pushes to App Store Connect.
Why did Apple expand the ladder in 2023?
The old 90-tier ladder forced large jumps between consecutive points (e.g. from $4.99 to $5.99, with nothing between). For subscription apps doing PPP localization across 175 countries, that granularity was painful. The expanded ladder lets devs target prices with much finer precision, which is one reason localized pricing tools became feasible.
Price point on Google Play
Google Play does not use a fixed price-point ladder. You pick a free-form decimal number in each supported currency, subject to minimum prices and currency-specific decimal rules. That difference is one of the structural reasons cross-store pricing parity is hard to keep without tooling.
Examples
One price point across five storefronts
Apple price point around the US $9.99 level, rendered per storefront:
| Storefront | Currency | Local value | Rounding pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | USD | $9.99 | charm .99 |
| India | INR | ₹799 | ends in 99 |
| Brazil | BRL | R$49.90 | ends in .90 |
| Japan | JPY | ¥1,500 | round 100s |
| Germany | EUR | €9.99 | charm .99 |
| Switzerland | CHF | CHF 11.00 | round franc |
You cannot ask Apple for arbitrary numbers like ₹500 or ¥1,234. You pick the price point whose Indian rendering is closest to your target. PricePush handles the nearest-point mapping for you across all 175 storefronts.
Frequently asked
What is a price point on the App Store?
A price point is one rung on Apple's official pricing ladder. You pick a price point and Apple's storefront table renders it as a specific local-currency value in each of 175 storefronts. The ladder has fixed steps; you cannot pick arbitrary numbers.
What is the difference between price tier and price point?
They refer to the same underlying ladder. Apple renamed the system in 2023, going from about 90 price tiers to roughly 900 price points. Older docs and tools still say price tier; current Apple terminology is price point.
Can I set a custom local-currency price on the App Store?
Not freely. You pick a price point, and Apple renders it as a specific local-currency value per storefront. You can use country overrides to pick a different price point per country, but you cannot type an arbitrary number like ₹500.
Does Google Play use price points?
No. Google Play lets you type free-form decimal numbers in each supported currency, subject to minimum prices and currency-specific decimal rules. The fixed-ladder constraint is Apple-specific and is one reason cross-store pricing parity is hard without tooling.
Further reading
- App Store Pricing by Country: The Developer's ReferenceA reference for App Store pricing by country: how Apple's 900 price points work, what auto-conversion gets wrong, and what prices should look like.
- Most indie devs think the App Store already localizes their prices. It doesn't.Apple and Google convert your USD price at FX rates. That isn't regional pricing, and the gap is costing indie devs real revenue.
- Real Localized Pricing: PPP Baselines + Prices That Feel LocalStore auto-conversion is currency math. Real localization is PPP-style baselines + rounding rules that land in familiar thresholds.