Apple App Store Commission: How to Pay Less in 2026

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 to re-architect 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

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 by June 2025 Apple had reworked its EU terms. The headline for developers: since 1 January 2026 the old per-install Core Technology Fee (€0.50 after 1M installs) is gone, replaced by a layered model that applies across the App Store, web distribution and alternative marketplaces.

Here’s the new EU stack for apps using external payments:

Add it up and most EU developers on the formal entitlement land around 12–20%. Smaller developers get partial relief. But for a fast-growing EU app the new math is sometimes worse than the old fee, so model your specific install and revenue volume before you opt in. The “DMA discount” is not automatic.

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.

April–June 2026. The Ninth Circuit lifted Apple’s stay on 28 April, and on 6 May the Supreme Court refused to pause the 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. So the 0% link-out is in force today, but the fight is now at the Supreme Court, and a merits ruling — likely in 2027 — could bring a fee back.

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.

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 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. 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 and qualifying EU flows. 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 us with agent-assisted engineering. Above roughly $200k ARR the payback lands in one to two quarters. We’ll show that arithmetic 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, 0% commission. EU App Store: entitlement required, and the 12–20% Core Technology Commission stack applies.

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

1. Use the StoreKit external-purchase APIs. Even in the US, where they’re optional today, the official APIs future-proof you against a fee Apple may add after the district court rules.

2. Show Apple’s disclosure sheet. Before the browser opens, Apple requires an on-device sheet telling users they’re leaving the App Store. Your app has to present it.

3. Gate by storefront. Wrap the external link behind SKStorefront so US users see it and non-US users don’t, unless your EU entitlement is live.

4. Report the revenue. External-purchase reporting is required in the EU 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.

• B2B apps with a fixed enterprise customer list who MDM-deploy on their own staff’s devices.

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 paying Apple 30% on auto-renewing subscriptions. Their ARR was closing on $900k and about to cross the Small Business cap, which meant every new dollar was heading 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 their effective commission was about 4% (Stripe plus processing), and ARR crossed $1M without ever 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. A worked break-even. On a $600k app, moving 30% to ~4% saves ~$13k a month, so a $45k build pays back in about 3.5 months.

The break-even test is blunt: if the project costs less than six months of commission saved, it’s a clear win. For apps above $200k ARR on a 30% baseline, most of these pay back in a single quarter. 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. 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.

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. “Subscribe on web for $9.99” breaks the rules. “Manage your subscription” passes.

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. Ship a US external-link feature to EU users and you’ve just signed up for CTC fees you didn’t plan. Gate by SKStorefront every time.

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 six months).

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.

• 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 a flat 15% through the store 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 decoupled model in the US, UK and EEA: a 10% service fee on your first $1M a year (applied whatever billing system you use, including subscription renewals), plus a 5% billing fee only if you use Google Play’s own checkout. Above $1M, the service fee roughly doubles for new installs, and external checkouts are capped around 9–20%.

Figure 5. Apple vs Google Play after the 2026 changes. Google’s new 10% base on the first $1M now sits below Apple’s standard tier.

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; 10% for EU Small Business subscribers in year two; 0% on US external links (in force now, pending a court-set fee); 0% for physical goods and real-world services.

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 need the External Purchase Link entitlement and the CTC fees apply. 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. The economics still work above roughly $200k ARR because the commission saved outweighs the lost conversions. Below that, run the math first.

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, with external options capped around 9–20%. 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 3–6 weeks. 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, without risking rejection.

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.