Apple App Store Commission 2026: 0–30% & How to Pay Less

Updated October 2026: Apple’s single EU fee schedule took effect on 1 October (26% IAP, 20% alternative processing, 15% link-out), Apple asked the US court for a 15% link-out fee, and we added Japan, mainland China and Google Play’s new rate card.

Why Fora Soft wrote this playbook

We’ve been shipping iOS products since 2005: 250+ projects, in-house Swift engineers, and real apps in the App Store like Super Power FX, a video editor with 500K+ downloads and a 4.6/5 rating. Across streaming apps, e-learning platforms and consumer tools, one question keeps coming back from founders: “do we really have to hand Apple 30% of everything?”

The honest 2026 answer is: only if you architected yourself into it. The rules have moved a lot since 2023. The EU’s Digital Markets Act, the Epic v. Apple contempt fight, Apple’s own Small Business Program, and a fresh Google Play overhaul have all rewritten the math. This is the playbook we actually use when a client asks us to cut their effective commission: what the current rates are by jurisdiction, which of the legal patterns fits which app, and how our iOS and Android app development team re-architects an existing iOS product for a lower rate without getting rejected at review.

We’ll show the arithmetic, name the trade-offs, and tell you where each move breaks. If a number looks too good, we’ll say so.

Apple commission rates in 2026 — the actual numbers

Short answer: Apple takes 30% of in-app purchases and paid downloads from developers earning over $1M a year, and 15% from Small Business Program members and on subscriptions after their first paid year. Regional rules move that number. In the EU, Apple IAP costs 26% from 1 October 2026; in Japan it is 26% (a 21% commission plus a 5% payment-processing fee) since December 2025; in mainland China the standard rate has been 25% since 15 March 2026. US purchases made through an in-app link to your website currently carry no Apple fee.

The “30%” headline is still real for standard large-developer in-app purchases. It’s just one of several rates Apple runs in parallel, and the gap between them is where the money is.

Figure 1. The 2026 commission ladder — the rate you pay depends on how you structure the sale, not on Apple’s goodwill.

The Small Business Program — 15% under $1M

Apple’s Small Business Program (ASBP) cuts commission from 30% to 15% for any developer whose total App Store proceeds (what lands in your account after Apple’s cut and taxes, not gross revenue) were under $1M in the previous calendar year. You enroll in App Store Connect; approval usually lands about 15 days after your fiscal-month end.

Three things trip people up:

1. Proceeds, not revenue. The cap is measured on what reaches your bank, not what customers pay. Do the math out loud: a developer grossing $1.15M at Apple’s 15% take nets roughly $977K in proceeds — still under the cap, still eligible.

2. Free trials don’t start the sub clock. The year-two 15% subscription rate needs 12 months of paid renewals. Trial time before the first payment doesn’t count either way.

3. Re-qualifying is real. Cross $1M and you’re out the following fiscal month; drop back under $1M next year and you can re-apply. The cap is checked every year, not once.

For most indie and mid-market apps, ASBP answers the whole “do I really pay 30%?” question. The only reason to skip it is that you’re already over $1M — which is where the next patterns start to matter.

The EU after the DMA — what actually changed

The Digital Markets Act took effect in March 2024, the European Commission fined Apple €500M in April 2025 for anti-steering, and Apple has rewritten its EU terms several times since. The version that matters now was announced on 18 August 2026 and took effect on 1 October 2026: one set of business terms for every EU developer. It replaces the 2% initial-acquisition fee, the 5% or 13% store-services tiers and the per-install Core Technology Fee.

Here’s the EU schedule for App Store apps from 1 October 2026, as Apple publishes it:

*The reduced rate covers Small Business Program, Video Partner and Mini Apps Partner members, plus auto-renewing subscriptions after their first year. Two rules come with it: whatever payment options you choose, you keep them for 12 months, and Apple IAP has to be offered at the same time as any alternative and at least as prominently. Alternative-payment and link-out sales are reported to Apple monthly, within 15 days of the month’s end.

The arithmetic now favours link-outs. A large EU subscription app that moves new sign-ups from IAP to its own web checkout goes from 26% to 15% plus 2–3% card processing: about eight points of margin back on every sale that still converts. Run it through the payback model below, though: that only beats IAP if the web path loses less than about 9% of the moved sales. An in-app alternative processor at 20% plus its own fees saves only a few points over IAP, so on its own it rarely pays for the extra integration.

And the alternative-marketplace dream hasn’t arrived. MacPaw shut down Setapp Mobile in February 2026, blaming Apple’s “still-evolving and complex business terms.” Most EU users still install from the App Store, so plan around it rather than betting on a third-party store.

The US after Epic v. Apple — 0% for now

The US picture is simpler and, right now, better for developers. Five dates tell the story:

30 April 2025. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in “willful contempt” of her 2021 injunction. Apple had been charging 27% on external-payment transactions, which the court said made the injunction meaningless.

May 2025. Apple updated US App Store Review Guidelines 3.1.1 and 3.1.3 to allow external-payment links, buttons and calls to action: no entitlement, no approval, no commission.

December 2025. The Ninth Circuit upheld the contempt finding but called the total ban on link-out commissions overbroad, and sent it back to the district court to set a cost-based fee.

May–June 2026. On 6 May Justice Kagan refused to pause the Ninth Circuit’s mandate. Apple filed a cert petition on 21 May, and on 30 June the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, limited to the contempt question. Apple’s opening brief went in on 14 September 2026 and Epic’s is due on 13 November, so a decision is likely by mid-2027.

August 2026. The district court refused to wait for the Supreme Court and ordered Apple to propose a fee; on 13 August Justice Kagan denied Apple’s request to halt that work. Apple’s proposal, filed the same day, is 15% on purchases made through a link-out, 10% for Video, News and Mini Apps partners and for subscription renewals, and 5% for Small Business members. Until the judge sets a number, the US link-out fee stays at 0%.

The practical move for US-targeted apps in 2026: ship an external-payment button now at 0%, but build it so you can switch on a fee calculation later without re-architecting. Capture external-purchase analytics from day one — you’ll need them the moment the district court sets a number. Model your US margin at 0%, 5% and 15% now, so a ruling becomes a config change rather than a pricing crisis.

Reader apps — the 0% path for media

Apple calls an app a “reader app” when its main job is letting users open content they bought elsewhere: magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, podcasts or video. Netflix, Spotify, Kindle and Audible are the textbook cases.

In the US storefront, reader apps (like all apps) can now link out without even applying for the External Link Account Entitlement, thanks to the same Epic ruling. Outside the US, you still need the entitlement, and it comes with a catch worth stating plainly: while you use it, you can’t offer in-app purchase in parallel on iOS. It’s external billing or IAP, not both. If you’re building a streaming reader app, our OTT and Internet TV development team ships the web checkout, entitlement checks and the player as one build, and our Learn hub on video streaming covers the media stack underneath it.

The rules that get apps rejected here:

1. System browser, not a web view. The link has to open Safari or the user’s default browser. A WKWebView wrapper gets rejected.

2. No price next to the link (outside the US). Under the entitlement you can’t put “Subscribe for $9.99” beside the external button. “Manage subscription” or “Create account” is fine.

3. Apply early. Where the entitlement is required, approval runs 2–4 weeks. Don’t start the clock the week before launch.

Physical goods and real-world services — always 0%

Apple’s 30% (or 15%) only touches digital goods and services. If the buyer ends up with a physical object or a real-world service, IAP is actually forbidden — you use Stripe, Adyen or PayPal and keep everything minus the processor’s 2–3%.

Clearly on the physical side of the line:

• E-commerce of any physical product — clothing, hardware, food.

• Travel bookings: flights, hotels, rental cars.

• On-demand services: ride-share, delivery, cleaners, haircuts.

• Event tickets and venue reservations.

We’ve built this side too. Sprii, a live-commerce platform we engineered, has moved €365M+ in sales for 3,000+ brands: all physical goods, all outside Apple’s commission, all on standard payment rails. The gray zones still bite: cloud storage of user files is digital, real-time tutoring by a human is arguably a service, and a digital booking flow for an in-person class depends on the reviewer’s read. When in doubt, structure the deal so the digital part is the minor part.

The web-first purchase pattern — the cleanest 0%

For non-reader apps that want out of IAP entirely, the working pattern is simple: move sign-up and billing to your website, and keep the iOS app as a consumption surface. Users subscribe on yoursite.com, pay through Stripe, and the app authenticates against your API for access.

Figure 2. Same subscriber, two money paths. Web-first makes you the merchant of record and drops Apple out of the transaction.

This is how a lot of B2B SaaS already runs on iOS — Slack, Notion and Figma ship a free app and sell the paid plan on the web. Apple allows it, with three conditions:

1. The app has real free value. A login wall with no free utility gets rejected as a thin client under Guideline 4.2.

2. No steering from inside the app outside the US, the EU and Japan link-out terms. In other regions you still can’t drop a “sign up at example.com” link; users have to find the site themselves.

3. Don’t sabotage the free tier to force web signups. Deliberately crippling in-app UX to push users to the browser can trigger a rejection.

Re-architecting an existing subscription app to web-first is usually 200–500 dev-hours: about 3–6 weeks for a team of two or three engineers with agent-assisted engineering, plus a few weeks to migrate existing subscribers. On a $1.2M ARR app it pays back in about 7 months; below roughly $650k ARR, payback usually takes longer than a year. The model is in the cost section below.

External payment links (US & EU) that pass review

The External Purchase Link entitlement is what puts a “Subscribe on our website” button inside the app, opening the system browser. US App Store: no entitlement needed since May 2025, and 0% commission for now. EU App Store: from 1 October 2026 link-outs pay the store-services commission, 15% (10% reduced) on sales made within 7 days of the tap. Japan: 15% (10% reduced) since December 2025.

If you’re going to ship it, the checklist that keeps you through review:

1. Use the StoreKit external-purchase APIs where they’re required. In the EU and Japan that means the entitlement plus ExternalPurchaseLink or ExternalPurchaseCustomLink. In the US they’re optional; what keeps you ready for a court-set fee is your own purchase attribution and reporting, not the API.

2. Show the disclosure sheet where Apple requires it. In the EU, call the StoreKit ExternalPurchaseCustomLink notice before the browser opens; it tells users they’re paying you, not Apple. The US storefront has no Apple-mandated sheet today, so check each storefront you ship to.

3. Gate by storefront. Wrap the external link behind Storefront.current (StoreKit 2) so US users see it and other users don’t, unless you’ve signed Apple’s terms for that storefront.

4. Report the revenue. External-purchase reporting is required in the EU (monthly, within 15 days of month end) and smart in the US, so your numbers reconcile the moment a fee returns.

Enterprise distribution (ADEP) — 0% but narrow

The Apple Developer Enterprise Program (ADEP) lets organizations with 100+ employees distribute apps privately to their own staff — no App Store review, no commission, $299/year. It’s the right tool for a short list of cases:

• Internal employee apps: HR, field ops, sales enablement.

• Line-of-business tooling deployed by MDM.

• Not for apps you sell to other companies: ADEP covers your own employees only. Use Custom Apps through Apple Business Manager for B2B distribution.

It’s the wrong tool for consumer apps. Apple audits ADEP use, and pushing an enterprise app to the public ends the program — that’s a termination event, not a warning.

Mini case — cutting effective commission to 4%

A B2B productivity client came to us with App Store proceeds about to cross the $1M Small Business cap, which meant new subscriptions were about to move from 15% to the 30% tier.

We re-architected the flow in five weeks: sign-up and plan selection moved to the web, Stripe became the system of record, and the iOS app went free and authenticated against their API. Existing IAP subscribers got a one-time migration offer — 20% off for life to move to Stripe billing — and 58% took it. Within a quarter, revenue on the web path carried about 4% in Stripe and processing fees instead of Apple’s cut, and the business grew past $1M without hitting the cliff.

Want the same read on your product? Book a 30-minute call and we’ll walk your numbers live.

Cost and timeline to re-architect

These ranges reflect recent iOS commission-reduction projects with agent-assisted engineering. Your stack and the maturity of your web infrastructure move the numbers, but the shape holds.

Figure 3. One payback model for the whole article. A $1.2M ARR app moves 60% of revenue to the web and keeps about $6.8k more a month, so a $45k build pays back in about 7 months.

The payback model we use. Take the monthly revenue you move off IAP and compare what you keep on each path. On IAP you keep revenue × (1 − Apple’s blended rate). On the web you keep revenue × (1 − sales you lose) × (1 − card and billing fees). The difference is your monthly gain; build cost divided by that gain is the payback.

In Figure 3 the app makes $1.2M a year and is over the Small Business cap. Apple’s blended take is 25%: 30% on first-year subscriptions and 15% on renewals. It moves 60% of revenue to the web, pays about 4% in Stripe and processing, and loses 10% of the moved sales to the extra checkout step. The 20–40% conversion drop hits only new sign-ups, which are a minority of revenue in a mature subscription app. That leaves $51,840 a month against $45,000 on IAP: about $6,840 more, so a $45k build pays back in roughly 7 months. Below roughly $650k ARR the same build takes more than a year to pay back.

Two numbers change the answer more than anything else. If you lose 20% of the moved sales instead of 10%, the gain drops to about $1,100 a month and the build doesn’t pay back within a year. If most of your revenue still pays the full 30% (young subscriptions, one-off purchases), the gain rises to about $9,800 a month and payback shortens to about 5 months. The cheaper levers follow the same formula and pay back sooner because they cost less: a US link-out is a 1–2 week job. The software estimating guide shows the exact model we run, and a dedicated team can turn the estimate into shipped code.

Pick your strategy in five questions

Run these top to bottom. The first “yes” is usually your answer.

Figure 4. Five questions, one lever. The first yes routes you to the strategy that fits your app in 2026.

Q1. Were your App Store proceeds under $1M last calendar year? Yes → enroll in the Small Business Program today, then check Q4 if most revenue is from the US. No → Q2.

Q2. Do you sell physical goods or real-world services? Yes → IAP is off the table; use Stripe or equivalent. No → Q3.

Q3. Is your app a reader category — magazines, books, music, podcasts, video? Yes → go the external-link / reader route. No → Q4.

Q4. Is most of your revenue from US users? Yes → add US external-payment links; 0% today, built to flip to a fee later. Mixed → run both flows with storefront gating. No → Q5.

Q5. Are you subscription-led and over $1M? Yes → a full web-first re-architecture usually wins on ROI. No → stack the smaller levers.

Five pitfalls that get these apps rejected

1. A web view masquerading as “external browser.” The link must open Safari or the default browser, not a WKWebView. Rejection is automatic.

2. Prices next to external links outside the US. Where the reader-app entitlement applies, “Subscribe on web for $9.99” breaks the rules and “Manage your subscription” passes. The US storefront has allowed prices and calls to action since May 2025.

3. Thin-client apps. An app whose only job is to collect a login gets rejected as a wrapper. Ship real utility in the free tier.

4. Calling digital “physical.” Cloud-only subscriptions, in-game currency and unlockable features are always digital. Reviewers have seen the argument; it doesn’t land.

5. Forgetting storefront gating. Show a US-style external link on a storefront where you haven’t accepted Apple’s terms and you break the guidelines, which ends in rejection or removal. Gate by Storefront.current every time; it reports the App Store account’s country, not where the user is standing.

KPIs — measuring commission-avoidance success

Financial. Effective commission rate (weighted across channels; aim under 20% off-SBP, under 10% for reader/web-first), monthly cash uplift vs the pre-change baseline (over 70% of the theoretical max within 90 days), and payback on the engineering (under twelve months; about seven at $1.2M ARR, per the model in the cost section).

Conversion. In-app to web-checkout completion (a healthy 25–50% by category), IAP-to-external migration for existing users (over 40% on a well-run migration), and time from external-link tap to paid (under three minutes).

Compliance. App Review pass rate (100% after the re-architecture), no material rise in payment-friction complaints, and external-purchase reporting that reconciles monthly — required in the EU.

When the 30% is actually fine

Sometimes plain IAP wins, and we’ll tell you so. Keep the standard path when:

• You’re under $1M proceeds — the Small Business Program already has you at 15%.

• Conversion matters more than margin. IAP is the highest-converting flow on iOS; the Apple ID is already on the device. Moving billing off-app usually drops conversion 20–40%.

• You have no web infrastructure. Billing, auth, webhooks, receipts, dunning and refunds are real work; if you don’t run a web product yet, that’s the hidden cost. As merchant of record you also take on sales tax and VAT, chargebacks and refunds that Apple handles today.

• Your LTV is low. 30% of $4 is $1.20; the build usually costs more than the lifetime margin on low-ARPU consumer apps.

• Your users are global and fragmented. Running US, EU and rest-of-world flows at once is three times the work of running one — sometimes staying on IAP everywhere is the cheaper operational call.

How Google Play compares in 2026

Clients always ask about both stores, and 2026 is the year Google moved. From 30 June 2026, Google replaced its headline 30% with a split model in the US, UK and EEA, extended to Australia and Japan on 30 September 2026. The service fee is 10% on your first $1M a year and on every auto-renewing subscription, whatever billing you use; a separate 5% billing fee applies only when you use Google Play Billing. Above $1M, one-off purchases pay 20% for users who installed after the switch and 25% for older installs, and purchases through an external web link carry the service fee but no billing fee.

Figure 5. Apple vs Google Play, October 2026. Google charges 10% on the first $1M and on all subscriptions; Apple’s standard tier is still 30%.

Net effect: Google Play is now the more developer-friendly store on base commission. But the ecosystem pressure still points at iOS — iOS users spend meaningfully more per head, so iOS commission optimization usually returns more than the same effort on Android. Do the Apple work first; apply the same web-first plumbing to Android second, since it mostly transfers.

FAQ

Is it legal to avoid Apple’s 30% commission in 2026?

Yes, within the rules. The Small Business Program, reader-app and external-link entitlements, physical-goods flows and web-first billing are all sanctioned paths. What’s not allowed is disguising digital goods as physical, hiding payment flows, or breaking App Review Guideline 3.1.

What is the current Apple App Store commission in 2026?

30% for large developers on standard in-app purchases and year-one subscriptions; 15% for year-two subscriptions, Small Business members and approved Video/News partners; in the EU since 1 October 2026, 26% on Apple IAP, 20% with an alternative processor and 15% on link-outs (10–15% reduced); 0% on US external links (in force now; Apple has asked the court for 15%); 0% for physical goods and real-world services.

How much does Apple take in the EU, Japan and China?

EU, from 1 October 2026: 26% on Apple IAP, 20% with an alternative in-app processor, 15% on link-outs, with 10–15% for small developers and year-two subscriptions. Japan, since December 2025: 26% on IAP, 21% with an alternative processor, 15% on link-outs. Mainland China, since 15 March 2026: 25%, or 12% on the reduced tier.

Can I avoid Apple’s fee on in-game purchases?

Not by calling them something else: coins, items and passes are digital goods, so IAP rules apply. The legal levers are the same as for any app: the Small Business Program at 15%, a US link-out to your web store at 0% for now, and EU or Japanese link-outs at 15%. Epic used the US route for Fortnite when it returned to the App Store in May 2025.

Do I qualify for the Small Business Program?

If your total App Store proceeds — what reaches your bank after Apple’s cut and taxes, across all your apps — were under $1M last calendar year, you qualify. Enroll in App Store Connect; approval usually lands within about 15 days of the fiscal-month end.

Can I tell my iOS users to sign up on my website?

In the US, yes — in-app links and buttons to your site are allowed with no entitlement and no commission as of 2026. In the EU you can link out under Apple’s October 2026 terms at a 15% commission (10% for small developers), with Apple IAP offered alongside. Japan allows link-outs at 15% (10% reduced) since December 2025. In other regions you generally can’t steer from inside the app.

What counts as a “reader app”?

An app whose primary function is accessing content you already bought or subscribed to: magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, podcasts or video. Netflix, Spotify, Kindle and Audible qualify. Games, productivity and social apps don’t.

Will moving billing off-app hurt conversion?

Usually yes, by 20–40% depending on audience and UX — IAP is the highest-converting flow on iOS. Because the drop hits new sign-ups rather than existing subscribers, a mature app typically loses about 10% of the revenue it moves. At that level, web-first pays back in about 7 months at $1.2M ARR and in more than a year below roughly $650k ARR. At 20% lost revenue, the savings mostly disappear.

How is Google Play different in 2026?

Since 30 June 2026 Google charges a 10% service fee on your first $1M a year plus a 5% billing fee if you use Google’s checkout, and 10% on every subscription; above $1M, one-off purchases pay 20% for new installs and 25% for older ones, plus 5% with Play Billing; this applies in the US, UK, EEA, Australia and Japan. That base is lower than Apple’s standard 30%, but iOS users spend more, so iOS optimization tends to pay back faster.

How long does it take to re-architect an app for lower commission?

With agent-assisted engineering: Small Business enrollment is 1–2 weeks of paperwork; a US external-payment link is 1–2 weeks; a reader-app refactor is 4–8 weeks; a full web-first re-architecture is a 3–6 week build plus subscriber migration. The reader-app timeline is longer only because it includes 2–4 weeks of entitlement review. See the cost table above.

What to read next

Ready to stop paying 30%?

Apple’s commission is negotiable now in a way it wasn’t in 2023. Between the Small Business Program, the US external-link flow, reader entitlements and EU external payments, almost every legitimate iOS product can legally get under 20% effective, often under 10% and sometimes to zero, while staying inside App Review rules.

The work is in the details: storefront gating, StoreKit conformance, disclosure sheets, entitlement applications, and the operational load of running two or three billing paths at once. We’ve shipped every one of these in production. Want a ranked list of levers for your app, plus a fixed-fee estimate? Start with a 30-minute call.