App Store Fees Explained: What Apple and Google Really Take in 2026

Every founder who ships a mobile app runs into the same surprise on the first payout. The sticker price on your app is not the money that lands in your account. Between you and that revenue sits a platform commission of somewhere between 15 and 30 percent, plus tax that the store collects on top. If you are modeling runway or unit economics off the price you set, you are already wrong by a quarter of your revenue.

Here is what Apple and Google actually take in 2026, and how to figure out your real number.

The two rates that matter: 30 percent and 15 percent

Both Apple and Google run the same headline structure: a standard commission of 30 percent, and a reduced commission of 15 percent for smaller developers and for long-lived subscriptions. The entire game is understanding which rate applies to you.

On the Apple App Store, the standard commission is 30 percent of the price on most paid apps and in-app purchases. You drop to 15 percent in two situations. First, if you enroll in the App Store Small Business Program and earned under 1 million dollars in proceeds in the prior calendar year, everything moves to 15 percent. Second, auto-renewing subscriptions fall to 15 percent after a subscriber has been paying continuously for more than one year.

On Google Play, the structure is similar but slightly more generous by default. The first 1 million dollars of revenue you earn each year is charged at 15 percent, and only revenue above that is charged at 30 percent. Subscriptions are charged at 15 percent from day one rather than after a year. For most small and mid-size apps, this means the effective Google Play rate sits close to 15 percent without you doing anything.

The Small Business Program is the highest-leverage thing you can do

If you take one action from this post, enroll in the Apple App Store Small Business Program. It cuts your Apple commission in half, from 30 percent to 15 percent, for any developer who earned under 1 million dollars last year. That covers essentially every indie developer, every early-stage startup, and every brand new app.

The catch is that you have to enroll. Apple does not opt you in automatically. Founders lose real money every month by shipping without enrolling, paying 30 percent when they qualify for 15. Moving from 30 percent to 15 percent lifts your net revenue per sale by more than 20 percent, and for a subscription app it compounds every single month for the life of the customer.

Why your payout is lower than you expect

The commission is only the first cut. The price a customer pays usually includes local sales tax or VAT that the store collects and remits, so your revenue base is the pre-tax price, not the full amount charged. Foreign exchange and rounding on international sales shave off a little more. Add it up and a 9.99 app can net you closer to 6 to 7 dollars after commission, and less again once tax is separated out in some regions.

This is why you should always model the real net per sale, not the sticker price, before you build a financial plan around your app.

Can you avoid app store fees?

For digital goods consumed inside the app, both platforms have historically required their in-app purchase systems. Regulatory changes such as the EU Digital Markets Act and various court rulings are opening limited external payment and link-out options in some regions, though these often come with their own reduced commission rather than zero. For physical goods and real-world services, you are generally allowed to use your own payment processor and the store commission does not apply, which is why ride-hailing and ecommerce apps do not pay 30 percent.

The safe approach is to model the standard commission for your category, treat any fee reduction from external payments as upside, and confirm the current rules for your specific region before you build pricing around them.

Should you raise mobile prices to cover the cut?

Many teams charge a higher price inside the app than on the web so their net after commission matches their target, and steer users to subscribe on the web where store rules allow. The trick is that raising your price to fully offset a 30 percent cut requires a gross-up, because the commission also applies to the extra you add. You have to divide your target net by the share you keep, not simply add 30 percent to your price.

Run your real numbers

The exact commission you pay depends on the store, your revenue tier, your program enrollment, and whether you sell one-off purchases or subscriptions. Rather than guess, plug your price and volume into the App Store Fee Calculator. It shows your net per sale, your monthly payout after fees, and a price-to-net gross-up so you can enter the amount you want to keep and see exactly what to charge.

If you are still costing out the build itself, the Mobile App Cost Calculator pairs well with it, and the Stripe Fee Calculator covers the web side of your payment stack.